When is a pound lost and where does it go?

Like a lot of others, this is my new favorite thread. But not for the same reasons.

My reason is because it proves my theory that "the stupidest people in the world are the ones who think everyone else is stupid.

Let me explain. There are 10 pages (and counting!!) in this thread and roughly 2/3rds are ragging on this post:

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well you can stay at maintainance at burn 500 cals a day n you will lose a pound every week.
2nd ques when you are burning fat look for when thing when you go to toilet to pee you will notice something white in your pee is like chicken fat thats how some of your fat comes out n some as a sweat. because when i did a diet few years back when the white thing came in pee i got scared that its something serious but found out its nothing just fat so a doctor knows best.

Then along comes this guy:

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The original poster asked some interesting questions, and I like the way she thinks.

A "heat engine" takes in heat and converts a portion of it into mechanical work. When nutrient molecules in the body are combined with oxygen ("burned"), that's an exothermic reaction; it produces heat. Muscle cells use that heat energy to do work. The whole human body can be usefully regarded as a heat engine.

And yes, calories *are* energy, rigorously and exactly. A calorie is the amount of heat energy required to increase the temperature of a gram of water by a Celsius degree. (A nutritional calorie -- the sort we all talk about here -- is 1000 calories, as defined. It is also equal to 4186 joules, which is the work done by one newton of force over a parallel displacement of 4186 meters. A "typical" person weighs about 667 newtons, and can be lifted a little over six meters, straight up, by a nutritional calorie of mechanical work.)

A pound is lost when a pound of stored nutrients in the body (hopefully, fat) has been converted to ... well, not just energy. If an entire pound of fat were all converted to energy (according to E = mc^2), a dieter would be like an atomic bomb. But, as another commenter pointed out, chemical bonds in the pound of fat are broken, some of it is oxidized, heat is produced by that reaction; most of the rest of the broken-down nutrient molecules become waste and are eliminated in the same way as any food waste. The energy required by your body is supplied by the food you eat; if you don't eat "enough," you're in a calorie-deficit situation, and some stored body fat is internally "eaten" as well. As the OP said, about 3500 cal of deficit is equivalent to a pound of fat; as for WHEN this happens: as soon as your body requires a single calorie more than you've eaten, 1/3500 of a pound gets burned. When your cumulative deficit reaches 3500 cal, a full pound will have been used. (For the elimination of the unburned waste, I suppose there's a time delay measured in hours.)

But, in any case, that pound of fat didn't turn into nothing. A very small fraction of it is turned into heat and used by your muscles; the vast majority is turned into feces and urine, and returns to nature in the usual ways.

People ask me from time to time how much weight I've lost. Of course, I tell them that "lost" is probably too strong a term. I pretty much know where all of it is. Most of it's at the grocery store; quite a bit is at Burger King and Taco Bell and so on. I could go pick it up at any time. So, it's not really lost; it's more like "misplaced." I hope to leave it that way.

Who basically says she, and her Dr., are very probably correct, meaning all of the people who who have been poking fun at her, are doing so in error, because of their own lack of knowledge.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying anyone who posted on this thread is stupid (although there is a good chance some of us are). It's just that a little open mindedness can go a long way. When someone puts some information out there that you don't agree with, if you ask respectful questions, rather than just piling on with ridicule, YOU might just learn something.

I'll get off my soapbox now and everyone can continue.

well you can stay at maintainance at burn 500 cals a day n you will lose a pound every week.
2nd ques when you are burning fat look for when thing when you go to toilet to pee you will notice something white in your pee is like chicken fat thats how some of your fat comes out n some as a sweat. because when i did a diet few years back when the white thing came in pee i got scared that its something serious but found out its nothing just fat so a doctor knows best.

show previous quotes

Like a lot of others, this is my new favorite thread. But not for the same reasons.

My reason is because it proves my theory that "the stupidest people in the world are the ones who think everyone else is stupid.

Let me explain. There are 10 pages (and counting!!) in this thread and roughly 2/3rds are ragging on this post:

well you can stay at maintainance at burn 500 cals a day n you will lose a pound every week.
2nd ques when you are burning fat look for when thing when you go to toilet to pee you will notice something white in your pee is like chicken fat thats how some of your fat comes out n some as a sweat. because when i did a diet few years back when the white thing came in pee i got scared that its something serious but found out its nothing just fat so a doctor knows best.

