Activating brown fat for weight loss

Some studies suggest that if you use cooling methods to activate brown fat you can slim down faster. But before you make plans to freeze yourself off, find out what the research reveals about beige fat, white fat and brown fat for weight loss

White Fat vs. Brown Fat to Lose Weight
Several years ago, researchers discovered that many of us have more than one kind of fat cell in our bodies.

We’ve known about white fat for years. White fat cells are what we typically refer to as body fat. White fat cells store excess energy or calories. When we eat too much, the excess calories are stored as white fat and we gain weight. White fat is the kind of fat that builds up on our thighs, our bellies and our arms that we often try to reduce.  

Brown fat is different. Scientists refer to brown fat cells as brown adipose tissue or BAT. Brown fat cells don’t store energy, they burn it. These smaller, complex fat cells actually create heat to maintain your body temperature when it’s cold. So this type of fat becomes activated when your body is exposed to cold or even freezing temperatures. Brown fat is often found in the upper back and neck region of the body and researchers think it may hold promise in the fight against obesity.

But there is more. Researchers have found  a third kind of fat. It’s called beige fat. Beige fat cells are essentially brown fat cells that reside within white fat tissue.

Researchers are beginning to study whether they can learn to activate these beige fat cells to function like brown fat and burn more calories.

Brown fat for weight loss: Does it work?
The news about brown fat and beige fat is exciting, but don’t move to Alaska, sleep in your refrigerator or attempt other body cooling methods to lose weight just yet. The most significant brown fat results have been established only in mice. Brown fat research in humans is still inconclusive for a number of reasons:

You may not have brown fat. More recent studies have confirmed that some adults have brown fat, but we don’t really know how many people have it or how much they have. One large study found that only 7.5 per cent of women and 3.1 per cent of men had substantial brown fat deposits. Other more limited studies have demonstrated that anywhere from 25 per cent to roughly 80 per cent of people have small brown fat deposits. So how do you know if you have brown fat? Without expensive scanning equipment (a PET scan), is the only way you can find out. We do know, however, that brown fat decreases with age and that the fatter we are, the less brown fat we have.

Brown fat may not burn enough calories: Researchers also don’t know exactly how many calories you can burn when and if you are able to activate brown fat. Some studies estimate that you may be able to burn up to 13-20 per cent of your resting metabolic rate. For some individuals that may add up to 150 calories or more. But other experts say that the total number is probably only 50-100 calories per day, at most.

The most well respected fat researchers still advise caution when it comes to the use of brown fat for weight loss. While studies provide insight and promise, we still don’t know how to activate brown fat in a way that is  sustainable.
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