SSCAC Series: Bodyfat, Health, and Longevity

[stef]

by Robert Santana

Registered Dietitian and Starting Strength Coach Robert Santana presents research on fat cells and the effect of weight loss vs strength training on health.*

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[Eric Larousse]

Just to clarify. He is saying that a truly obese person is never going to go from say 350 pounds to 195 pounds or vice versa? If that is that case then roughly how much fat/bodyweight can be lost alongside training.

[Robert Santana]

Just to clarify. He is saying that a truly obese person is never going to go from say 350 pounds to 195 pounds or vice versa? If that is that case then roughly how much fat/bodyweight can be lost alongside training.

It depends on the phenotype. if the obesity is due to an increase in the number of fat cells, the amount of weight loss is likely to be less than someone who is obese due to an increase in fat cell size. So for example, a 350 lb person may very well get down to 195 but may not be able to get below, say 185 regardless of effort. The take away is that there is biological variability here and everyone has upper and lower limits to how much weight they can gain or lose.

[tfranc]

It depends on the phenotype. if the obesity is due to an increase in the number of fat cells, the amount of weight loss is likely to be less than someone who is obese due to an increase in fat cell size. So for example, a 350 lb person may very well get down to 195 but may not be able to get below, say 185 regardless of effort. The take away is that there is biological variability here and everyone has upper and lower limits to how much weight they can gain or lose.

So basically we have no control over the body's preference in hyperplasic or hypertrophic weight gain, if I understand that correctly.

I heard of a couple recent studies suggesting a relationship between a particular person's body being unable to increase the number of subcutaneous fat cells/the size of those cells, and an increase of visceral fat as a result. Do you know if that's true?

[gelbartb]

Thank you Robert. That was a very informative 20 minutes and I look forward to hearing more results of your research.

I'm just wondering, if personal ability to gain and lose weight is really so limited and genetically determined, how do you explain those maps of the US that show obesity becoming so much more prevalent in the last 30 years? I don't remember food being scarce in this country in the 1980s. If anything, we were a lot less self-conscious then about eating as much as we wanted of whatever we wanted, no matter how much grease, starch, or sugar it contained. And physical fitness was much less of a thing everyone thought they had to do. But it's true that you didn't see an obese person that often. Have our genetics changed since then?

[Kevin1985]

So from this, is it the case that, as the body is producing fat cells throughout the infant and childhood years, that a significant amount of prolonged overfeeding would "enhance" this process? I.e. the overfeeding causes production of even more fat cells than would have ordinarily been produced. Or is it more likely a genetic predisposition to having a higher number of fat cells and the overfeeding causes them to be greater in size than they ordinarily would have been? Possibly a cruel combination of both scenarios maybe?
I ask with interest as, rather than becoming obese in adulthood, I was obese as far back as I can remember until around the age of 24/5 when I did something about it. Now, however lean the rest of me gets, the roll around the midsection remains. It just seems to get to a certain size and no less (or did until I gave up chasing leanness and decided strength was better).
Fantastic 20 minutes. A few lightbulbs went off in the head while watching this. Thanks Robert.

[Robert Santana]

So basically we have no control over the body's preference in hyperplasic or hypertrophic weight gain, if I understand that correctly.

I heard of a couple recent studies suggesting a relationship between a particular person's body being unable to increase the number of subcutaneous fat cells/the size of those cells, and an increase of visceral fat as a result. Do you know if that's true?

Yep this is appears to be true. Once the cells reach their limit of expansion you start getting ectopic fat deposits, not just in the visceral compartment but it can also spread to other organs (liver, kidney, heart etc).

[Robert Santana]

So basically we have no control over the body's preference in hyperplasic or hypertrophic weight gain, if I understand that correctly.

I heard of a couple recent studies suggesting a relationship between a particular person's body being unable to increase the number of subcutaneous fat cells/the size of those cells, and an increase of visceral fat as a result. Do you know if that's true?

Thank you Robert. That was a very informative 20 minutes and I look forward to hearing more results of your research.

I'm just wondering, if personal ability to gain and lose weight is really so limited and genetically determined, how do you explain those maps of the US that show obesity becoming so much more prevalent in the last 30 years? I don't remember food being scarce in this country in the 1980s. If anything, we were a lot less self-conscious then about eating as much as we wanted of whatever we wanted, no matter how much grease, starch, or sugar it contained. And physical fitness was much less of a thing everyone thought they had to do. But it's true that you didn't see an obese person that often. Have our genetics changed since then?

Obesity has actually leveled off recently so it's not continuing to increase according to current epidemiological data. I don't think our genetics have changed but I do think food is more widely avaialble, automation has taken over many jobs that were once manual, and I'm sure we are eating more as a function of our current environment. That being said, after you control for all fo that some humans were affected more by this than others and that's where the genetic component comes into play. We all live in the same toxic food environment and some of us live full lives at a normal weight, others become obese, and others are underweight. The take away point from my presentation was that of biological variability and the fact that humans increase body fat as a function of age and we always have. The difference now is that we are starting the progression at a heavier baseline, likely because of the change in environmental factors.

[Robert Santana]

So from this, is it the case that, as the body is producing fat cells throughout the infant and childhood years, that a significant amount of prolonged overfeeding would "enhance" this process? I.e. the overfeeding causes production of even more fat cells than would have ordinarily been produced. Or is it more likely a genetic predisposition to having a higher number of fat cells and the overfeeding causes them to be greater in size than they ordinarily would have been? Possibly a cruel combination of both scenarios maybe?
I ask with interest as, rather than becoming obese in adulthood, I was obese as far back as I can remember until around the age of 24/5 when I did something about it. Now, however lean the rest of me gets, the roll around the midsection remains. It just seems to get to a certain size and no less (or did until I gave up chasing leanness and decided strength was better).
Fantastic 20 minutes. A few lightbulbs went off in the head while watching this. Thanks Robert.

Probably the genetic predisposition more than anything. Adipose tissue hyperplasia in adult humans is still under investigation so it's difficult to say yes or no on that. We do know that it happens in rats that are overfed and we also know that when you exercise rats, the degree is lessened. Glad you enjoyed! You are very welcome!