Fat Cells: Bigger Isn't Always Better
Adipose cell size: importance in health and disease.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Your body stores extra energy in fat cells. When they get too big, they get sick and cause problems. Making them smaller helps. But tiny fat cells can also be sick. We need to fix both big and small ones to stay healthy.
Surprising Findings
Small adipocytes may be dysfunctional and unable to expand appropriately.
Common belief is that small fat cells are healthy and desirable; this suggests even small cells can be broken and contribute to disease.
Practical Takeaways
Focus on lifestyle changes like diet and exercise that shrink large fat cells and improve metabolic health—even if weight loss is minimal.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Your body stores extra energy in fat cells. When they get too big, they get sick and cause problems. Making them smaller helps. But tiny fat cells can also be sick. We need to fix both big and small ones to stay healthy.
Surprising Findings
Small adipocytes may be dysfunctional and unable to expand appropriately.
Common belief is that small fat cells are healthy and desirable; this suggests even small cells can be broken and contribute to disease.
Practical Takeaways
Focus on lifestyle changes like diet and exercise that shrink large fat cells and improve metabolic health—even if weight loss is minimal.
Publication
Journal
American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology
Year
2018
Authors
Karin G. Stenkula, C. Erlanson‐Albertsson
Related Content
Claims (7)
Reduction in adipose tissue volume is accompanied by increased adipocyte density, reflecting smaller adipocyte size, improved vascularization, reduced hypoxia, and decreased local inflammation.
When your body has extra energy, it stores it in fat cells by making the cells bigger or making more of them.
When fat cells get too big, they don't work well and the body tries to stop them from growing further to avoid damage and swelling.
To stop metabolic diseases, doctors might need new treatments that make small fat cells grow, create new fat cells, and shrink big ones.
Even small fat cells can be unhealthy and unable to grow when needed, which might cause problems too.