Ameen Bhai
Growing up, I have always been fat. You can see in this picture with my old family that I am quite chubby as a child. In an attempt to make me lose weight, my dad once stopped by a butcher shop, spoke to the butcher in Urdu – he spoke to Ameen bhai for at least 2 minutes and then turns to me and says “Ameen bhai says you have been fattened enough and you are perfect for slaughter. He said I should bring you in tomorrow”. I was in 4th grade and took this seriously. I cried all the way home saying that I will lose fat and I will get in shape. To give you an idea how big I was in my 4th grade, I wore a size 32 trousers.
It took me many years to realize that it is illegal to sell your child for meat value. But my father’s attempt in taking my health seriously worked and I did exercise more and lose fat. But eventually gained it all again.
Second Chances
The second time I got in shape was for my graduation day in 2008. I had started in late 2007. All I did was get into a calorie deficit unknowingly and I ended up losing fat. I would skip the second serving of rice for lunch and dinner was just cucumbers and sweet corn. I was around 88kg and before my graduation day I was 77kg.
My exercise was just walking. But this was carrying a heavy college bag across 10km. At least 3 times a week I would walk back from my degree college which was next to Raddision Atria on Palace Road all the way to Padmanabanagar where I lived. By the way, walking with a heavy bag is called ‘Rucking’. This is an exercise which is a lot more efficient than walking.
Third Time’s The Charm
The third time I tried to lose weight was from all the weight I gained after leaving Jain College in 2012-13. I was over 100kg then. But by 2015 I was little over 120kg. I took my health seriously only in 2018 when I was getting ready for work and I couldn’t tie my own shoe laces. I was gasping, I was out of breath trying to do this simple activity.
It was a long painful journey but that is a different story for a different article. However by end of 2022 I was back at my lowest weight of 77kg. Overall, I guess I have lost over 50kg – maybe more. But the question is… where does all the fat go? It cannot be due to sweat because we sweat as a way to cool down the inside of our bodies not because fat as fuel is being used.
What Does the Science Say?
This is the key insight from the landmark 2014 BMJ paper by Meerman & Brown:
Triglycerides (Fat) are comprised of three types of atom: carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Triglyceride molecules can be broken down only by unlocking these atoms through oxidation. When 10 kg of fat are oxidized, 8.4 kg are converted and excreted as carbon dioxide via the lungs, and 1.6 kg becomes water.The remaining water may be excreted in urine, faeces, sweat, breath, tears, and other bodily fluids.
“Our calculations show that the lungs are the primary excretory organ for fat.” (DOI: 10.1136/bmj.g7257 — Meerman R, Brown AJ. When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go? BMJ. 2014;349:g7257)
CO2? Seriously?
Well, yes, fat is oxidized and we are carbon based life forms so it does make sense that most of the fat (more than 80%) we burn is lost through carbon Di-oxide.Only around 15% is lost through poop, pee and other bodily fluids like sweat. So, sweating profusely when you workout does not burn fat. A calorie deficit is the ONLY way to burn fat. Your body sees you are eating less and uses the balance energy requirements from existing fat reserves by oxidizing them – fancy way of saying burning them.
