I think we are meant to be fat...

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  • Ed98043
    Ed98043 Posts: 1,333 Member
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    So what the article is saying is that the body seeks to return to previous levels of fatness, and employs multiple systems working in tandem to try to regain lost weight. I assume some of those multiple systems include increased appetite, decreased metabolism, lowered energy - anything that increases calorie consumption and decreases calorie expenditure. It's pretty daunting, really. I wonder if the "central nervous system-defined ideal" ever adjusts downward, or if it's just a battle for the remainder of your life because your body's like "Hey, remember that extra 80 lbs? That was awesome! Let's get that back!"...

    Well, it's a good cautionary tale to not get fat in the first place. It's hard to get rid of and is always waiting outside the door to come back. And your stupid roommate keeps trying to sneak it in when you're not looking. :/
  • annebubbles
    annebubbles Posts: 83 Member
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    First of all, I am too stoned to read that long-*kitten*, medical journal article. secondly, thank you so much to the people who did a synopsis for me halfway through this thread. I am MOST amused by all of this silliness.

    ****NOTE****
    NO BODY IS SUPPOSED TO BE FAT!!!!! get up off your *kitten* & quit eating sugar & chemicals & geneticly modified foods!!!!
  • jennaworksout
    jennaworksout Posts: 1,739 Member
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    false
  • james6998
    james6998 Posts: 743 Member
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    Its easier to sweep dirt under the rug then clean it up.
  • Morninglory81
    Morninglory81 Posts: 1,190 Member
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    When you store fat your body create fat cells and fills them with lipids. When that cell is full it create more fat storing cells. When you lose weight your body uses the lipids but the cells used for storage remain for later use. This means the next time you have more cals than you need your body no longer has to create a storage cell (which actually burns cals to make) it only has to fill the existing ones. This is one reason it is easy to regain lost weight. The only way to lose these cells is liposuction.

    Once you have the storage capability your body will fill it if it can. Shrug*
  • Mr_Bad_Example
    Mr_Bad_Example Posts: 2,403 Member
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    Just came across this:
    The increasing prevalence of obesity and its comorbidities reflects the interaction of genes that favor the storage of excess energy as fat with an environment that provides ad libitum availability of energy-dense foods and encourages an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. Although weight reduction is difficult in and of itself, anyone who has ever lost weight will confirm that it is much harder to keep the weight off once it has been lost. The over 80% recidivism rate to preweight loss levels of body fatness after otherwise successful weight loss is due to the coordinate actions of metabolic, behavioral, neuroendocrine and autonomic responses designed to maintain body energy stores (fat) at a central nervous system-defined 'ideal'. This 'adaptive thermogenesis' creates the ideal situation for weight regain and is operant in both lean and obese individuals attempting to sustain reduced body weights. Much of this opposition to sustained weight loss is mediated by the adipocyte-derived hormone 'leptin'. The multiple systems regulating energy stores and opposing the maintenance of a reduced body weight illustrate that body energy stores in general and obesity in particular are actively 'defended' by interlocking bioenergetic and neurobiological physiologies. Important inferences can be drawn for therapeutic strategies by recognizing obesity as a disease in which the human body actively opposes the 'cure' over long periods of time beyond the initial resolution of symptomatology.

    Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20935667

    Well of course the body doesn't want to encourage sustained weight loss... there has to be a point where weight loss stops to remain healthy. And as far as maintenance being difficult - it's a mindset of learning how to handle living in a society of excess that is the challenge (at least that's how I see it). Thinking we are 'meant to be fat' just sounds like a convenient way to say "I don't want to change."

    Not wanting to change is fine... but it's not for everyone.
  • MarioLozano16
    MarioLozano16 Posts: 319 Member
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    The first two lines sum everything up. Energy is stored as fat because people live lazy lives
  • whierd
    whierd Posts: 14,026 Member
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    The first two lines sum everything up. Energy is stored as fat because people live lazy lives

    No, energy is stored as fat because of biology. :huh:
  • hookilau
    hookilau Posts: 3,134 Member
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    When you store fat your body create fat cells and fills them with lipids. When that cell is full it create more fat storing cells. When you lose weight your body uses the lipids but the cells used for storage remain for later use. This means the next time you have more cals than you need your body no longer has to create a storage cell (which actually burns cals to make) it only has to fill the existing ones. This is one reason it is easy to regain lost weight. The only way to lose these cells is liposuction.

