Table of Contents
What Is Brown Fat and How It Can Be Activated To Accelerate Weight Loss
What Is Brown Fat and What Does It Do?
Brown fat, scientifically known as Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT), is a type of body fat that burns energy to generate heat.
Contrary to what brown fat does, white fat doesn’t get used as energy but tends to accumulate around the waist and thighs and is far more prevalent than healthy brown fat.
Whenever Brown Fat Is Activated, It’s Primary Role Is To Generate Heat By Burning Calories From White Fat Stores Of Extra Energy.
However, brown fat converts energy into heat leading to weight loss, unlike white adipose tissue which stores excess calories as lipids, causing fat buildup.
Therefore, this thermogenic property in brown adipose tissue makes brown fat a desirable target for weight loss.
Furthermore, there has been an increasing amount of interest in brown adipose tissue due to its potential role in combating obesity and metabolic disease.
Besides Burning Calories To Generate Heat Through Thermogenesis, Brown Fat Also Has Many Vital Biological Functions Whilst Consuming Many Nutrients From the Blood.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/cellular-switch-metabolism-obesity-diabetes/
Recent studies have shown that adults with a higher prevalence of brown fat have a lower body mass index (BMI) and are less likely to suffer from obesity, diabetes and other diseases.
5 Ways How Brown Fat Causes Weight Loss.
- Brown fat helps burn more calories.
- The higher levels of mitochondria found in brown fat are the engines in that burn calories to produce heat.
- There’s a high density of blood vessels in brown fat.
- Increased brown fat is linked to weight loss by burning the extra energy stored in white fat.
- Exposure to cold temperatures, like cold water swimming, will trigger your brown fat production and calorie burning, to raise your body temperature, which may lead to fat loss.
What Function Does Mitochondria Have in Brown Fat Cells
Mitochondria play a central role in providing an energetic basis for thermogenesis, which is the use of energy to provide heat occurring in brown adipose tissue (BAT).
Furthermore, mitochondria are the parts of our cells that produce energy from food, and they’re usually found in large quantities in muscles and organs, like in the heart, for instance.
Brown fat mitochondria fulfill their duty as cellular powerhouses in the non-stimulated state.
Interestingly, the large amount of mitochondria found in brown fat gives it it’s brownish, or beige, colour.
What Is Brown Fat and Where Is It Found?
- Brown fat is a type of fat that burns calories to produce heat.
- Brown fat is mainly found in the neck and upper back.
- Brown fat is activated by certain foods, vitamins, spices, supplements and cold water therapy.
- Brown fat is found in babies and infants, as well as adults – (see below)
Whilst brown adipose tissue (BAT), or brown fat, was previously said to only be present in newborn babies and infants, that belief has since been dispelled.
About fifteen years ago scientists discovered that brown fat is indeed present in adults as well.
It was also found that the small amount of brown fat that remains in adults plays an important part in keeping the body’s metabolic system running smoothly.
Following on from this discovery (above), brown fat has become a potential target for new drugs to treat diseases such as obesity, diabetes as well as metabolic issues.
What Is Brown Fat vs White Fat
Too Much White Fat Leads To “Malfunctioning Adipose Tissue (BAT)”
When it comes to white fat vs brown fat, having too much unhealthy “white” fat can turn the healthier brown fat to unhealthy white fat.
This will clearly lead to fat gain and other health issues which is the opposite to what having more “healthy” brown fat will do for you which is fat loss and improved health.
You therefore want to preserve and build your brown fat reserves, especially at the expense of gaining more white fat.
If weight loss is your aim, you don’t want the bad white fat spoiling your fat burning reserves of the good brown fat.
Brown fat is also known as the healthy or good fat, as it burns off the flabby fat as energy to create body heat.
So when the brown fat is activated, it’s the flab that will be targetted, causing the bad white fat to be burned off in the thermogenic process.
Therefore, the more brown fat your body has, the more bad fat you can burn off whenever thermogenesis is activated in your brown fat reserves.
10 Benefits Of Brown Fat
- Burns more calories without exercise.
- Produces heat to keep your body warm.
- May protect against obesity and diabetes.
- Boosts metabolism and may reduce risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
- It may improve brain function in people with Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease.
- May help fight cancer (including breast cancer).
- Could help you live longer by reducing your risk of heart attack or stroke.
- Can help regulate appetite
- May burn white fat
- Can cause weight loss
Ways To Increase Brown Fat and Burn More Calories
Wondering what foods increase brown fat to burn more calories and how to turn white fat into brown fat naturally?
5 Foods To Activate Brown Fat For Weight Loss
- Caffeine
This scientific report shows that caffeine in coffee can help induce browning features in adipose tissue. - Green Tea
Not only can green tea boost your metabolism, but it’s also shown to induce the browning of white fat cells into brown adipose tissue (BAT) in this study.
Green tea also contains catechins, antioxidants that may help prevent obesity and diabetes as well as increase your metabolism. - Resveratrol
By consuming resveratrol you may naturally activate the browning of unhealthy white fat into brown adipose tissue as shown in this scientific study.
Resveratrol is an antioxidant found in certain foods (below) and has been touted as a natural way to fight obesity (BAT), cancer, heart disease as well as diabetes.
– Peanuts
– Pistachios
– Grapes
– Red and white wine
– Blueberries
– Cranberries
– Cocoa and dark chocolate
However, a word of warning…
Before you start loading up on resveratrol, you should know that the quantities you would need to ingest on a daily basis would be far higher than you would normally take for it to have any benefit.
For instance, this Harvard study found that you would need to drink a hundred to a thousand glasses of red wine to equal the doses that were beneficial to the mice they used in the study.
It was concluded that taking a supplement would likely be the only way you would be able to get the required amount on a daily basis. - Turmeric and Spices
Curcumin, which is found in turmeric, has been found to boost brown fat in this study.
Furthermore, use turmeric in the powdered form as this is where you’ll find the highest concentration of curcumin which is what you want to ingest to encourage brown fat adipose tissue.
Also, capsaicin which is found in chilis such as jalapenos, habaneros, cayenne and other peppers may activate brown fat.
Piperine, a compound found in black pepper is another food that may increase brown fat tissue. - Red Wine
Popular opinion is that resveratrol (see above) found in grapes, berries and wine can help activate brown fat cells causing fat burning and weight loss.
However, the truth is that you would have to drink in excess of a hundred glasses a day to get anything like the required amount of resveratrol to have any benefit.
A supplement is likely to be a better way to ingesting the required amounts to activate your brown fat cells.
More Ways To Increase Brown Fat
- Cold Water Exposure
Cold temperatures in general may activate the conversion of white fat into brown adipose tissue. - Exercise
Studies have shown that exercise can increase the amount of brown fat in your body by triggering a process called browning, which is also what makes your muscles look visibly larger after working out. - Supplements
A natural supplement like Exipure, which is plant based, non-GMO and contains eight exotic ingredients, could certainly help boost your fat burning BAT stores as well as provide other awesome health benefits.
The Bottom Line On Brown Fat
So what is brown fat and how can you get more of it?
The bottom line is that while the presence of brown fat may make a difference in your body composition, it’s not a silver bullet for weight loss.
Exercise, cold exposure, and certain supplements may help you create more brown fat but it’s still a relatively new area of research.
Whilst exercise, cold exposure and dietary changes may help you create more brown fat, it still may not be enough to achieve real weight loss.
A supplement that is rich in BAT boosting ingredients, like this one, is your best bet in increasing and activating your brown fat reserves to burn fat & lose weight effectively.