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IIRC, the "buffer" is because your body has to expend extra energy to make more fat cells if they aren't already there. Even if you lose weight after being fat, the extra fat cells are still there, so it takes less energy for your body to get fat again.

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If you go to lean from being fat and manage to stay there, are those fat cells eventually broken down or is that a new permanent record?

Nah it depends how you loose weight. If you properly do some kind of body re-composition diet where you gain muscle and loose fat mass and also change your BMR a bit, you can go in and out of this "metabolic buffer" state. My metabolic buffer lasts for about a month and a half and then I notice muscle mass going down and fat going up and my BMR changes.

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