Fat and Muscle Facts

The facts are presented here NOT to be discouraging, but to arm you with knowledge and an honest look at how the body works and to assess where you are in order to create the best healthy lifestyle plan for your indivdual needs.

Online resources: How Fat Cells Work

Studies show that most peole who lose weight, gain it all back (and often more) - the way to best this cycle is to make permanent healthy changes for a lifetime, such eat a healthy breakfast that includes protein, eat mostly lowfat and good carbs throughout the day, exercise 60 to 90 minutes a day, stay hydrated, get enough rest, and manage stress and emotional issues that could be underlying causes for overeating.

Fat cells do NOT go away - but they do shrink in size. By about the age of 16 years the number of fat cells are established (our lifestyle and genes both play a part). When we burn fat the amount of fat stored within each fat cell decreases and the fat cell simply shrinks but do not decrease in number.
The number of fat cells you possess will influence how difficult it will be for you to lose body fat - BUT it can be done it NOT hopeless. During adulthood, the number of fat cells remain about the same, except in the case of obesity (excessive overeating and\or long periods of inactivity). When the existing fat cells are filled to capacity, new fat cells can continue to be created in order to provide additional storage. A typical overweight adult has around 75 billion fat cells. But in the case of severe obesity, this number can be as high as 250 to 300 billion. However, even though one person may have a billion more fat cells, they can be healthier and trimmer if they exercise and eat healthy compared to someone with fewer fat cells who is sedentary and eating high fat, overly processed foods.

No matter how many fat cells we have, everyone has the physical potential to reduce body fat - but it cannot be done rapidly in just a few weeks. Change can happen with a combination of physical activity and sensible healthy changes in eating habits that last a lifetime. For those with large numbers of fat cells it may just take more time and require a stricter but sensible exercise and diet regimen.

Muscle tissue is more solid and metabolically active, where as fat, is the opposite. Fat simply sits there being lumpy and mushy, waiting in case it may be needed for some future emergency (such as a famine). It does not require any calories to be maintained. Muscle is compact and toned, it allows your body to bend, stretch, move and run, and burns more calories then fat, even when sitting still.

The number on the scale does not tell the whole story - because of the differance in fat and muscle two people who weigh the same can be a different size because of the ratio of fat to muscle. As we grow older we lose muscle mass - so we can weigh the same but look bigger. To offset the natural lose of muscle tissue, we need to keep active and include resistance exercises.

Men can build muscle more easily then women - it is a simple fact of nature. Women need more body fat because they are designed to give birth and nourish the unborn (a woman who is undernourished often stops ovalutating).

The hypothalamus regulates your body’s metabolism and the amount of fat it determines your body needs to protect it from starvation. When you deprive your body of food and nutrients and you are sedentary, your hypothalamus perceives this as the onset of starvation. It increases your appetite for fatty and quick energy foods and makes you tired in an effort to conserve energy. It also increases your fat stores.

While losing fat, we also lose muscle unless we are careful and include exercise. We need to build more muscle to be healthy and increase our metabolism. However, losing fat and building muscle actually require opposite approaches. To lose fat, your body needs to consume less calories than you burn. To build a lot of new muscle tissue, your body needs energy (more calories then you burn each day). Trying to do both at once results in a very slow frustrating journey. For the best results, split your goals into different stages depending on where you are. Focus on either building muscle with minimizing fat gain, or losing fat while preserving muscle, or alternative every few months along the way.

Related Posts:
Fat Facts.
Anatomy of a Fat Cell.

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