Fat, Discusses the Ways in Which Fat

¶ … Fat," discusses the ways in which fat cells work in the body and explains why fat is so hard to lose. Authors Anne Underwood and Jerry Adler begin the article by describing the discovery of Leptin, a chemical that regulates the body's fat cells. Researchers found that when mice were injected with Leptin they were able to eat anything and did not gain weight. researchers found that mice who did not produce Leptin ate uncontrollably and became fat, and normal mice who received a shot of Leptin lost weight. These discoveries seemed as if it were the magic bullet of weight loss, but experts have since learned that fat cells are much more complicated and difficult to manipulate than they once believed. Fat cells, according to the article, are difficult to eliminate because they are a part of the body's mechanisms for avoiding starvation. And, once you have fat cells they work overtime to maintain themselves and multiply, creating a paradox that the more fat you have more fat your body wants to make, and even when people do lose weight fat cells work overtime and the weight is harder to keep off. Thus, while researchers continue to look for strategies to help obese people lose weight, the basic standard holds true: to loose weight, you must eat less and exercise more.

The textbook describes basic methods of scientific inquiry and experimentation, and these methods appear to have been used in researching the Newsweek article. The article describes tests done on mice to study the effects and purposes of Leptin. The researchers observed the behavior of the mice, developed a hypothesis about Leptin and its effects on obesity, predicting that Leptin and obesity were directly related. They tested the hypothesis and confirmed that Leptin was indeed important to the growth and development of fat cells. However, the experimental results did not prove to be helpful in developing a way to control obesity in humans because there are other factors that affect fat cells in the body. The text refers to identifying important variables as key to scientific research, and the Leptin researchers seem to be at this stage now -- figuring out what, besides Leptin, affects fat cells and how these other factors can be taken into account when looking for a "cure" for obesity. The entire process is laid out very simply in the text but the article on fat cells and Leptin shows much more trial and error is involved before researchers can arrive at a theory.