With all the negative press surrounding fat it’s hard to believe that certain fat can help us lose weight, but it’s true! Did you know there are a number of different types of fat, each of them conducting different roles in our bodies?
Some of these fats are not our friend and you need to limit them (i.e. the fat that causes obesity known as white fat). But some fat is on your side and can contribute to helping you maintain a healthy weight, regulating blood sugar levels and increasing insulin sensitivity.
The good fat is known as brown fat or Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT). Brown fat is different to white fat in that it has the ability to burn, rather than store, energy. It does this by directing energy to generate heat. It burns energy to keep us warm, resulting in an increase in our metabolic rate, which ultimately helps to shed the kilos.
While it was originally thought brown fat was only present at birth, studies have found that brown fat in humans’ remains metabolically active throughout child and adulthood. Interestingly it is switched on, in response to exposure to cold conditions. Brown fat is activated as soon as temperatures fall below 27-31 degrees. However, the function of brown fat is impaired by factors including obesity, aging and diabetes.
Because of the link between active brown fat and weight loss, it is unsurprising that it’s a huge focus as a possible solution to the obesity epidemic. However, so far the safety of a pharmacological drug to increase brown fat is yet to be confirmed.
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So with the jury still out on a brown fat obesity drug and its safety, lets stick to the natural ways of increasing and maintaining the activity of our brown fat. Now I’m not saying you should endure a snowstorm in your underwear to activate your brown fat, but you can try small changes to temperature conditions.
Our Top 5 tips for increasing brown fat:
- Drinking a glass of iced water in the morning
- Exercise not only has beneficial effects on muscle, it also has been shown to turn white fat cells to brown, and encourages those cells to be more metabolically active.
- Look after your thyroid – it has a major role in turning on brown fat
- Love your adrenals – they secrete noradrenaline which activates brown fat.
- Ditch the sugar – it reduces brown fat activity
References
Journal of Clinical Investigations 2012 Feb 1; 122(2):486-9
Devlin, M. J. (2014), The “Skinny” on brown fat, obesity, and bone. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol.. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.22661
Disease Models and Mechanisms 2012 May; 5(3): 293-5
Journal of Diabetes July 23, 2014
