How Do I Lose Weight & Where Does The Fat Go?

One of the questions we get asked the most by our customers is “How do I lose my weight & where does the fat actually go? Well I am sure that many of you may well know the basics around how to lose weight given the amount of information on the internet and on TV shows, but the where does it go may actually be rather surprising?

So let’s start with the how do I lose weight?

There are many different factors that can help or contribute to losing weight, but what you will find is that they entwine and quite often need each other in order to produce regular and healthy weight loss.

The very basic rule of weight loss is to consume less calories per day than your body needs to consume to perform all of its daily functions, but just using this approach could actually cause you to not only lose fat but you could also loss some of your muscle mass if you are not consuming enough of certain types of foods e.g. proteins, carbs and fats etc.

I would consider the following as the key pillars you require in order to achieve and maintain a healthy weight loss or weight:

Calorie Deficit – In order to be able to lose weight you must create a regular daily calorie deficit, it does not mean that you cannot have occasional treats but you must ensure that a calorie deficit is created at least 90% of the time. To create a 1 pound fat loss you need to create a calorie deficit of approx. 3,500 calories which is why you should look to lose weight gradually and not expect to lose lots all of the time.

Drink Water – Yes this one cannot be under estimated, it is extremely important to keep your body fully hydrated in order for it to perform effectively. Having the right level of hydration allows the body to efficiently breakdown foods and carry the nutrients around the body and to the muscles and will actually help carry broken down fat out of the body.

You Are What You Eat – I must admit I do not like the term dieting or being on a diet because that to me is saying that this is a temporary change to lose a bit of weight and then I will go back to what I was doing before and put it all back on. I think for weight loss to be successful and for it to be permanent you need to this of it as a lifestyle change and actually the changes you are making will become daily life going forward.

For a healthy eating lifestyle to really work you need to ensure you are getting a real variety in your diet which means ensuring that you are having a good split in foods between protein’s, carbs and fats. Yes fats are very important as long as they are the right sort of fats that is.

If you are finding it difficult to get all of the nutrients you need through the foods you are eating then I would suggest looking at food supplements as a great way to increase these without adding lots of calories.

Activity – Although technically you do not need to do exercise or some form of activity to lose weight as long as you are creating a calorie deficit, the additional benefits that come with doing an activity or exercise are vast and can really give your weight loss a real boost.

Doing some form of physical activity or exercise actually burns additional calories that mean that you will find it easier to create that 3,500 calorie deficit needed to lose 1 pound of fat. Carrying out this additional activity will also improve your muscle mass and tone which will means that if you generate more muscle then your body needs to consume more calories each day to feed them. The other benefits of being active means you will become fitter, your heart will become stronger and you will feel like you have a lot more energy and of course your clothes will fit much better.

Now that that’s all cleared up and we know how to lose weight the next question is where does the fat actually go?

Ok, so how many people think that we lose this excess fat when we empty our bowels and we poo it out of our system? Well to be honest up until 5 years ago I actually thought the same as it kind of makes sense really, but only a very small amount of fat is lost this way.

A study back in December 2014 by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) actually showed that when they looked at how the atoms of 22 pounds of fat loss was actually achieved through the body it was concluded that 18.5 pounds of that fat loss was through the lungs and actually breathing it out via carbon dioxide and the remaining 3.5 pounds became water and was released via urine, tears, sweat and excrement.

When you lose fat it’s not necessarily the fat cells that leave the body it’s actually the fat metabolic by-product which is created when the fat cells shrink when being broken down and no longer needed.