Medical App & Medical Advice with Hello Doctor

Where does the fat go when you lose weight?

The healthy way to lose weight is through a well-balanced diet and sticking to a great exercise plan. But have you ever wondered where all the fat goes once you lose the weight? The fat that your body burns is converted into energy – or so we think.

Surprisingly, this is not entirely true. A study in the British Medical Journal found that weight lost undergoes several chemical reactions and is breathed out by the lungs.

According to the study, 10 kilograms of fat turns into about 8.4kg of carbon dioxide, which is exhaled when we breathe; and 1.6kg of water, which we release through urine, tears, sweat and other bodily fluids.

But then, how do you put on weight?

You put on weight when excess carbohydrates and proteins that you’ve eaten are converted into triglycerides (compounds made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen), and are then stored in lipid droplets (storage organelles) inside fat cells.

To lose weight, you need to break down those triglycerides to access their carbon.

Almost everything we eat comes back out through the lungs. Every carbohydrate and nearly all the fats are converted to carbon dioxide and water. This goes for alcohol, too. The researcher’s calculations found that the lungs are the primary excretory organ for fat.

How fat loss works

This doesn’t mean that by simply breathing more you could lose weight!

Hyperventilation (excessive huffing and puffing) will only make you dizzy, or possibly faint. Instead, you’re breathing out fat metabolic byproducts as carbon dioxide, not actual fat cells.

You can increase the amount of carbon dioxide your body is producing by moving your muscles. According to Fatima Cody Stanford, an Obesity Medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, when someone starts losing weight, the size of their fat cells decrease, but they don’t disappear entirely. They really just shrink.

So when you lose weight, your body tries to regain that weight to get back to its normal state. So you might experience decreases in how full you feel and increases in how hungry you feel.

Get active

Exercise can help prevent fat cells from getting bigger again. Therefore, working out helps keep any weight regain in check. When you’re on your weight loss journey, be gentle with your body to allow it to get used to the new routine. If not, it might go into self-sabotage mode.

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The best foods for your liver

Your liver is an important organ with many vital functions. It plays an important role in regulating different processes in your body, including metabolism; secretion (a process when substances are produced and discharged from a cell), energy storage, and detoxification (when the body gets rid of unwanted toxins).

Your liver controls most chemical levels in the blood and releases a product called bile. Bile helps carry away waste and breaks down fats in the small intestine during digestion. All the blood leaving the stomach and intestines pass through the liver.

The liver then processes this blood and breaks down, balances, and creates nutrients for the body to use.

The liver also:

  • Stores and releases glucose as needed.
  • Stores iron.
  • Produces cholesterol and special proteins to help carry fats through the body.
  • Clears the blood of drugs, medication and other harmful substances.
  • Regulates blood clotting.
  • Resists infections by producing immune factors and removing bacteria from the bloodstream.

When the liver has broken down harmful substances, they’re released into the bile or blood. Bile by-products enter the intestine and ultimately leave the body in the faeces (poo). Blood by-products are filtered out by the kidneys and leave the body in the form of urine.

To keep your liver healthy, you need to eat the right foods.

Avocado

Avos are rich in fibre and packed with healthy fats. They produce a powerful antioxidant called glutathione which helps with the removal of harmful toxins from the body.

Garlic

Garlic helps your liver activate enzymes to flush out toxins. It also has the compounds allicin and selenium that assist the liver to detoxify.

Apples

Apples have high levels of the chemical pectin. This substance helps the body cleanse and release toxins from the digestive tract.

Grapefruit

This fruit is packed with Vitamin C and other antioxidants that protect your liver. They help reduce inflammation and prevent cell damage.

Grapes

Studies show that grapes and grapeseed extract protect the liver from damage, while also increasing antioxidant levels and fighting inflammation.

Fatty fish

Fatty fish are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids. They’re healthy fats that reduce inflammation and have been linked to a lower risk of heart disease and blood pressure

Vegetables

Veggies like broccoli and cauliflower contain glucosinolate, which helps the liver make detoxifying enzymes. They also contain sulphur compounds that keep your liver healthy. Leafy vegetables contain good amounts of chlorophyll to help filter toxins out of the bloodstream and neutralise heavy metals.

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How your body turns food into energy

Growing up you may have heard about how certain foods are better for your health than others, some foods are considered “brain foods” and some provide you with energy.

But, how does it work? Let’s break it down.

