A biochemist investigates the secret life of fat

Everyone knows there is an obesity epidemic in the United States. One in three American adults is obese, and another third are overweight.

What people don’t know is how to fight this epidemic. If it were as simple as eating less, it wouldn’t be an epidemic.

Although diet plays a key role in managing obesity, overeating is only one reason people stay fat. Hormones, gender, and genetics can play a significant role, and figuring out exactly how all the pieces fit together was biochemist Dr. Sylvia Tara’s goal in writing The Secret Life of Fat. In the book, Dr. Tara combines scientific research with historical perspectives to show how fat — a misunderstood endocrine organ with “vast influence” — is even more important than we think.

With healthcare professionals eager to weigh in on this issue, Dr. Tara participated in a live Q&A on Figure 1’s case-sharing platform. The full discussion with Dr. Tara is available now. Here are the highlights.

Why losing fat can make us hungrier

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 20% of U.S. school-aged children are considered obese. Concerned with this public health issue, one midwife on Figure 1 asked for advice on controlling the obesity epidemic.

“It is best to not gain extra weight [instead of] trying to take it off later,”said Dr. Tara. “Once we gain fat, our bodies fight to keep it on. People who lose weight have to eat about 22% fewer calories than those who are at the target weight to begin with.”

According to Dr. Tara, this happens because of the body’s mechanisms related to leptin, the fat hormone responsible for inhibiting hunger.

“When we lose fat, we lose leptin,” she explained. “Lower leptin leads to increased appetite and lower metabolism. So losing fat makes us hungrier and we burn less energy. This effect has been observed to last for up to six years.”

When it comes to fat: location, location, location

One speech-language pathologist asked, “The body positivity movement is important for women (especially) to come to terms with their natural bodies — but, does it ever go too far? Do you a see a problem with women accepting their bodies when they should be addressing serious health concerns?”

“Women gain more fat than men do [and] their bodies rely on fat more for energy, hormones, and reproduction,” replied Dr. Tara. “Even at the infancy stage, girl babies have more fat than boy infants. So women need to accept that they will not be hard bodies without extraordinary effort.”

The location of your fat is also important, according to Dr. Tara’s research.

“It is okay to have fat as long as it is deposited in healthy depots such as the subcutaneous fat in the buttocks, which is where women naturally deposit their fat,” she said. High amounts of fat stored in the abdominal cavity, on the other hand, can be linked to diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Fat isn’t just fat

A medical student asked for the major lessons Dr. Tara learned from the book, and the author was happy to reply:

Fat is not just fat, it is an endocrine organ. Through the hormones it emits, fat has vast influence on your body. Because fat’s important, the body protects it. We may want to lose fat but our bodies don’t. There are also many ways we get fat that don’t have to do with gluttony — bacteria, gender, hormones, and genetics are reasons for stubborn fat. Knowledge is power when managing fat.

Log in to Figure 1 to read the whole Q&A, participate in more live discussions with healthcare leaders, and see cases from around the world.