The third type of fat is entirely abnormal. It is the excessive accumulation of this abnormal fat—and of such fat only—from which the overweight patient suffers. This abnormal fat is also a potential reserve of fuel, but unlike the normal reserves it is not available to the body in a nutritional emergency.
When an obese patient tries to lose weight by starving themselves, they will first lose their normal fat reserves. When these are exhausted, the body goes after the structural fat. After this, the patient’s skin wrinkles and they look old and miserable. One of the most frustrating and depressing experiences a human being can have is to lose weight, but look and feel worse than before. Only as a last resort will the body yield its abnormal reserves. Although, by that time, the patient usually feels so weak and hungry that the diet is abandoned.
When an obese patient complains that when he “diets” he loses the wrong fat, he’s not wrong. The problem is, starving yourself is not a diet. When you starve yourself, you feel famished and tired, and your face becomes drawn and haggard. At the same time, your belly, hips, thighs, and upper arms show little improvement. The fat you have come to detest hangs on. Conversely, the fat needed to protect your bones and organs diminishes.