Whether it was to shed the freshman 15 or get summer-ready, almost everyone has at some point looked for a way to burn fat and calories. A solid mix of cardio, weight training, and a calorie deficit is a good starting point. But what if your body could burn fat even while at rest?
Scientists already know that having more muscle helps you burn calories passively, but a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests there’s another player: brown fat.
As it turns out, brown fat, the type of body fat that keeps you warm in cold conditions, might also hold the key to improved metabolism and insulin sensitivity.
"The pathway we've identified could provide opportunities to target the energy expenditure side of the weight loss equation, potentially making it easier for the body to burn more energy by helping brown fat produce more heat," said senior author Irfan Lodhi, PhD, a professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism & Lipid Research at WashU Medicine.
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While scientists have long known that brown fat generates heat, this new study in mice discovered a “backup heater” inside the cells.
These backup heaters are known as peroxisomes, small structures in cells involved in breaking down fatty acids, synthesizing cholesterol and bile acids, and neutralizing harmful reactive oxygen species like hydrogen peroxide—all of which are crucial for metablosim.
When the body gets cold, peroxisomes multiply and help brown fat burn energy and stay warm. Mice with more of this backup system stayed warmer, tolerated the cold better, and maintained healthier weights on high-fat diets, while mice without it struggled to stay warm and gained more weight.
So what does this mean for people?
"While our studies are in mice, there is evidence to suggest this pathway is relevant in people," Lodhi said. "Prior studies have found that individuals with higher levels of these fatty acids tend to have lower body mass indices. But since correlation is not causation, our long-term goal is to test whether dietary or other therapeutic interventions that increase levels of these fatty acids or that increase activity of ACOX2 could be helpful in dialing up this heat production pathway in peroxisomes and helping people lose weight and improve their metabolic health."
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