In your body, there are three kinds of fat.
The most familiar is body fat. When was the last time you cooked chicken? Remember those yellow globules of fat you removed from it? Hopefully you removed it BEFORE YOU COOKED IT! If you were to witness liposuction surgery, you would notice that the fat the surgeon vacuums up is also yellow in color. This yellow fat is what you store in your fat cells and utilize for energy. As with the chicken, it’s located just beneath the skin (subcutaneous tissue). This is body fat.
The second type of fat is dietary fat — the kind you eat, including olive oil, corn oil, margarine, and so forth.
The third type is brown fat, so named because of its brown color. It got that way because it is located within the chest cavity and upper torso surrounding your organs, veins, and arteries. It contains many blood vessels. Which explains why it’s “brown!” These are the fats that protect your vital and internal organs. Unlike yellow fat which is visible and can be prominently displayed in the legs and arms, brown fat isn’t as visible.
Brown fat is localized. It’s not distributed throughout the body but rather remains stationary so as to fulfill its purpose of protection only.
Brown fat actually “burns” other fat. One of the more interesting things about brown fat cells is that they’re stimulated by cold temperatures. Once notified by the brain that the external environment is cold, brown fat steps up its calorie-burning process. This, in turn, increases heat production in order to maintain proper body temperature and organ functioning.
If you’re exposed to cold weather for thirty minutes each day, within two weeks your brown fat will enlarge and become more active. The reason for this is clear: The tissue must work harder to maintain internal body heat to protect your vital organs.
This could very well be why kids tend to “kick off” their blankets in the middle of a cold night. And for the life of you, you have not a clue as to why. Or how about when you are at the beach, or in a swimming pool? The children want to keep on swimming but the water to you is “freeeeezzzing!” Did you ever wonder about that? Their brown fat levels are abundant and active — which may help explain their greater tolerance to cold than adults have.
Brown fat also helps you attack fat another way: as a thermostat. It assumes a role as an insulator and internal safeguard against added weight gain and is affected by cold temperatures, exercise and eating. You see, the wonderful thing about brown fat is that the more you overeat, the harder the brown fat works to consume the excess. This is why eating small frequent meals is better than the traditional three large ones. Nibbling is better than gorging.
Can brown fat make you fatter?
No. Unlike the yellow fatty tissue which grows or shrinks, and in some cases multiplies, brown fat doesn’t respond to the fluctuations of body weight.
Brown fat is affected by the hormones noradenaline, a stimulant produced naturally by the adrenal glands. This is what is actually affected by the cold, exercise and eating. The hormone, in turn, acts as a messenger and dictates when the brown fat cells should expand and what level of activity they should attain.
Also, unlike the case with yellow fat, brown fat is the only fat that has the ability to burn its own cells. For you this means a loss of fat merely by eating! Again, we have a reason to eat for fat loss. Remember, until mobilized, excess yellow fat is basically solid dead weight — useless as a source of fuel or energy until you tap into its reserves.
There’s a great deal more we’ve yet to learn about this friendly fat before we can use it optimally. Are brown fat cells the key to fat loss? Hmmmm, could be. Someday we may know for sure, but not now. Until then keep on eating and exercising. And watch what you eat.
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