HERE IS THE REASON WHY BELLY FAT IS THE LAST TO GO

ninerbuff

I've seen so many threads on it so I might as well get you an explanation of why belly fat is the last to go.

First of all, your body stores fat in your midsection (your abdomen, hips or buttocks) due to basic biomechanics. The midsection of your body is the best place to store extra energy because it takes less energy to carry it around. Remember, fat storage is a survival strategy, so your body wants to maximize energy efficiency in the creation, storage and use of body fat.

It wouldn't make sense to have a lot of extra fat on your fingers and toes because you'd have to swing those around when you moved and that would require extra caloric expenditure. So given that your body wants to store fat as a way to have portable energy, it makes perfect sense that it would prefer to store that fat in your midsection.

Secondly, from an anthropological point of view, the placement of body fat also has some implications for mate selection. This is especially true in women, where fat is stored in locations like the hips, buttocks and breasts to actually create a more attractive physical body in order to attract a potential mate. In this way, the fat is stored in predetermined locations on your body for much the same reason that a male peacock has brightly colored feathers -- it's part of the mating game, so to speak. Exaggeration of physical traits is a common evolutionary strategy for mate attraction in primates, including humans. And body fat can be used cosmetically to pursue this strategy. (Of course, it all happens automatically. You don't have to "think" about where to put your body fat on any particular day, any more than you have to "think" about why you might sometimes feel attracted to another person.)

Thirdly, your body stores fat wherever you have fat cells. This may sound obvious, but it's actually interesting when you realize that people who undergo liposuction to remove fat cells from their body end up causing a redistribution of fat to other locations that might be less desirable.

For example, if a person follows an unhealthy lifestyle that results in the accumulation of excessive body fat, then they undergo liposuction to remove that body fat from their abdomen, but they continue to pursue the same overconsumption lifestyle that creates more body fat, then the body has to store that fat somewhere and since the fat cells have been removed from the abdomen, it's going to put that fat somewhere else like the knees, or under the chin, or under the arms and so on. Your body has to work with the fat cells that exist, and if you start removing certain fat cells, you end up with fat being stored in places you might not have expected.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/006981.html#ixzz1ZZTO8U2n

servilia

Thanks for that. Just wondering if that's more applicable to males (ie abdomen fat being the last go). In my case (female) I find my butt and hips is the last place to lose, which is in line with the gender differences in fat distribution as mentioned in your post. Maybe I'm just lucky but my abdomen is one of the first places I start to lose.

Kittyfeliz

Perfectly said!

skfj5

Well put...

2blueeyedbabies

Thank you for this! Very informative and makes so much sense to me now... I keep looking at myself in the mirror and thinking "REALLY!?!??! My tummy isn't going ANYWHERE!" LOL!

farmgirlsuz

I heard at one time that every body had a certain set number of fat cells and that you never actually lose those cells, but rather they fill out and/or shrink up depending on how much fat is available to them. Anyone know if this is true? I know I could probably research it myself, but you sound so knowledgable that I would let you tell me.

TaushasJourney

Thanks for sharing, interesting to think about.

TaushasJourney

Thanks for sharing, interesting to think about.

mssweetjay

thanks for sharing!!

Teliooo

Thanks for that. Just wondering if that's more applicable to males (ie abdomen fat being the last go). In my case (female) I find my butt and hips is the last place to lose, which is in line with the gender differences in fat distribution as mentioned in your post. Maybe I'm just lucky but my abdomen is one of the first places I start to lose.

I am the same as you. Easily lose weight on my belly but the hips just stick.

Rachaelluvszipped

:flowerforyou: No wonder I have you as a friend..hehe! Your always so very informative! Thanks!

eeeekie

Interesting! ty for sharing.

servilia

I heard at one time that every body had a certain set number of fat cells and that you never actually lose those cells, but rather they fill out and/or shrink up depending on how much fat is available to them. Anyone know if this is true? I know I could probably research it myself, but you sound so knowledgable that I would let you tell me.

