Finders Keepers

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Finders Keepers

March 19, 2011 by The Minnesota Farm Woman

Everywhere we look, we see information on losing weight. Dr. Oz. “The Biggest Loser”. My son-in-law the personal trainer. Since joining a new healthy challenge at work, I started wondering about exactly what happens when someone loses a few pounds. There is probably some long drawn-out physiological explanation, but I am a simple woman and need to understand in a way that makes sense to me. Let’s start with something that I know: Fat is a solid. So how can a solid just disappear? Evaporation? Combustion? Magic? If you were to melt a pound of butter on the stove, turning solid fat into liquid fat, the only way it would disappear completely is if you put it on the table in front of a group of hungry Scandinavians with a platter of lutefisk and boiled potatoes. I was paging through a magazine the other day reading yet another “I lost 18 pounds of ugly fat in three days!” advertisement when the answer finally came, and it works for a common-sense woman like me. If fat can be lost, than it can be found, and I know just who found it. Ever since I turned 50, there it is. It hangs around my middle. It sticks to my thighs. It follows right behind me, if you get my drift. I’m sure there are many other fat finders just like me. We work very hard to lose a few pounds by eating salads for lunch, exercising and cutting out sweets. All it takes is a long cold winter, a crackling fire, a few good novels and Girl Scout cookie time, and the fat cells come right back, bringing a few friends with them. My theory is that as people lose fat, the cells become invisible and float around the atmosphere, hovering around a few poor schmucks who are too tired after work to hit the gym, or whose husband’s alarm woke them at 5:30 a.m. during Daylight Savings Time and they need to nap instead of walk. The fat cells then dive-bomb the victim and stick like glue. We schmucks know who we are, and we need to be wary. Spring is here. People are walking their dogs. Some are exercising, even running. People start to look thinner than you thought they were as they shed their long underwear and winter sweaters. Don’t be a schmuck. Put down that box of cookies and take a walk. Dust off your bike and pedal around the block. Please, please, watch out behind you. They are waiting to be found.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

4 Responses

on March 19, 2011 at 8:18 am | Reply Brendan Grubbs

How does fat leave the body?

The body uses food for fuel just like a car uses gasoline to run. You fill up the tank; drive around town and when you get low you fill it up again so you can keep driving. Your body, unlike a car, has a reserve of fat that is made when you put too much fuel in it. When you eat too much food your body converts this excess food into fat and stores it on your body.

So, to lose “fat” you must put your body’s tank on empty so that it is forced to use the reserved fat as fuel. It sounds simple but it is fairly complicated. You can’t just starve yourself or your body will break down muscle just as readily as it will fat. This is bad because muscle is necessary to burn fat and to keep you healthy, strong and feeling good.

What do you eat, and when? Well in order to keep your body from breaking down muscle, you need to eat every two hours to keep a constant flow of protein available to your muscles. By doing this, your muscles will be preserved in the fat burning process. Protein is what your muscles are made of so if you give your body plenty of protein, you will preserve your muscles and your body will be forced to look somewhere else for fuel. This is the point that it starts “burning” stored body fat. How much protein? Well I recommend 1 to 1.5 grams per lean body pound on a daily basis.

If you know you need protein to burn fat then what foods do you need to avoid? Carbohydrates. What is a carbohydrate? It is basically any food that converts to sugar/glucose in the body. Glucose, also known as blood sugar, must be stored as fat when excess amounts are put in the blood stream. The most common types of carbohydrates include but are not limited to; sugar, flour, potatoes, rice or any foods made with these ingredients.

What actually happens to the fat that you lose? Well when your body is getting enough protein throughout the day it starts to pull fuel out of your fat cells to be used for energy. After the fat is used by the body it travels through the blood and into the kidneys. That’s where it waits to travel out of the body in your urine. There, now you know that you pee out your fat. That is how it leaves your body.

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- on March 19, 2011 at 8:45 am | Reply The Minnesota Farm Woman
  
  I TOLD you there would be a long drawn-out physiological answer to my question. Thanks to Brendan, my son-in-law and someone who has an extremely high IQ and an extremely low body fat content. :o)
  
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on March 21, 2011 at 8:21 am | Reply Becky

Hahahah! I think you went right home and wrote this after you ran into me walking my dog on Friday afternoon!!!!!

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- on March 21, 2011 at 7:12 pm | Reply The Minnesota Farm Woman
  
  I did! 🙂 But you walked your dog in the cold weather, too!
  
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