The Skinny on Fat - Highlighting Brown Fat

Types of Fat

Wait… There are different types of fat in my body?! Of course! There’s White, Subcutaneous, Visceral and Brown fat in the human body. Bad fat, and yes, GOOD fat. Fat has two main purposes: to store excess calories to be used at a later time and to release hormones that control metabolism.¹

White Fat

This is super plentiful. Tons of it. The main job is to store energy and produce hormones. It’s actually good to have this type of fat as it helps with producing a hormone called adiponectin. ¹ It makes us less susceptible to diabetes and heart disease. When people become too fat, it slows the production of adiponectin :{

Subcutaneous Fat

Subcutaneous fat is directly under the skin. You can literally grab handfuls of this fat because it’s just under the surface (if you’re like me that is). It’s OK to have in areas like the rearend and thighs but not so much the belly. ¹ Overall, it’s still not good to have too much of. It’s not necessarily good and too much of it is certainly bad but a little won’t hurt you.²

Let’s face it. Nearly everyone has SOME fat. "Sub" fat is caused by excessive caloric intake and lack of activity. SO EAT RIGHT AND GET EXERCISING! You know. If you want to get fit.

Visceral

It’s deep fat that makes its home in tiny little nooks and crannies around your precious organs. It causes a NUMBER of health issues: diabetes, heart disease, stroke, dementia, etc…¹

Strength training, eating right and exercising overall will help remove this fat just like Sub fat. Strength training especially will help as it increases your resting metabolism. Muscle burns energy and helps increase fat loss rather than just doing cardio. ²

Brown Fat – Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT)

This is some great stuff. This is present in women, lean people and children more so than overweight individuals.³ It is much more plentiful in newborns. Even so, the amount of brown fat compared to white fat is significantly lower no matter your weight and size. When brown fat is stimulated it can burn calories!!! Even if there are only 2-3 ounces of brown fat in your body, when maximally stimulated, could burn between 300-500 calories. ¹HALLELUJAH

So of course this is of complete interest to scientists fora potential obesity treatment (drugs of course). We want MORE brown fat. We want to stimulate this brown fat! So get on it scientists!

OK, but despite these prospects there are possible side-effects of increased stimulation of brown fat. Brown fat evolved in mammals to dissipate large amounts of chemical energy as heat.⁵ This means you’ll be sweating. A LOT. I imagine if you manage stimulating brown fat you’d need water and lot’s of it. Oh, and of course you’d have to carry around a towel because you’d be sweating out your ears. Personally, as an overly curvy individual, I’d deal with it until I lost the weight. Then I’d go into maintenance mode.

Another side effect is that because of that heat expenditure,your body would be hungry all the time “in order to maintain energy homeostasis and preserve fuel reserves.” ⁵

So let’s get into how YOU can help stimulate that brown fat, eh?! If you still want to that is…

1 - Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP) helps to create brown fat. ³ Nothing you can do about it here but at least it’s good to know. It also spurs bone growth. Probably best to wait on some docs/scientists for this one. They will more than likely rip it apart and target BMP for brown fat stimulation only.

The science isn’t definite and I have seen information stating it could have a proliferative effect on cancer cells.⁴ Good to know for future reference as we don’t want to have cancer, right?

2 – MicroRNA-133(MiR-133): Another future possibility in BAT stimulation is reducing the amounts of MiR-133. This results in higher amounts of brown fat cells which in turn protect from obesity. The study can be found HERE.

3 – Grape SeedProanthocyanidin Extract (GPSE): Mitochondrialfunction from BAT, if dysfunctional, (if you’re overweight/obese it likely is) can be improved by chronic supplementation of GSPE.⁷ It improves mitochondrial function and thermogenic capacity of the BAT, and as a result, protects against weight gain. ⁷

“Grape seed is available as a dietary supplement in capsules, tablets, and liquid extracts. Look for products that are standardized to 40 - 80% proanthocyanidins or an OPC content of not less than 95%.

Grape seed extracts are not recommended for children. Whole grapes, however, make a healthy and safe snack for children.”

Go HERE for more information about GPSE.

4 – Cold weather helps to stimulate brown fat as it is a key thermogenic tissue in small mammals. Studies have shown that cold stimulates proliferation and heat production by brown fats IN RATS. Adults have less BAT so this may or may not help too much for us unless we have some extreme stimulation where our brown fat is. You’d need a CT scan to be sure of exactly where YOURS is but in a general area brown fat is in between your shoulder blades surrounding your spine. Another location is from the front of the neck extending to the chest.⁶

PET scan showing the main locations of brown fat, the upper chest and neck.

In adults, brown fat is centered in the neck and around the collarbones.

So my idea, that has not been tested, BUT WILL BE TESTED ON MYSELF, is to have that area targeted for treatments of Cool Scultping. I had never heard of it until recently, but it is making a lot of headway. It’s a non-surgical fat reduction treatment for those who are trying to lose those last few pounds.

