When focusing on your fitness journey, we know that in order to lose weight, we must focus on exercise, diet, and stress levels.
Exercise is a key factor when it comes to fat loss. According to the National Library of Medicine, your body will need to experience periods of expending more energy in order to achieve fat loss. Thus, this means that your body will be burning calories at a higher rate through exercise compared to being sedentary most of the time.
Also tying into one of the key factors of fat loss is nutrition. In order to achieve fat loss, you will have to be on a calorie deficit. A calorie deficit means you are burning more calories than consuming. In order to figure out how many calories you are burning on a daily basis, use a smart watch such as a Fitbit or an Apple Watch to access your total calories burned. However, if you do not have access to a smart watch, you can use a BMR calculator to get an idea of how much you are burning. (https://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html) Not only that, but to ensure that you are burning more calories than consuming, tracking your daily intake of food can help. Apps such as MyFitnessPal ([https://www.myfitnesspal.com](https://www.myfitnesspal.com/)) and Yazio (https://www.yazio.com/en) are food tracking apps that help ensure you are on the right path of a calorie deficit.
Last but not least are your stress levels. This correlates with mental wellness as well. In order to ensure that your fitness journey is successful, it is important to limit the amount of stress you are experiencing. According to the Insider, an excess of stress can mess with your metabolism, appetite, and digestion, which can possibly negatively impact your fitness journey.
That being said, when you do lose weight, where does that extra weight actually go? The answer is quite simple. According to Healthline, when your body fat is broken down for energy use through cells, it will result in two byproducts being released, which are carbon dioxide and water. The carbon dioxide is released as we are breathing out and water is expelled through urine and sweat. Thus, as we exercise, our heart rate increases, and our breath becomes more rapid resulting in a heavier disposal of carbon dioxide. Therefore, in order to maintain the fat lost, a well-balanced diet and a healthy exercise routine must be sustained.
[Where Does Fat Go When You Lose Weight? (healthline.com)](https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/where-does-fat-go-when-you-lose-weight#diet-exercise)
[The Role of Exercise and Physical Activity in Weight Loss and Maintenance - PMC (nih.gov)](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3925973/)
[Can Stress Cause Weight Loss? 4 Reasons and How to Handle It (insider.com)](https://www.insider.com/guides/health/mental-health/can-stress-cause-weight-loss#:~:text=Stress%20hormones%20can%20have%20a%20number%20of%20effects,you%20manage%20stress%20and%20minimize%20its%20negative%20effects.)