Where does fat go?

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Replies

  • yoovie
    yoovie Posts: 17,121 Member
    hell, where it belongs

    ^ hahahaha

    your fat cells just lose weight!
  • Feed_the_Bears
    Feed_the_Bears Posts: 275 Member
    Hello,

    So there are two parts to this equation. There are fat cells, and then there is the fat that is contained inside of them. When your body cells need energy to do their thing they eat either fat or glucose or protein. This is called cell-respiration and you can google the chemical process if you like. Basically your cell breaks down the molecule into something it can oxydize/burn to release energy (i.e. the flame on a candle is a release of energy from burning/oxydizing a fuel). The waste particles are excreted.

    Here's the catch. Burning fat empties and shrinks the fat cell but doesn't necessarily get rid of it. Gaining weight will fill and increase the number of fat cells you have. Losing those fat cells just waiting to be filled will happen when you're body realizes they've been empty for too long and they can eat the fat cells too.

    Lil' Grade 10 bio lesson for ya :)
  • kiminikimkim
    kiminikimkim Posts: 746 Member
    Down the crapper.

    As gross as it sounds.... this is the right answer... your body uses that energy from fat and also metabolizes it and what ur body doesn't need it flushes out.... through elimination and excretion.

    It is only the right answer if it applies to the "fat" in the food we eat. Does not apply to the fat inside the body.

    Despite what others have written:
    1) Fat cells don't turn into muscle cells, just like my eyeball cells won't suddenly turn into lung cells causing spontaneous breathing from my eye sockets.
    2) Fat in our bodies doesn't come out by way of breathing - that is just crazy talk.
    3) Fat cells don't "sweat out of the body" or "metabolize through elimination" or go down the "crapper" or "disappear when the energy store is used up". Other than liposuction, your fat cells are there for life, either in a shrunken state or expanded state .
  • kiminikimkim
    kiminikimkim Posts: 746 Member
    Hello,

    So there are two parts to this equation. There are fat cells, and then there is the fat that is contained inside of them. When your body cells need energy to do their thing they eat either fat or glucose or protein. This is called cell-respiration and you can google the chemical process if you like. Basically your cell breaks down the molecule into something it can oxydize/burn to release energy (i.e. the flame on a candle is a release of energy from burning/oxydizing a fuel). The waste particles are excreted.

    Here's the catch. Burning fat empties and shrinks the fat cell but doesn't necessarily get rid of it. Gaining weight will fill and increase the number of fat cells you have. Losing those fat cells just waiting to be filled will happen when you're body realizes they've been empty for too long and they can eat the fat cells too.

    Lil' Grade 10 bio lesson for ya :)

    ^this^
  • J3SSP3NNY
    J3SSP3NNY Posts: 235
    Probably the same place all my socks go once I put them in the dryer. I'm assuming Narnia.

    LMAO!
  • Louise1247
    Louise1247 Posts: 670 Member
    fat is basically stored energy. Your body converts fat to usable energy for your muscles and other tissues through a series of complex metabolic processes. This causes your fat cells to shrink.

    These metabolic activities also generate heat, which helps maintain your body temperature, and waste products. These waste products — water and carbon dioxide — are excreted in your urine and sweat or exhaled from your lungs.

    http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/body-fat/AN01327

    haha u used the same quote as me from earlier in the post ^_^

    'Your body converts fat to usable energy for your muscles and other tissues through a series of complex metabolic processes. This causes your fat cells to shrink.

    These metabolic activities also generate heat, which helps maintain your body temperature, and waste products. These waste products — water and carbon dioxide — are excreted in your urine and sweat or exhaled from your lungs."

    Go mayo! !
  • glittermouse
    glittermouse Posts: 582 Member
    Probably the same place all my socks go once I put them in the dryer. I'm assuming Narnia.

    lol
  • delikium
    delikium Posts: 196 Member
    Hello,

    So there are two parts to this equation. There are fat cells, and then there is the fat that is contained inside of them. When your body cells need energy to do their thing they eat either fat or glucose or protein. This is called cell-respiration and you can google the chemical process if you like. Basically your cell breaks down the molecule into something it can oxydize/burn to release energy (i.e. the flame on a candle is a release of energy from burning/oxydizing a fuel). The waste particles are excreted.

    Here's the catch. Burning fat empties and shrinks the fat cell but doesn't necessarily get rid of it. Gaining weight will fill and increase the number of fat cells you have. Losing those fat cells just waiting to be filled will happen when you're body realizes they've been empty for too long and they can eat the fat cells too.

    Lil' Grade 10 bio lesson for ya :)

    so how long do these cells need to be empty for? months? years?
  • 3shirts
    3shirts Posts: 294 Member
    I realise this sounds a bit *****y but why are so many people replying with the same explanation (or even less detail or more 'guessed') than people have before them. Surely there is no point commenting if you aren't adding anything to the discussion.
  • chjones21
    chjones21 Posts: 33 Member
    So does the amount of fat cells a person has - change, i.e. increase in number?

    Or is it just that the number of cells stay the same but they themselves get bigger and more filled with storing fat.

    And why is the body so inept at getting rid of excess fat, if it doesn't need it?

    Is the only way to get rid get of fat to "burn" it? Can't the body "excrete" it?


