I have been fortunate enough in the last several months to be able to
lose a significant amount of weight through exercise and not eating
quite so much.  Not a diet so much as not being a pig.  As I work in
the club industry, I of course have access to all sorts of wonderful
material regarding exercise and diets, etc...  these are all
excellent, but there is one question I have that they all leave
unanswered...

The weight that I have lost has all been from excess fat my body had
stored up.  All the resource material speaks of your body "burning"
that fat and using it for energy.  As I look down at the large gap
between my waistband and may waist, however, I have to ask "where did
all of that go?"  I understand that my body "burned" it, but I guess
I'm not sure exactly what that means.  The fact is, there was about 35
pounds of fat carried inside of me that is no longer there.  Where did
it actually go?  How does it escape my body?  Does it physically leave
you through sweat, through your digestive system, through some other
mechanism?  When I think of something "burning" I think of there being
something left over (ash, etc...).  Is there "fat ash" left over?

So, I guess my question, in the end, is "where did the rest of me go
and how did it get out of me without me noticing?"  I don't want it
back, I just want to know where it went so that that it doesn't sneak
back in.

Thanks!

While you were losing "IT" others were gaining "IT" Do you understand now?  :)

I have often considered the idea of "trading" my excess to someone
more in need.  Unfortunately, I found few takers.  I still have some
stored in reserve for anyone who's interested!

It left mainly as carbon dioxide (you exhaled it) and water (you peed
it).  Fat is made of mostly carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.  Your body
can "burn" fat to get energy, that is, break it down into CO2 (carbon
dioxide) and H2O (water).  These substances are then readily disposed
of.  The same thing happens if you heat up a pan of oil on the stove
so hot that it catches fire.  It burns, forming carbon dioxide and
water vapor.  If you let it all burn away, there will be basically
nothing (like ashes) left in the pan, it will all be in the form of
gasses in the air.  I'm sure there are all kinds of complicated ways
in which your body metabolizes fat, so this answer is a bit
oversimpified, but I think on the most basic level it's right.

It takes the expenditure of about 3500 KCalories to burn 1 lbs of fat.
 Your body produces heat, since the air around you is lower in
temperature than your body your body must produce more heat to
maintain your core temperature. (traditionaly 98.6 degrees F. as
measured on average sublingually - under the tongue)  Those Calories =
heat.  (heat is a form of energy)  Specifically a calorie is the
energy required to raise 1 CC of water 1 degree C. (at standard
pressure and temp).  A food calorie - ofen expressed as K Calories is
a 1000 of those calories.

Most of the calories for most of us are taken up by just staying warm.
 If you do exercise you do increase the amount of heat output and thus
increase the amount of calries you need to maintain your weight.

There are "fluid shifts" that can occur and generally they are
temporary.  Women who are having their periods tend to retain water
during that time and are a little heavier.  Afterwards things tend ot
even out and they lose that extra fluid.  (but that's why they say
they feel bloated; it is a natural condition, but that doesn't mean
they have to like it.)  If you could drink and retain a gallon of
water you would be about 8 lbs heavier even though you had not really
taken in any more food calories.  But assuming you are not dehydrated
you will eventually excreet and sweat off that gallon of water and
lose the 8 lbs.  I do not recommend forcing yourself to drink a gallon
of water in a sitting.  You can cause a serios electrolite inbalance
and I just don't recommend it.

So yes, you literally burned more than you took in as food.  Not all
of it was fat though.  Sometimes people lose some lean body mass at
the same time.  Sometimes their bodies do burn some things you would
rather it not burn. (eg muscle)

For my fellow commentors:

Racecar-
Thanks for your insightful answer.  That actually makes sense to me. 
As I sweat, breathe, and pee every day, I will imagine the burnt fat
just flowing out of me.

Scubajim-
Thank you as well.  Fortunately for body fat testing, I am able to
confidently say what I have & haven't lost.  I have been fortuante
enough to actually add about 10 pound of muscle mass during the time
that I lost 30 pounds.  So, I guess that I lost about 40 pounds of the
gross stuff.  Now, if I can only get rid of those last 15...

Tnsdan,

What a ripper of a question! I had wondered that too .. where does it
go? I have concluded that it doesn't "go" anywhere, it's just
converted. Like energy, we can't create it, it can only be transferred
to another form.

Racecar and ScubaJim have given great explanations. My entry is to
take up your offer of trading your unwanted pounds, provided that the
majority is muscle. I have the opposite experience. A fast metabolism
I think it's called. I could eat a horse and put on 4 ounces.
Conditioned "starvation mode" makes no difference to me in retaining
extra weight.

Good for you in losing 35 pound. I'm sure you feel better for the
outcome. Keep it as a habit.

Phil