[albertcardona]

The number of fat cells becomes fixed by the end of adolescence. As a child, fatty cells proliferate, but remain rather small. Your daily food as a kid influences how many cells you'll end up having as an adult.

Kids nowadays have a horrible diet of sugary drinks and fatty pseudo-chocolate treats.

Fat cells are very much involved in total body weight control, both through enzymes and by hosting lipid-soluble hormones in their oil droplets. So an adult having a lot of fat cells is at a disadvantage in a McBurger world.

[a-priori]

"The number of fat cells becomes fixed by the end of adolescence."

Uh, reference? I think you're wrong there. From what I remember, new fat cells grow when weight is gained, and are "deflated", but mostly survive, when weight is lost.

[attack]

He's probably thinking of human muscle cells.

[flipbrad]

no - he's absolutely correct. this was discovered earlier this year, IIRC.

cf: http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54629/

[randallsquared]

This suggests that liposuction is actually an important step if you want to keep fat off.

[flipbrad]

not necessarily. if the body can somehow keep count, it may just replace the cells you remove. I'm not sure we know for certain either way yet.

[randallsquared]

My guess would be that that won't happen any more than limbs get regrown. Of course, my guess is pretty worthless. :)