Many people will seek to lose weight in the New Year – but few will realise where their body fat goes, scientists claims today.
Ruben Meerman’s study of evaporating fat is one of the latest off-beat offerings from the Christmas issue of The BMJ.
There are also studies of the impact of popular children’s leisure activities – watching cartoons and playing on game machines.
If we lose weight, most of it leaves the body through our breath, according to Mr Meerman, a physicist at the University of New South Wales, Australia.
Fat loss involves the breakdown of triglyceride, made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.
Mr Meerman says most of these atoms are breathed out as carbon dioxide, while the remainder becomes water.
"The water formed may be excreted in the urine, faeces, sweat, breath, tears, or other bodily fluids and is readily replenished," he reports.
Mr Meerman said: "I lost 15 kilograms in 2013 and simply wanted to know where those kilograms were going. After a self-directed, crash course in biochemistry, I stumbled onto this amazing result.
"With a worldwide obesity crisis occurring, we should all know the answer to the simple question of where the fat goes.”
Also in the journal, a team from University College London, UK, state that cartoon characters have more than twice the mortality rate of characters in films for adults. Parents of main characters were more than five times as likely to die in children’s cartoons as they were in films targeted at adults.
Children’s cartoons are "rife with death and destruction", say Dr Ian Colman and his team, reporting on their study of children’s cartoons and animated films from 1937 to 2013.
"Rather than being innocuous and gentler alternatives to typical horror or drama films, children’s animated films are, in fact, hotbeds of murder and mayhem," they warn.
* Dr Maarten Jalink of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, and colleagues highlight the dangers of Nintendo video gaming systems. These popular Christmas presents are only safe if the player takes frequent breaks and plays in a safe place, they write, otherwise neurological, psychological, and surgical injuries can occur.
Players must take steps to avoid "Nintendo epilepsy", "Nintendo neck", and "Nintendinitis" of the thumb, hand or wrist, the experts advise.
Meerman, R. and Brown, A. J. When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go? BMJ 17 December 2014 doi: 10.1136/bmj.g7257
Colman, I. et al. CARTOONS KILL: casualties in animated recreational theatre in an objective observational new study of kids’ introduction to loss of life. BMJ 17 December 2014 doi: 10.1136/bmj.g7184
Jalink, M. B. et al. Nintendo related injuries and other problems: review. BMJ 17 December 2014 doi: 10.1136/bmj.g7267
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