We often talk about "burning" fat, having the pounds drop off or melt away, but where are your love handles actually going? Is the fat running out of your pores? Are you flushing it down the loo? Is it lost as heat? Well, it turns out that you're actually breathing the majority of it out. When you eat to excess, the extra calories are converted into a compound called triglyceride which is made up of of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. This is what sits in your fat cells and plumps them up. When your body taps into your fat stores for energy, these are broken down into glycerol and free fatty acids which are then metabolised or "burnt" to produce energy. This converts them into carbon dioxide, which is exhaled, and water with is excreted through urine, faeces and sweat (or tears, you are exercising after all). This means that the lungs are primary organ for weight loss. This doesn't mean that you can just breathe your way to a beach bod, as breathing faster than your metabolism can handle will just cause you to hyperventilate and pass out. You need to raise your metabolic rate though exercise first and the heavy breathing will inevitably follow.
