15 Jan What You Need to Know About Fat Cells

If you are a woman, you may be a bit disheartened to learn that women naturally have more fat cells in their body than their male counterparts.  Nonetheless, this doesn’t mean you are destined to be overweight, nor does it mean that you will not be able to shed the extra pounds that you may have put on.  In order to successfully take off those extra pounds, however, it is helpful to understand how more about fat cells as well as how fat cells are burned.

The Fat Cell

Did you know that the average person has anywhere between 25 to 30 billion fat cells in his or her body.  A person who is severely obese, on the other hand can have 300 billion fat cells in his or her body.  As the name suggests, these cells store fat in your body.  The size of these cells, however, depends upon how slim or obese a person is, as they shrink or grow according to the amount of fat that is being stored.

Burning Away Fat

In order to lose weight, you do not actually burn the fat away from within the cell.  Rather, the fat needs to be released from the cells so it can move into the bloodstream.  Here, tissues are able to use the fat as energy.  It is important to not that the actual fat cells do not simply “go away.”  Rather, they shrink after the fat has been released from them.  When the fat cells shrink, the layer of fat that is covering your muscles is also reduced and your body starts to gain more definition. 

In order to help reduce the size of your fat cells, you need to burn calories while also consuming less calories.  This way, your body will utilize the fat it has reserved in its fat cells in order to provide you with energy.  By releasing the fat from the fat cells and using it for energy, the size of your fat cells is reduced.  Of course, there is a difference between reducing your calorie consumption and starvation, so make certain to follow a healthy diet plan that provides you with the nutrients you need without providing you with extra calories.