Question:
Where does the fat go?

OK, I know this is going to sound like a really silly question, but here goes... Where does the fat go? I mean when anyone loses weight (surgery or not) how is the weight lost? How does it leave our bodies? Through BM's? Urine? I know that it doesn't just disappear and it has to maintain a form of some sort - so what happens to it?    — Toni C. (posted on October 28, 2002)

October 28, 2002
Think of a fat cell as little baggie filled with oozy gook(techincal term ;-) So if you drain the baggie, the volume in it goes away but the actual container is still there. You can just stack gazillions more of them in a much smaller area. . The really mean thing is they are just sitting there, partially full or empty for your body to signal that it's time to fill up again. That's one of the reasons why once you gain fat cells, it's so darn easy to gain it back! Your body does only half the work of creating the volume, the cell is already there and waiting. If you have lipo, then some of the material is not there anymore. But you can't get rid of every empty fat cell in your body. It's the thing that makes once you get past the honeymoon phase 12-18months out important to really have your head on right and be prepared for a balanced approach to maintaining your lifestyle.
   — Susan F.

October 28, 2002
our bodies use the fat in the cells as energy and the cells shrink but never go away.
   — Elizabeth T.

October 29, 2002
I was told that the fat leaves your body thru your urine and that is why it was so important to keep drinking. Hmm..now I wonder if that is true because of what the previous posters have said.
   — Cindy R.

October 29, 2002
I like Susan Finch's answer, below, but I would add that the contents of the little "cell baggies" go different places. Your body burns up part of the "goop" for energy, and what's left over gets carried away by your blood system, where it's processed by your liver and kidneys, and comes out as "burned goop by-products" in your urine. This is one really good reason to keep drinking, as the kidneys aren't set up to deal with that much waste coming through at one time, and so the water helps "flush" everything through.
   — Karen I.

October 30, 2002
Think of stored fat like gasoline. When you put gasoline in your car, it burns up to run the engine and *disappears*. Can you imagine how many gallons of gasoline you've had just disappear? Once you are eating much less, your body will still need energy that it usually gets from all the food you eat. Since you aren't eating as much as your body still needs energy to operate, it will use your stored fat, by breaking it down and *burning* it. It is very important to get your required amount of protein, because if you don't get your protein, your body will start breaking down muscle mass for energy instead of fat and you don't want this.
   — Lynette B.