    Once you have the storage capability your body will fill it if it can. Shrug*

    Wait...but if you maintain your weight loss long enough, and those fat cells die. If you maintain your weight long enough, then they will not be replaced, right? :huh:

    I'd always assumed what is written above was true because I'd heard it repeated so many times, till I remembered that cells actually DO die :blushing: It's a fair assumption, right? right? :ohwell:
  • Morninglory81
    Morninglory81 Posts: 1,190 Member
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    When you store fat your body create fat cells and fills them with lipids. When that cell is full it create more fat storing cells. When you lose weight your body uses the lipids but the cells used for storage remain for later use. This means the next time you have more cals than you need your body no longer has to create a storage cell (which actually burns cals to make) it only has to fill the existing ones. This is one reason it is easy to regain lost weight. The only way to lose these cells is liposuction.

    Once you have the storage capability your body will fill it if it can. Shrug*

    Wait...but if you maintain your weight loss long enough, and those fat cells die. If you maintain your weight long enough, then they will not be replaced, right? :huh:

    I'd always assumed what is written above was true because I'd heard it repeated so many times, till I remembered that cells actually DO die :blushing: It's a fair assumption, right? right? :ohwell:
    Unfortunately fat cells have a long life span. I believe it is 8 years. Also the body replaces dead cells so it may actually replace fat cells. Not sure.:ohwell:
  • lithezebra
    lithezebra Posts: 3,670 Member
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    We're not meant to be fat. We're built to survive food shortages and long, hungry winters. People rarely lack for calories in first world countries, but our bodies are still built to be energy efficient.
  • wild_wild_life
    wild_wild_life Posts: 1,334 Member
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    When you store fat your body create fat cells and fills them with lipids. When that cell is full it create more fat storing cells. When you lose weight your body uses the lipids but the cells used for storage remain for later use. This means the next time you have more cals than you need your body no longer has to create a storage cell (which actually burns cals to make) it only has to fill the existing ones. This is one reason it is easy to regain lost weight. The only way to lose these cells is liposuction.

    Once you have the storage capability your body will fill it if it can. Shrug*

    Wait...but if you maintain your weight loss long enough, and those fat cells die. If you maintain your weight long enough, then they will not be replaced, right? :huh:

    I'd always assumed what is written above was true because I'd heard it repeated so many times, till I remembered that cells actually DO die :blushing: It's a fair assumption, right? right? :ohwell:

    Interesting question. According to this article

    http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0017637

    most fat gain is due to increase in the size of the cell (specifically, the amount of lipid stored within it) than an increase in the number of cells.

    From the intro:

    The molecular and cellular processes that regulate fat mass remain unresolved. White adipose tissue is the only tissue in the body that can markedly change its mass after adult size is reached. Indeed, fat mass can range from 2–3% of body weight to as much as 60–70% of body weight in humans [1]. At the cellular level, the source of increased fat mass in obesity is currently attributed to two mechanisms: adipocyte hypertrophy, the process by which pre-existing fat cells increase in size due to an accumulation of lipids, and adipocyte hyperplasia, increase differentiation from preadipocytes [2], [3], [4]. Many now believe that the total number of fat cells present in most individuals is set during adolescence and that changes in fat mass generally reflect increased lipid storage in a fixed number of adipocytes [5], [6], [7].

    Once you have made new fat cells in adulthood, I would doubt there is any measurable difference in your tendency to store fat based simply on their presence. But I'd be interested in evidence to the contrary. It's sort of an academic point really.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,970 Member
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    Said the actress to the Bishop.
  • Ed98043
    Ed98043 Posts: 1,333 Member
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    Well of course the body doesn't want to encourage sustained weight loss... there has to be a point where weight loss stops to remain healthy. And as far as maintenance being difficult - it's a mindset of learning how to handle living in a society of excess that is the challenge (at least that's how I see it). Thinking we are 'meant to be fat' just sounds like a convenient way to say "I don't want to change."

    Not wanting to change is fine... but it's not for everyone.

    The article doesn't talk about sustained weight "loss", just maintenance after weight is lost. It simply makes the observation that the body employs multiple systems and strategies to regain lost weight. We can't blame the nervous system's reaction to weight loss on laziness or societal pressure or weak mindsets. It's an unfortunate physiological fact and one that we should all be aware of because we'll likely be battling it for the rest of our lives, or at least until someone comes up with a way to reset the system so that it isn't striving to regain lost weight.

