Not all Body Fat is Alike - The Differing Colors of Fat and Their Effect on Weight Loss

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July 21, 2012 --

If you're like most people, you think of body fat as homogenous. That ugly stuff below our skin gathering up in the belly and top of thighs, and in more moderate amounts throughout the rest of our bodies.

Most doctors and trainers have known for quite a while, there are actually two principal types of fat cells: white fat cells and brown fat cells. And, the behave quite differently.

Brown fat is actually healthy, it only appears is small amounts in adults, if at all, and actually burns calories.

White fat on the other hand is the bad stuff and it's predominant in overweight and obese people. It's the stuff that stores all those excess calories, gives off the wrong hormones, and contributes to a myriad of diseases.

Brown fat is a type of fat found in small amounts in the necks and collarbones of adults and in larger amounts in most infants.

Enter Beige Fat

The Dana-Farber findings published in the journal Cell explains that beige fat is scattered in pea-size deposits beneath the skin near the collarbone and along the spine. But rather than acting as an inert energy store as white fat does, beige fat actually burns calories.

Both beige fat and brown fat has an abundance of mitochondria, the tiny power plants of the cell that convert food into energy and generate heat, hence controlling weight.

Another benefit of exercise in weight loss. There is evidence suggesting exercise converts nasty white fat into calorie gobbling beige fat.

There is a direct correlation to the supply of both the good brown fat and beige fat and physical exercise (and to a lesser degree shivering caused by cold). This could be why more brown fat and perhaps more beige fat is present in people who are fit and physically active versus those who are sedentary.

Exercise as a Trigger to Convert Bad Fat to Good

Exercise gets a lot of credit in reducing the bad white fat. Extended cardiovascular exercise burns off excess calories, and strength building add muscles that eats fat around the clock.

But there's a theory that exercise may have yet another benefit, that of converting white fat to beige fat and thus further reducing more white fat, kind of a cannibalization process.

Exercise releases a hormone called irisin which then converts ordinary white fat cells into the good beige ones

Posting date: 07/21/2012

Source: Liz Neporent, ABC News

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