High fat diet and exercise stimulate the breakdown of fats

A research team reports in the October issue of the Journal of Lipid Research that when either lean or obese individuals exercise after eating a high fat meal, their fats are going down and oxidized in skeletal muscle, making them healthier.

These conclusions show for the first time how a high fat diet and exercise stimulate the breakdown of fats and may help create ways to reduce excessive fat in the body.

Fat is broken down inside fat cells to generate energy by a process called lipolysis. The resulting fatty acids are released into the bloodstream and carried to tissues that require energy. In obese individuals, too much fat accumulates, compromising lipolysis, but the details of how this happens are not well understood. Also, obese individuals can show altered responsiveness to the stress hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine in their subcutaneous fat.