When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go?
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Re: When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go?
#2There's a TEDx talk about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuIlsN32WaE
Re: When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go?
#3Reminds me of the question “what are trees made of?”
(The answer to both questions is “mostly atmospheric CO2.”)
Re: When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go?
#4For anyone coming straight to the comments looking for an answer to the question: it turns into CO2 (and a bit of water) and you breathe it out.
When you realize that you have to breathe out all the weight you lose, I think it gives you a bigger appreciation for how difficult weight loss can be.
Re: When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go?
#5It is "burned" basically the same as if you lit it on fire, it converts to CO2 and H2O.
Re: When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go?
#6An interesting corollary to this is "Where do trees get their mass?"
Veritasium has a fun video demonstrating how unintuitive this is:
Re: When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go?
#7For anyone coming straight to the comments looking for an answer to the question: it turns into CO2 (and a bit of water) and you breathe it out. When you realize that you have to breathe out all the weight you lose, I think it gives you a bigger appreciation for how difficult weight loss can be.
Exercise makes more sense! Breathing hard == losing weight!
Re: When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go?
#8Why is CO2 the correct answer, the answer should be energy/heat + CO2 + H2O? The "burning" of fat in oxygen to CO2 and H2O is exothermic.
Re: When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go?
#9Observations from Figure 1, "Responses of a sample of doctors, dieticians, and personal trainers to the question “When somebody loses weight, where does it go?”"
0 doctors were willing to admit they didn't know.
0 dieticians thought sweat was involved.
Those results seem unsurprising.
Only dieticians correctly answered CO2.
Re: When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go?
#10You ask an ill-specified question and get an ill-specified answer. Of course that fat "goes into" energy/heat, it says so right in the oxidation process.
It's an interesting reiteration of HS chemics, but of no practical concern.