How does the body decide where to add or take away fat when gaining/losing weight?
In: Biology
It’s a complicated question with a complicated answer that varies as much as your genes do. The simple answer is hormones! Hormones are chemicals in your body that tell your body what to do. There are lots and lots of hormones that all have different functions that interact with each other, you can learn more at yourhormones.info
That said, while hormones tell your body what to do, they don’t really decide where anything goes. Your genes sorta do? Your genes kinda write the code that your hormones function on, and sometimes that code gets a little twisted up. There can be mutations and disorders that make your hormones behave in odd ways, some of which might be really subtle, so subtle that no one notices unless they get their genes sequenced.
Generally speaking, you can’t pick and choose where your body stores fat, you can’t work out your mid section to burn belly fat, for example. You can’t get a six pack from doing a lot of abdomenal exercises. Without surgery you can’t have a six pack while also maintaining the fat in your ass. It’s a lot like ocean water levels, like it rises together everywhere, not just in specific places. It just seems like you flood in certain places only because some places are lower-lying than others. Some areas of your body are meant to have more fat in it than other places, and this can also be genetic thing
Cis women and in general people with higher estrogen levels have a higher body fat percentage that is about double the norm for cis men. Subcutaneous body fat plays an important roll in hormone regulation, especially estrogen.
There are a number of conditions that affect how your body places and metabolizes excess fat, often these involve hormones and have a genetic component. Lipedema is a condition that a lot of people don’t know about but it’s actually pretty common, it mainly affects women. Fat stores in the lower half of your body and you literally can’t lose it, and it can be quite painful and get worse with time.
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