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Fat
Science |
Magnified
about 4,300 times, a spherical fat cell looms beneath
a strand of blood capillary. The insert, a cross section
of a similar cell magnified 520 times, reveals the
contents---notably a large droplet of fat that the
cell has absorbed, to be stored until needed to meet
energy demands.
When
more fat is eaten than is burned up in activity, such
stores build into obesity.
Two
women, (one 250 pounds, 5'6", 40.3 BMI, the other
120 pounds, 5'5", 20 BMI), spent five hours under
a state-of-the-art open scanner to get a high resolution
magnetic resonance imaging scan (MRI).
National
Geographic Magazine (August 2004) published these
photos and the findings on how fat affects the body's
organs. Visit NGM's website report on "The Heavy
Cost of Fat"
here.
One
Man's Triumph Over Fat
"For 305 pound Bob Adelman,
getting in and out of cars was trouble. Flying in
cramped airline seats, however,was absolute agony
and bending over was next to impossible. When he sat
down to tie his shoes he groped over the slopes of
his 49 inch chest and the mountain of his 52 inch
stomach for the laces and emerged from the ordeal
out of breath.
" I was happy, " he remembered,
" because I was eating all the time, but I was
a human balloon." In 1978 he entered a program
at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center in NYC. Their
Weight Control Unit was established in 1977 to study
obesity."
Adelman's weight reduction was documented
in photos published in Wholesome Diet
by the editors of Time-Life Books in 1981.
His program included calculating
his body fat and metabolism rates. He followed a specific
diet and exercised. At first the only exercise he
could do was standing push-ups. Later he jogged and
worked out with weights.
Barely a year later, he had lost
115 pounds.
Resources
& Links
The
Science
of Fat,
an online lecture series from the Howard Hughes Medical
Center.
How
Fat Cells Work from How Stuff Works.com, which
includes:
Where's the Fat?, How Fat Enters Your
Body, How Fat is Stored in Your Body, How Your Body
Breaks Down Fat, Brown Fat: Making Heat, Losing Weight
and Losing Fat.
How
Fats Work also from How Stuff Works.com, which
includes:
What is Fat?, Saturated vs. Unsaturated, Fat &
Health, Essential Fatty Acids, So What Should I Eat?
Watch
obesity rates grow on this interactive map of the
USA from 1985 to 2003.
Calculate
your Body Mass Index (BMI) here.
Links
to books about fat, obesity, weight loss etc---click
here
and scroll down to the links.
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