A couple of things I don't understand about weight loss
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Aaron_K123 wrote: »When you exercise rate of oxygen/carbon exchange goes up and you breath harder to compensate.
Don't get the impression that hyperventilating will shed pounds though....doesn't work like that.
haha as I was reading that I was thinking "hey GUYS! guys! I think I've stumbled on a-oh."
So briefly, why doesn't hyperventilating work?
Basically weight loss through respiration is exhalation of CO2, not the physical act of exhaling. If you hypervenilate you aren't actually releasing any more CO2 than if you were breathing normally, you are just breathing out basically what you just breathed in.
The only way to accelerate weight loss is to take in less material to begin with (eat less) or to export more material (break down fats through exercise and then exhale the CO2 and pee out the H2O that results). When you exercise you produce more CO2 so your body triggers you to breath harder and more to export it. If you aren't exercising and you just decide to breath hard you aren't actually getting rid of any more CO2...you are just breathing hard for no reason and if anything are just going to make yourself dizzy.
Another fun fact, lack of oxygen isn't actually what triggers the feeling of needing to breath...is CO2 production and build up. That is why if you enter a room that has no oxygen in it but some other gas (like CO2 for example) you won't notice or feel like you are asphixiating...you'll continue to breath so you will continue to release C02 you just won't be getting any oxygen. As a result within a matter of seconds to a few minutes you will just keel over and pass out without ever having noticed you weren't actually breathing oxygen. That is why gases like C02 in a closed space are so dangerous. People assume that if you aren't getting oxygen you'd know because you'd be gasping for air...but that isn't the case.8 -
So, why then do I gain weight (or plateau) if I don't eat enough but still work out hard and eat clean? That really doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If I don't chart, I think I am eating too much... but in reality I am eating way too little.0
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You might find this interesting. Kind of "shows" what posters above, especially @Aaron_K123, have been telling.
https://youtu.be/vuIlsN32WaE
AWESOME! Thanks for sharing!1 -
1) How does weight actually "get lost." For example, if I weigh myself and I weigh 100 pounds (yeah right). And then I eat a 16 oz steak, a pound of potatoes, and a pound of green beans. I should gain three pounds, right? But there's not necessarily the same amount of calories in each of those, so I'll probably end up gaining more from the steak than the green beans. Why? Isn't the steak still in me?
2) How does weight "get gained"? For example, at night I weigh myself and weigh 100 pounds (yeah right). The next morning, before eating, I weigh myself and weigh 101.5 pounds. How does that happen?? This just happened to me the other day. How does this make sense?
3) What does exercise do? Again, there's this "Law of Conservation of Matter" thing we learned in high school. Stuff doesn't just disappear. So how do we lose weight?
Sorry if these are stupid questions, I just don't get it.
The weight you gain right after eating some food has nothing to do with the calories...if you eat a 12 oz steak, you're going to gain roughly 12 Oz...because that's how much the steak weighs...nothing to do with the calories in said steak.
A calorie is a unit of energy...our bodies are super awesome machines that utilize energy (calories) to function. You have a certain level of calories that are required for to fuel everything from merely existing to your day to day to your exercise. When you consume energy at levels commensurate with what your body requires to do all of those things, you maintain...when you consume energy in excess of what your body requires, that energy is stored for later use as body fat...basically your backup generator. When you consume less energy than your body requires to perform all of those functions then your backup generator kicks on and you burn body fat to make up for the energy deficiency. That's a bit oversimplified, but that is the general process.
Exercise increases your body's energy expenditure...so let's say you maintain weight on 2000 calories per day with no exercise...now lets say you add in exercise and you start burning 500 calories per workout...that's 500 units of energy that your body wasn't burning before...so this would move your maintenance level of calories to 2500 if you wanted to maintain the status quo.
In regards to question two, body weight isn't static...your body is made up substantially of water and from day to day, the actual % makeup changes...water has mass and thus weight...not all weight is fat...fluctuations in water composition are going to show up as fluctuations on the scale. Beyond that, you always have varying degrees of waste in your system. Body weight isn't static...it fluctuates constantly...losing or gaining fat isn't about looking at the day to day numbers...it's about watching overall trends.2 -
this is the best thread i have seen in ages, thanks @joinn68 for that video!1
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So, why then do I gain weight (or plateau) if I don't eat enough but still work out hard and eat clean? That really doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If I don't chart, I think I am eating too much... but in reality I am eating way too little.
Weight isn't just fat, weight is also water. If you burn fat and accumulate water then your weight isn't going to change. Often when you "work out hard" your body retains a lot of water to help with muscle repair. These "plateaus" are usually on the order of one or two weeks long, doesn't actually mean you aren't losing fat.
Eating too little doesn't make you "plateau", that is the often claimed "starvation mode" of weight loss which is a myth.5 -
Also like the video says people have this mistaken concept that somehow fat is literally burned and turned to nothingness and energy...that isn't what happens...actually that isn't even what happens when you literally burn something. The same amount of atoms exist before and after you "burn" fat.
Burning something, ie with fire, oxidizes the molecules. Oxygen combines with bonds and breaks them breaking the molecules up...which on a side note is why fire requires oxygen, becauses its a reaction utilizing oxygen. When you burn hydrocarbons in a fire it produces CO2 and water (which since it is hot comes out as vapor). Fire is just heat and light release from this reaction running full speed, the energy just released instead of converted into something else. In terms of what flames in a fire consist of, its pretty much carbon dioxide and water vapor. Our bodies bascially carry out the exact same reaction but in a much more controlled manner that harnesses the energy using it to create other bonds rather than releasing it as light and heat. Similar in a way to the difference between a nuclear reactor (controlled reaction harnessing the energy to turn a turbine) and a nuclear bomb (run-away reaction just releasing the energy as heat and sound). So when we say we "burn" fat in a way that is literal and accurate but in another way it isn't because when people think of either they picture matter being converted into energy which isn't what is happening. Neither fire nor our metabolism actually destroys any matter, it just coverts it to other forms while releasing the energy in the bonds that were holding those atoms together.
