Unimaginable isn’t it? The idea that you could simply lose weight through breathing? Well, when you lose weight, where do you think the fat goes to? I pose this question quite often to people I meet, and allow them to ponder for a moment before we discuss it. What do you think is the most common misconception in losing weight? It’s the “energy in/energy out” school of thought. In fact a lot of people think that the more calories you consume, the more you’ll have to exercise to burn it off. Another misconception is that fat is excreted in faeces or converted to muscles.
I’m going to divert your attention for a moment to triglycerides – a type of fat (lipid) found in your blood. When you eat, your body converts any calories it doesn’t need to use right away into triglycerides. The triglycerides are stored in your fat cells. Later, hormones release triglycerides for energy between meals. If you regularly eat more calories than you burn, particularly “easy” calories like carbohydrates and fats, you may have high triglycerides (hypertriglyceridemia).
Now, let’s take a look at this concept. How can one utilise breathing to lose weight or reduce triglycerides?
Our lungs are the primary excretory organ for weight loss. Yes! Carbon and hydrogen are excreted from the body as CO2 and H2O. The ratio of excretion is 2:1. Triglycerides have 6 atoms so with the ratio “four will be exhaled and two will form water.”
“At rest, an average 70kg person consuming a mixed diet (respiratory quotient 0.8) exhales about 200ml of CO2 in 12 breaths per minute. Each of those breaths therefore excretes 33mg of CO2, of which 8.9mg is carbon. In a day spent asleep, at rest, and performing light activities that double the resting metabolic rate, each for 8 hours, this person exhales 0.74kg of CO2 so that 203g of carbon are lost from the body. For comparison, 500g of sucrose (C12H22O11) provides 8400kJ (2000 kcal) and contains 210g of carbon.”
Does this mean… that we can lose weight from breathing alone? This is how it works. Replace an hour of rest with exercise as it raises metabolic rate. By doing so, you will raise the metabolic rate to seven times that of resting. For example, jogging, removes an additional 39g of carbon from the body, raising the total by about 20% to 240g.”
It was reported in the British Medical Journal that a study conducted showed that the lungs are the primary excretory organ for fat. Losing weight requires unlocking the carbon stored in fat cells, thus reinforcing that often heard refrain of “eat less, move more.”
There are proper breathing techniques that people can utilise in order to lose weight. It’s becoming more and more common to see breathing techniques employed on top of exercise routines.
