Amount of Fat Cells in FFB's

The number of fat cells you have remains fairly constant throughout your life, regardless of whether or not you diet, or are thin or fat, say researchers at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. In a study published in Nature they have demonstrated that we continually create new fat cells to replace those that are breaking down. The scientists have also demonstrated that fat people do this at a faster rate than lean people - obese people’s fat cells die at a faster rate and are created at an equally faster rate.

It seems that you are stuck with the amount of fat cells you had when you were twenty.

That leads me to the conclusion that if you were not an obese child, you should not be worse off, after having dieted down, than someone who always was lean.

However, a lot of FFB feel that they gain weight way faster than the average person. Why is that, when they theoretically should be just the same, since more fat cells can not be the issue, unless they were always obese?

PS: The good news is that they are working on a drug to prevent new fat cells from forming, so if the old ones die and new ones are not built even the fat cells acquired in childhood could be eliminated.

Wouldn’t it be the same as experiencing “muscle memory”? If you carry a certain amount of fat or muscle for long enough, your body considers this the appropriate amount, and then resists attempts to move away from that point, and encourages anything that brings you back to that point.

That’s the way I’ve always understood it.

[quote]Anonymous Coward wrote:
Wouldn’t it be the same as experiencing “muscle memory”? If you carry a certain amount of fat or muscle for long enough, your body considers this the appropriate amount, and then resists attempts to move away from that point, and encourages anything that brings you back to that point.

That’s the way I’ve always understood it.[/quote]

The idea was that once obese people have this huge number of fat cells that constantly wanted to be filled-

Seems now that this cannot be true, unless you were really fat as a child.

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
I suspect that there is a genetic predisposition towards poor nutrient partitioning etc. in most FFBs.

Even if you lose weight, the predisposition will always be there. You can eat exactly the same as a skinny person, but proportionally more will be diverted to the adipocytes.

Bushy[/quote]

It seems to be a complicated matter. Fat cells engage in extensive intracellular signaling which isn’t completely understood.

A large part of fat storage seems to be linked to leptin activation/deactivation though I have no idea the extent to which this is based on diet/environment or genetics. If it is based on genetics it would support the notion that people may have a predisposition to fat gain.

[quote]Wimpy wrote:
bushidobadboy wrote:
I suspect that there is a genetic predisposition towards poor nutrient partitioning etc. in most FFBs.

Even if you lose weight, the predisposition will always be there. You can eat exactly the same as a skinny person, but proportionally more will be diverted to the adipocytes.

Bushy

It seems to be a complicated matter. Fat cells engage in extensive intracellular signaling which isn’t completely understood.

A large part of fat storage seems to be linked to leptin activation/deactivation though I have no idea the extent to which this is based on diet/environment or genetics. If it is based on genetics it would support the notion that people may have a predisposition to fat gain. [/quote]

So there is no such thing as an FFB syndrome, just a tendency to gain fat easier plus a few mental issues?

[quote]orion wrote:
Wimpy wrote:
bushidobadboy wrote:
I suspect that there is a genetic predisposition towards poor nutrient partitioning etc. in most FFBs.

Even if you lose weight, the predisposition will always be there. You can eat exactly the same as a skinny person, but proportionally more will be diverted to the adipocytes.

Bushy

It seems to be a complicated matter. Fat cells engage in extensive intracellular signaling which isn’t completely understood.

A large part of fat storage seems to be linked to leptin activation/deactivation though I have no idea the extent to which this is based on diet/environment or genetics. If it is based on genetics it would support the notion that people may have a predisposition to fat gain.

So there is no such thing as an FFB syndrome, just a tendency to gain fat easier plus a few mental issues?

[/quote]

From what I’ve read on the matter this is what seems most likely. I’m not even very sure that any “tendency to gain fat” is affected by former fatness.

Of course all of this is terribly unscientific. How should an excess level of fatness be defined? How would one define “tendency to gain fat”? Without operational definitions it’s difficult to discuss these issues in any meaningful way. One person’s fat or “tendency to gain fat” may be different from somebody else’s.