eli5: Why are babies so fat for the first few months of their lives?
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On top of what has been said it is also for thermoregulation (keeping your body warm when its cool). Babies have a lot more brown adipose tissue (two types of fat tissue, brown and white, white is more for energy storage and brown has a lot of mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell ™️, that helps heat you up to regular temperature). The reason for this is that babies don’t have the muscle type that allows you to shiver so they need other mechanisms to allow them to maintain their temperature. As we age we lose brown fat tissue.
There is a really good Vox video on this: https://youtu.be/zpcI_g_zrpk
Babies are born with a special type of “brown fat” that helps to insulate and also burn for heat production. They also need plenty of energy to grow. And they haven’t exactly been working out in the womb so their muscles are not developed much yet
On top of what has been said it is also for thermoregulation (keeping your body warm when its cool). Babies have a lot more brown adipose tissue (two types of fat tissue, brown and white, white is more for energy storage and brown has a lot of mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell ™️, that helps heat you up to regular temperature). The reason for this is that babies don’t have the muscle type that allows you to shiver so they need other mechanisms to allow them to maintain their temperature. As we age we lose brown fat tissue.
There is a really good Vox video on this: https://youtu.be/zpcI_g_zrpk
On top of what has been said it is also for thermoregulation (keeping your body warm when its cool). Babies have a lot more brown adipose tissue (two types of fat tissue, brown and white, white is more for energy storage and brown has a lot of mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell ™️, that helps heat you up to regular temperature). The reason for this is that babies don’t have the muscle type that allows you to shiver so they need other mechanisms to allow them to maintain their temperature. As we age we lose brown fat tissue.
There is a really good Vox video on this: https://youtu.be/zpcI_g_zrpk
Babies are born with a special type of “brown fat” that helps to insulate and also burn for heat production. They also need plenty of energy to grow. And they haven’t exactly been working out in the womb so their muscles are not developed much yet
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