A super nerdy question for all you sciencey types

stephanj

Ok sorry I am geeking out but it's 3am and I can't sleep. I have a question about fat cells I hope someone can answer:

Let's say I gained a lot of weight during pregnancy, and on one particular day I ate a hamburger and my body deposited some excess fat in one particular fat cell in my abdomen. And lets say it is 9 years later and I am finally burning the fat off my abdomen though diet and exercise. I know the body in general has a finite number of fat cells and they just swell and shrink. I have also heard you tend to lose weight in the reverse order you gain it, and in my case this is true because my gut is always the last to go. But I have also heard that every cell in the body regenerates after a certain amount of time. So is the fat I am burning off today the actual fat I deposited 9 years ago, or is that fat long gone and this is somehow "new fat" because the body has regenerated?

I guess my question is, am I just now burning off a hamburger I ate in 2003?
Lol.

Thanks for tolerating my weirdness :-)

Hikaru37

Bump hahaha

schninie82

Would like to know this too!

godsoon

hard to know because fat is a dynamic tissue, it degrades and it forms again. Think that you have Triglycerides intheblood that come fromeither fat you ingested or fat you metabolize it from your body. SO i think that probably the fat you burn today may not be the same one you ate in 2003 but who really knows???

mcarter99

I don't think it's true that all cells are regenerated that often, but I could be wrong. But I don't know if you can think of "the fat you ate nine years ago" as such a specific thing. We break the food down into molecules, I think. I think it's more like adding and subtracting to a gas tank over time. Are you still burning some gas molecules from your car's first tank of gas, if you fill it up whenever it hits half full? Hard to say. We don't know which molecules we use when.

AllTehBeers

I don't think it's true that all cells are regenerated that often, but I could be wrong. But I don't know if you can think of "the fat you ate nine years ago" as such a specific thing. We break the food down into molecules, I think. I think it's more like adding and subtracting to a gas tank over time. Are you still burning some gas molecules from your car's first tank of gas, if you fill it up whenever it hits half full? Hard to say. We don't know which molecules we use when.

This makes sense. Over those 9 years you could have lost some weight due to a stressful or active period then gained weight.

stephanj

Thanks all. I like the gas tank analogy, that is a good point.