{"id":4418,"date":"2018-02-07T06:18:56","date_gmt":"2018-02-07T12:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diamondcarepetfood.com\/?p=889"},"modified":"2026-02-17T10:08:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T16:08:19","slug":"the-secrets-of-feline-body-fat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/blog\/health\/weight-management\/the-secrets-of-feline-body-fat\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlocking the Secrets of Feline Body Fat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The growing number of overweight and obese U.S. cats \u2014 estimated at <a title=\"2021 U.S. Pet Food, Nutrition and Weight Management Survey Results\" href=\"https:\/\/petobesityprevention.org\/2021\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">nearly 59.5 percent or 50.5 million cats<\/a> \u2014 is no secret. Neither is the resulting risk of serious health conditions that these fat cats face when excessive body fat interferes with how their bodies work.<\/p>\n<p>While scientists and veterinary specialists don\u2019t fully understand all of the connections between excess body fat and health issues, they are beginning to unlock the secret activities of adipose tissue, or body fat.<\/p>\n<h2>Secret \u201clife\u201d revealed<\/h2>\n<p>If there\u2019s a silver lining to the current pet and human obesity epidemics, it would be the new knowledge gained about adipose tissue and its functions in cats (dogs and humans, too). Fat has long been known for:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Storing energy<\/li>\n<li>Cushioning vital organs such as the heart and kidneys<\/li>\n<li>Insulating the body against heat loss<\/li>\n<li>Providing structural support to organs in the abdomen<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Scientists\u2019 view of adipose tissue as a passive, specialized storage area for excess energy changed in 1994 with the discovery of leptin, a protein hormone that\u2019s secreted by fat cells (aka adipocytes). Since then, we\u2019ve discovered that more than 100 substances (collectively called adipokines) are produced in adipose tissue, making fat the most abundant source of hormones and the largest endocrine organ in the body. Adipokines are essential to normal body functions and play important roles in:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Energy balance<\/li>\n<li>Glucose (blood sugar) and lipid (fat) metabolism<\/li>\n<li>Inflammation and immune system function<\/li>\n<li>Blood clotting and blood vessel function<\/li>\n<li>Growth of new blood vessels<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In addition, fat is now recognized as a more complex organ that contains several different types of cells, not just the fat-storing cells with which we\u2019re familiar.<\/p>\n<h3>What\u2019s currently known about fat-secreted hormones<\/h3>\n<p>Although the majority of what\u2019s known about hormones produced by adipose tissue comes from people and rodents (mice and rats), two hormones have been studied in cats and dogs.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Leptin<\/em><\/strong> helps suppress appetite, decrease food intake and control energy use by signaling the brain\u2019s feeding centers. It\u2019s also involved with normal activities of the reproductive and immune systems, and modifies the body\u2019s response to insulin (aka insulin sensitivity). The amount of leptin in a cat\u2019s bloodstream is related to a cat\u2019s body fat. In other words, overweight and obese cats have more leptin in their blood than normal-weight cats. Scientists have found that cats with insulin resistance, a condition that contributes to diabetes, have higher leptin blood levels than cats with normal insulin sensitivity. This finding supports a link between leptin, insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism in cats.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED POST: <a href=\"\/blog\/health\/fat-cats-face-serious-health-risks\/\">Fat Cats Face Serious Health Risks<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Adiponectin<\/em><\/strong> was discovered after leptin and is produced only by mature fat cells. This hormone is closely connected to the body\u2019s ability to use glucose by improving insulin sensitivity and increasing glucose uptake into cells. The amount of adiponectin in blood decreases with increasing body fat, suggesting the hormone plays a role in insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, the form of diabetes most common in cats.<\/p>\n<p>Numerous other factors have been identified as potentially having a role in feline obesity. However, more research is needed to understand their contributions and roles.<\/p>\n<h3>Obesity as a disease<\/h3>\n<p>In people, obesity is now considered to be a chronic inflammatory disease \u2014 it\u2019s the inflammation that causes a wide range of health issues such as insulin resistance, heart diseases, arthritis and others. Given the similarities in obesity-caused insulin resistance of people and cats, veterinary experts believe excess body fat produces chronic inflammation in pets as well and provides the basis for defining obesity as a disease.<\/p>\n<p>Obesity has become the most common nutritional disorder of cats in the United States and has been accompanied by an increase in feline diabetes during the past 10 years. As new research identifies the relationships between the substances produced by adipose tissue and various health conditions, the list of diseases associated with obesity will only grow. That makes prevention and management of our pets\u2019 excess body weight essential to providing them with a long, healthful life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The growing number of overweight and obese U.S. cats \u2014 estimated at nearly 59.5 percent or 50.5 million cats \u2014 is no secret. Neither is the resulting risk of serious health conditions that these fat cats face when excessive body fat interferes with how their bodies work. While scientists and veterinary specialists don\u2019t fully understand [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Unlocking the Secrets of Feline Body Fat | Diamond Pet Foods","_seopress_titles_desc":"The growing number of overweight and obese U.S. cats \u2014 estimated at nearly 59 percent or 50.5 million cats \u2014 is no secret. Neither is the resulting risk of serious health conditions that these fat cats face when excessive body fat interferes with how their bodies work.","_seopress_robots_index":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,241],"tags":[100,381,69,419,760,557],"class_list":["post-4418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-weight-management","tag-cat","tag-cat-diet","tag-cat-health","tag-cat-nutrition","tag-cat-obesity","tag-cat-weight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}