Research
Macro partitioning
Acute weight loss or fasting triggers a transient, physiological influx of macrophages into adipose tissue to clear lipid droplets from dead adipocytes, which is a healthy adaptive response distinct from chronic pathological inflammation.
When you lose weight rapidly, your body temporarily sends immune cells to clean up dead fat cells. This causes a short-term spike in inflammation markers, but it is a normal, healthy part of the process, not a sign of damage.
ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Collectively, these studies suggest that a transient influx of ATMΦs is a physiologically healthy response and further implicates a maladaptive inflammatory reaction in the chronic state.
Why this rating
Based on rodent models and acute human fasting studies.
Source
Adipose tissue remodeling and obesity
Kai Sun et al. · Journal of Clinical Investigation · 2011
DOI 10.1172/jci45887
narrative_reviewCited 1,878×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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