** UNDERSTANDING FAT CELLS **
If you consume more calories than you utilize, the body tends to hold onto the excess by storing some or all of the surplus in the fat cells.
The fat cells are basically expanding batteries that store biological energy for when there is a lack.
They also retain water for when you are under hydrated.
The body is great at creating more fat cells. Once it runs out of storage space, it makes new ones so that it never runs out of water or fuel.
When you go into a caloric deficit/restriction and the body needs more fuel than you're supplying it, it drains the fat cells to make up the difference.
Think of the fat cells as little balloons; they fill when they have stuff to fill them with and expand leaving the body larger when enough are full. The skin stretches to accommodate the size change (think of thousands of tiny sticky balloons filled with olive oil and water).
Leaving them expanded for too long will get the skin used to the abundant size and, therefore, take a long time (if ever) to return its intended shape and elasticity once the size of the fat cell community shrinks.
However, the body has no way to remove unused fat cells.
You can deflate them by increasing your output and decreasing your input (diet and exercise), but their numbers will remain the same.
If you retain full fat cells for a long time and then empty them to get in shape, the problem now, is you have a bunch of deflated balloons and skin that won't retract. As small as these deflated fat cells may be, they still take up space.
Remember: fat cells are hungry.
If you have less fat cells and eat reasonably, they don't need to multiply and can be content swelling and deflating with their same numbers.
The more you have, the easier it is to "get fat" again after losing weight because they're still there... waiting for you to fall off the wagon so they can fill up again.
Liposuction can remove excess fat. You can have surgery to tighten up loose skin. Stay hydrated, eat within your caloric expenditure, limit overeating, and you can control the number of cells and their size.
YOU are in control! The body responds to what you do it! The choice is yours.
