Stop at the end of the anecdote on page two of your prologue. It was great. Guest this is a personal story about how i got into writing this book in the prologue of the book is called skinny teens. It was a breezy friday evening in the fall in san diego. I was a biochemist phd student at the dinner with my friends after full week of research, classes and teaching. I had a strong interest in biology since a great school, and now the body malfunctions and inventive ways we treat it. The idea tiny molecules affected our health, thoughts and cold of life was fascinating to me. I was excited to be learning so much about the inner workings of the body, and of interest, my weight. Aside from dancing my career, i measured success and how will i did at staying thin. Keeping with that in check and never been easy for me and i watched my weight closely. On this day like every other i counted my calories, i ate i painstakingly balanced combination grains, protein and vegetables. I straight from anything fun. No sugar, carb heavy snacks or alcohol. None of it. I had run for 40 minutes and lifted weights after months of this work i knew i was on my weight towards that this victory. As i sat down to dinner with my friends i held steadfast. Ordered a small salad and water, and like so many days before i was bracing to go to bed hundred. Going to bed hungry is my secret to keeping my 53 frame under 110 pounds and capable of fitting into my skinny jeans. If i could maintain this weight my life would remain in my control. Id look like every other college student. I be asked out on dates and feel confident about my future. But instead of feeling proud of my guiding achievement that night, something happened that would forever change the way i viewed my body. Something profound that confirmed i was not normal. What happened . My best friend ordered a beer in burrito and devoured it all. Yes, that trivial event changed everything. She was 411 and probably 95 pounds. She never went to the gym. She drank sugar lattes and ate fast food. She worked in the lab all they like me and hunched over computer in the evening. Yet some of his petite woman was able to pack in a large stick reader with beans, rice, sour cream, guacamole, Cheddar Cheese come everything all wrapped in a Flour Tortilla and then down at their as if nothing were unusual. She had no look of guilt afterward, no appearance of ward ritchie made comments about being sick or has you need to run the next morning. Nothing. It was all just a normal everyday occurrence to eat at 800 cal burrito at at 8 00 in the evening and her jeans were smaller than mine. Host it seems so unfair. Seems like its against the laws of physics, doesnt it . We are told by calvary is a calorie is a calorie. He did just eat a certain amount of calories you will not be fat and if you eat more than you are going to suffer the consequences. Thats just an incredible story. That set you off on the path to try to figure this out. Guest thats right. That was college and my life didnt get easier after that. Of course i started a career. I had a couple of kids. Host what was your career . Guest a scientist. I store up and research by went over to the business side eventually. Host what kind of research . Guest i was reaching alzheimers. I was looking at memory and learning things like that and more specific alzheimers. As a start to approach looking for a job i think someone said to me, what are my advice is that if you dont have a burning question dont go into research because its a lot of sacrifice. Its a long path and its an uncertain path. At that time i didnt have a burning question really. So i decided i wanted to go into the business side of biotechnology. I like looking at the big picture of things. I got my mba and i worked on developing drugs for various diseases. Later i had this burning question, it just kept happening. I kept noticing people who can eat, lots and they dont exercise and they are thinner than me. I went on a number of diet. I went to personal trainers. I could lose some weight but sometimes i would even gain weight and a perplex me as much as it perplexed a personal trainer. No one could understand this. It felt like defying the laws as we know them. Im going to figure this out. Not one more die. My dad is different. I gained a much easier to its offer than other people. Host how do you know it is softer . Guest the way they dress, its stout fat. Im very bright observant. I notice everything. I just tell. It looks a little different. I dont have the same responses differed that other people seem to have. Anyone can figure this out, i can. Ive got my phd and going to figure this out. I spent five years researching everything there is to know about that. Everything i could find. I pulled out of a 1000 out of the scientific literature. I spoke about 50 researchers around the world about the Cutting Edge Research of that. What a fund that was so astounding, so surprising that if i want to write a book, let everyone know what he found and the secret life of fat is that book. Host whats most surprising thing you found out . Guest what was so surprising is that is not just that. Its not just the riserva calories. Its an endocrine or it can that means that the release of hormones that are to body depends on. Basically our brain sizes linked to fat. There are people who have a defect and part of their brains are smaller. Mice have small ranges will. Our bone strength is linked to fat. Our reproductive system is linked event. Women if they get to look at that level cant reproduce. They dont mean straight regularly. Even our immune system. Its a major survey systems in a body that are linked to healthy fat. Because fat is so important to us, nature ways to protect it. When we try to lose fat, because that produces a direct link to her appetite and our metabolism. When we lose that we lose leptin and drives us to eat more and try to metabolism down. In this wife that is almost fighting to come back to us. We might not value our fat at all. We might want it to all, nature does value our fat. Its a struggle. Host you have a story about a girl who didnt have any fat or almost no fat. That was Pretty Amazing because i think many people would say how great. Heres somebod someone who doese any fat. And you tells what her life was like and what happened to her . You said with fat you are going to something called leptin, which makes