Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Where Does the Fat Go During Weight Loss; Chemistry and Losing Weight
Applied Science as a Fitness Technician. Much of my work will be helping people to lose weight
and understanding the Chemistry behind weight loss will help me better help my clients in the
future. In my personal study a TEDx Talks came on titled, “The Mathematics of Weight Loss”
done by Ruben Meerman. 1 Although I’ve answered the question of how to lose weight many
times, creating a caloric deficit through food choices and physical activity, I never did stop to
The video begins by asking a number of people where the fat goes once it is lost. There
were answers from, “I don’t know” to “burned as energy” to “Feces” to “Sweat.” Going back to
The Law of Conservation of Mass; mass in an isolated system is neither created nor destroyed by
chemical reactions or physical transformations. This means that the fat has to go somewhere
measurable.
C55 H104 O6
This equation depicts; Human Fat + Oxygen (Inhale) will react to produce Carbon
Dioxide (Exhale) + Water. This is the basic explanation and there are obviously other processes
and conditions that facilitate this reaction, but this is about as far as Introduction to Chemistry
1
https://youtu.be/y6roYnXu1k8
has taken us. This shows that losing fat means losing kg; it isn’t burnt up, and it doesn’t become
heat or energy. This equation also shows that when fat is lost it exits the body in the form of gas
Now where does fat come from? This process starts in plants. Plants take 6CO2 + 6H2O
and use chlorophyll and sunlight to bind them together to form sugars; C6 H12 06. As we digest
we are able to break down these bonds, so these molecules can travel to the cells and be used. If
there is an excess instead of being metabolized, these molecules are converted to fat and stored
in the body.
body. When weight is lost it does not burn up and disappear as most people are lead to believe.
Fat has to obey The Law of Conservation of Mass and therefore to lose weight you also must
lose atoms. Under the right conditions when Oxygen reacts with Human Fat Carbon Dioxide and
Water are formed and excreted in the form of breath, sweat, urine, etc.