Over the course of my 60 plus years I must have gained and lost 20-30 pounds over and over. When I lost those pounds, I never stopped to think about where they went, I was just glad they were gone.
The other day Michael Wood tweeted out an article that piqued my curiosity about that question: Where Does The Fat Go When You Lose Weight? I kind of thought it always just disappeared into thin air. And you know what? I was right. According to this article, you exhale most of the weight you lose.
It turns out your lungs play a major factor in your weight loss. (Aren’t you glad you hit that treadmill a few more times this month?) The article does a great job of explaining the finer details of how our bodies work, but the gist of it is that the triglycerides stored in fat cells have to be broken back down into what they were made up of – namely oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen, releasing the carbon to be exhaled as carbon dioxide.
The major point that this drove home for me is that you can’t break down those triglycerides by sitting in your easy chair (my favorite place to be) but unfortunately the most unhealthy place to be. You need movement for those triglycerides to be broken down so they can be exhaled and excreted. And what does that mean to me? It means I need to bump up my cardio.
What do you know, my first New Year’s Resolution just landed in my lap – or, on my laptop, I should say. It never fails, December always presents my goals for the upcoming New Year in one way or another. This one came in the form of a tweet.
And so, as another day goes by, once again knowing the science behind how my body works motivates me to take better care of it, and…I have written.
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