When you lose weight, you not only feel better, but your fat
cells are much healthier. So says endocrinologist Andrew
Greenberg, director of the Obesity Metabolism Laboratory at
Tufts University in Boston. Your body needs fat cells to be
healthy, but in obese individuals when fat cells get very big,
those cells are at risk of dying, he says. "A fat cell is 95%
fat. If it dies, it leaves behind insoluble fat, and the body
views it as a foreign body, much like it would splinter,"
Greenberg says. That excess fat is scooped up by macrophages,
scavenger cells that are part of the immune system. During this
process, some of the fat and other inflammatory proteins get
released into the blood stream, which can significantly increase
a person’s risk of developing diabetes, he says. However, there
is evidence that if you lose weight, you have fewer dying fat
cells and significantly fewer fat-engorged macrophages,
Greenberg says. Think fat just hangs around and does nothing? It
doesn’t By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY PHOEN