What do we know about fat cells, overweight children, and additional fat cells in adulthood?
What do we know about fat cells, overweight children, and additional fat cells in adulthood?
What we know now is that there is a correlation. If you were overweight as a child or adolescent, this article is meant for you.
It is known that all of the fat cells that you have by the time you reach puberty/adolescence will be what you carry into adulthood, no more; no less.
Being overweight between the ages of 1 year old and 14 years old for any length of time (which is considered 1 year or more) is an indicator of an increased number of fat cells that you will carry with you into adulthood. Meaning that the entire amount of fat cells that you will have in your lifetime are determined in adolescence or puberty. And the greater the number of fat cells that you have; the greater the potential for additional weight on your body because there are additional outlets available for fat storage.
So, if it seems like those that were overweight as children are also overweight as adults, it is not your imagination.
What exactly is a fat cell?
Fat cells are essentially what make up body fat which is energy from food that is stored as fat.
Fat cells can shrink and expand but you do not create more fat cells with weight gain or lose fat cells with weight loss. The ones that you have since adolescence simply shrink or expand. However, if you could reduce the number of fat cells that you currently have you would have fewer fat cells available for triglycerides/food to enter and therefore less fat to store.
This is where Coolsculpting and/or Liposuction come in… How can they make a difference?
Both options will reduce/destroy fat cells.
Coolsculpting
Is non-invasive and non-surgical and is known to reduce fat cells by up to 24% per treatment. This is quite significant and why it is known as a body sculpting device. It will quite literally reduce fat cells by freezing them and sending them out of your body. To be clear, fat cells are known to be the easiest cells in the body to destroy and this is exactly what the freezing aspect of Coolsculpting does. So, if you take one specific area of your body, say your abdomen, and freeze fat cells out of it, the body will naturally sculpt itself into a smaller version simply by reducing/removing the fat cells in that area. And you can sculpt any area of your body that you choose such as flanks, thighs, arms, back fat, bra fat, etc. If it can be pinched, it can be frozen so Coolsculpting is a terrific option for fat cell reduction and body sculpting; hence its’ name. Coolsculpting will create swelling and can create some bruising but is not considered to have any associated downtime with it.
Liposuction
Is surgical and is known for its ability to vacuum out fat cells within different areas of the body. This too can reshape your body but a bit differently than Coolsculpting and is usually combined with other surgical or non-invasive body treatments such as lasers and/or additional surgery. And again, to be clear fat cells are known to be the easiest cells in the body to destroy and this is exactly what the vacuum aspect of Liposuction does. Liposuction will create a lot of swelling and bruising and will have some considerable downtime likely 2+ weeks.
In Summary…
Weight gain and loss are controlled by diet and exercise and therefore shrinking or expanding of fat cells. If you want to reduce the number of fat cells that your body is holding onto from childhood then these are the best two options available.
