Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss

Well, yeah. Adipocytes multiply when you get fat. But when you lose weight, they don't apoptose, they just shrink in volume by giving up their lipid stores.

>> But when you lose weight, they don't apoptose

Googled for "Adipocyte apoptosis" and oh boy... It does happen, but I don't trust the AI summary. This looks like a deep rabbit hole.

It seems fasting causes Adipocyte apoptosis. It makes sense, there is cell death.

I lost 100 lbs fasting over 1.5 years. I did gain some weight back after stopping, but not much. Strangely, where I saw fat return was not where most of it came off.

Yeah, but fasting is extremely unpleasant.

You get to know yourself well after about 5 days of zero food..... :))

Even much shorter fasts help you to understand how unimportant and fleeting a lot of feelings of hunger are. You get hunger pangs and feel like you need to eat, but in a hour it has passed and you go another 8+ hours just fine. When I eat some crappy food, I know it is going to make me feel very hungry in a few hours, but when it happens, I know it isn’t a real need and it helps stop the cycle of bad eating/overeating.