Common Myths About Body Fat
Common Myths About Body Fat : ‘Body Fat’ makes us think of something soft, bouncy and extremely pinchable. Disapproval and negativity is our general approach towards it. Something we’re happy to lose. The attitude is understandable given that most of our knowledge isn’t based on facts but are conjectures. Time calls for busting some straightaway. Here are some body fat myth that you may have been thought into believing are true.
Common Myths About Body Fat
1. Body fat is a passive store of energy.
Long-standing belief is that ’Body fat is a passive source, it doesn’t do much otherwise’. In fact, there couldn’t be anything more false. We owe the synthesis and functioning of several important hormones to this passive source. Hormones that control energy intake, increase sensitivity to Insulin, generate sex hormones, and assist in coagulation of blood. Think of times you were beating the chill without external assistance or came across unharmed even after someone landed a punch on your midsection.That was this passive reserve protecting you. It adds padding to the soles of your feet, store excess glucose efficiently. Dormant pre-adipocytes even assist your body’s immune system. This dark horse does more than it has been credited for.
2. During workouts, fat cells are lost which is why you look lean afterwards.
It is natural for fat cells to degenerate and be regenerated in due course.But that isn’t what happens when we ‘burn’ fat. It isn’t feasible either to assume that they disappear or simply ‘pop’(though most of us may still think so). Excess glucose is stored as triglycerides. In case of an energy deficit(calorie expenditure greater than calorie intake), they are released into blood. Expelled of its contents, body fat cells shrink. Much like an inflated balloon losing air, they deflate from this loss. Overall, losing fat makes one appear leaner. Not for the loss of the cell itself but the loss of triglycerides from it. Another body fat myth busted.
Common Myths About Body Fat
3. Working out helps convert fat into muscle.
Our body stores fat mainly subcutaneously, but also between muscles. Muscle and adipose tissue lie in close proximity. But we cannot say that they are interchangeable. They are essentially different types of tissues. Working out, can make us feel the presence of our muscles more prominently. It can lead us to think we’ve succeeded in changing our out-of-shape flab into well-toned muscles, especially during intense workouts. What happens is that fats are burnt away and underlying muscles through tears and subsequent regeneration gain mass. Fat cells shrink and musculature develops. Hence, fat is no more changeable into muscle than muscle into fat.
4. The number of fat cells of an adult does not change.
Common misconception for body fat myth, our fat cells count under special conditions can change even after puberty. By the time we reach early adulthood this count would’ve undergone most changes. So it may make sense for us to stop worrying about changes once we’re past that stage. Not possible to grow any fatter after a certain age, what a relief that would be. But fat cells are sly. They can grow by two processes, namely,‘hypertrophy’ and ‘hyperplasia’. The latter alludes to increase in number of cells. Following hypertrophy(increase in cell size), pre-adipocytes are initiated to change their state of dormancy to mature into new adipocytes. Fat cells gain new company. Extremes could be loss of control over energy intake and uncontrolled obesity.
Common Myths About Body Fat
5. Fats are sources of pure energy or heat.
Fats or triglycerides are essentially composed of matter, bound by the laws of matter. And matter can neither be created nor destroyed. How is it then, that they can be dissipated simply as heat? Where do all the molecules that they are made up of then go? Even the most efficient sources of energy releases products besides heat. Burning fat involves breaking chemical bonds that require oxygen. Carbon dioxide and water is released such that mass of matter consumed(Fat + O2) and released(CO2 + H2O) tally. Approximately 80% of matter consumed is released as carbon dioxide that is exhaled by us and the remaining as water is removed through body fluids such as sweat etc.
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