how exactly are calories burned?
rsm193
Posts: 23 Member
I use to think calories were burned by the sweat you produce but i guess i am wrong according to another thread i was reading....so how exactly how calories burn and how do you lose weight burning those calories?
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Any activity your body does burns calories
Breathing
Sleeping
Walking
Driving etc just going about your day, all burn calories
Intentional exercise will also burn calories, likely at a faster rate than your normal day to day activity for the most part.
That's why you don't have to do a bunch of cardio or sweating to lose weight. Though exercise has tremendous health benefits, so long as you consume fewer calories than your body burns or expends over time, you will lose weight0 -
I guess my silly question would be....where do the calories go? Lol into the air? I have always been confused on weight loss and how exactly the whole burning calories work? And how are body becomes smaller losing weight.0
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I've heard it's actually through the carbon dioxide you breathe out, of all things! I suppose there's usually a lot more breathing during exercise lol0
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When you consume fewer calories than you burn, your body takes its energy from either fat or muscle from your body (usually a combination of both). Calories are just a measure of energy, so when you consume fewer calories than your body requires, your body then turns to burning fat and muscle for energy.
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Carbon dioxide and water?
The actual mechanism is scienc-y, haha. But that was the gist that i picked up from reading stuff.0 -
I actually just read something the other day (cannot remember what or where at this point) that said when you lose weight it is mostly expelled through breathing. Which makes sense.0
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sunburntgalaxy wrote: »I actually just read something the other day (cannot remember what or where at this point) that said when you lose weight it is mostly expelled through breathing. Which makes sense.
Bingo! Now you tested better then half the dietician, doctors, etc that were asked. Just don't hyperventilate trying to lose weight.
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The 'calorie' is a unit of measure for energy. Many of the processes our body does automatically require energy, just as purposeful exercise does.
The foods we eat, as well as our fat and muscle, contain potential energy, which can be measured in calories. For example, one pound of fat=3500 calories of potential energy. We can use energy from food to do the work our body needs to do each day, and if we don't eat enough to fuel our basic processes, we can use our fat or muscle for energy. This will cause weight loss. The molecules from fat or muscle are oxidized, and we can use the energy to make ATP, producing heat and excreting CO2.
Basically, if you take in fewer calories than your body needs to function, fat and/or muscle is used to make up the calorie (energy) deficit.0 -
You breath, you move, you exist and calories are burned.0
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Thanks everyone0
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A lot of people used to think that you pee'd out the fat. Hence why it was/is always recommended to drink lots of water. So they drank a crap tonn of water and pee'd constantly throughout the day, thinking they were weeing out the excess fat. Aaaahhhh how wonderful (and easy) if this were true0
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I guess my silly question would be....where do the calories go? Lol into the air? I have always been confused on weight loss and how exactly the whole burning calories work? And how are body becomes smaller losing weight.
Calories are unit of energy. When your body does work it uses energy and converts it to heat. Not necessarily to the point of sweating.0 -
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AurprI guess my silly question would be....where do the calories go? Lol into the air? I have always been confused on weight loss and how exactly the whole burning calories work? And how are body becomes smaller losing weight.
Surprisingly yes! I've read some awesome informative articles that say that with eating healthy and staying under a certain calorie limit, you literally breathe the fat away. I'll try to find the articles to link them here0 -
Maybe im just ignorant but dont you pratically breathe in what you breathe out?0
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I use to think calories were burned by the sweat you produce but i guess i am wrong according to another thread i was reading....so how exactly how calories burn and how do you lose weight burning those calories?
You "burn" calories 24/7...you burn a *kitten* ton of calories by merely existing.
A calorie is just a unit of energy. Your body requires so much energy to function optimally and maintain the status quot. I huge chunk of this energy requisite is you simply existing...these are your BMR calorie requisites. Beyond that, if you're not in a coma you do all kinds of stuff during the day...all that stuff from brushing your teeth to driving your car to typing on your keyboard burns calories. This is called your NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.
