How does the body lose weight?

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How does the body lose weight?

Alchemist 15

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Body losing weight

When you decide to lose weight, whether for health or aesthetic reasons, you would like the pounds lost to be exclusively fat. But is this really the case?

Our body is mainly made up of water

Composed of 65% water, our body is also made up in varying proportions (depending on age, sex and physiological state among others) of fat and lean mass (bones, muscles, viscera and fluid compartments). Ideally, weight loss should be about fat mass, while maintaining lean mass. However, when the body loses weight, different mechanisms are put in place causing the loss of fat mass but also lean mass, especially muscle mass in a smaller proportion.

Above all else, mobilize your fat reserves

When reducing its calorie intake, the body has to deal with this energy deficit by drawing on its reserves. The drop in the level of sugar in the bloodstream (blood sugar) will be a warning signal for the body to produce this glucose itself, the main fuel for our organs including the brain which consumes the equivalent of a piece of sugar per hour for an adult (and three for children).

To do this, hormones will be secreted (glucagon, adrenaline) to mobilize the carbohydrate reserves stored in the liver in the form of glycogen but also to mobilize triglycerides (a molecule made up of 3 fatty acids and a glycerol that is called colloquially "fat") stored in our adipocytes (cells that contain fat). This will have the effect of releasing fatty acids, which are themselves used by the muscles. The liver can also use this glycerol to convert it into glucose.

During a very strict diet, the manufacture of glucose will take place by another route (gluconeogenesis) from amino acids (which make up the proteins) of the muscle mass. It will therefore be necessary to be careful not to reduce too much calories or to fast because the weight loss will be on muscle mass and fat.

Where does the fat go?

A recent study published in the British Medical Journal by Ruben Meerman and Andrew Brown looked at the fate of fat lost during diet. Scientists explain that weight loss is the result of the release of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms contained in fat cells. Thus, out of 10 kilos of fat eliminated during a diet, 8.4 kg are evacuated by the lungs in carbon dioxide (CO2). The rest - 1.6 kg - is turned into water and then eliminated through urine, sweat, tears and other bodily fluids.

For more details read this article: When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go?

See also : Great advices once you decide to lose weight

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