system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why does fat distribution seem to change as people get older?

this is purely anecdotal as far as I know, but I know a ton of people who used to be chubby all around as teenagers and young adults, their body would put a lot of the fat in their thighs and in general spread pretty evenly around their body. As they get older it seems that they have totally fit looking legs and arms, but fat starts getting distributed straight to their gut (men and women alike.)

Is it known why this happens?
gpt
Fat cells stored lipids as triglycerides and can't release them unless the enzymes necessary are present and active. If the cell loses its hormone receptors that normally trigger lipolysis, the fat stays there. So, fat accumulates in regions where lipocytes have been 'down regulated' for lipolytic hormones such as epinephrine.

 "A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips."