Why does the human body store fat endlessly?

Question

Why isn't there a mechanism that determins when enough fat has been stored before it becomes unhealthy.

I mean, if I want to fill my gas tank more than capacity, the gas will squirt out of the tank. But the human body is like a gas tank which would grow the more as you put more gas.

It would be stupid to design a small car with a gas tank the size of a train. Nature should've predicted this.

Reply to silver_princ...,

REMOVE your answer NOW, or else I will post insults and put-downs on all your future questions. Also, you've been reported and I will report all your future answers and questions.

You're STUPID and you assume things about me. I'm NOT fat, just curious about this fact of the human body. Some ***_holes like you cannot answer a question without attacking the questioner. Please fall off a cliff and make us all happy.

Answer 1

Your body's main concern is starvation. When you eat too much food, it packs away some for later, in the form of fat, in case food runs out. It doesn't seem like good design because we're not starving very often. But should food get scarce and come infrequently in large amounts (like when you manage to kill an animal once a week), your body will have the ability to keep you alive longer than if it just rejected extra fat like a full gas tank.

Answer 2

Nature had no real way to predict the human imagination. If you really think about it did nature really think we would survive like this? Also, according to a Dr who quit the FDA the things put into lean foods, fast foods, and diet foods all have not only addictive agents in them but also fatty things so they can make more money when you buy more. How can nature predict we would no longer have to hunt and work for pure food and instead have fatty greasy unhealthy food brought right to us???even the so called healthy stuff. Whats worse is even the skinny people have a VERY high risk of heart attack and stroke and in some cases and even higher risk than overweight people because overweight people get more exercise throughout the ENTIRE day than just 30 minutes a day 3 days a week.

Answer 3

Fat storage mechanisms evolved while humans were still hunter/gatherers. There was no need for a limiting mechanism since humans were at best on the cusp of survival. A study on the onset of fertility in human females indicates that puberty is triggered by a ratio of body fat to total body weight. In a hunter/gatherer society, it was not a successful trait for a female to be able to conceive before she had enough energy stored as fat to gestate and feed offspring. Otherwise, the mother and child would perish during low food periods. Fat storage is only a problem for western cultures who have too much available food.

Answer 4

You underestimate the benefit to having a giant "gas tank". You'd be grateful for an expandable gas tank if you were constantly worried about where your next fill-up was coming from!

Your body's fat storage strategy evolved in an environment where food supply was *uncertain*! Storing as much fat as your body could possibly accommodate made sure you weren't *dead* by the time you next found food.

Answer 5

I've never considered that, but you're right! that's bizzare!

and there aren't any other animals that get obese.