Are You Burning Fat Or Shrinking Fat Cells?

By Author: Ben Basos
Total Articles: 14
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A lean and mean body is what you want. If you desire that shredded body with the six pack, then those fat cells need to go. By that, I mean sucking energy out of these cells known by the name of adipocytes. These microscopic cells are your body's 'internal' fat store tank, and are used to fuel body movement. When fat is burned it doesn't evaporate, it simply moves from these internal stores to your muscles to be used as energy.

With hard exercising the body will start to run low on fuel, and your fat cell levels start to empty. A fat cell will then expand or shrink depending on ingestion. The fat inside these structures is waiting to be mobilised to tissue, that needs it for energy. It doesn’t mobilise on its own however, but awaits a specific signal. The fat inside an adipocyte is called triaglycerol. This name refers to the molecular structure of the fat. The signal for this fat to be released into the bloodstream comes mainly from human growth hormone (HGH).

During high levels of weight lifting or intense cardio, HGH tells adipocytes to release into the bloodstream, so tired muscles can receive an energy boost. ...
... With the fat cell being depleted of its contents, it shrinks. Imagine a cluster of fully inflated balloons and then you let out half the air from them all. The cluster will take up less space, even though it’s the same number of balloons. You notice people lose that bloated look as they lose weight. This is what is going on with their fat cells, similar to the balloon clusters.

Triaglycerol entering the bloodsteam is called free fatty acids (FFAs). What happens when they reach the muscle cell, is they enter the mitochondria where fat is converted to energy. Fat gets burned inside muscle cells, though it disappears from fatty layers between your skin and muscle tissue. To put it in another perspective, fat does not get burned where fat has accumulated. It first has to be removed from the fat cells your body use as storage.

Mitochondria is found more in athletes than in inactive people.
 Exercise that promotes mitochondrial density promotes more fat burning. As the demands for a reliable and ready source of energy during workouts increase, the body adapts by building up more “metabolic machinery” inside the cell, and this machinery includes the mitochondria. Building up this machinery requires fat for fuel.

Recovering from these workouts also requires fat. Hence, the adipocytes are instructed by signaling molecules, including HGH, to release their contents into the bloodstream—shrinking fat cells and leaning you out.

When we are born, we are all given different number of fat cells. Women unfortunately are normally born with more adipocytes than men. The most likely reason behind this is to support a pregnancy. Lifestyle trumps what we are born with. Fat cells can be ballooned up to triple the size they should be, and likewise, they can be shrunk down so that they contain very little triaglycerol. A normal adult has 25-30 billion fat cells. Overweight can drive this number up to 75 billion. In morbid obesity, the volume can reach 250-300 billion. This number doesn’t have to be permanent and can be changed.

Ben Basos is the writer of the extremely popular Mission to Muscle blog which documented his 12 week transformation from flabby to fit. Ben also holds a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in Human Movement studies and dedicates his time to keeping lean, fit and healthy. Read the full article on Are You Burning Fat or Shrinking Fat Cells.