Your muscles, brain, heart, and liver all need energy to work. This energy is supplied by the foods you eat. Whether you’re sleeping, awake, exercising or chilling on the couch, your cells need a constant source of energy to allow them to carry on their important metabolic jobs.

Your body gets energy from food by converting fats and proteins into energy for muscles, while carbohydrates are converted into sugars.

What happens when you eat?

  1. After you eat, molecules in the digestive system break down proteins into amino acids, fats into fatty acids, and carbohydrates into simple sugars (glucose). Just like sugar, amino acids and fatty acids can be used as energy by the body if necessary.
  2. Your body digests the food by mixing it with fluids like acids and enzymes, which are found in the stomach.
  3. The body breaks down the sugars so that the energy released can be distributed around the body and used as fuel by the body’s cells.
  4. These different compounds are absorbed into the blood, which carries them to the cells. In the cells, other enzymes act to speed up or regulate the chemical reactions involved with “metabolising” the compounds. The energy from these compounds can be released for use by the body or stored, mostly in the liver, muscles, and body fat.

How does this affect your health? 

Junk food and treats are typically light on essential nutrients and heavy on ingredients that cause health problems. So, those late-night snacks and fizzy drinks may satisfy hunger in a pinch, but the long-term results aren’t positive. Too many fatty and sugary foods have been linked to obesity, chronic diseases and tooth decay.

Highly processed foods are high in calories and can lead to repeated spikes in your blood sugar. Over time, these spikes may cause your body’s normal insulin response to lose momentum. This increases your risk for insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes, and unwanted weight gain.

The right foods

You need to make sure you eat well to fuel your body. Have breakfast to kickstart your system for the day ahead. Try to eat within an hour of waking up. If you skip breakfast, your concentration is likely to dip and you’ll start to feel exhausted.

Don’t forget to pack lunch! Have a plan for a snack. Eating regularly keeps your blood sugar levels stable and curbs the hunger pangs that would usually send you off to the nearest fast food joint. Pack some fresh or dried fruit, raw cut-up veggies, wholegrain crackers or nuts in your bag to have on the go. Stay hydrated. Drink enough water to help boost your metabolism. This will also help your body break down the food you give it.

Burning the midnight oil is the norm at university and eating right won’t only help you through the night but will also help you concentrate better. Stock up on energising and healthy study snacks like:

  • Light popcorn
  • Dark chocolate
  • Almonds
  • Fruit salad
  • Homemade trail mix that consists of cashews, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, pecans, almonds, dried cranberries, raisins or any other mix of dried fruit, nuts and seeds that you like.

Make healthy choices by choosing foods from the different food groups that include fruits, vegetables, grains, proteins, and dairy to get all the nutrients you need. If you are overweight, aim to get to a reasonable weight to help reduce your risk of diseases like heart disease and diabetes. Regular exercise keeps both you and your metabolism active!

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How to lose weight and not gain it back

Dropping five kilos with a crash diet for your upcoming date sounds like a good idea – but it’s not! Everyone loves a quick fix (particularly when it comes to shedding weight). But, quick weight loss is bad for your health and it’s also unsustainable.

Slow and steady wins the race

Implementing drastic changes makes you feel good because it gives you hope and a sense of achievement. In the long run though, if your goals are too radical, you won’t be able to keep up. You might get to a point where you revert to bad habits.

For example, if you cut out all the junk food you love in one go, you’re bound to binge eventually. This is called “counter-regulatory eating” which happens if you severely restrict yourself. It creates an all-or-nothing mindset where all is well only if you’re following the rules.

And if you break one rule, you adopt a “What the heck!?” attitude and break them all. This takes you right back to where you started.

Why crash diets fail you

Losing weight rapidly comes with various health risks including nausea, fatigue and an upset stomach. It also increases your risk of rebound weight gain. Here are some of the main factors to consider, before you sign-up for the next ‘6 weeks to slim’ diet:

1. You’re probably not just losing fat

A healthy rate of weight loss means dropping between a half to one kilo per week. If you lose more, you might burn water or muscle because your body finds it difficult to burn large numbers of fat calories in a short amount of time.

2. Your fluids become unbalanced

Electrolytes are chemicals that help your muscles contract and helps your heart beat properly. When you lose weight too fast, most of it is water. Losing too much water weight disrupts the balance of electrolytes, like minerals. This wreaks havoc on your body because it won’t have the electrolytes needed to function properly.