    I for one think it's really interesting that our body's weight regulation system is completely skewed toward accumulating fat. Obesity will kill us just as surely as starvation, but we don't appear to have a system that resists crossing an unhealthy body fat percentage, just one that's geared toward continuing to store fat even to the detriment of overall health. It seems like a design flaw.
  • wild_wild_life
    wild_wild_life Posts: 1,334 Member
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    I for one think it's really interesting that our body's weight regulation system is completely skewed toward accumulating fat. Obesity will kill us just as surely as starvation, but we don't appear to have a system that resists crossing an unhealthy body fat percentage, just one that's geared toward continuing to store fat even to the detriment of overall health. It seems like a design flaw.

    Interesting point. Satiety is a factor though -- appetite is a mechanism to promote intake of the right amount of food. If that mechanism is not functioning properly, I agree there doesn't seem to be much else, but we likely have not needed much else in our history as a species.
  • lithezebra
    lithezebra Posts: 3,670 Member
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    I for one think it's really interesting that our body's weight regulation system is completely skewed toward accumulating fat. Obesity will kill us just as surely as starvation, but we don't appear to have a system that resists crossing an unhealthy body fat percentage, just one that's geared toward continuing to store fat even to the detriment of overall health. It seems like a design flaw.

    Starvation is still much worse than obesity and will kill more quickly. There are many places where people go hungry. It's a huge contributor to infant and child mortality, because without enough protein, the immune system can't work.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    Can you please explain what you mean by your title and your large quoted text?
    ^ Wow. Just... wow.

    This reply is clearly a scathing indictment of the education system in this country, and its lack of focus on physical health and well being. I thought the articule was clear and concise. It was an interesting read. And it would make a great excuse for why I managed to put back on 10lbs.

    But I know that in truth, these reasons are secondary to the primary distal cause: I just let myself get lazy.

    I sense I missed the joke here, too. I'm getting bad at this. :noway:
    I just wanted to know how his title related to his thread. I was the first person to reply. I wasn't sure if he was being facetious with his title or what, given his profile photo. Apparently that makes me dumb? Bummer.
  • lithezebra
    lithezebra Posts: 3,670 Member
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    Can you please explain what you mean by your title and your large quoted text?
    ^ Wow. Just... wow.

    This reply is clearly a scathing indictment of the education system in this country, and its lack of focus on physical health and well being. I thought the articule was clear and concise. It was an interesting read. And it would make a great excuse for why I managed to put back on 10lbs.

    But I know that in truth, these reasons are secondary to the primary distal cause: I just let myself get lazy.

    I sense I missed the joke here, too. I'm getting bad at this. :noway:
    I just wanted to know how his title related to his thread. I was the first person to reply. I wasn't sure if he was being facetious with his title or what, given his profile photo. Apparently that makes me dumb? Bummer.

    Same here. It wasn't clear to me if the OP was intended to be ironic, or not. I decided to take it at face value.
  • BinaryPulsar
    BinaryPulsar Posts: 8,927 Member
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    Does anybody know how much weight a person generally needs to gain in order for the fat cells to likely start dividing into more fat cells?

    I've never been underweight and always at the lowest end of the BMI. Before pregnancy I was always steady at the same weight. When I was pregnant the first time I think I gained about 20 to 25 pounds and 10 to 15 pounds the second time (this is only counting after the birth of my babies). I lost the weight by 8 months postpartum, and then one time years after losing the weight I gained around 9 pounds (because I was exercising less and eating more). I suppose those aren't really enough of a weight gain to create more fat cells. Probably the ones I had just got full.

    Fat cells can get three times as big.

    I'm just curious. It's ok if no one knows the answer to this question. I can look it up.
  • lithezebra
    lithezebra Posts: 3,670 Member
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    Does anybody know how much weight a person generally needs to gain in order for the fat cells to likely start dividing into more fat cells?

    I've never been underweight and always at the lowest end of the BMI. Before pregnancy I was always steady at the same weight. When I was pregnant the first time I think I gained about 20 to 25 pounds and 10 to 15 pounds the second time (this is only counting after the birth of my babies). I lost the weight by 8 months postpartum, and then one time years after losing the weight I gained around 9 pounds (because I was exercising less and eating more). I suppose those aren't really enough of a weight gain to create more fat cells. Probably the ones I had just got full.

    Fat cells can get three times as big.

    I'm just curious. It's ok if no one knows the answer to this question. I can look it up.

    I can't swear that newer information hasn't come up, however, what my physiology textbook said is that the number of fat cells that we have is pretty much constant after adolescence.

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