Lipid droplets are cellular storage centers for neutral lipids. They are composed of a phospholipid monolayer with bound proteins surrounding a core of neutral lipids. They are typically viewed as relatively long-term storage depots for excess neutral lipids. We use fluorescent microscopy to show that lipid droplets are highly dynamic entities in terms of number and size in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe when grown in media lacking excessive amounts of fatty acids. The average number of BODIPY-strained lipid droplets in fission yeast cells, n, changes during the cell cycle: S (n) → G2 + M (∼2n) → G1 (n) as measured by epi fluorescence. The value for n is typically ∼10. We used confocal microscopy to monitor the presence of the fluorescent lipid droplets in each slice of the acquired stack. In this way, we measured the change in size of the lipid droplets over time. Where most lipid droplets showed fluctuations in size of tens of nanometers or less per minute, a subset of the lipid droplets expanded and shrank at rates of up to 500 nm/min. The formation and complete lipolysis of lipid droplets is directed: the droplets do not form and disappear around the center slice. The spatially directed reduction in the size of LDs seems to strengthen the hypothesis that LDs are lipolysized by other organelles and not by freely diffusing enzymes.