This topic has been of concern for many women over the years and seems to be something very troubling especially as they age.
Let’s explore the female fat cell and discover how important and mysterious it can be to understand. The average woman has approximately three billion fat cells.
These cells serve many beneficial functions especially as a woman gracefully ages. Fat cells assist in bone health, enhance sleep and make skin smoother and softer along with many other positive functions. Unfortunately most women don’t want them around and fight them as their worst enemy.
The most beneficial aspect of a woman’s fat cells happens as she goes into menopause, as these cells pick up the lost production of estrogen from the ovaries. A woman’s production of estrogen decreases about 75 per cent over 10 to 20 years in the pre-menopause period of time. This is why women tend to gain weight as they become older; because fat cells can produce estrogen to replace what the ovaries are not able to generate. Some women gain 10 to 20 pounds over this time of pre-menopause while others gain 100 pounds. Why is there so much difference from one woman to the next? This is where it gets confusing; the harder you try to fight weight gain the more you will likely gain.
Let’s go further in the physiological component of a female fat cell. A woman is made to make and store fat. This goes back to the genetic blue print of her anatomy. In times of famine women would survive while men perished. Another interesting factor is the more dieting you do the harder it will get to lose weight; in fact you will burn muscle tissue to further slow down your metabolism (rate your body burns calories). A generation ago pre-menopause only lasted about three years but now it can last 10 to 20 years. Why would there be such a difference from one generation to the next? Reasons include:
– the more you diet over your life the longer pre-menopause lasts;
– dieting at a younger age;
– the use of birth control medication;
– women are having fewer children than in the past; and
– women have more stress in their lives.
Let’s talk more about the physical effect of stress and what it does to the female body. When you are under constant stress your body creates hormones that are secreted and cause physiological changes. It starts by making cortisol, epinephrine, catecholamine and growth hormones. Most of all these hormones can cause your blood sugar to increase which requires your body to secrete more insulin that can result in not only weight gain but makes losing fat that much harder.
So all this time you have been struggling and even blaming yourself for being unable to lose weight not realizing it really wasn’t your fault. This article may increase your success of being at a healthy and realistic weight.
Let me again emphasize to you that the harder you try dieting the higher failure rate. You may lose weight at first but it will be mostly water and muscles loss. This muscle loss will be permanent and further decrease your ability to burn calories from fat. After you go off the diet you will even gain more weight now that your metabolism has slowed down.
To succeed is a two-part solution; one being nutrition and secondly being even more important is exercise. Let’s first review exercise and why it is a must. With normal aging you’ll lose about half a pound of muscle per year, which doesn’t sound like a big deal. Well times that half pound of muscle by 10 years, which is a loss of 5 pounds. Each pound of muscle burns approximately 50 calories per day from it just being present.
This may lower your metabolism by 250 calories per day. The main exercise to prevent this from happening is strength training. This type of exercise can build muscle tissue even at the age of 80. Aerobic exercise is good for the heart and does burn calories but does not prevent muscle wasting, so adding strength and aerobic exercises is key.
Now let’s talk about nutrition. There are many gimmick diets and supplements out there you really should avoid. There are some simple and basic guidelines. First let’s discuss what a women’s portion size of food should be per meal, which is 400 calories. When eating much more than that you either store the extra calories as fat or make new fat cells.
A little trick to make this meal portion size work is to start off with eating the lowest calorie food first which are the non-starchy vegetables. This will make you fill up quicker with fewer calories. You can also have little snacks between meals if you are truly hungry.
The next challenging behavior to avoid is eating when not hungry. Every time you eat because it looks good, have a craving or just bored you’re adding more fat to your body.
Another good nutrient is water, which helps burn fat, take away hunger and give you more energy. Try having water out on the table, in your office, available wherever you go – you’ll feel the difference.
So let’s sum up this article by saying this gives you an idea that a female fat cell serves a vital purpose. It can be controlled but there are certain things to be done in order to achieve a realistic goal.
Some goals may be to lose one pound per week or even per month or just to prevent further weight gain. The most important thing to remember is to just become aware. Stop and think, do I really need to be sitting on the couch or can I call up a friend and go on a nice walk? Do I really need to eat that if I’m not hungry?
For more information about any of the free services offered by your local Family Health Team ask your doctor or nurse practitioner during your next visit, go to www.afhto.ca or Google “family health team locations.”
Mike Libbey is a dietitian at Groves Memorial Community Hospital in Fergus.