3. There are side-effects

In some cases, losing weight too quickly causes dehydration, gallstones, malnutrition and an imbalance of electrolytes. Headaches, constipation, dizziness, irregular periods, muscle and hair loss and fatigue are other possible consequences.

4. Your metabolism dips

Rapid weight loss kicks your body kick into survival mode. This also means some of your body’s systems, including your metabolism slow down to use less energy. A slow metabolism burns fewer calories a day and makes it easier for you to gain weight while eating less food.

How to lose weight steadily and healthily

Research by Drexel University found that people whose weight fluctuated in the first few months of trying to lose weight, lost less weight in the long run, compared to those with consistent week-by-week progress. Here’s how to lose weight and keep it off.

1. Set a realistic goal

Don’t pressure yourself to lose 20 kilos a month. A good rule of thumb is to try and lose five to 10% of your body weight over six months and between half a kilo and one kilo a week. Aim for steady weight loss.

2. Get real

Stop aiming for perfection and go for sustainable and manageable instead. The 80/20 rule is a good place to start. About 80% of the food in your diet comes from whole foods and the leftover 20% can be treats. This works well because you aren’t depriving yourself of any food, so it’s easy to maintain. You can eat your fruits and veggies and have a small slice of cake too. Try the 90/10 rule once you’re comfortable.

3. Keep it simple

From Banting to intermittent fasting, search “weight loss plans” on the Internet and you’ll be overwhelmed with options. And when you’re overwhelmed, you’re likely to throw in the towel. Don’t overthink your weight loss journey. Research, pick a plan and try to stick with it. If you aren’t happy, change it. Ask a dietician, doctor or a personal trainer for help when you’re starting.

4. Write it down

When you commit something to paper, you’re holding yourself accountable. Every day, write down whatever you’ve eaten, including snacks and drinks. Also include the amount and kind of exercises you’ve done for the day. You’ll be surprised to find how unplanned treats or sugary drinks have crept their way into your diet. This also helps you to find and eliminate those habits that could be holding you back. You don’t have to do this forever. Doing it at when you start out will help you identify your weight loss wreckers.

5. Get moving

Your diet alone won’t help you lose weight. Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week. For example, brisk walking. When you’re starting out, don’t push yourself to do it all in one go. Start with three sets of 10-minute workouts each day.

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Boost your health by treating your mitochondria

Your mitochondria are tiny little batteries for your body. You can find them inside the cells in your body, acting as power plants within your cells that keep your body working properly. They do this by generating adenosine triphosphate (ATP), an organic chemical that we need to do basically anything we do: talking, walking, digestion – everything that requires energy.

Mitochondria are made up of two membranes. The inner membrane folds many times and creates layers. The outer layer is shaped like a bean. To generate energy, they also break down carbohydrates and acids.

Besides playing a role in the vitality you need for activities, your mitochondria also help regulate

  • how fast your metabolism churns
  • how focused you are
  • how clearly you think

Clearly, they are important! Just as a battery runs out of juice though, your mitochondria may produce less energy if overworked or undernourished. This can cause your body to become lethargic and your mind and body to work inefficiently. It’s important to take care of these little microscopic powerhouses.

Embrace the cold

Studies have shown that exposure to the cold (for short periods) can trigger the production of mitochondria by fooling your body into thinking it needs to go into survival mode. When this happens, your body needs more energy in order for your brain to focus on tasks. More mitochondria are produced to provide your body with this energy. You can embrace the cold by taking walks while being lightly dressed (for 20-30 second periods), a few times a week. Taking short, cold showers can also help you achieve this.

Eat less

If you want your mitochondria to thrive, don’t heap your plate with mountains of food. New research by Harvard University shows that low energy conditions like fasting or eating less promotes healthy ageing and boosts mitochondrial function. Eating less or fasting also keeps your mitochondria in a youthful state as it gives it less work to do. Studies show that when there are fewer demands on mitochondria, it enhances its functioning and leads to a longer lifespan. Try intermittent fasting a few times a week. For example, you could do 16-20 hours of fasting per day with four to eight hours of eating.

Get moving

The stress caused when doing exercise activates pathways that stimulate the production of new mitochondria (mitochondrial biogenesis) and improves the function of existing ones. For example, studies with endurance athletes revealed that their muscles have high concentrations of mitochondria. Do consistent, moderate activity every day to stimulate your muscles cells and produce more mitochondria.

