Exercise and you burn calories. Some of those burned cals will hopefully come from stored body fat. What exactly happens to the burned fat?
It does not turn into muscle. I hear that a lot.
Knowing what happens to burned fat may change the way you view/perform 2 important daily functions. Let’s cut to the chase.
What happens once body fat is burned?
- As water (16%), through your skin (when you sweat) and your kidneys (when you urinate).
- As carbon dioxide CO2 (84%), through your lungs (when you breathe out).
Let’s improve our metabolism by doing two simple things more efficiently: breathing and hydrating.
Breathing
Take a mouth breath. Your chest and shoulders expand; your belly not so much. This breath stays in the upper, narrower portion of the lungs. Breathing here is like sipping air through a straw. Your diaphragm doesn’t move much.
Now breath through your nose. The air is filtered through your nostrils (good), then lands in the more voluminous, lower lungs (also good). You’re getting more O2, purging more C02, and your diaphragm muscle is moving more. The diaphragm acts like a pump (and not just for air). Belly breathing pumps more air, and hence more waste, from your body. For more on how to improve your breathing read this Here and Here.
Drink Water
So how about a great quote about hydration from a massage therapist I met?
“Dehydrated muscles feel like beef jerky; hydrated muscles feel like beef wellington.”
So do wanna be made of jerky? Or are you grade A, top choice meat?
How much should you drink? There’s a simple formula:
- Body weight (lbs)/ 2 = oz of water you should consume daily.
Proper hydration creates healthy, viscous cells which allow nutrition and waste (CO2, i.e. 84% of burnt fat) to pass easily through in and out of your cells. Additionally, those same materials back up, and move sluggishly when you’re dehydrated. Let’s grease the tracks, i.e. drink some water. You’ll have to pee more often, but you’ll feel so good you’ll get over it.
Boom! Two easy ways to optimize your engine. Who loves you, Baby? Fit does!
Bonus tip
When you work out you’ll breathe heavy and break a sweat! Fat Loss Baby!
Even if you’re a dehydrated mouth breather you can still be top choice meat. Tweak your system. Drink water; breath through your nose. Perfect these two tasks and undoubtedly you’ll need a needle and thread…
Because you’ll be soooooo ripped.
Whoooooaaaa! That last line, Too much? I was going for a ‘so bad it’s actually good kind of finish’. Whatever. ‘Til next time.