Trying to lose a few extra pounds can be tough. You may try and try to change your eating. You may find that you "yo-yo" up and down. You may be starving yourself and not losing anything at all. This may leave you asking, how does fat leave the body? You need to eat less and burn more calories, adding in some exercise. Here we try to figure out the hidden secrets to success in dieting and a few tips to help you get started.

How Does Fat Leave the Body?

Fat isn't necessarily a bad thing. Fat is a major source of energy for your body. It is also storage for extra vitamins and nutrients you need. Too much fat isn't good though. The secret to getting rid of extra fat is to simply turn it into the energy you need. To make that, you need a calorie deficit, meaning that you take in less food, cut your calorie intake, turn up your metabolism with exercise, and your body will grab those fat cells to get what it needs. It takes fatty acids and stored glycerol, and delivers some to your organs and muscles for energy and excretes the rest via the urine. You also sweat out a little of what is leftover. Here is how it works:

1. Metabolism of Fat

Your main energy source to function is in triglycerides and glucose. They are readily available in the blood stream, but supply for a relatively short period. The main supply of these nutrients is stored in your fat cells and your liver.

How does fat leave the body? The answer is that when you run out of energy from that pack of French fries you ate at lunch, your body will turn to stored fat to get more energy. This is all done from a hormone produced by your pancreas, lipase. Lipase communicates with your stored fat cells to let go of the stored triglycerides. Once they are activated, they turn into needed fatty acids and glycerol and are released into the blood. The glycerol goes into the liver and the free fatty acids go into your muscles and are converted into the needed energy.

Lastly, those free fatty acids are converted to ATP or adenosine triphosphate, carbon dioxide, heat, and water. Your body continues to use the ATP for energy and the heat that is created from the energy source cause sweat. This sweat releases excess carbon dioxide and water. In this process, you have effectively used excess fat for energy and excreted it from your body via your liver, kidneys and into your urine and sweat.

2. Exercise Process

You will want to turn up your activity level to burn excess fat. This needs to be a long-term commitment. If it took you a year to gain 10 pounds, it may take you a year to lose it. Just cutting calories for a week or exercising for a week won't be enough. Once you commit, if you eat right and commit to exercising on a regular basis with cardio and weight training, you will see an increase in your metabolism. Your body will then learn to use excess fat for energy quickly and efficiently!

How does fat leave the body? Click the video to find more visual information and details:

How to Speed Up the Fat Burning Process

How does fat leave the body? With the tips below, you can send it on its way with just a few lifestyle changes.

1. Weight Training

Weight training helps to raise your metabolism and burn more calories. You don't even have to lift anything too heavy. Just use a weight that gives your muscles some resistance and do repetitions to tone the muscles and increase fat burning.

2. Break a Sweat

When you exercise to the point of breaking a sweat, your body gets rid of fat via the sweat glands. Your body breaks down stored fat and eliminates it via your sweat, urine and body fluids. This is why it is also very important to increase your fluid intake to help flush out fat cells and replenish the fluids lost when sweating.

3. Power Walk on Your Break

During your workday, use your break time for a power walk. You can apply a 20-20 rule: walking for 20 minutes, and you should experience a 20% increase in energy. This actually doesn't make you feel tired either. Researchers believe that this amount of exercise increases good brain chemicals giving you mental and physical energy. In 20 minutes of walking, you burn around 75 calories and that adds up over time!

4. Get Plenty of Protein

Protein helps to build muscle in the body. When you build muscle tissue, it replaces fat tissue. Eating enough protein increases your body's ability to burn calories by 35%. To lose fat and gain muscle, make sure you are getting:

• 3 ounces of lean meat (Turkey, Fish, Chicken or Lean Beef)
• 2 tbsp. nuts
• 8 ounces of low-fat dairy (Milk, Cheese, Yogurt, Cottage Cheese)

5. Drink Cold Liquids

Research suggests that when you take in cold water, your body needs to heat it up to body temperature of 98.6°F. This takes energy from the body raising your metabolism enough to heat the water. When you drink at least 6 glasses of cold water, you can actually raise your body's metabolism enough to burn 50 calories a day!

6. Get Enough Vitamin D

Vitamin D helps preserve and build muscle. This helps to burn fat. Make sure you are getting enough vitamin D by eating:

• 3 to 5 ounces of salmon three times weekly
• Dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt) fortified with vitamin D
• 15 minutes of sunshine daily