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Plants run the exact same metabolic reaction we do, just in reverse.
So take something like sugar. Sugar, like fat, is just a form of hydrocarbon. To qualify as a sugar you just need the molecular formula CxH2xOx. So glucose for example is C6H12O6.
Heterotrophs, like animals, are living beings that use organic molecules for chemical energy. They break down organic molecules like hydrocarbons for energy by oxidation utilizing oxygen . So C6H12O6 plus 6 O2 becomes 6H2O + 6CO2. This by the way is why we need to breath in oxygen and why we exhale carbon dioxide.
Autotrophs, like plants, are living beings that use the sun (or inorganic compounds) for energy to produce organic molecules basically they run that reaction in the opposite direction. So 6H2O + 6CO2 becomes C6H12O6 plus 6 O2. This is why plants need to "breath" in carbon dioxide and then "exhale" oxygen.
Almost all of our bodies metabolic functions and macromolecules are built and function off this interplay between oxygen, carbon dioxide and water.
You probably hear sugars refered to as carbohydrates...that is because they are all carbon that has been hydrated...some form of CH2O. That goes for sugars and starches anything from glucose to cellulose to amylopectin. Not all carbohydrates are sweet, not all carbohydrates are even digestable by us (think grass)...but they all share the same basic forumula and they are all metabolized in a similar way as an interchange between carbon dioxide water and oxygen.1 -
This is basically the building blocks of fat...
Carbon and hydrogen (toss in a few oxygens and other stuff but 99% carbon and oxygen)
As has been mentioned the carbon, once broken down goes out as CO2. And the hydrogen is also mixed with oxygen to make water. Excreted or used in other processes. Well, partially true.
Those carbons are also used to make cholesterol (all your cells have walls from fat) and every hormone and signaling molecule and glucose molecule, etc, etc, made by your liver comes mostly from fat stores. No fat... no life.
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Aaron_K123 wrote: »pebble4321 wrote: »Oh, that is the best answer ever. I've read the same kind of thing lots of times, but the simplicity of this is beautiful.
Thanks AaronK, you are a genius at making science stuff understandable!
Any elegance is nature herself my friend.
Nope, not just nature. I've tried to explain that to folks myself, and didn't come close to your simplicity/clarity. Good Englishing, dude!
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Wow, thanks, that makes a lot of sense! Just one more question, for all you science guys out there. Why doesn't weightlifting burn calories? You would think that you're working your muscles, so the same thing should happen...
I feel that I am definitely burning more calories when I lift weights than when I am sitting at my computer and so log it in my exercise tab under the cardio section using the entry "Weight training, free weights." I don't eat 100% of the calories I earned back.
Some people chose to not log weighlifting.
/shrug/0 -
EvgeniZyntx wrote: »This is basically the building blocks of fat...
Carbon and hydrogen (toss in a few oxygens and other stuff but 99% carbon and oxygen)
As has been mentioned the carbon, once broken down goes out as CO2. And the hydrogen is also mixed with oxygen to make water. Excreted or used in other processes. Well, partially true.
Those carbons are also used to make cholesterol (all your cells have walls from fat) and every hormone and signaling molecule and glucose molecule, etc, etc, made by your liver comes mostly from fat stores. No fat... no life.
Yeah, what oxygen there is typically comes in the carboxylic acid at the end, hence fatty acid.
Oh and while we are geeking out over biochemistry to anyone reading, see how every carbon has two hydrogens attached to it? That is what makes it a saturated fat. If instead in that chain one of the bonds is a double bond to the neighboring carbon it will have only one hydrogen attached to it. That will additionally make the chain kink and with that kink the molecules don't pack together as well. That is why typically saturated fats will be solid at room temp while unsaturated will be an oil.
Fat typically is stored as a triglyceride...three fatty acid chains attached to a molecule of glycerol. Here is an example of one with two saturated chains and one unsaturated chain.
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/enters thread
Sees discussion about carbon bonds, including diagrams.
/exits thread5 -
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quiksylver296 wrote: »
Hah I think she is exiting because it's taken care of not because she has a fear of chemistry. Just a guess
Still...even when you know your Chem still a good fun watch, very good talk so yeah recommend.2 -
quiksylver296 wrote: »Aaron_K123 wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »
Hah I think she is exiting because it's taken care of not because she has a fear of chemistry. Just a guess
Still...even when you know your Chem still a good fun watch, very good talk so yeah recommend.
Today it's more of a "I'm too sick of chemistry for this" type of thread-exit. But I'll definitely check the vid out later.2 -
quiksylver296 wrote: »Aaron_K123 wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »
Hah I think she is exiting because it's taken care of not because she has a fear of chemistry. Just a guess
Still...even when you know your Chem still a good fun watch, very good talk so yeah recommend.
Today it's more of a "I'm too sick of chemistry for this" type of thread-exit. But I'll definitely check the vid out later.
That was my second guess. Can only hear the word stoicheometry so many times before you punch someone I imagine. Do come back though, good video and you likely have good insight to add.1 -
This has been one of the most educational threads I've ever seen on MFP. Very interesting stuff.1
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This is a hugely educational thread! Thank you so much!0
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