Every few weeks there is a new ‘it thing’ to try in an effort to shed stubborn fat. In the mid-2010s, a popular internet claim insisted that 1 fart could burn 67 calories. This led to a spiral of assertions about a potential weight loss connection, as some believed they found an all-natural way of cheating the system. We all want to know! In what way does farting burn calories?
Generally, a pound of fat will take 3,500 calories to burn off. After some quick math, people online concluded that farting 52 times may be a hack for losing weight. This online post comes back every once in a while, leaving a whole new community of people wondering what they’ve been missing out on.
So is it true? Can you burn calories farting? Is passing gas really the hidden weight loss trick that everyone has been looking for?
Why Do We Fart?
The human body has many interestingly complex functions, including why we fart. When we eat, drink, or even swallow air, that gas build-up has to go somewhere. Farting is a biological process that expels excess gas trapped within the body. This process is the interconnection of multiple physiological and microbiological factors.
Although, not everything will go down the same – or cause the same kind of party in your stomach. You’re probably familiar with the principle: after certain foods (red meat, beans, cruciferous vegetables, carbonated drinks), your stomach feels more full and tight than usual. That is the response to things like fiber and stomach acid building up and settling.
Another example is when stomach acid mixes with bicarbonate and is processed in the intestine; as carbon dioxide (CO₂) is produced, the person may experience increased gas later.
How does farting work?
Gas has to move through the digestive tract just like food does. After swallowing, gas will accumulate in the stomach. Even though some may be expelled through a burp, the remaining gas will pass through the small intestine. Once inside the small intestine, gas will travel with partially digested food. Here, it can be absorbed in the bloodstream and exhaled through the lungs. Otherwise, the majority of gas is formed in the large intestine, where gut bacteria get to work breaking down food and its nutrients. Whatever gas is not absorbed will then be expelled through flatulence.
What is a fart, anyway?
A fart is a mixture of gasses (from air) that enter the body – usually through inhalation during mealtime – and the ones produced within the digestive system. The exact composition of an individual’s farts will vary depending on factors like diet and gut health.
The exact gasses that make up a fart are:
- Nitrogen: This makes up between 20-90% of a fart’s composition. It is the most abundant gas in the atmosphere – as 78% of the air we breathe is nitrogen.
- Oxygen: This gas will account for up to 10% of a fart. Most oxygen is absorbed in the intestines, but a small amount may remain through the process to be expelled in gas.
- Carbon dioxide: Between 10-30% of a fart is carbon dioxide, as this type of gas is produced during digestion.
- Hydrogen: Can account for up to 50% of a fart, as the gas is produced when certain carbs break down in the gut.
- Methane: Between 0-10% of a fart is methane. Not everyone produces this gas. Only about one-third of people have the gut bacteria necessary to produce methane.
- Hydrogen sulfide: While hydrogen sulfide makes up less than 1% of a fart, it is what’s responsible for the smell. Compounds that contain sulfur in foods like meat, eggs, and cruciferous vegetables break down and produce the smelly gas.
Your gas and what it’s telling you about your general health
Gas is an important indicator of your overall gut health. Healthy levels of flatulence are a sign that your digestive processes and gut microbiota are working effectively. A sudden change in your gas patterns can be a tell-tale sign of digestive imbalances like food intolerances, infections, or gastric disorders. For example, people who eat fiber-heavy diets or have intolerances to gluten or lactose may fart more than others.
Aside from dietary habits, excessive flatulence can come from physiological factors, predispositions, and medical conditions. Functional gastrointestinal disorders are some of the most common, affecting up to 70% of people at some point in their life. These stomach problems have no universally understood cause, yet lead to symptoms like an upset stomach, gas, and bloating.
Not farting can have serious consequences on your digestive health. This trapped gas that is not expelled is then absorbed by the bloodstream. This will lead to symptoms like nausea and an upset stomach. Purposefully holding in a fart or multiple for a consistent period of time will only make the symptoms worse, too.
One common condition that can occur from holding in farts for an extended period of time is diverticulitis: a gastrointestinal disease that involves inflamed abnormal patches – diverticula – on the large intestine. It is common to experience single attacks, repeated cases, or chronic diverticulitis.
The Flatulence Fitness Myth: Does a Fart Burn Calories?
It’s time to clear the air. Does farting really burn calories? Simply put, no: flatulence does not burn enough calories to be a sustainable weight loss strategy. The online claim mentioned earlier in this blog was just that – a claim. Since the 2012 post, the question “Does farting burn calories?” has been debunked and the people that once trusted the trend have likely moved on to something new.
When the information was fact-checked, it was discovered that the circulating claim had started on Facebook. So many people had wanted it to be true that the post went viral and a new weight loss fad was in the spotlight.
Experts like Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki have weighed in online to educate the internet on the truth behind the trend. As he explained in his viral TikTok video, the mass of a day’s worth of flatulence is roughly equal to the amount, in weight, that we lose in skin cells every day: 1.5g.
Myth or Fact: Calories Burned by Farting
To the shock of many curious social media users, you don’t burn 67 calories when you fart. The bodily functions that cause human beings to fart have no real impact on weight. Creating enough stomach gas to produce 52 farts every day would take a lot of energy, and eating or drinking that much would counteract the theoretical calories you could burn, anyway!
In hindsight (no pun intended), the popularity of this claim should be a lesson for internet consumption: you really can’t believe everything you read online.
How many calories could farting burn?
Okay, so let’s really talk about it. In theory, does farting burn calories at all? You burn calories through muscle contraction, but farting actually temporarily relaxes the muscles. I get it, the bottom line is you want to know how many calories does farting burn? Technically, you could be burning a few calories from strained flatulence, but nowhere near enough to measure weight loss progress. While the amount of calories your farts burn will vary, the result would be around a mere 1-2 calories. But honestly, breathing will burn more calories.
You can calculate how many calories you have burned from breathing by multiplying the breathing rate by the duration and then your answer by 0.01. On average, a person will burn about a calorie a minute from breathing alone.
The whole digestive system is involved
Even though farting has a negligible impact on burning calories, your digestive processes, on the other hand, do. Because the digestive system requires energy, it will use your caloric intake to fuel its activity. The energy expended because of digestive processes is called the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF). Gas produced during digestion is a product of this effect. Your digestive system alone accounts for 10% of your daily calorie expenditure.
Foods that require a lot of energy to digest (proteins, heavy ingredients) will have a higher thermal effect and, thus, more intense farts. Keep that in mind for your next date night.
Why Do You Feel So Much Lighter After Farting?
Although you may feel lighter after farting, it isn’t because you’ve expelled any meaningful amount of mass. That light and refreshed feeling you may get is the bloating finally going away. Some people experience symptoms like discomfort-related fatigue which can feel much better once the tension is relieved.
Think about it, how does farting burn calories? As we discussed earlier, it’s through contracted muscles. Therefore, relaxing your muscles and letting it go is not going to really provide much caloric expenditure.
In Conclusion
So, it’s sad to say but no: farting won’t help you lose weight. While it may have been a creative experiment for those who tried – and a nightmare for any roommates – it doesn’t have much backing from medical researchers and doctors. Furthermore, the human body burns thousands of calories a day on its own, so there’s no need to micromanage its processes.
However, you shouldn’t sell your farts short, either. They are telling you a whole lot about your health. Farting is an essential bodily function that regulates the gasses that we introduce into our bodies every day. Moreover, if you try to stop this natural bodily process, you could set yourself up for digestive issues later. While it may not help you lose weight, farting will help you promote healthy microbiota and regulate a happy tummy.