Catch some rays

Vitamin D may help increase energy production in the mitochondria of your muscles after exercise. Vitamin D is difficult to get from your diet alone, so it’s important to take supplements if you’re deficient. You can also get your daily dose from a walk in the sun as Vitamin D is formed in your body through a biochemical process when you’re exposed to sunlight. During summer, a short spell outdoors could be enough. Don’t forget the sunblock!

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The best ways to boost your metabolism

Making the right choices about your diet is a daily struggle for many. Occasional takeaway meals, crash diets, eating too much or too little can leave you feeling very anxious and conflicted as to what your body actually needs to function at its best.

Understand how your metabolism works, and you’ll be on your way to boosting your health and speeding up your weight loss.

What is metabolism?

Your metabolism sums up everything your body does. Every time you eat or drink, enzymes (protein molecules) in your body’s cells break down the food and turn it into energy. This energy keeps your heart beating, your mind thinking, and your legs working. Your genes, gender, age and size play a role in the speed of your metabolism. Those with more muscle than fat tend to have a faster metabolism because muscle cells need more energy to maintain them than fat cells do.

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

Your Basal Metabolic Rate is an important factor when it comes to your metabolism. It’s the minimum amount of energy your body needs to continue functioning normally while you’re resting, like sitting down and not doing anything. When you have a high BMR, your body needs more energy to function. If your BMR is low, that means your body can carry on as normal using low amounts of energy.

So, if you take in more calories than your body needs to function, the energy you don’t use gets stored as that thing we want to avoid – fat! As you get older, your metabolism may slow down – this is partly because you are likely to lose some of your muscle tissue and gain more fat-tissue.

Rev up your metabolism

  • First things first, toss away the junk food and add nourishing foods to your diet.
  • Jumpstart your day with breakfast. After a night’s rest, your body has been fasting for around 10 to 12 hours, and is “starving” for fuel, so a healthy breakfast literally wakes up your metabolism. Pack your breakfast with fibre and protein, and say no to sugar and fats. Choose Vitamin D and calcium-rich foods, which, according to research, may increase fat oxidation rates during the day. People who eat breakfast are less likely to overeat later in the day.
  • Replace your coffee with green tea. Research shows that green tea drinkers lose more weight than those who don’t drink the tea. In fact, two to four cups of green tea per day could help you burn an extra 200 to 300 kilojoules.
  • Consciously add protein to each meal. Protein fills you up, helping you to feel fuller and preventing overeating.
  • Starving? Drink a glass of water first. We often mistake thirst for hunger. A glass of water before meals also fills you up, which means you’re less likely to overeat.
  • The more active you are; the more calories you burn. The great thing about exercise is that your metabolism continues to burn energy hours after your workout. It’s a good idea to go for high-intensity exercise as it delivers a bigger and longer increase in resting metabolic rate than low or moderate workouts.
  • Muscle burns more calories than fat, so increase your muscle mass to lose weight. Do exercises that focus on your abdomen, legs, hips, back, chest, shoulders and arms; like body weight squats, push-ups, walking lunges and planks.

References:

Eating healthy and still overweight? Here’s why.

Since we don’t have to think much about what happens to food once we have enjoyed it, it’s easy to take for granted what happens once we swallow. The reality is that our bodies are complicated, and highly sophisticated, pieces of machinery. The action of opening your mouth, putting something in and swallowing, sets off a cascade of physiological events, all of which have an impact on your weight.

Your digestive system in a nutshell

Believe it or not, digestion starts before you’ve even put anything in your mouth. Eyeing out a tasty looking meal sends signals to the brain to prepare for said dish. As a result, chemicals are released that prime your body to start working on getting all the goodness from your meal. Enzymes in your saliva make a good start at breaking food down, while chemicals (digestive enzymes) in the stomach get to work on breaking down food into its most basic building blocks. From there, its shipped off to the small intestine, where yet more enzymes and hormones are activated to absorb nutrients from the intestine into the blood. Depending on what those nutrients are, they are sent off to provide immediate fuel to the body, or stored as back up fuel in fat cells.

 

The chemical drivers: hormones!