Even if you manage to stimulate your brown fat it is important to keep a balance with your diet. Just because you could burn off some extra calories with this method, the TYPE of calories you put in your body will still have an effect. It’s important to keep your body a well-oiled machine! Always talk to your provider before trying anything new. Be smart about things!

References

[1] Doheny, Kathleen. (2014). The Truth About Fat. WebMD.Retrieved from:http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/the-truth-about-fat

[2] Presley, Susan. (2014). What Causes Visceral Fat vs.Subcutaneous Fat? Demand Media. AZCentral. Retrieved from: http://healthyliving.azcentral.com/causes-visceral-fat-vs-subcutaneous-fat-5985.html

[3] Armstrong, D.(2009, Apr 09). 'Good' fat could fight obesity. Wall Street Journal Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/399116669?accountid=8289

[4] Steven Gitelis, MD; Ross M. Wilkins, MD; and AlanW. Yasko, MD. (2008). BMPsand cancer: Is the risk real? AAOS. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.Retrieved from: http://www.aaos.org/news/aaosnow/may08/research7.asp

[5] Seale, P., &Lazar, M. A. (2009). Brown fat in humans: Turning up the heat on obesity. Diabetes, 58(7),1482-4. Retrieved fromhttp://search.proquest.com/docview/216471765?accountid=8289

[6] Brown fat cells mayone day help combat obesity. (2011, 06). U.S.News & World Report, , 1. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/878061020?accountid=8289

[7] Pajuelo, D., Quesada,H., Díaz, S., Fernández-Iglesias, A., Arola-Arnal, A., Bladé, C., . . . Arola,L. (2012). Chronic dietary supplementation of proanthocyanidins corrects themitochondrial dysfunction of brown adipose tissue caused by diet-induced obesityin wistar rats. TheBritish Journal of Nutrition, 107(2), 170-8. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0007114511002728

Gut Bacteria

Gut Bacteria

People often feel like they have difficulty losing weight where others have it easy. There are many known and unknown causes of this. Something others do not think about much? GUT BACTERIA. Human guts are full of bugs(about 100 trillion bacteria in fact) that HELP digestion and also stop disease-causing counterparts from invading.¹ Sounds great right? Only one problem. In the past, when food was in limited supply, these bacteria would have been valuable allies! Times have changed and we have access to food practically everywhere.¹ Now some types are working against keeping us healthy.

Those who are overweight/obese have different gut bacteria MAKE-UPS than their lean counterparts. They tend to have an abundance of bacteria known as Firmicutes while leaner individuals have Bacteroidetes. A study done on mice showed that when bacteria from an obese human were transferred to a lean mouse it would become fat; when bacteria from a thin sibling were introduced into lean mice, the mice stayed lean.² Obviously, this would be something to try… However, I’m not sure of the possibilities of that at this point. Finding willing volunteers to have someone else’s bacteria transplanted into their own intestines is difficult.¹ Instead Peter Turnbaugh and his colleagues have created a halfway house by having mice with humanized gut flora. Not everything in mice can be directly transferred to humans though but it is leading to more investigations.¹

Some solutions?

The good news is that you can reset your gut bacteria, swapping bad flora for good.

1 - Gut bacteria transplantation.

2 - "To have a healthy gut, one must avoid eating foods that foster the growth of bacteria that create unhealthy metabolites." We all know what those are. “Bad” fatty foods, ie, fast foods, high amounts of sugary foods, processed foods etc… These only encourage bad bacteria growth. They THRIVE off of it.¹

3 - Cultivate healthful microflora. Keep and grow the good while killing the bad. Use antibiotics only when needed as they can destabilize your bacteria. This can lead to yeast infections, skin rashes and allergic reactions. ² Eat food containing probiotics such as fermented food, yogurt with bifidobacteria in it (this especially will cause an environment where harmful bacteria cannot thrive), food with prebiotics such as whole grains, onions, garlic, leeks, artichokes, asparagus and chicory root (this also lowers fat storage). ²

4 - Stress Control. Easier said than done, I know, but studies have shown that stress leads to keeping on the fat. It even alters the function of the immune system. ² Try methods that work for you. Take a bath, meditate, dedicate a day to just yourself! Brush off the little things.

This should not be used as an excuse but as helpful knowledge of possible changes. Diet and exercise, even if they seem to not work, are helping you. Contrary to popular belief, you can be fat and still fit, but that’s a whole other topic.

References

[1] Economist. (2009, Nov14).  Science andtechnology: Holy shit!; gut bacteria and obesity.The Economist, 393, 98.Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/223979211?accountid=8289[2] Stewart, Martha.(2014, June 18). 4 Habits for a Healthy Gut. CNN Health. Retrieved from: http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/18/health/good-gut-bacteria/