Cold Exposure Activates Brown Fat

People with brown fat were found to burn 15% more calories, revealed new study. Brown fat burns calories through fatty acid oxidation.

Short term cold exposure was found to help people with brown fat burn 15 percent more calories than those without, stated new small study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. The biggest activator of brown fat is moderate cold exposure.

"This data improves our understanding of how brown fat works in humans," said the study's corresponding author, Florian W. Kiefer, M.D., Ph.D., of the Medical University of Vienna in Austria. "We found that individuals with active brown fat burned 20 more kilocalories than those without."

Brown Fat to Fight Flab
Around 50 grams of white fat stores 300 kilocalories. In contrast the same amount of brown fat burns 300 kilocalories a day. Such is the magic of this good fat.

‘Brown fat burns calories through fatty acid oxidation and heat production and is considered a promising target in the fight against the obesity epidemic.’

The researchers identified two groups using a PET scan--those with and without active brown fat. They analyzed brown fat function and energy expenditure in these individuals before and after short-term cold exposure finding that the group with active brown fat not only burned significantly more calories but had a healthier fatty acid blood profile.

"We have to study human brown fat in more detail to see if this organ can protect us against metabolic and cardiovascular disease," Kiefer said.

Source-Eurekalert

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Brown Fat can Help Burn Energy in an Unexpected Way
Small clusters of brown fat cells in our bodies begin to burn up energy when exposed to sufficient cold or exercise. This form of fat can be active in adults, which can turn up the heat from cells to treat obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic conditions.