Where does the fat go? Well, actually, you breathe most of it out! There is a common misconception that most of your fat is burned in energy or heat and somehow escapes your body this way. Wrong. While some of it is used up as fuel by the body, the majority of it is breathed out of your lungs.
Source:
University of New South Wales
Summary:
A study done among 150 doctors, dieticians and personal trainers showed that there is a common misconception about where fat goes when we are losing weight. Over half of these professionals believed that fat loss converts into energy or heat and is burned up. The correct answer is that most of the mass is breathed out as carbon dioxide and into the air. “There is surprising ignorance and confusion about the metabolic process of weight loss”, said Dr. Brown, head of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences at the University of New South Wales. In their paper, the researchers proved how over 8 kilograms out of 10 kilograms of fat are exhaled as carbon dioxide. The study authors, Ruben Meerman and Andrew Brown, both from The University of New South Wales, have stated: “None of this biochemistry is new, but for unknown reasons it seems nobody has thought of performing these calculations before.” Their findings were published in the British Medical Journal.
Does this mean that now we can sit around watching TV or the computer and just breathe deeply? Of course not. There is a very complex chemical action taking place in your body while you are exercising. The fat is being broken down into the atoms that form it, so that they have the ability to bind to the carbon dioxide in your lungs. This is good news for many overweight people whose breathing has been compromised by their weight and for those who slouch over a laptop with poor posture stifling their breathing. Also there are a lot of people who just do breathe shallow, keeping the majority of the carbon dioxide in their lungs. During even moderate exercise you tend to breathe deeper to get maximum oxygen into your lungs and expel your breath more strongly also. While breathing more will not shed more pounds of fat, doing light cardio for short periods and more weight bearing exercises will help you to breathe more deeply and lose some fat.
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