The Fat Problem

[00:02] Yes, organ. While it is often falsely described as a  mere expression of laziness or gluttony, fat is essential for health, controlling  and guiding crucial processes in your body.

[00:18] But if you have too much fat, it starts  to disrupt your metabolism becoming one of the most deadly things  that can happen to your body. Today more people are obese than  starving, which is a huge victory.

[00:31] of the obesity epidemic but it  really comes down to one thing: For millions of years, humans had to expend a  lot of effort to get food and often faced hunger. Our bodies evolved to hold  on to every bit of energy.

[00:46] And then suddenly we had an overabundance  of food we didn't need to move much for. We made food hyperpalatable and ultra processed,  with loads of unhealthy fats, salt and sugar.

[00:58] Our brains love this, so our food is extremely  hard to resist, to the point of being addictive. cheap and you get a lot of energy per  volume – so it’s not very satiating.

[01:12] This leads to most of us regularly  overeating without realising it. And food is aggressively  marketed, especially to children. in a world full of things that make you  feel nice and are available within minutes.

[01:29] Body fat is also often unfairly villainized –  but it is crucially important for your health and if you don't have enough, you can  suffer problems from infertility to a weak immune system, fatigue, mental  health issues and osteoporosis.

[01:43] Still none of this changes  how bad excess fat is for us. So how does our fat organ become so  destructive and can we help ourselves? If you consume more energy than you  burn you store it as triglycerides,

[02:00] Collected in a large drop of  fat inside a white fat cell. Gain weight and white fat cells expand  with fat, lose weight and they shrink.

[02:12] Only in the last few decades have  we learned fats' most important job: Fat is an endocrine organ, part of the system  that makes and regulates your hormones: digestive tract and immune system,  making them work correctly together.

[02:30] your fat organ and the many  hormones it releases turn insane. In adults fat comes in two types of white fat  depots – most of it is subcutaneous fat, the

[02:44] gooey soft stuff under your skin that insulates  against the cold and serves as energy storage. organs providing a soft cushion  for your sensitive insides.

[02:56] These fat cells are super sensitive to  stress hormones like cortisol or adrenaline. When they pick up a surge of stress,  they release fatty acids directly into

[03:08] your blood and are picked up by your  liver, as a rapid source of energy. On top of that your visceral fat  is very metabolically active, in a constant hormonal dialog  with the rest of your body.

[03:20] weight and amount of fat can be totally different. If you are pear shaped and your fat  is mostly in your hips or limbs you are much less at risk than someone apple  shaped with a lot of fat in their torso.

[03:34] As you gain unhealthy weight, excess visceral fat triggers a cascade  of negative changes all at once. outgrow their blood supply  and get starved of oxygen.

[03:49] This is bad. If you are overweight or  obese your fat is basically a wounded Especially your visceral fat,

[04:01] even more triggered by the extra stress  hormones, makes your blood more fatty. who can’t keep up anymore  and begin to take damage. are emergency signals that call  your immune system to a fight.

[04:18] creating clusters, trying to eliminate  the cause of the stress but can’t. In a lean person’s fat, immune cells make up about  5% of cells – in an obese person's fat, up to 40%!

[04:36] bloating up your tissue and  releasing even more alarm signals. But if it becomes chronic, it’s like  your entire body is under friendly fire.

[04:49] The inflammation molecules and fatty  acids rip countless tiny wounds into the insides of your blood vessels, which leads  to plaques that desperately try to close them. This narrows your blood vessels and  reduces the flow of oxygen-rich blood.

[05:02] Inflammation also causes your blood  pressure to rise, so your heart has to work harder and your risk of heart  attacks or strokes increases massively. To make things worse your fat organ’s  hormone production gets out of whack.

[05:15] With a healthy amount of fat,  leptin tells your brain when you But if you have too much fat,  instead of becoming less hungry,

[05:27] your brain becomes resistant against  the constant flood of leptin. Which is one of the reasons why many people  who are overweight feel intense hunger.

[05:39] the brain is not hearing the message anymore. testosterone is lowered while  estrogen is over produced.

[05:51] In women this increases the risk  of breast cancer significantly. Most people are not aware how much the  risk of cancer rises with excess fat. In the US almost 10% of all cancers are  directly related to being overweight or obese.

[06:05] And to top this off, obese cancer  patients have much worse outcomes, None of this is great but  even worse is what happens to one of your most important hormones: Insulin.

[06:19] Insulin is a hormone produced  by your pancreas that tells your cells to open their tiny mouths  and eat up glucose from your blood. Disastrously bombarded by the  stress from your excess fat,

[06:35] cells all over your body become insulin resistant  – worse at eating glucose and taking up energy. Your body tries to compensate by pumping  out more insulin, screaming louder.

[06:47] This can go on silently for many years  and progress to prediabetes – with no But as the damage accumulates, eventually  your body just can’t keep up anymore.

[06:59] Something breaks and you get Type 2 diabetes. The cells responsible for insulin  production are so overworked that they Your insulin crashes drastically and your  body can’t compensate, while the blood is

[07:16] now saturated with glucose – yet you are  starving and feel exhausted and unwell. Imagine this as trillions of tiny,  sharp shards floating through you, damaging your blood vessels, nerves and organs,  causing slow but constant damage everywhere.

[07:31] At this point your body is so chronically inflamed  that almost all organ systems are affected. The kidneys are overwhelmed, making you  pee way more, your vision gets blurry, your immune system is severely weakened, wounds heal  slower, dying nerves lead to numbness and pain.

[07:48] You may experience shortness of breath,  chest discomfort, erectile dysfunction and high blood pressure, problems with your  memory, focus, mood and even depression. Your risk of developing just about every  possible deadly disease goes through the roof.

[08:03] On average Type 2 diabetes shaves  10 years off your life and reduces your health span massively –  arguably as much as smoking. If current obesity trends continue up to 1  in 3 Americans will have diabetes by 2050.

[08:18] Excessive fat strains nearly  every organ system in your body, ages you much quicker and often leads  to multisystem damage and dysfunction. And yet, fat is still mostly discussed through  the lens of aesthetics first and health second.

[08:35] Which is kind of baffling considering that  most if not all of the toxic effects of your excess fat basically go away as soon as you  lose it and start eating a healthy-ish diet. Once your fat cells contract again they stop  being stressed and your immune system calms down.

[08:50] The excess blood fat and sugar drops to  normal levels and your body recovers. Even if you already have full blown  diabetes type 2, by losing weight you can reverse many of the negative effects and  drastically improve your health and lifespan.

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