White Fat, Brown Fat

It turn out that the body makes two types of fat, white fat and brown fat. White fat is the regular fat that ends up around your middle and other places and is the storehouse for the extra calories we eat. It is fairly inert and it just sits there. It is usually characterized by the last stubborn few pounds that we need to lose when swimsuit season rolls around.
Brown fat on the other hand is what your body burns to generate heat. Babies have brown fat when they are born which helps to keep them warm as it is burned. Hibernating animals also have lots of brown fat that fuels their body and keeps them warm as they sleep. As older children and adults, the amount of brown fat contained in our bodies decreases.
In recent studies it was found that a ‘master switch’ in mice called PRDM16, regulates the creation of brown fat in the body. It was found that PRDM16 stimulated immature cells to produce brown fat which the body burned as fuel. By knocking out PRDM16, the cells turned into muscle cells.
Researcher Bruce Spiegelman, PhD, from Harvard University is quoted as saying, “We showed that brown fat and white fat have completely different origins,” he says. “Brown fat is derived from muscle. That was a huge surprise.”
Brown fat contain many small droplet of lipid whereas white fat contains a single larger drop. Brown fat cells have more mitochondria, the engines that burn the fat as fuel. The brown fat is brown because of its iron content. It also contains more capillaries because it requires more oxygen to produce the body’s heat that white fat requires.
Researchers have been looking for the trigger that will turn white fat into brown fat in the body and have come up with some promising results. During the research several triggers were found. The master switch mentioned above is one of them. Researchers are working on a pill that will stimulate the production of brown fat. They noted that brown fat better enables the body to digest and metabolize glucose which could help prevent diabetes.
The biggest tip comes from hibernating animals. Cold seems to stimulate the production of brown fat and stimulates it to burn as fuel to keep the body warm. Swimming in cooler water, cold showers and air conditioned rooms below 66oF seem to stimulate brown fat production.
Since most people find the cold unpleasant, scientists are researching a pill that will stimulate brown fat production and reduce the white fat content in the body. This will be of particular help to those who are obese because of their genetics. Of course, all of those wanting the perfect figure will flock to it too. Imagine, you will be able to take a pill and lose up to 12 percent fat loss without making any changes to your diet.