Eating a high-fat meal reduces the ability of certain receptors in fat tissue to slow down fat breakdown, and this happens directly in the fat tissue itself, not because of changes in stress hormones circulating in the blood.

Eating a very high-fat meal before exercising reduces the normal biological brake on fat breakdown in fat tissue under the skin, leading to more fatty acids being released into the bloodstream during physical activity.

In fasted individuals exercising, fat breakdown is more strongly suppressed in obese men than in lean men due to the activity of alpha-2-adrenergic receptors.

During exercise, a biological signal that normally slows fat breakdown has less effect in people who are endurance-trained compared to those who are not, suggesting that training changes how fat tissue responds to this signal.

In women without obesity, fat cells around the abdomen are less responsive to signals that normally stop fat breakdown, compared to fat cells in the hips and thighs. This difference in signal sensitivity helps explain why abdominal fat breaks down more easily in women than in men, even though the number of receptors involved is the same.

Fat cells in the lower abdomen have more alpha-2 receptors than beta receptors, which makes them less responsive to signals that trigger fat breakdown.