We have hormones for everything – to regulate our appetite, to regulate our sleep, to help us get out of a sticky situation and to help us chill out. Riding shotgun throughout the digestion process are 4 important hormones. Understanding these, and how your lifestyle influences them, can make a big difference to how you manage your weight:

  • Grehlin, “the hunger hormone”. If you skip a meal, your ghrelin levels rise and make you ravenous, making it nearly impossible for you to resist the next food item you see (spoiler alert: this is why starvation diets almost never work)
  • Leptin, “the fullness hormone”. Leptin carries messages from your belly to your brain telling it that you’re full. (This messaging system can take around 20 minutes, which is why you should wait a while before having seconds.)
  • Cortisol, “the stress hormone”. When you’re feeling stressed, your body pumps out cortisol to meet the challenge. Cortisol holds on to your fat as a back up energy source based on the assumption that your stress is so bad you may never eat again!
  • Insulin, “the fat storing hormone”. Insulin helps the body move energy out of the blood and into the cells. When the cells are all full, it stores the extra energy as fat. If cells are exposed to very high blood sugar concentrations they become resistant to insulin. This means there will be MORE glucose floating around just waiting to plump up fat cells.

Calories in < calories out = weight loss? Not so fast

These hormones (and others!) interact with each other, and your body and can either help or hinder weight loss. One of the most important factors that influence these hormones, is the TYPE of food you eat, not always how much of it.

Here’s a good example. Fizzy and sugary drinks have what we refer to as “empty calories”, so compared to something like an egg, they may have the same total amount of calories, but once they leave your mouth, the pathways these calories travel are significantly different. The drink will deliver you instant energy, spike up your blood sugar and possibly leave you feeling a bit low, and hungry, whereas the same amount of calories from the egg will keep your blood sugar constant and make you feel full and satisfied. Sugary foods also suppress the release of leptin and spark the release of insulin. This means you’ll keep eating more and any excess sugars floating around are going straight to fat! It’s not difficult to consider then that drinking a can of cola every day for 5 will have a vastly different effect on the body and long-term energy balance, and health, compared to eating the same calories from eggs. The reason –a calorie isn’t really a calorie! Shift your focus away from calorie QUANTITY towards calorie QUALITY.

 

Lifestyle tweaks that could help get weight loss back on track

Genetics, age, medications and certain chronic conditions all play a role in the delicate balance of these hormones. With so many different players involved, it’s not difficult to see how things could start to go wrong! Here are a few things you can try to get the balance back and kickstart weight loss:

Sleep

Just as the type of food you eat influences the release of hormones, so does how you spend your days, and more importantly your nights. Studies have found that those who were deprived of sleep had higher levels of the appetite-stimulating hormone ghrelin and lower levels of the satiety-inducing hormone leptin, with a corresponding increase in hunger and appetite, especially for foods rich in refined carbs (those are the bad ones!). Of course, being awake for longer also gives you more time for snack attacks. And let’s face it, when you’re tired, you reach for whatever is closest, not whatever is healthiest!

What you can do about it: don’t leave sleep as an afterthought. Aim to get a solid 7 to 9 hours sleep each night.

Sitting all day

Regardless of how much exercise you’re doing, if you spend the rest of the day sitting, you could be sabotaging your weight loss efforts. Our body is designed to move, so sitting for long periods causes your body to shut down at the metabolic level. When your muscles, especially leg muscles, are immobile, your circulation slows, so you use less of your blood sugar and you burn less fat. In addition, cells in sitting mode are idle and so don’t respond to insulin, so the pancreas keeps on pumping out more to kick start them back into action. As you can imagine, the more insulin, the more fat is stored and the greater your risk for insulin sensitivity.

What you can do about it: break up your day by getting up and moving around more. Aim for at least 5 minutes every hour.

Ongoing stress

Some stress can be good, too much can be bad. Your body gets into “fight or flight” mode, and to help you through the “danger”, delivers a surge of cortisol. Besides hormonal changes, it also puts you at risk other “unhealthy” behaviours, like smoking, drinking, and in the case of an office worker, very long hours sitting in one place.

What you can do about it: identify your stressors and proactively take steps to address them. Meditation is an excellent way to do this!

Being on a “diet”

Thoughts about weight loss and food can easily start spinning out of control. An unhealthy obsession with food can often just make you want to eat more. Don’t forget too, that the best diet for you is very likely not the best diet for your next-door neighbour. Individual responses to different diets vary enormously.

What you can do about it: embrace a healthy lifestyle, not a quick fix diet. Try to look past that number on a scale. There is so much more to being healthy than being an ideal weight!


References

https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/your-hunger-hormones
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/2010/01/01/3-ways-decreased-sleep-contributes-to-overeating-2/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3329818/