Then along comes this guy:

The original poster asked some interesting questions, and I like the way she thinks.

A "heat engine" takes in heat and converts a portion of it into mechanical work. When nutrient molecules in the body are combined with oxygen ("burned"), that's an exothermic reaction; it produces heat. Muscle cells use that heat energy to do work. The whole human body can be usefully regarded as a heat engine.

And yes, calories *are* energy, rigorously and exactly. A calorie is the amount of heat energy required to increase the temperature of a gram of water by a Celsius degree. (A nutritional calorie -- the sort we all talk about here -- is 1000 calories, as defined. It is also equal to 4186 joules, which is the work done by one newton of force over a parallel displacement of 4186 meters. A "typical" person weighs about 667 newtons, and can be lifted a little over six meters, straight up, by a nutritional calorie of mechanical work.)

A pound is lost when a pound of stored nutrients in the body (hopefully, fat) has been converted to ... well, not just energy. If an entire pound of fat were all converted to energy (according to E = mc^2), a dieter would be like an atomic bomb. But, as another commenter pointed out, chemical bonds in the pound of fat are broken, some of it is oxidized, heat is produced by that reaction; most of the rest of the broken-down nutrient molecules become waste and are eliminated in the same way as any food waste. The energy required by your body is supplied by the food you eat; if you don't eat "enough," you're in a calorie-deficit situation, and some stored body fat is internally "eaten" as well. As the OP said, about 3500 cal of deficit is equivalent to a pound of fat; as for WHEN this happens: as soon as your body requires a single calorie more than you've eaten, 1/3500 of a pound gets burned. When your cumulative deficit reaches 3500 cal, a full pound will have been used. (For the elimination of the unburned waste, I suppose there's a time delay measured in hours.)

But, in any case, that pound of fat didn't turn into nothing. A very small fraction of it is turned into heat and used by your muscles; the vast majority is turned into feces and urine, and returns to nature in the usual ways.

People ask me from time to time how much weight I've lost. Of course, I tell them that "lost" is probably too strong a term. I pretty much know where all of it is. Most of it's at the grocery store; quite a bit is at Burger King and Taco Bell and so on. I could go pick it up at any time. So, it's not really lost; it's more like "misplaced." I hope to leave it that way.

Who basically says she, and her Dr., are very probably correct, meaning all of the people who who have been poking fun at her, are doing so in error, because of their own lack of knowledge.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying anyone who posted on this thread is stupid (although there is a good chance some of us are). It's just that a little open mindedness can go a long way. When someone puts some information out there that you don't agree with, if you ask respectful questions, rather than just piling on with ridicule, YOU might just learn something.

I'll get off my soapbox now and everyone can continue.

The second post wasn't 100% correct (what you burn does not come out as feces) nor did it say white stuff in her pee is chicken fat.

When you metabolize fat, the atoms that make up the fat molecule (along with oxygen atoms from the air you breathe) are rearranged to produce new molecules (CO2 and H2O) which then leave your body as 'air' and 'water.' CO2 goes through your bloodstream to your lungs and is exhaled. Water can be lost through breathing, sweating, urinating. But it doesn't become feces.

The weight itself is not 'turned into energy.' It's more like a rock sitting at the top of the hill. When the rock rolls down the hill, it isn't turned into energy in whole or in part. It simply went from a state of higher potential to a state of lower potential. That is more like what happens to the atoms in fat molecules when you 'burn' them. Some of that difference in potential (which is the part we think of as energy) is captured by the body to do work.

It goes to the Land of Misfit Pounds

This second part of the question sounds ridiculous, I'll admit, but where exactly does that pound of fat go? I get that it's converted into energy but I have a hard time getting my head around the idea that something that occupies a certain space (the pound of fat) can essentially disappear into something which no longer occupies space.

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This second part of the question sounds ridiculous, I'll admit, but where exactly does that pound of fat go? I get that it's converted into energy but I have a hard time getting my head around the idea that something that occupies a certain space (the pound of fat) can essentially disappear into something which no longer occupies space.

Ever try leaving a bag of cotton candy out in the hot sun? Poof.....Gone! There's your answer