For background, the only explanations I've seen for the whoosh effect seem to be that fat cells fill up with water again "just in case" until you've lost enough weight that they finally decide to just let go of it. This never really sat well since it doesn't align much with my understanding of fat cells.
I've been reading about the intersitium (fluid-filled space between cells) and I stumbled upon something that seems like a much better explanation. Basically, I think that the weight plateau and squishier feeling fat that you get before a whoosh is probably due to water retention in intersitual fluid and the process of remodelling the extracellular matrix that holds it together. When you lose weight, the extracellular matrix needs to remodel itself to accomodate the changes, and it seems that some chemicals that are involved in extracellular matrix remodelling such as hyaluronic acid are also highly hydrophilic, probably leading to water retention. The fact that restructuring is required during weight loss also would seem to suggest the existing structure is not sufficient, so that lack of structure and the different location of the fluid could possibly explain the tissue feeling different? Additionally, lymphatic drainage in adipose tissue is quite slow, so that could explain why it takes some time for you to see the water weight disappear.
I looked more into proposed explanations, and found this which discusses the current pervading idea that fat cells fill up with water. Although there was apparently evidence that water in adipose tissue increases during weight loss, it's poorly supported that it's actually inside fat cells. It also discussed some other proposed mechanisms, but I didn't find those particularly interesting since they don't explain where the weight actually is. Although it didn't really mention anything about intersitual fluid, I think the note that it's probably not inside the cells lends a bit of credence to the idea it's in the intersitium instead since that would be where most of the water in adipose tissue would be.
I'm no scientist so I could be wrong about some things, but I'm very interested to hear what other people think of this! Or is there some other research that sheds more light on this that I'm unaware of?
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