Let's Talk About Fat.....Basics

The United States statistics show that a whopping 65.2 per cent of the population is considered "overweight" or "obese". According to the Center's for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), obesity and overweight status are determined in adults by finding a person's "Body Mass Index" or BMI. This measurement is used because it is usually a good indicator of body fat.

Even if this indicator should not include those who exercise, the difference in substance is less significant than many want to argue. If you carefully read the article on hypertrophy of the heart, you will understand why.

Obesity is a cause for concern because it is associated with related health risks such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, sleep apnea, breathing problems and more.

On the other hand, however, we see the opposite, which is based on aesthetics with secondary health goals. Most are concerned about fat, and thousands of people exercise or diet to reduce their body fat.

After all, have you ever wondered what fat is? By drinking processes, a person gets fat and gains weight. What is going on inside his body? What are "fat cells", and how do they work?

Fat, or adipose tissue, is found in many places in the body and under the skin subcutaneous fat. It can even develop around organs such as the kidney, heart, and liver and in smaller amounts in the muscles.

Fat concentration in the body depends on the leaf, i.e. if you are a man or a woman.

An adult male tends to transfer body fat to his chest, abdomen and buttocks, creating an "apple" shape.

An adult woman tends to transfer fat to her breasts, hips, waist and buttocks, creating a "pear" shape.

The difference in the location of the fat comes from the hormones of each sex, oestrogen and testosterone.

Fat cells in the human body are formed in the developing fetus during the third trimester of pregnancy and later at the onset of puberty when sex hormones "turn on".

In the last decade, however, the appearance of fat has become unstable from childhood and ωadolescence, where differences in fat distribution between men and women begin to take shape.

A surprising fact is that fat cells generally don't build up after puberty -- as your body stores more overweight, the number of fat cells stays the same. Every fat cell grows!

However, there are two exceptions to the rule: the body can produce more fat cells if an adult gains significant weight or undergoes liposuction.

Analysing the Body Fat

The human body contains two types of fat tissue:

White fat is essential in energy metabolism, heat insulation and mechanical cushioning.

Brown fat: is found mainly in newborn babies, between the shoulders, and is essential for thermogenesis (making heat). Since adult humans have little to no brown fat, we'll concentrate on white fat.

Fat tissue is made up of cells, a unique type of cell. You can think of a fat cell as a tiny plastic bag holding a fat drop. White fat cells are large cells with minimal cytoplasm, only 15 per cent of cell volume, a small nucleus and one large fat droplet that makes up 85 per cent of cell volume.

How Do We Gain Fat in our Body

When you eat food that contains fat, primarily triglycerides, it goes through your stomach and intestines. In the intestines, the following happens:

Large fat droplets get mixed with bile salts from the gallbladder in emulsification. The mixture breaks up the large droplets into several smaller droplets called micelles, increasing the fat's surface area.

The pancreas secretes enzymes called lipase's that attack the surface of each micelle and breaks the fats down into their parts, glycerol and fatty acids. These parts get absorbed into the cells lining the intestine. In the intestinal cell, the pieces are reassembled into packages of fat molecules (triglycerides) with a protein coating called chylomicrons.

The protein coating makes the fat dissolve more easily in water. The chylomicrons are released into the lymphatic system -- they do not go directly into the bloodstream because they are too big to pass through the capillary wall. The lymphatic system eventually merges with the veins, at which point the chylomicrons pass into the bloodstream.

You might be wondering why fat molecules get broken down into glycerol and fatty acids if they're going to be rebuilt.

This process happens because fat molecules are too big to cross cell membranes readily. So when passing from the intestine through the intestinal cells into the lymph, or when crossing any cell barrier, the fats must be broken down.

But, when fats are being transported in the lymph or blood, it is better to have a few large fat molecules than many smaller fatty acids because the larger fats do not "attract" as many excess water molecules by osmosis as many smaller molecules would.

Breaking Down Fat

When you are not eating, your body is not absorbing food. If your body is not absorbing food, there is little insulin in the blood. However, your body always uses energy. If you're not absorbing food, this energy must come from internal stores of complex carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Under these conditions, various organs in your body secrete hormones:

• pancreas - glucagon

• pituitary gland - growth hormone

• pituitary gland - ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone)

• adrenal gland - epinephrine (adrenaline)

• thyroid gland - thyroid hormone

These hormones act on liver, muscle and fat tissue cells and have the opposite effects of insulin.

Your body must draw on its internal energy stores when you are not eating or exercising, and your body's prime source of energy is glucose. Some cells in your body, such as brain cells, can get energy only from glucose.

The first line of defence in maintaining energy is to break down carbohydrates, or glycogen, into simple glucose molecules -- this process is called glycogenolysis.

Next, your body breaks down fats into glycerol and fatty acids in lipolysis. The fatty acids can then be broken down directly to get energy or used to make glucose through a multi-step process called gluconeogenesis. In gluconeogenesis, amino acids can also be used to make glucose.

In the fat cell, other lipases break down fats into fatty acids and glycerol. Various hormones, such as glucagon, epinephrine and growth hormone, activate these lipases.

The resulting glycerol and fatty acids are released into the blood and travel to the liver through the bloodstream. Once in the liver, the glycerol and fatty acids can be either further broken down or used to make glucose.

Weight loss and fat loss

Generally, your weight is determined by your lifestyle, which determines the rate at which you store energy from the food you eat and the rate at which you use that energy.

Is very important to know that as the body breaks down fat, the number of fat cells remains the same. Simply the volume of the cells decreases.

Most experts agree that the way to maintain a healthy weight is to eat a balanced diet with equal amounts of carbohydrates, fats and proteins, but more is needed.

Hormonal balance plays a significant role, which is the Achilles' heel, in losing weight and living a harmonious and balanced lifestyle.

On the other hand, the amount of calories again has to do with lifestyle. For example, those who seek quality life and longevity follow different paths than those who want to maintain a solid and healthy muscular body.

There is no evidence of calories but a lifestyle that creates how people choose. Exercise is also essential to any lifestyle and varies from person to person. My suggestion is the knowledge you need to create the lifestyle that fits you! Go for it!