Understanding fat and why we need it
Article by Chris Menzel
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Bodyfat has evolved over countless time to take what we eat and store it as energy - it keeps you alive.
There are so many diets and fat loss programs that don't even actually teach people how their bodies actually burn fat for fuel. Telling people to just burn off more calories than you're taking in is as incomplete as having Netflix without the chill. Each persons metabolism is like a unique fingerprint, and their are several key elements that determine how your body interacts with the food you eat.
Body fat is an organ. Much like your heart, kidneys, brain, etc.
Fat is actually what holds all your cells together
Brain cells are especially dependent on fat. Myelin is a fatty substance that wraps around the nerve fibers in your brain and enables them to communicate. 80% of this is fat! It's ironic that we think so badly about fat because we literally can't think without it!
Fat enables absorption and utilization of Vitamin D and A.
Fat supports the function of sex hormones.
Types of Fat:
Subcutaneous fat sits right under your skin. Fat on the back of the arm, fat on the chest, fat on the booty - all subcutaneous fat. Stores extra calories as energy, pads your falls, regulates your body temperature, and is a passageway for nerves and blood vessels between your skin and muscles.
Our ability to store energy as fat is an evolutionary advantage that has enabled humans to store energy that can later be used in times of food scarcity. Even though food is abundant nowadays, our genes are operating on extremely old data that is preparing them for the next famine. We have energy stored for doomsday, whether it be a nationwide blackout, grocery store supply chain collapse, or an actual zombie apocalypse, our bodies have calories saved up for rainy days.
Visceral Fat is a fat community that we store deep inside our torso, around our organs and under our abdominal muscles. Visceral fat is generally what we think about when we're talking about carrying extra weight around the belly, it surrounds your internal organs and makes the belly stick out. Accumulation of it can be pretty dangerous, its been fount to contribute to diabetes and insulin resistance more than other types of fat.
Intramuscular fat is used as an immediate energy by your muscles to utilize basic movements and moderate exercise. It's appearance is something like the marbling of a steak. Too much gives you the look of "chubby muscles," but when in balance it is a friendly fat.
Brown fat is in a class different from the 3 previous types of fat. Subcutaneous, visceral, and intramuscular are all white fat cells and all store energy. Brown fat (brown fat cells) actually burns fat! Primarily found near the neck, collarbones, upper back region, and along the spine. Brown fat burns energy for heat, very common in babies (baby fat prevents hypothermia). Maintaining a healthy amount of brown fat is key to a robust metabolism. Research in the Garavan Institute of Medical Research found that, once activated, 50 grams of brown fat could burn an additional 300 calories of energy in a day!
Beige Fat born from deposits of white fat cells from beige cell precursors. They burn fuel, like brown fat, rather than store it. Certain lifestyle factors can actually tan your white fat cells into beige fat cells. Just like in Jersey Shore, white fat cells can get a "browning" that shifts your metabolic fingerprint beyond the cookie cutter approach of simply managing calories.
The number of fat cells in your body will remain relatively constant throughout your lifetime. When fat cells die off, they are generally replaced by new fat cells. "Gaining fat" primarily means that you are packing more fat into each fat cell. When talking about "burning fat", we are really talking about burning the fat cell contents, not the fat cell itself.
When our bodies need energy, they actually burn fat as a last resort. That's why it can accumulate if we don't watch what we eat. Our body's use of fuel works on a hierarchy. The food we eat provides energy instantly accessible in our bloodstream as glucose. Too much glucose is not healthy, so any excess is deposited as glycogen into our muscles and liver, the second energy burn location for our bodies. Lastly, after glycogen deposits, our body stores excess food energy as fat. Only after glucose and glycogen are broken down will your body proactively break down fat for fuel.
Understanding the big picture of fat burning and weight loss can play a big help towards reaching your health goals. The reasons why you are doing something create a clear route to success. There's more to weight loss than just "eating less and burning fat."
Keep up with my future blog posts to learn how to burn fat a little quicker, and how to avoid storing it when you don't need it.
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