Many people are crazy about the "fad diets" that promise short weight loss, but not many know how a kilo of fat disappears from your body.
Even 150 doctors, dietitians, and personal trainers we surveyed also showed gaps in their health knowledge. By far the most prevalent concept of a mistake is the fat turning into energy. This theory is problematic because it violates the law of conservation of mass applicable to all chemical reactions.
Some respondents think fat turns muscle (impossible). While some others think, the fat out through the dirt. Only three of our respondents answered correctly.
That is, 98% of health professionals in our survey could not explain how weight loss works.
So if it's not so energy, muscle or out through the dirt, where's the fat going?
Enlightening facts about fat metabolism
The right answer is that fat is converted to carbon dioxide and water.
Carbon dioxide we remove when breathing, while the water is mixed in the circulation of the body until it comes out as urine or sweat.
Suppose you lose 10 kg of fat, then exactly 8.4 kg will come out through your lungs and the remaining 1.6 kg turns into water. In other words, almost all the weight we eliminate is thrown out.
Perhaps many are surprised, but almost everything we eat will come out again through the lungs. Every carbohydrate you digest and almost all fat is converted to carbon dioxide and water. The same goes for alcohol.
Proteins are also the same fate, except for a small portion of the protein that turns into urea and other solids, which you remove as urine.
The only thing that reaches the large intestine without being digested and whole is the dietary fiber (like corn). In addition, it will be absorbed into the bloodstream and body organs. Then, they stay there until we vaporize it through the breath.
Incoming kilogram versus outcoming kilogram
We all learn the theory of "incoming energy equivalent to energy out" in high school. But energy is a very confusing concept, even among health professionals and scientists who study obesity.
The reason we get or lose weight is not really so mysterious if we also count all the kilograms, not just kilojoules or calories.
According to the latest figures, Australians consume 3.5 kg of food and drink every day. Of that amount, 415 grams is a solid macronutrient, 23 grams is fiber and the remaining 3 kg is water.
What is not reported in these figures is that we also inhale more than 600 grams of oxygen, and this figure is no less important for our waistline size.
If you put 3.5 kg of food and water into your body, plus 600 grams of oxygen, then 4.1 kg of incoming it should be removed again if you do not want to gain weight.
If you want to lose weight, then more than 4.1 kg should be lost. How to?
The 415 grams of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and alcohols consumed by most Australians will each produce exactly 740 grams of carbon dioxide plus 280 grams of water (about one cup), about 35 grams of urea and other solids disposed of as urine .
The rate of resting metabolism (body rate using energy when not moving) a person weighing about 75 kg produces approximately 590 carbon dioxides each day. There are no pills or herbs you can buy to add this figure, however convincing the claim you may hear.
But calmly, we blow out 200 grams of carbon dioxide during a deep sleep each night, so we've actually spent a quarter of our daily target even before we get out of bed.
The metabolic fate of the average daily intake of Australian food, water, and oxygen.
Slightly eat, spend more
If it turns fat into carbon dioxide, does it mean we breathe more often to lose weight? Unfortunately no.
Inhaling and exhaling more than necessary (hyperventilation) will only make you dizzy, or even faint. The only way to increase the amount of carbon dioxide your body produces is to move your muscle-muscles.
But good news. Our metabolic rate increases more than twice as we stand and changing clothes increases more than double the rate of metabolism. In other words, just by tempting your clothes for 24 hours you have removed more than 1,200 grams of carbon dioxide.
This one is more realistic: walking around triples your metabolic rate, as well as cooking, vacuuming, and sweeping.
Metabolism 100 grams of fat consumes 290 grams of oxygen and produces 280 grams of carbon dioxide plus 110 grams of water. What you eat can not change this number.
Therefore, to remove 100 grams of fat from the body, you must blow 280 grams of carbon dioxide in addition to what you produce by evaporating all your food, whatever it is.
If you eat food that supplies less "fuel" than you burn, it will lose weight effectively. And now you already know how it works.
Ruben Meerman, Assistant scientist, UNSW and Andrew Brown, Professor and Head, School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, UNSW
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