Yes this is true, subject to exceptions. There are two times in life where there is a predetermined increase in the NUMBER of fat cells - during fetal development and puberty. I have also read that above average overeating can also cause an increase in the number of fat cells (in addition to the fat cells increasing in size) but I would have to double check that. But in general, the normal fat gain/decrease is a result of the existing fat cells being filled and emptied of their fat droplets.

lovejoydavid

For example, if a person follows an unhealthy lifestyle that results in the accumulation of excessive body fat, then they undergo liposuction to remove that body fat from their abdomen, but they continue to pursue the same overconsumption lifestyle that creates more body fat, then the body has to store that fat somewhere and since the fat cells have been removed from the abdomen, it's going to put that fat somewhere else like the knees, or under the chin, or under the arms and so on. Your body has to work with the fat cells that exist, and if you start removing certain fat cells, you end up with fat being stored in places you might not have expected.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/006981.html#ixzz1ZZTO8U2n

I think it is also useful to remember that the fat being taken by lipo near the abdomen has to be the available subq fat, not the visceral fat that is most common in the trunk. Visceral fat is not taken by lipo, and is metabolically different from the subq fat that is present elsewhere in the body. Visceral fat is the stuff that creates heart disease risk, while that stuff that women (mostly) have in the thighs tends to be protective of such. Lipo cannot help you with central obesity, and in fact, by taking the unique subq fat cells and leaving the visceral cells behind may enhance the risk of heart disease.

emmab0902

Well damn those biomechanics!

ninerbuff

I heard at one time that every body had a certain set number of fat cells and that you never actually lose those cells, but rather they fill out and/or shrink up depending on how much fat is available to them. Anyone know if this is true? I know I could probably research it myself, but you sound so knowledgable that I would let you tell me.

You don't lose fat cells unless you have them removed by lipo or sugery (tummy tuck). But you can attain more fat cells if you keep increasing your fat weight.

lovejoydavid

I heard at one time that every body had a certain set number of fat cells and that you never actually lose those cells, but rather they fill out and/or shrink up depending on how much fat is available to them. Anyone know if this is true? I know I could probably research it myself, but you sound so knowledgable that I would let you tell me.

You don't lose fat cells unless you have them removed by lipo or sugery (tummy tuck). But you can attain more fat cells if you keep increasing your fat weight.

I have never really looked into it, but I can accept that answer. Adipocytes retain stem cells, and I imagine that (just as with muscle) they could still experience hyperplasia under the right conditions.

TheBraveryLover

And this is one example as to why you're one of my favorite posters on MFP. Very interesting info. Thanks!

Goal_Seeker_1988

bump

Rae6503

Yeah, I'm a thigh over belly fat storing person too, but it is all the same, evolution.

kennethmgreen

Good stuff. Thanks for posting this.

Why is face and neck fat the *first* to go (for me and many people I've talked to)? Or is that just perception?

Lift_hard_eat_big

The best analogy I ever heard was the "paper stack analogy" Imagine stacking pieces of paper on top of each other one by one on a desk. If you remove those pieces of paper one by one, the last one to remove is the paper on the bottom of the stack. Just like how we store fat on our body. First its usually stored in mid section, then hips, legs, chest, back, arms and face, etc. So if you wanna shed stomach fat, you gotta shed the other fat first, like the paper stack analogy.

CaptainMFP

All good except for the peacock analogy. Sexual dimorphism (differential body forms) develops in many different organisms, but to compare the exaggerated tail structure in peacocks to female fat distribution is an inaccurate evolutionary analogy. Not least because the overwhelming majority of intersexual selection (mate choice sexual selection) is driven by female -- not male -- choice, and this is particularly true in primates. The physiological explanations for core fat are actually pretty good, but as an evolutionary biologist, I just couldn't let the peacock analogy slide. Nicely articulated otherwise! :drinker:

(You can't blame a teacher for teaching, can you? )

TheBraveryLover

All good except for the peacock analogy. Sexual dimorphism (differential body forms) develops in many different organisms, but to compare the exaggerated tail structure in peacocks to female fat distribution is an inaccurate evolutionary analogy. Not least because the overwhelming majority of intersexual selection (mate choice sexual selection) is driven by female -- not male -- choice, and this is particularly true in primates. The physiological explanations for core fat are actually pretty good, but as an evolutionary biologist, I just couldn't let the peacock analogy slide. Nicely articulated otherwise! :drinker:

(You can't blame a teacher for teaching, can you? )

I bet you're a riot at parties!

Lesah0808

Thank you for this post!!! I really want lipo and the doctors never said anything about the redistribution of fat but I know that the loss has to be maintained. I think I'm going to continue to reast eat healthy, exercise, & get a body wrap.

poisongirl1

All good except for the peacock analogy. Sexual dimorphism (differential body forms) develops in many different organisms, but to compare the exaggerated tail structure in peacocks to female fat distribution is an inaccurate evolutionary analogy. Not least because the overwhelming majority of intersexual selection (mate choice sexual selection) is driven by female -- not male -- choice, and this is particularly true in primates. The physiological explanations for core fat are actually pretty good, but as an evolutionary biologist, I just couldn't let the peacock analogy slide. Nicely articulated otherwise! :drinker:

(You can't blame a teacher for teaching, can you? )

Thanks for pointing that out, it was bugging me a bit too.

