Fat

[ll_billym]

What is the size of a stone of human fat?

[NetSquirrel]

Taking the density of fat to be approximately 0.9007g/cm�, one stone of fat would occupy about 5.73 litres of space, about the same as the volume of a football I would imagine.

[ll_billym]

That seems an awful lot, so if someone loses a stone they shed the size of a football?

[NetSquirrel]

I admit I did guess the volume-of-a-football part.  Assuming a football to have a diameter of 25cm, then 5.73 litres is more like just over two thirds of a football.  The equivalent is 42 tennis balls, if each has a diameter of 6.35cm, or 10 pints.

As for how much your body's volume decreases by when you lose one stone, I'd say it would be less than 10 pints, but I don't know by how much.  When you "lose" the fat, it is really being respired or otherwise converted by the body into other forms.  I don't know much about the subject but I'm sure someone will know the details.

[stevie21]

If someone loses a stone it's possible that they lose fat but gain muscle so I wouldn't expect them to reduce in size by exactly 2/3 of a football.

[landie]

It depends which way you lose weight. If you lose weight through extra exercise than some of the fat is replaced by additional muscle, which itself is heavier than fat.

If, however, your eating habits are altered and are solely responsible for the weight loss then the result is likely to be loss of fatty tissue and I have no reason to disagree with the football analogy.

Hope this helps.