What Are The Benefits Of Fat Cells?

In a time and in a society where food is available constantly to most individuals, it's easy to eat too much and gain too much weight -- and too much fat. Although too much body fat is undesirable from both aesthetic and health perspectives, fat cells serve important purposes in the human body when present in appropriate proportions.

Source of Energy

One of the primary roles of fat cells is to store energy, explains Lauralee Sherwood, Ph.D., in her book "Human Physiology." Even though most people in the U.S. don't need to endure long periods of starvation during which they draw upon fat stores, fat nevertheless provides a source of energy overnight, and during periods when you aren't able to eat for many hours on end. Your body fat reserves power for your aerobic exercise efforts, too, because fat is an important source of energy for working muscles.

Hormone and Vitamin Storage

Fat cells store fat-soluble chemicals, explain Reginald Garrett, Ph.D., and Charles Grisham, Ph.D., in their book "Biochemistry." The human body needs certain chemicals present in appropriate proportions to function. For example, you need vitamins A, D, E and K for your cells to work correctly. You don't need to eat adequate quantities of these vitamins every day, because your fat cells can store them, and release them as needed -- A, D, E and K are all fat-soluble. Fat cells also store some hormones, helping them to reach concentrations necessary for certain functions, such as female reproductive ability.

Padding

Imagine walking around without any padding on the soles of your feet -- you'd grind the skin of your heels between the bones of your feet and the ground, which would be uncomfortable. Fat pads on your soles cushion your foot bones and make walking far more comfortable. Similarly, notes Gary Thibodeau, Ph.D., in his book "Anatomy and Physiology," you have fat cells making up the padding on the palms of your hands and on your rear, serving similar cushioning purposes. Your kidneys are also protected by fat pads at the small of your back, which is important, because the kidneys aren't encased by either the rib cage or the pelvic girdle, which makes them susceptible to injury.