We often see our excess fat as simply an aesthetic issue, and while I think everyone should absolutely love their bodies regardless of size, there are some truths about excess fat that are often not taught. Because that excess fat has a real affect on our health that may go unnoticed. I’m talking about adipose tissue dysfunction and our bodies response to excess fat – a real risk for overweight and obese people.
Around two in three Australian adults are living with overweight or obesity. You’re not alone.
But understanding your body gives you power. So let’s look under the hood.
Fat isn’t just storage
Most of us picture body fat as a passive energy store, like a pantry. It isn’t. Fat tissue is active. It behaves like an organ, sending hormones and chemical messages that affect your appetite, blood sugar, inflammation and more.
At a healthy level, those messages help keep your body in balance. When there’s more fat than your body is designed to handle, the signals start to go wrong.
When fat cells get overloaded
As fat cells fill up and grow larger, they become stressed. Stressed fat cells release inflammatory chemicals, and immune cells move into the fat tissue to respond, a bit like they would to an injury.
The result is low-grade inflammation that spreads through the body. You can’t feel it, but over time it affects blood vessels, organs and how your cells respond to hormones.
At the same time, overloaded fat cells make less of a helpful hormone called adiponectin, which normally protects against inflammation and helps your body use insulin well.
When fat ends up where it shouldn’t
The fat under your skin can only expand so far. Once it runs out of room, fat starts being stored around and inside your organs. This is called visceral fat.
Visceral fat sits around the liver, heart and pancreas, and it’s the most metabolically active kind. It releases fatty acids and inflammatory signals into the blood that flows straight to your liver. This is why waist measurement can tell us more about health risk than weight alone.
When insulin stops working as well
Insulin is the hormone that moves sugar out of your blood and into your cells for energy. Inflammation and fat building up in the liver and muscles make those cells less responsive to insulin.
Your pancreas compensates by producing more and more insulin to get the same job done. This is insulin resistance. It can carry on quietly for years, with blood sugar levels looking normal, because your pancreas is working overtime behind the scenes.
High insulin levels also make it easier for the body to store fat and harder to access it, which can turn into a frustrating cycle.
When hunger signals get scrambled
Fat cells produce a hormone called leptin. Its job is to tell your brain, “We have enough energy stored, you can ease off on hunger.”
With more fat, leptin levels rise. But over time, the brain becomes less sensitive to it, much like insulin resistance. So your body has plenty of stored energy, yet your brain still believes it needs more.
This is one reason weight loss can feel like such a fight. It isn’t a lack of willpower. It’s biology.
Why this matters
When you understand what’s happening, it changes the story. You’re not lazy or weak. Your body is responding to signals that have been thrown off balance. And the good news is those signals can shift back. As we lose weight with good nutrionand movement, we start to be able to manage our weight, hormones, and stress repsonse better. The body becomes lessburdened by this dysfunction and we head back toward a normal state. That’s the thing, your body is in a stressed state. Give it some time and respect while it relearns how it should be behaving as the fat reduces in your body.
