So we are all losing weight, and Im sure its crossed your mind; where does the weight go? This article describes it pretty well I sort of knew but this made it much more understandable.

http://health.howstuffworks.com/well...ost-weight.htm

Thanks for sharing!

How cool is that? I guess I always thought you Peed it out. I like the idea of breathing it out better.

I can't say that I believe the fellow that says that we "breath out" our burned fat....I think our body expells the byproducts of fat through both urine and feces...as well as oxidizing it. I'd go as far as saying I'm totally and completely convinced of that fact...this after losing 50 lbs in which I monitored my bodily functions closely to see a correlation.

Thanks!

i always figured for every pound I lost some other poor soul was gaining it....

This was a great article, thanks for sharing! My roomie and I were actually questioning how it works the other day. I also am not entirely convinced that we breathe it all out but it's a cool explanation all the same.

Vladadog, I have a friend who swears that every pound I lose attaches itself to him. Maybe I should pass this along to him

lol! I dont think we breath it ALL out, but sweat, urine and feces all play a part. I wonder why they didnt mention the latter in the article though, because yeah, thats a no brainer!

...Did you guys read it? It doesn't say that fat leaves ENTIRELY through exhaling.

"Once inside the mitochrondia, or power source, or muscle or liver cells, the components of the glycerol and fatty acids are shuffled and reshuffled to harness their energy potential, producing heat, water, carbon dioxide and adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP hauls potential energy in its molecular bonds for use when we exercise like cellular carb loading. The water exits our bodies as sweat and urine, and we exhale the carbon dioxide."

Triglycerides (fatty acids + glycerol) are made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. When you "burn" fat you are breaking chemical bonds which releases energy in the form of heat and can participate in forming the molecule of energy inside the body called ATP. The carbons are modified via Beta-oxidation (byproducts are ATP and other energy molecules ie FADH2/NADH) and become substrates in the TCA (Citric Acid) cycle which ultimately produces CO2 and is expelled. Byproduct of this cycle are also water (2 hydrogen + oxygen), which is obviously expelled through urine, and other energy molecules (FADH, NADH, etc).

So, you literally BURN fat. It doesn't leave you as fat; you aren't BREATHING OUT fat. Your body uses it, it leaves as CO2 and water and energy.

I learned a lot from the link, thanks for posting it!

aliquot- yes, yes I did read it I agree with you 100%!

Exactly!! We actually discussed this at my university in biology class. We even had an extra credit question and most people thought it left the body from feces. Learn something new every day.

Um, hate to rain on everyone's parade, but fat cells don't go anywhere they just shrink (losing weight) or swell (gaining weight). The only time we gain fat cells is durning pregnancy and puberty.

I had never thought about it. Thanks for posting this!

Sam

We're not talking about the actual adipose cells. We're talking about the things they store: triglycerides. Aka the things that make them "shrink" or "swell".

If anyone needs any nice schematic representations:
-A lovely overview of the citric acid cycle and how we get energy from carbohydrates (via glycolysis to pyruvate), amino acids, and fats.
-A hormone signal triggers the mobilization of stored fats
-After the stored fats (triglycerides) are broken down, the fatty acids are broken down further into substrates that can enter into the citric acid cycle

WOW...very educational! Thanks for the clarification.