Saturday, April 24, 2010

Question for fitness experts...?

I've heard that once your body fills up all it's adipose tissue with fat, it creates new fat cells and begins to fill them. But, if you lose all the fat, the added fat cells remain. Basically, your body can add fat cells, but it can't remove them.





First, is this true?


Second, how obvious will it be for someone who has lost considerable weight (say 30+ pounds of fat)? I.e., even without the fat, will the additional fat cells be visible? Loose skin, etc?





Thanks!

Question for fitness experts...?
This is true. Once a fat cell has been created, it's always there. A lean adult has around 40 billion fat cells. Someone who is obese may have two to three times that (and their fat cells are much larger.)





Think of a fat cell as a little "bag" that can hold droplets of fat. As the cell reaches it's capacity, it sends messages to nearby immature cells to create more fat cells. Once those cells have been created, they are always there ... although they may be tiny in a lean individual. This is one of the reasons why it can be challenging for obese people to keep fat off, even after significant weight loss (difficult, but by no means impossible.)





When an obese person loses large amounts of fat, the fat cells shrink (they are losing volume as the fat is burned for fuel.) Loose skin is often visible after large amounts of rapid weight loss in the obese, however, it is has nothing to do with the remaining fat cells being visible. Don't confuse the two.
Reply:Your body has all the fat cells it's going to have by the time you are about 18. As these cells expand you gain fat. Deplete the cell of fat and you lose fat and weight.





The only true way to lose fat cells is liposuction. You won't lose skin. It just gets flabby.


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