you want to eat you dont have enough that. Donovan fat, what happens to your tells the story of this girl. Guest a story about christina who i interviewed and talked host how did you find her . Guest i was looking at different effects of not having enough that are having too much fat. So looking at the ends of the spectrum what happens in those cases and talking to doctors and researchers, they told me about this case study of this girl. Her name is christina and she was a normal girl growing up in new jersey and then around 12 or early teens she starred to other problem. She started to lose that lots of fat. First interface and then the rest of her body as well. At the same time she developed an enormous appetite. It just went to the roof. It didnt had to be something that would taste good. She would eat a can of mushroos come anything she could find. Finally she started getting these blisters on her skin as well. They were painful. They became inflamed and at first they thought shes growing, thats why she is as big appetite, nothing unusual but the blisters drove them to the doctors. They went to a dermatologist. He took her blood panel and saw that she had her triglyceride level was up 100 times normal level. Her sugar level and cholesterol levels were five times what was normal. He quickly ascertained this isnt a dermatologic issue. He sent her to an endocrinologist. That doctor thought she had diabetes and started treating her for diabetes. All the while she was taking diabetes medication she continued to lose weight at her appetite was the scene. Same. It didnt help her. He was befuddled. He remembers seeing a lecture and he sent her to a metabolic disease unit and the doctor diagnosed christine with lipodystrophy. Thats a disorder where the person starts to spontaneously lose fat tissue so they lose it all over their body. It stays in the hands of a bit but on the face and everywhere else they start of almost no fat tissue at all. So because our fat produces leptin which is linked with appetite, when we lose that when theres some leptin and a center appetite very, very high. So christina couldnt stop eating. House of representatives where do all the calories go . Guest thats a great question. They circulate and her blood endlessly. All these nutrients, these fats, cholesterol, sugars had no place to go. That is usually this safe deposit of the extra in a blood and to alleviate this you did exactly what you need to every second of it which is impossible to do. So our fat is a little storage which keeps us safe, keeps her blood safe. She didnt have it. She did not fat. Her liver was about eight times the size of a normal labor. It protruded and her abdomen. The blisters and her skin were fat filled blisters that made hard for to move that sometime. At first they didnt have a cure. They gave her weather took out a blood and it would clean it and the doctor said her blood was creamcolored. It was so full of fat and cholesterol but should have to go through this three times a week. Eventually it was discovered that that makes leptin it wasnt known when she is first set, she was able to get some reluctance and she was given injections. When her appetite by a subsided and what appetite subsided, she ate less inches able to resolve some of her diabetes issues because you have all this extra nutrients like around. Host but she never got the fat . Guest arafat didnt come back. Host did she look weird . Guest she looked emaciated. Her cheeks were very hollow, looked older than she is. But she was able to get her help back in order more or less so these patients have other kinds of issues. They will never be completely normal and healthy but they thought she was in for early death because of issues but takes to discovery of leptin being applicant and injected in her such as him to go on. She got a couple of topic kids come shes married an she stillo on but its a hard life but anyone who wants to given this fact, the wishes they just dont have fact that the great case study to understand and appreciate your fat, what is to not just for the storage of calories which is an obvious function and also for the hormones its creating and what effects that happen on our body as well. Host that was an amazing story. Did you write about the girl who had no leptin as well . Guest thats right. Houston reminded skin can leptin is something your fat sends to your brain and leptin tells you you want to eat . Or if you dont have leptin, what happens . Guest rather than just sitting there holding our calories, its producing hormones, leptin is one of those. It produces leptin that goes into the bloodstream and goes and binds with a brain. In a way fat is talking if its not just sitting there. Its any a signals, its orchestrating doing things. When we dont have enough leptin possessing and we dont have enough fat. Something is wrong, we have to start eating. There are people like christine who either dont have enough that or they have a genetic defect in the fat. That fat is not producing leptin. In e vacation brain thinks that it doesnt have any fat and since you to keep eating. So before leptin was discovered, this wasnt known of course and there was a girl in britain and from the time she was run for months old she just had this enormous drive to eat. Even as a baby. She gained weight. She was an obese child and it wasnt a normal tried to eat. She would go through the trash looking for food when her parents restricted to. Onetime she was caught breaking into a locked freezer to eat raw frozen fish. Its not normal. There was something and this and no one knew this. She got blamed for their car parents got blamed for not controlling their child. At one point they even put her into a hospital because they can restrict the calories, very controlled or private. She can lose some weight. What happened when she didnt lose weight. Even unrestricted calories she continued to gain weight, just more slowly. It was very perplexing, and finally show sent over to university of cambridge, Stephen Oreilly was an expert and Metabolic Diseases and said Stephen Oreilly had read a paper on this and he thought maybe shes got this problem. Shes got this defective gene. He tested her for it and sure enough she had this defect in the gene and she doesnt like leptin. She doesnt make functioning leptin. Once they figure this out they were able to get her leptin like they did for christina come