How do we actually lose weight?

This is not about mathematics! In other words, this is not about calories in being less than calories out. This is not about healthy eating, our 5 a-day, avoiding salts and saturated fats. The purpose of this is to explain, how physiologically, we as a human race lose weight!

As I have said in the introduction, we gain weight when we don't burn off the calories we are consuming daily. Therefore it is easier to gain weight if we eat foods that are high in calories.

Of course, the reverse is true. We lose weight when we burn off more calories than we consume. It is a fair assumption, that if we consume foods that are low in calories, it is easier to maintain a healthy waste line. We must consume sufficient calories per day in order to function. It is not advisable to consume little or no calories for quick weight loss.

Exercise is a great way of increasing the number of calories we are burning off. Getting outdoors, and doing some good old fashioned exercise. walking, swimming cycling or running is a great way to get some physical exercise. There is no right or wrong answer, whatever suits your preference.

Until recently, we perceived by doing this activity and therefore getting sweaty was how we lost weight! We believed that the fat in our body was leaving us in our sweat. But, when people lay around in the sun and no doubt get a sweaty, do they not lose weight? Sounds obvious when you put it like that, doesn't it?

Yet, it's not a new phenomenon to relate percentage of heart rate to weight loss. It's been a rule of thumb for a number of years now that if you get your heart pumping at approximately 60% of excursion, then you will lose weight. Work at 80% of excursion, then you are working on your cardio-vascular fitness.

Work at approximately 100% then you are working at your peak. How does the body remove fat, from the body?

By increasing our heart rate, we increase our respiratory rate too. As we breathe out, we breathe out carbon dioxide. Fat is removed from the body through carbon dioxide. Therefore, the more we increase our heart rate, we breathe harder and faster, breathing out more carbon dioxide, removing the fat from our body.

This doesn't mean forcing carbon dioxide out will help us get into the dress one size smaller! If we force carbon dioxide out and therefore increase the risk of hyperventilation, we are at risk of doing risk to our respiratory system, possibly leading to type I respiratory failure! By blowing off oxygen and carbon dioxide too quickly.

Like all weight loss programs, there are no quick fixes, no short cuts. All good things come to those who wait. We know getting some cardio-vascular exercise and increasing our heart rate is good for us. If we want to lose weight from this, we need to get to a point where we are getting out of breath! How can I measure this?

Simple! By gauging how much you can talk whilst performing exercise. If you can jog and have a good natter to your friend, then chances are you, could be working a little harder. If you are running and can barely breathe, let alone speak a word, then you maybe working at your peak, and a little too hard.

If you are jogging or running and you are struggling to complete a sentence then you maybe working at a level ideal for weight loss.

Ultimately, calorie control with a balanced healthy diet and a mixture of healthy lifestyle choices is the key to a healthy life. Burning off more calories than you consume is the key to weight loss. The way we remove the fat from our body is in our breath, not our sweat.