When a person gains fat, do the fat cells increase in size or number? Conventional wisdom holds that fat cells increase in number up to the age of around 20. Thereafter, fat cells are thought to increase in size. But new research suggests that this theory may not be true. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic had 28 healthy, normal-weight subjects (average age 29) overeat with the intent of increasing their fat mass. After about eight weeks, the subjects gained an average of 10.12 pounds of which 8.36 pounds were fat mass and 1.76 pounds were fat-free mass. In response to the gain in fat, the size of fat cells in the abdominals increased. But in the thighs, the number of fat cells increased. In fact, gaining roughly one pound of fat per week increased the body’s inventory by an average of 2.6 billion fat cells. Yikes. So fat cells increased in size in the upper body (the abdominals) and number in the lower body (the thighs). This is highly interesting in light of the relationship between the distribution of body fat and health risks. In general, having fat in the upper body (being “apple shaped”) is associated with a greater risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease than having fat in the lower body (being “pear shaped”). -Matt Brzycki is the Assistant Director of Campus Recreation, Fitness at Princeton University. He has more than 30 years of experience at the collegiate level and has authored, co-authored and edited 17 books.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 19:00:09 +0000
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