5 ms·

My favorite fact about weight loss is that most of the actual physical loss of atoms is through your breath.

geertj 4y ago
Yes! Through CO2 to be precise.
swyx 4y ago
so does that mean working out more => more breath/CO2 => more weight loss? trying to reconcile this with the conventional advice that weight loss is 90% about eating right
- space_fountain 4y ago
  The problem with working out to loose weight is that your body knows it takes more calories and so it happily ups your appetite
- DiggyJohnson 4y ago
  I don’t see why these things must be as interconnected as you’re question suggests. If you have a relatively constant outflow of breath, measurably but not drastically affected by exercise, the CICO conception could still account for the net difference in body mass.
  - dTal 4y ago
    Your exhalations are a direct result of the chemical reaction that gives you energy: C + O2 -> CO2. C is your carbon-based food, O2 is your inhalation, and CO2 is your exhalation. When you burn more calories, you increase the speed of that reaction, and you breath out more CO2. That is why exercise makes you lose weight (and why it makes you heat up). They are inextricable. The mass has to go somewhere!
- jvalencia 4y ago
  I can't remember where I read it unfortunately, but yes, breathing harder will contribute to weight loss. edit: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/breathing-exercises-for-weight-loss https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/breathing-exercises-for...
- aaronblohowiak 4y ago
  the fork is mightier than the metabolism! the breath thing is how the metabolic waste products leave the body (when your fat gets broken down eventually the mass of it leaves your body as co2). also, the amount of hours you spend not working out dramatically trumps the amount of hours you spend not working out so working out itself doesnt change your mean..
- hnuser123456 4y ago
  You are always breathing, but you breath about 3x more while you're working out cardio style, but you're not significantly changing your average breath rate for the day unless you're working out for hours daily. 24 "rest-hours of breath" on a lazy day, 26 "rest-hours of breath" on a day when you spend a full hour doing cardio/running/etc, so spending an hour doing intense workouts only increased your carbon exhaled by 8.3%. Also, somewhere around 2/3 (if not 3/4+) of the weight you lose per breath is simply water vapor restored when you have your next drink, not carbon atoms being attached to oxygen molecules in the air. Also, working out makes you hungry, rightfully so (in a world that isn't essentially full of infinite tasty food for those of us with a little money). The only way to lose significant weight is to feel hungry, and to stop eating before you "feel" full. This is de facto psychologically insurmountable (or nigh unsustainable) to everyone who is overweight and wants to lose it but just can't bear to be hungry enough for long enough. Spoken as someone slightly overweight who just needs to feel a little hungry for a couple months to get to a much better weight. And of course, once you've made a habit of eating over your ideal calories, even after you've lost the weight, your stomach is still bigger and it's effortless to go back to eating your usual large-self amounts even after you've lost all the weight, and go right back to large-self weight.
- nashequilibrium 4y ago
  I love how he captures it in a balloon during this Ted talk on fatloss. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuIlsN32WaE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuIlsN32WaE
ideamotor 4y ago
So we should all be wearing masks after-all.
tsimionescu 4y ago
It's important to note that in the method of weight loss discussed here, you don't have to lose a single atom from your own body, but your weight can go down by an almost arbitrary amount. For example, Yuri Gagarin had his weight reduced to almost 0kg, together with his rocket, while not losing a single atom (talking about the indie of the cabin, of course). It takes a lot of effort, but you don't have to feel hungry, and the results will beat exercise by orders of magnitude in terms of pure weight loss!
- spullara 4y ago
  If you had said 0N maybe. But his mass, measured in kg, was never reduced.
  - tsimionescu 4y ago
    That's fair! Though, in fairness to me, his scales would have also shown 0kg if he stepped "on" them!

Yes! Through CO2 to be precise.

swyx 4y ago

so does that mean working out more => more breath/CO2 => more weight loss? trying to reconcile this with the conventional advice that weight loss is 90% about eating right

space_fountain 4y ago
The problem with working out to loose weight is that your body knows it takes more calories and so it happily ups your appetite
DiggyJohnson 4y ago
I don’t see why these things must be as interconnected as you’re question suggests. If you have a relatively constant outflow of breath, measurably but not drastically affected by exercise, the CICO conception could still account for the net difference in body mass.
- dTal 4y ago
  Your exhalations are a direct result of the chemical reaction that gives you energy: C + O2 -> CO2. C is your carbon-based food, O2 is your inhalation, and CO2 is your exhalation. When you burn more calories, you increase the speed of that reaction, and you breath out more CO2. That is why exercise makes you lose weight (and why it makes you heat up). They are inextricable. The mass has to go somewhere!
jvalencia 4y ago
I can't remember where I read it unfortunately, but yes, breathing harder will contribute to weight loss. edit: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/breathing-exercises-for-weight-loss https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/breathing-exercises-for...
aaronblohowiak 4y ago
the fork is mightier than the metabolism! the breath thing is how the metabolic waste products leave the body (when your fat gets broken down eventually the mass of it leaves your body as co2). also, the amount of hours you spend not working out dramatically trumps the amount of hours you spend not working out so working out itself doesnt change your mean..
hnuser123456 4y ago
You are always breathing, but you breath about 3x more while you're working out cardio style, but you're not significantly changing your average breath rate for the day unless you're working out for hours daily. 24 "rest-hours of breath" on a lazy day, 26 "rest-hours of breath" on a day when you spend a full hour doing cardio/running/etc, so spending an hour doing intense workouts only increased your carbon exhaled by 8.3%. Also, somewhere around 2/3 (if not 3/4+) of the weight you lose per breath is simply water vapor restored when you have your next drink, not carbon atoms being attached to oxygen molecules in the air. Also, working out makes you hungry, rightfully so (in a world that isn't essentially full of infinite tasty food for those of us with a little money). The only way to lose significant weight is to feel hungry, and to stop eating before you "feel" full. This is de facto psychologically insurmountable (or nigh unsustainable) to everyone who is overweight and wants to lose it but just can't bear to be hungry enough for long enough. Spoken as someone slightly overweight who just needs to feel a little hungry for a couple months to get to a much better weight. And of course, once you've made a habit of eating over your ideal calories, even after you've lost the weight, your stomach is still bigger and it's effortless to go back to eating your usual large-self amounts even after you've lost all the weight, and go right back to large-self weight.
nashequilibrium 4y ago
I love how he captures it in a balloon during this Ted talk on fatloss. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuIlsN32WaE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuIlsN32WaE

ideamotor 4y ago

So we should all be wearing masks after-all.

tsimionescu 4y ago

It's important to note that in the method of weight loss discussed here, you don't have to lose a single atom from your own body, but your weight can go down by an almost arbitrary amount. For example, Yuri Gagarin had his weight reduced to almost 0kg, together with his rocket, while not losing a single atom (talking about the indie of the cabin, of course). It takes a lot of effort, but you don't have to feel hungry, and the results will beat exercise by orders of magnitude in terms of pure weight loss!

spullara 4y ago
If you had said 0N maybe. But his mass, measured in kg, was never reduced.
- tsimionescu 4y ago
  That's fair! Though, in fairness to me, his scales would have also shown 0kg if he stepped "on" them!