Eli5 What is actually happening when you burn fat?

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This might be a stupid question, I might indeed be stupid. But what is the actual process going on inside my body at 290lbs when I go hiking for example?

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Remember the mitochondria, power house of the cell? Well mitochondria take in fat, break in down into chemicals you can burn as energy and then uses them for energy.

However fat is long term energy storage, your body prefers to burn carbs and will only burn fat when it needs to. If you go on a 10 minute hike your muscles will primarily run on carbs, longer duration exercise (like a 30+ minute hike) will tend to be better at burning fat as you will begin to run low on carbs but any amount of exercise is better than none and even 10 min/day will have noticeable effects on health. However most important is diet, if you still eat a massive calorie surplus and/or a lot of simple carbs (sugar, white bread) you will end up converting excess energy into fat for long term storage.

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