Fat Cell: What is it? This question is often asked and generally there is a lack of understanding of the mechanism of the fat cell. Let us try to have a general overview of the fat cell and its function.According to the book ‘Adipose Tissue’ by Susanne Klaus, the major portion of the fat is stored just under the skin. Fat also surrounds important organs like the kidneys, liver and the heart. Fat also gets deposited on the top and beneath the muscles in the human body. For males the fat gets deposited in the chest, buttocks and abdomen and in women the fat tends to gather in the breasts, buttocks, waist and hips. Testosterone and estrogen, the two sex hormones, determine the position of deposition. Fat is technically known as adipose tissue which is composed of cells called adipocytes. A fat cell looks like a tiny bag containing very small quantity of fat. In earlier days adipocytes or fat cells were considered to be storing extra calories only. Recent researches have made it clear that adipocytes play a major role in producing and secreting a wide range of substances in our body, playing important roles towards maintaining the weight of our body. When excessive secretions or very little secretions from these cells take place, several health problems in our body occur.
There are two types of adipose tissue. White adipose tissues are also known as WAT and brown adipose tissues also commonly known as BAT. The white adipose tissues are comprised of white fat cells or adipocytes and brown adipose tissues are composed of brown fat cells.

White cells of fat are bigger than that of brown fat cells. A while cell is composed of a nucleus which is small in size, little amount of cytoplasm, and droplet of fat or lipid. The lipid is large and occupies around 85% of the volume of the cell.

Compared to while cells, brown fat cells are much smaller in size. Mainly occupied by mitochondria, Brown cells are made up of several droplets of fat. Heat is generated by mitochondria and in adults brown cells are found less in number.

The fat cell starts developing in a growing fetus when pregnancy enters the 3rd trimester. When puberty commences, the fat starts getting distributed to the several parts of the body which differentiates between women and men. During the growth of the child, the fat cells also divide and get multiplied in the body and the process is known as mitosis.

This continues until puberty. Every fat cell excretes hormones and sends signals to other fat cells, and new fat cells can be created at any point in time if the existing fat cells that already exist grow too large.

When you start losing weight, the fat gets burned from the fat cell’s center. However the fat cell once formed, remains there forever. What happen is that the size of the cell gets reduced only unless you decide to remove the cells by surgery by means of surgical process of Liposuction.

When food containing fat is eaten, the same gets absorbed in the stomach and the intestines. Ultimately the molecules of fat get broken and fatty acids and glycerol are produced and gets rebuilt after that.

When fat gets transported in blood or lymph, fat molecules having larger size are better than smaller size fatty acids. This is because of the fact that larger size of fats attracts fewer amounts of water molecules through the process of osmosis in comparison to the large number of molecules of fatty acids.

Scientists have identified recently that fat cells produce a few important substances which regulate our body weight. These are leptin, adiponectin, interleukin-6, resistin, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and angiotensinogen. When the fat cells get enlarged or increase in number due to obesity, several among these substances gets into your bloodstream at a higher amount than the normal amount. ‘Fat Digestion and Absorption’ by Armand B.Christophe, Stephanie Devriese is an excellent source for more information Also check out my “Stubborn Fat Solutions” guide for an in-depth look at the fat cell.

Over a period of time, large deposits of these substances start damaging the tissues and vessels. This causes impaired flow of blood which results in various health problems; namely liver disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular problems.

So, it is high time you start reducing your fat by doing exercises and taking healthy diet low in calorie.

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