When you lose weight,
where does the fat go? Don’t ask your doctor: new research at the University of New South Wales suggests that more than 50 percent of doctors think it’s converted to energy. Wrong. The correct answer is into the air, breathed out as carbon dioxide. A UNSW news release reports that losing 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of fat requires 29 kilograms (64 pounds) of oxygen to be inhaled and that this metabolic process produces 28 kilograms (62 pounds) of carbon dioxide and 11 kilograms (24 pounds) of water. The researchers found that if you follow the atoms in 10 kilograms of fat as they are ‘lost’, 8.4 of those kilograms are exhaled as carbon dioxide through the lungs. The remaining 1.6 kilograms becomes water, which may be excreted in urine, feces, sweat, breath, tears and other bodily fluids.
Health, fitness and lifestyle tips for people over 50 who still like to play hard
Sunday, April 20, 2025
Trick question. Good example of how numbers can lie. Fat is one way the body stores energy. Of course, the energy is released when the atomic bonds are broken, and the resultant molecules have to go somewhere. They aren’t consumed.
Whatever happened to the old theory that the body stores fat for use in emergency situations?
I guess that we are not like camels when it comes to stored fat as something we can use to survive when we are deprived of food.
Even if someone was 100 lbs. overweight, they would starve to death probably as fast as someone who is lean if both were deprived of food??