The reason women tend to have the extra fat around hips, thighs and buttocks is because of pregnancy, not sexual selection. The female body stores extra fat there that is difficult to get rid of so that if there is a famine or food shortage during pregnancy, the body can turn to those fat stores in attempt to save the pregnancy until food is available again. While this can signal to males that she's more likely to continue her pregnancy during a food shortage, men don't automatically find large hips attractive. In terms of sexual selection, the large hips are only really useful for attracting a mate if you have a smaller waist. But that gets into the whole waist-hip ratio which isn't just about fat stores for pregnancy.

Rae6503

All good except for the peacock analogy. Sexual dimorphism (differential body forms) develops in many different organisms, but to compare the exaggerated tail structure in peacocks to female fat distribution is an inaccurate evolutionary analogy. Not least because the overwhelming majority of intersexual selection (mate choice sexual selection) is driven by female -- not male -- choice, and this is particularly true in primates. The physiological explanations for core fat are actually pretty good, but as an evolutionary biologist, I just couldn't let the peacock analogy slide. Nicely articulated otherwise! :drinker:

(You can't blame a teacher for teaching, can you? )

It's the opposite, right? We don't have fat thighs to attack men, we attack men BECAUSE we have fat thighs. Or we did. Because it meant we were healthy enough to bear children when often women were too skinny to do so.

newvictoria

Nailed it!
Thanks for posting....

trentnivins

I've seen so many threads on it so I might as well get you an explanation of why belly fat is the last to go.

First of all, your body stores fat in your midsection (your abdomen, hips or buttocks) due to basic biomechanics. The midsection of your body is the best place to store extra energy because it takes less energy to carry it around. Remember, fat storage is a survival strategy, so your body wants to maximize energy efficiency in the creation, storage and use of body fat.

It wouldn't make sense to have a lot of extra fat on your fingers and toes because you'd have to swing those around when you moved and that would require extra caloric expenditure. So given that your body wants to store fat as a way to have portable energy, it makes perfect sense that it would prefer to store that fat in your midsection.

Secondly, from an anthropological point of view, the placement of body fat also has some implications for mate selection. This is especially true in women, where fat is stored in locations like the hips, buttocks and breasts to actually create a more attractive physical body in order to attract a potential mate. In this way, the fat is stored in predetermined locations on your body for much the same reason that a male peacock has brightly colored feathers -- it's part of the mating game, so to speak. Exaggeration of physical traits is a common evolutionary strategy for mate attraction in primates, including humans. And body fat can be used cosmetically to pursue this strategy. (Of course, it all happens automatically. You don't have to "think" about where to put your body fat on any particular day, any more than you have to "think" about why you might sometimes feel attracted to another person.)

Thirdly, your body stores fat wherever you have fat cells. This may sound obvious, but it's actually interesting when you realize that people who undergo liposuction to remove fat cells from their body end up causing a redistribution of fat to other locations that might be less desirable.

For example, if a person follows an unhealthy lifestyle that results in the accumulation of excessive body fat, then they undergo liposuction to remove that body fat from their abdomen, but they continue to pursue the same overconsumption lifestyle that creates more body fat, then the body has to store that fat somewhere and since the fat cells have been removed from the abdomen, it's going to put that fat somewhere else like the knees, or under the chin, or under the arms and so on. Your body has to work with the fat cells that exist, and if you start removing certain fat cells, you end up with fat being stored in places you might not have expected.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/006981.html#ixzz1ZZTO8U2n

thx for the explaination it opened my eyes

trentnivins

bump

ninerbuff

All good except for the peacock analogy. Sexual dimorphism (differential body forms) develops in many different organisms, but to compare the exaggerated tail structure in peacocks to female fat distribution is an inaccurate evolutionary analogy. Not least because the overwhelming majority of intersexual selection (mate choice sexual selection) is driven by female -- not male -- choice, and this is particularly true in primates. The physiological explanations for core fat are actually pretty good, but as an evolutionary biologist, I just couldn't let the peacock analogy slide. Nicely articulated otherwise! :drinker:

(You can't blame a teacher for teaching, can you? )

Okay I will digress to you since sexual dimorphism is not a field I'm totally familiar with. Thank you for the input.