A major objective of Animal Science is to develop feasible strategies to reduce lipid accretion during growth of meat animals. Historically, this objective has been sought because of the importance of reducing the quantity of nutrients used to produce body fat and the need to produce lower-fat meat. A fact of long-standing is that an animal’s feed efficiency decreases as the proportion of fat increases in body-weight gain. Thus, reducing fat deposition will improve feed efficiency (i.e. lower the feed:gain ratio) and, hence, increase productive efficiency (gaidfeed). A reduction in fat content of fresh meat also will benefit consumers who wish to decrease their intake of saturated fatty acids (SFA). A reduction in total fat intake to less than 30% of energy and SFA intake to less than 10% of energy is advised in the USA because of the positive relationship that exists between the quantity of SFA consumed and an elevation in plasma low-densitylipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) which is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease (for review, see Kris-Etherton et al. 1988).During the past 10 years remarkable progress has been made in identifying feasible and effective strategies to reduce lipid accretion (Etherton & Kensinger, 1984; Boyd & Bauman, 1989; Etherton & Smith, 1991). The two strategies most likely to be used in production agriculture involve administering somtatotropin (ST) or p-adrenergic agonists to meat animals. In the present paper our current understanding of the mechanisms whereby ST and the P-agonists reduce adipose tissue growth will be reviewed.