    I am quite skinny and always have been - I have (I think) a high metabolic rate so if my body can burn fat pretty effectively (and keep me thin but cold quite often) then why don't all bodies burn fat effectively regardless of the amount eaten? Why doesn't the body just realise it has excess and "burn" it internally or something?
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    Because the human body evolved to store it. It's only within the last 100 years that food has been easily available. Storing fat was a survival necessity for 99.999% of human existence.
  • NJ64a
    NJ64a Posts: 13
    An interesting question! I thought our liver burned the fat stored in our bodies then we wee'd it out - which is why we should drink lots of water - to flush the toxins out? I heard that somewhere but may be wrong.
  • KickassAugust
    KickassAugust Posts: 1,430 Member
    Germany! The same place your hunger goes when you eat a snickers bar.
    Warum bin ich immer hungrig?!!

    You might always be hungry if you're only eating Snickers bars! :bigsmile:
  • LondonEliza
    LondonEliza Posts: 456 Member
    I like to think that mine seeps out of my body in the form of sweat
    :)
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    An interesting question! I thought our liver burned the fat stored in our bodies then we wee'd it out - which is why we should drink lots of water - to flush the toxins out? I heard that somewhere but may be wrong.
    That's a complete myth.

    Fat is burned for energy, not flushed out by water.
  • chjones21
    chjones21 Posts: 33 Member
    Because the human body evolved to store it. It's only within the last 100 years that food has been easily available. Storing fat was a survival necessity for 99.999% of human existence.

    Well yes and no I guess. If you look at the images of Buddha, he is often depicted as quite fat and I know that the Romans a couple of thousand years ago would eat so much that they had "vomitoriums" (or I guess vomitoria???) places that they would go to throw up just so they could continue eating and therefore I suspect a lot of them were overweight too .... Henry the VIII in more modern times, was quite large and suffered from gout.

    So quite often, even in the depths of our historical knowledge, people seemed to be fat and overweight. For all discernible history I think. I wonder who the oldest recorded overweight person is ..... ?
  • chjones21
    chjones21 Posts: 33 Member
    Well I googled it - and the answer that came up was the 35000 year old Venus of Willendorf statue or something .... not sure whether that was artistic licence tho!???? Anyway is just nonsense speculation - I suppose there is a reason that we don't effectively get rid of it and you may be right that 2,000 odd years is the blink of an eye in evolutionary terms anyway.

    There are some ancient people of girth:
    The Roman physician Galen, writing in the first century, cites the case of one Nichomachus of Smyrna, who was so heavy that he could neither move nor be moved from his bed. Other authors tell of a Roman senator who was able to walk only when two slaves carried his belly for him, and of a latter-day Egyptian pharaoh whose belly was broader than the span of a man's outstretched arms.

    Dionysius of Heracleia was notorious for his appetite, and eventually grew so weighty that he could scarcely budge: he suffered from apnea or narcolepsy besides, prompting his doctors to prick his flesh with needles whenever he fell asleep on his throne.

    Here is the oldest actually recorded fat woman I could find - an ancient ruler of Egypt apparently from 3,500 years ago:
    http://www.livescience.com/7336-mummy-reveals-egyptian-queen-fat-balding-bearded.html
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    Obesity used to be a sign of great wealth, because only the wealthy and powerful could afford enough food to eat that much. Now, food is cheap. You are definitely listing the exceptions, rather than the norm.
  • LabRat529
    LabRat529 Posts: 1,323 Member
    So does the amount of fat cells a person has - change, i.e. increase in number?

    Young mammals, including young humans, can grow more fat cells. Mature mammals don't really grow that many more. They just pack the excisting fat cells full of fat.
    .

    And why is the body so inept at getting rid of excess fat, if it doesn't need it?

    Like Tiger says... we're evolutionarily programmed to keep it. It improved our chances of survival in the past. It's in our genes.

    Is the only way to get rid get of fat to "burn" it? Can't the body "excrete" it?

    No. We cannot excrete fat. Unless you count the minimal excretion of oil from glands in the skin. You know, the kind that makes our hair oily, or our face, if we don't wash often. I don't count that because the amount that we lose is so small it doesn't make a difference.

    The only way to get rid of fat is for our bodies to break it apart for energy, a.k.a., we burn it.
  • LabRat529
    LabRat529 Posts: 1,323 Member
    An interesting question! I thought our liver burned the fat stored in our bodies then we wee'd it out - which is why we should drink lots of water - to flush the toxins out? I heard that somewhere but may be wrong.

    The liver is involved in the break down of fat (and in the creation of fat from fatty acids). I don't know if its the only organ or not.... but I wouldn't be surprised if it is because the liver does a hell of a lot. However, I do know it is not the only organ that 'burns' fat. It just breaks the fat into smaller particles that are then burned elsewhere... wherever your body needs energy.

    You really don't flush toxins out... at least not many. Mostly, your liver metabolizes toxic substances into harmless substances. Those substances might or might not be excreted in your urine... but the lots of water is just to keep you properly hydrated. Hydration is good. It's not really doing anything magical though.
  • JadeRabbit08
    JadeRabbit08 Posts: 551 Member
    You literally breathe it out. The molecules that make up fat are broken down into water and carbon, which becomes part of the CO2 that you exhale. (Of course I'm leaving out lots of complexity, but that's the basic idea.)

    Yep had this question in my bio exam. :) It was a multiple choice and thanks to MFP and I believe this post (ok I studied too) I picked the correct answer.
  • purplelizzard
    purplelizzard Posts: 93 Member
    I've willed mine to all of the people in the world that I dislike...seems to be working: I'm shrinking; they're getting LARGE! :noway:

    This! :)
  • BarackMeLikeAHurricane
    BarackMeLikeAHurricane Posts: 3,400 Member
    This thread is from a year ago but the correct answer has already been posted several times. You exhale it in the form of CO2.

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