Quite often, people have questions about their bodily functions and the process which it follows. There are several things going at a time in one’s body and there’s a system that is followed for each particular process. Often we wonder, what happens inside our body when we lose weight. What is consumed by our body that gives it the energy to perform our daily tasks? When we lose weight, do we burn fat?
Yes, we do. But there’s a system that our body follows to burn the fat and which is why we lose weight. To begin with, let’s have an idea of what ‘body fat’ is. The excess energy (beyond what is required daily to go throughout the day), that our body gets through food or drinks is stored in the form of fat. There’s a certain amount of fat that is vital for our body as it is useful to shield our organs from fatal blows and also as a protection from excess cold.
But when it starts to build up beyond the recommended amount it is unhealthy in many ways. If we try to lose weight by working out or by doing heavy exercises, our body starts to consume more energy, thus we start feeling hungry. If we don’t consume enough food, the body will first use up all the energy that was gained by the food consumed recently and then move over to use the stored energy, that is, our body fat. Although it takes some effort for our body to convert the fat into usable energy molecules, and it isn’t that efficient, it is enough to meet the requirements.
If the stored fat is completely burned up, then our body moves on to consume our muscles which is extremely harmful to us, hence fat is required in a certain amount.
To put it in a nutshell, our body will burn fat when we lose weight.