and begin her appetite, the minute, she turned into a normal child. She went from an eating machine into someone who could function normally. Not just about food food and she lost weight. Within a couple of years she looked pretty normal. These kids, theres a sprinkling of them in the world. Theres not a huge indication but they usually have early death from convocations of obesity. That is not just to reserve calories. Its not something that is a site of sloth and gluttony. Its an important organ we have enter body. The discovery has helped people like them because theyve been able to get the hormones that makes and able to look pretty normal after that. Host so fat is really important as like something sending signals to your brain and your body. Its not just something that is inert. That leaves us with the question you started with. Why are some people fatter than others . Why arent we all just perfectly uniform in the amount of fat . There should be an ideal amount of fat. Why are some people fatter treachery that was a question that sent me on this big now that we know what that is, its a reserve, the other question is why do some people can more fat . Theres all kinds of reasons we get fat. The obvious one is people eat too much, didnt exercise enough. Host you just talked about a girl who did that any leptin and she couldnt stop eating, but there was no too much for because she had a signal thing to eat. The same thing with christina. So whats too much . Your brain is telling you from what you just said, your brain tells you how much to eat. Guest too much is when you get a more fat veteran of healthy anymore. Thats what i would do fine. There are people who can be fat but fit. I write about that in the secret life of fat as well. I know we really vilify fat. Its supposed to be associated with some diseases answer depends on where your fat is. Not all fat is created equal. Theres a fat right under our skin that is a deposit. Theres some under our stomach wall which is a more unhealthy type of fat. When that gets crowded it gets inflamed, source interview with signaling and that is a type of fat really easy with Heart Disease. I do talk about sumo wrestlers who are this case of people that but fat. They eat 400 4000 calories a da. They usually wake 400 pounds. Actually they eat more, 7000 cal a a day but the exercise six to seven hours a day. Another trick the fat has been set releases another hormone and that helps keep our blood clean of fat. Its thats own way of saying please come home to subcutaneous fat, a safer deposit of that. It keeps up healthy. Its released upon exercise, something that provokes it really some fat. And because of all the exercise they do, the sumo wrestlers, they have a high level of that and he keeps in healthy. All that they have, its more in the subcutaneous fat than the visceral fat. Surprisingly they dont have as much Metabolic Diseases one might affect. When it come of that diet and stop exercising they do. Host do they deliberately get that heavy . Guest yes. Host you at some stories about people at Rockefeller University and then your other stories who did the reverse. This one story, some stories where people were very heavy and lost a lot of weight. They were put in a metabolic ward in a hospital. Other stories were people who as part of an experiment agreed to just try to lose weight or just trying to gain weight to have a normal way. It doesnt look like its been easy to control your weight. Can you tell us about experiments where people were fat and made you lose weight, people who were normal weight and make you lose weight or made to gain weight, and what happens when people try to be at a weight thats not why the brain wants them to be . Guest thats very interesting. That gets back to the leptin story again. When we lose fat we become almost leptin deficient. Its not too different industry of christina or layla who dont have enough or something is wrong with arafat. That produces leptin when we lose fat we lose it and that senses to drive to eat more, to try to replace that fat. Also leptin binds with our muscles and it binds with a thyroid gland. It drive metabolism low. Our muscles get more efficient when we were lower on leptin. At the scene do we dont have enough fat, something is amiss. We have to conserve energy. So the accommodation of having highehydride to eat, low metabo, and there are studies that at brain activity were people who are showing images of food after they lost some weight they are more aroused my. Theyre a bit more excited at the same time there are inhibitors in the brain that are diminished so that having a more dried eat and thus ability to control. All of that its a recipe to get your fat back. It takes an enormous amount of strengthand will to maintain that for a long time. Some people who, who have lost 10 of the weight they have to eat 22 fewer calories and someone who is not had that loss every. Someone who is 170 pounds and has lost 20 pounds to get t to r calories than someone who is natural at 150 pounds who doesnt have to die. Its a caloric penalty if you will want to lose weight. If its not just you want to eat and are driven to it and its hard to come if people dont realize it, i think they given slowly. You think you can diet for six months, good to go pick the thing is youre not good to go. This effect that has been observed up to six years in studies except certain whether it goes away for everybody, for whatever died to pick to plan to stay on this just about permanently. Host what about people who as part of experiments in weight, made themselves that when they were not fat to begin with, what happened to them . Guest the same thing, pulling the rubber band in opposite directions with the stride to come back. For them, they have to eat more than somebody is natural at the way pick someone who is naturally 150, someone at 130, the people gaining 20 pounds to get one of 50, more calories than the person who is at 150 pounds naturally. You have a set point. It takes a lot of effort to try to change that. I dont know if thats impossible to change it. It is possible. People gain weight permanently and stay that way. People from lose weight but it is harder than what diet industry will lead you to believe. Dieting is easy, cut out carbs or simple steps, 123. If it doesnt work for you, youre doing something wrong against this is math. They should work. Theres