Your Health and Fitness, Christine Webb

A warning to those who have lost a large amount of weight -- those fat cells might remain, even after weight loss.
 
The latest research shows an individual's total number of fat cells remains the same even after weight loss.

The new study shows adults have about the same number of fat cells in their body constantly, even after losing a significant amount of weight.

Researchers made that discovery by studying levels of radioactive materials locked inside of fat cells in people who had lived through the period of Cold War nuclear bomb testing from 1955 to 1963.

People whose fat cells developed before the onset of testing still had radioactive matter in the cells, showing that their fat cells were being replenished.

The researchers were able to estimate that the body replaces cells at a rate of roughly 10 percent a year.

These findings are important because experts feel researchers should now focus on developing weight-loss drugs that modulate the number of fat cells so that there is more cell death than cell growth.

This could also result in potential new treatment and therapies.
    
In the meantime, another new study shows the number of fat cells are set during adolescence and stays the same, regardless of obesity later in life.

The journal Nature reported that patients they tested who lost huge amounts of weight, found little change in fat cell numbers.

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