In most cases, outside of being an athlete, your BMR + your NEAT is going to make up the bulk of your energy (calorie) requisites. After that you have exercise...and in most cases, energy requisites for exercise pale in comparison to your BMR and NEAT.
So, when you consume more energy than your body requires, that energy is stored as body fat...your energy reserves. When you consume less energy than your body requires, that difference is made up by burning stored energy (body fat). When you consume a balance of energy you maintain the status quo.0 -
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I guess my silly question would be....where do the calories go? Lol into the air? I have always been confused on weight loss and how exactly the whole burning calories work? And how are body becomes smaller losing weight.
No "lol" about it. You are (kind of) correct.
They *really do* go into the air... metabolized into water, and the CO2 that we all expire when we breathe out.
This might help (...or it might not)
FYI, though - calories aren't really a thing to go anywhere, they are just a unit of measurement of energy ... your question is kinda like asking "where do the inches go when I cut this string", right?0 -
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SergeantSausage wrote: »I guess my silly question would be....where do the calories go? Lol into the air? I have always been confused on weight loss and how exactly the whole burning calories work? And how are body becomes smaller losing weight.
No "lol" about it. You are (kind of) correct.
They *really do* go into the air... metabolized into water, and the CO2 that we all expire when we breathe out.
This might help (...or it might not)
FYI, though - calories aren't really a thing to go anywhere, they are just a unit of measurement of energy ... your question is kinda like asking "where do the inches go when I cut this string", right?
THIS^.
The key part of the process is called:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citric_acid_cycle
Energy is used in all the biological processes - from moving (muscle contraction) to breathing to making protein to being warm. Everything uses a little energy. Just sitting there reading this uses energy.0 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »I use to think calories were burned by the sweat you produce but i guess i am wrong according to another thread i was reading....so how exactly how calories burn and how do you lose weight burning those calories?
You "burn" calories 24/7...you burn a *kitten* ton of calories by merely existing.
A calorie is just a unit of energy. Your body requires so much energy to function optimally and maintain the status quot. I huge chunk of this energy requisite is you simply existing...these are your BMR calorie requisites. Beyond that, if you're not in a coma you do all kinds of stuff during the day...all that stuff from brushing your teeth to driving your car to typing on your keyboard burns calories. This is called your NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.
In most cases, outside of being an athlete, your BMR + your NEAT is going to make up the bulk of your energy (calorie) requisites. After that you have exercise...and in most cases, energy requisites for exercise pale in comparison to your BMR and NEAT.
So, when you consume more energy than your body requires, that energy is stored as body fat...your energy reserves. When you consume less energy than your body requires, that difference is made up by burning stored energy (body fat). When you consume a balance of energy you maintain the status quo.
A large part of the energy reserve we use is not body fat but glycogen in the liver and muscle. As a complement to what is explained above, this article also covers the energy systems pretty well:
http://breakingmuscle.com/health-medicine/understanding-energy-systems-atp-pc-glycolytic-and-oxidative-oh-my0 -
Actually, you breathe out a little less than you breathe in. For every 250 ml of oxygen your body takes in, it produces 200 ml of carbon dioxide. So the amount of gas exhaled is slightly less than the amount inhaled.Maybe im just ignorant but dont you pratically breathe in what you breathe out?
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Actually, you breathe out a little less than you breathe in. For every 250 ml of oxygen your body takes in, it produces 200 ml of carbon dioxide. So the amount of gas exhaled is slightly less than the amount inhaled.Maybe im just ignorant but dont you pratically breathe in what you breathe out?
Volume vs mass. Yo.
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As far as I understand it. Calories are a measure of energy. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed. So going by that logic, I would assume that your body uses energy to perform tasks. If you have an excess of calories, your body will transform those into fat or muscle mass depending on what you are doing. So eating at a calorie deficit and exersicing will simply shift the way that energy is used and stored. I'm gonna go read some articles about this and come back with a better answer.0
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So is it pointless to wear a sauna suit to burn calories?0
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuIlsN32WaE
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