Not sure if this is clear. Our bodies are supposed to replace all the cells every 7 or so years. Does that mean the fat too? Or when someone loses 20 year weight, are you getting rid of 20 year old fat?
The 7 year thing is a myth. Howtown has a very good summary on it. 7 year myth some cells are replaced but how often depends on the cell type, some never get replaced.
When you gain weight your fat cells grow, and when you lose weight they shrink. You don’t actually gain and lose fat cells the way people think. However, the stuff in those cells could very well be old. It’s a complex system and hard to sum up and I’m only friends with the biology people from college but that’s what I understand from them.
When you gain weight your fat cells grow, and when you lose weight they shrink. You don’t actually gain and lose fat cells the way people think.
But as my doctor explained to me, if they get big enough, they divide. Then even if you lose weight, you have fat cells hanging around who think they should be holding onto more fat than they are. So your body will want to be fat, and will enforce that with cravings.
It’s why it’s extremely hard to lose a large amount of weight and leave it off. I’m on my third major attempt now.
Seems like that would be an argument for liposuction as a way to supplement other weight loss because it would remove those cells.
I’ve had the same thought. Haven’t really looked into it though.
I’ve studied nutrition science and we talked about what you described and yes, the blunt “truth” is that liposuction is the only reliable way to really get rid of “emptied fat cells”. There are a lot of things playing into the dreaded yo yo effect but the fact that it is much easier to refill emptied cells than to make new cells via division is definitely a big factor.
(“Truth” is in “” because I dislike this term in a scientific context but english is my third language and it’s pretty late over here so I am struggling to find a better suited word)
Good luck on your weight loss journey. It is an incredibly hard and brave one to take and I admire that you are trying.
I don’t know much about liposuction but I believe it can only be done on subcutaneous fat (just under the skin) but not the deeper intra-abdominal fat that can be the cause of fat related health problems. If you can ‘pinch’ most of your fat then it is probably subcutaneous and lipo would help to remove the excess cells.
It absolutely is. But I’m pretty sure it’s expensive
And of course health insurance wouldn’t cover it because it’s “elective”.
The weight set point theory doesn’t apply to low carbohydrate eating. The abundance of fat cells does not make people doing keto fatter. It’s mostly the carbohydrate insulin model of obesity. Eating food that drives insulin makes people gain weight.
The abundance of active adipocytes can drive leptin issues, and aromatase issues. But as those adipocytes get emptied, there are no longer being as metabolically active and aren’t an issue. Especially on low carbohydrate diets that don’t drive elevated insulin levels
I’ve heard similar, that your body wants to keep the “norm” whatever that is. And it makes sense that any extreme weight loss, would seem, to your body, that there is a famine or something is wrong and then reset the balance back to what it was, as soon as it can.
your taste bud’s cravings are the the fault of America’s food culture, not your body
your taste bud’s cravings are the the fault of […] not your body
Can you cite a reputable source to confirm this? Doesn’t seem right to me.
¿Por qué no los dos?
That opens the door to new insults such as “You so fat your fat cells are the size of grapes”
the stuff in those cells could very well be old.
So, losing weight, is like taking a long needed shower for your cells.
Edit: That link is awesome. Your gut lining turns over every few days and your skin is weeks? That brings up so many more questions about the biome then.
Kind of? The cells, called adipocytes, primarily store triglycerides and a few other things in a liquid form. When you lose weight that liquid gets squeezed out and used as energy, to build other chemicals your body needs, or peed straight out.
So less a shower and more getting rung out like a sponge.
Most of the weight is carbon that is breathed out actually, but metabolic water isn’t insignificant.
My brain has to readjust to all this, very strange.
*wrung*
The Tummy of Theseus
yo momma so fat
The number of fat cells don’t really change in your body. The individual cells grow and shrink.
So then I’m curious what happens with liposuction as the fat cells are literally removed. Does your body create more, or no longer store fat, or does it get stored somewhere else?
It gets stored elsewhere if you continue to consume more than you use, like the fat cells deeper in your abdomen where it’s much more dangerous to the health of your organs
This is a very good question that I’m now curious about
It kind of says something different though. It says the amount remains stable, but they’re dying and replacing themselves. It’s quick in fat people and takes longer in lean people.
It has been generally believed that adult humans cannot create new fat cells. We have thought, until now, that fat cells only and simply increase their fat mass by adding more lipids into fat cells that already exist in order to settle their body weight – this is true, but that is not the end of the story. Research lead by Kirsty Spalding, Jonas Frisén and Peter Arner has recently shown that adult humans constantly produce new fat cells regardless of their body weight status, sex or age.
Peter Arner, Professor, Department of Medicine, Huddinge, said “The total number of fat cells in the body is stable overtime, because the making of new fat cells is counterbalanced by an equally rapid break down of the already existing fat cells due to cell death.”
Edit: I can’t wrap my head around this. Why would anyone keep gaining weight then? If the cells are replaced really quickly, why does it get replaced with the exact same amount of weight? It must be from evolution or something, but it’s weird. That means biome, skin, fat, etc, the stuff that replaces itself quickly, keeps the healthy and unhealthy.
From your body’s perspective, fat is insurance. Our bodies aren’t used to excess, so we’re built to accumulate fat whenever we can.
People eating a whole food diet don’t keep gaining weight throughout life, it’s the modern diets that are tied to the epidemics of modern obesity.
Basically it’s the carbohydrate insulin model of obesity. Eat carbs, drive high blood glucose, drive high insulin, which drives weight gain.
From what I remember from nutrition science research… our body fat are literally living, breathing cells. As in, fat cells which specialize into fat storage, which can grow/shrink, and are in fact very metabolically active. So not only do they get replaced over time, they are biologically quite relevant and probably more “active” than, say, the nearby muscle cells
Wikipedia does have a page for adipocytes, not sure how up-to-date it is but it explains better than I could. Beware that it is quite technical
Wow, this is something that hasn’t been said. I wonder if this is still current.
An average human adult has 30 billion fat cells with a weight of 30 lbs or 13.5 kg. If a child or adolescent gains sufficient excess weight, fat cells may increase in absolute number until age twenty-four.[3] If an adult (who never was obese as a child or adolescent) gains excess weight, fat cells generally increase in size, not number, though there is some inconclusive evidence suggesting that the number of fat cells might also increase if the existing fat cells become large enough (as in particularly severe levels of obesity).
Edit: Also, this explains why some people have it easier and harder
People who have been fat since childhood generally have an inflated number of fat cells. People who become fat as adults may have no more fat cells than their lean peers, but their fat cells are larger. In general, people with an excess of fat cells find it harder to lose weight and keep it off than the obese who simply have enlarged fat cells.[3]
Hypertrophy vs hyperplasia
Europeans tend to be hyperplastic and can handle being fatter
Asians tend to be hypertrophic and get worse outcomes at lower levels of fatness
I looked this up. Do you mean with muscles or with the fat cells?
fat cells
It’s good for me to remember that these are tendencies. Now I’m wondering about other body types.
