Exhaled Pounds: How Fat Leaves the Body
Exhaled Pounds: How Fat Leaves the Body When you lose weight, where does it go? Turns out, most of it is exhaled. In a new study, scientists explain the fate of fat in a human body, and through precise calculations, debunk some common misconceptions. Fat doesn't simply "turn into" energy or heat, and it doesn't break into smaller parts and get excreted, the researchers say. In reality, the body stores the excess protein or carbs in a person's diet in form of fat, specifically, as triglyceride molecules, which consist of just three kinds of atoms: carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. For people to lose weight, their triglycerides must break up into building blocks, which happens in a process known as oxidation. When a triglyceride is oxidized (or "burned up"), the process consumes many molecules of oxygen while producing carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) as waste products. [8 Strange Things Scientists Taste and Eat] So, for example, to burn 10 kilog...