"Losing one pound of body weight results in 200 fewer MILES of capillaries that your heart has to pump blood through."

"Losing one pound of body weight results in 200 fewer MILES of capillaries that your heart has to pump blood through."

Hmmmmmm.......

Hmmm......

With the multitude of tiny one blood cell wide capiliaries that snake through our body, I could possibly believe this. But, from my understanding FAT doesn't require the same amount of blood to maintain it as muscle, but I don't know for sure.

I am curious too, I'm sure one of the know it alls will have the answer.

-Allen

I'm not sure if it's that many miles...but I know there is at least some truth to that statement.

A relative of mine is extremely overweight, & had to have a heart valve replacement (along with gastric bypass). The cardiologist told him that just losing weight would be reduced stress on the heart, from the hundereds of miles of blood being pumped through each pound of extra weight he carried.

This was at Barnes Jewish hospital in St Louis. One of the best places to go for heart problems in the country..so I can only assume the cardiologist knew what he was talking about.

I thought adipose tissue just grew bigger, rather than multiplied... kind of like muscle tissue. The number of cells remain the same or whatever. Which would mean capillaries wouldn't grow or degrade by anywhere near that much...

I thought adipose tissue just grew bigger, rather than multiplied... kind of like muscle tissue. The number of cells remain the same or whatever. Which would mean capillaries wouldn't grow or degrade by anywhere near that much...

Fat cells fill up first. But when they are full, they can multiply... unfortunately (cell division). And this is not reversible. However, it's always possible to empty them. When the fat inside them is gone, they are tiny cells.

You can tell I'm not a doctor, the way I explain that. :d_biggrin

I don't know about the capillaries...

Vincent.

Maybe the capillaries don't multiply, but strrrrrretch...? Just speculating.

I took care of a guy once who had gotten so fat his lungs collapsed under the weight. It happens more and more often, now. He was 660 pounds and as far as I know was on a ventilator for at least 6 months. I think the people than can get up above 1000 are pretty rare. Strong lungs.

Vincent, thanks for the explanation about fat cells. That reminds me of another fact-or-fiction question I had, and was going to research, but also ask in the forums:

"Fat cells have memories."

I either read or heard long years ago, that fat cells have memories. Furthermore, because of their memories, they send powerful chemical signals out into your body whenever they "feel" they are being deprived. The signals give you the cravings that make you feed yourself until the fat cells are, once again, as fat as they were before - and maybe a little fatter.

It made intuitive sense, anyway...

-Martin

Interesting article on "memory" and obesity... -Martin

http://healthandenergy.com/pollutants_in_fat_cells.htm