Isabella Chen’s Reviews > The Secret Life of Fat: The Science Behind the Body's Least Understood Organ and What It Means for You > Status Update

Sumo wrestlers have a lot of fat but they are otherwise healthy. This is because their fat is stored subcutaneously and not around their organs as visceral fat. Excercise - jogging 20 km a week or 3 times high intensity training at least, causes the release of hormones that lead fat to be stored under the skin and not around the organs.

Fat produces is involved in wound healing and so releases a hormone that triggers an immune response. When there is too much fat, fat cells feel overcrowded and some die. Dead fat cells need to be cleared by the immune system and so fat releases this hormone. This hormone affects insulin sensitivity, leading to weight gain.

Body fat plays a role in wound healing and is important for bone density. Bone density is maintained in women via the ovaries and fat. After menopause, only fat produces estrogen, so it is important to have adequate fat. Fat and bone is created in the bone marrow from stem cells. In anorexics, who lack fat, the cells choose first to be fat, so anorexics have very weak bones.

Fat is so much more than 'fat', it's an organ in our endocrine system, with responsibilities regulating hormones and digestion. Fat produces Leptin, a way for fat to self reflectively know how much of itself there is in the body. Extreme obesity can be caused by producing defective leptin or by not being responsive to leptin (db/ob mouse). Fat stores stuff like cholesterol, so it doesn't end up in our blood and liver