May 04 2008
The Reason Fat People Find It Hard To Lose Weight Is Found
This article sites amazing new research that shows the relationship between childhood obesity and the difficulty of maintaining weight loss in adulthood.
The difference in the number of fat cells between lean and obese people is established in childhood and, although fat people replenish fat cells at the same rate as thin ones, they have around twice as many.
The fundamental new insight into the cause of obesity comes from an international team lead by Dr Kirsty Spalding, Prof Jonas Frisén and Prof Peter Arner who found the body constantly produces new fat cells to replace equally rapid break down of the already existing fat cells due to cell death.
They also show, that overweight people generate and replace more fat cells than do lean - and that the total number of fat cells stays equal after a diet program.
Until now, it was not clear that adults could make new fat cells. Some had assumed that they increase their fat mass by incorporating more fats into already existing fat cells in order to maintain their body weight (lean, overweight, obese). However now it seems we constantly produce new fat cells irrespective of our body weight status, sex or age.
