It's one of the most controversial words in the fitness industry. A word that can at the same time motivate you can also take you into a downward spiral. What is that word? That word is FAT
Adipose, tallow, lipid, lard whatever name you use. The word has strong emotional relevance in our society.
Although we are taught that FAT is detrimental to our health. Not all FAT is Bad. In fact some body fat is very helpful to our bodies so that it can function optimally.
For the purpose of this blog, I'm going to limit the topic today to a particular type of body fat that can help you to lose weight rather than keep it on your physique. This type of unique fat is called BROWN FAT.
This is vastly different from the non Brown Fat which can be white to yellow in appearance. This type of body fat is highly energetic. It has a rich supply of blood vessels and has a large number of mitochondria ( engines of the human cell ) and aids in maintaining your basal metabolic rate ( BMR ) of your body. The BMR is the " bodies ability to expend energy to maintain the bodies resting state". Namely when we are non active. We can alter our BMR through activity such as weight training, aerobic conditioning and the foods we choose to eat.
Brown Fat plays an essential role in maintaining our BMR. The metabolism of dietary oils ( triglycerides ) and Protein ( amino acids ) plus short and long chain sugars ( carbohydrates ) when synthesized in brown fat, can help like caffeine, too increase the BMR to become more efficient at burning consumed and stored energy.
Brown Fat has been linked to weight loss by eating foods rich in:
Ursolic Acid which is found in apple peels, cranberries, blueberries , plums and prunes and the herb oregano, thyme, lavender, peppermint can help boost brown fat activity.
We can also activate Brown Fat by..
exercising in a cooler environment. Cooler temperatures active your brown fat deposits in helping to boost metabolic activity in your body. Therefore, wearing clothing that exposes the arms, legs and torso to the environment can stimulate brown fat activation. Hence "shivering" the attempt to warm up the body when the outside environment is cold. Is a form of brown fat activation.
Our bodies have small deposits of brown fat namely, the arm pits, the groin, the neck, kidneys, and the upper back area where there is high heat loss and having brown fat in those areas can help maintain heat in our bodies there by maintaining our BMR.
I wanted to share this information with you because when we talk about weight loss and eliminating excess calories namely FAT we have to be conscious of the fact that all FAT is not the same. Diet restrictions and not refueling our bodies can affect stored energy. Although the goal is to reduce stored energy in the form of FAT we don't want to compromise the FAT that can be assisting us on the very endeavor to purse our ideal body weight.
At Next Level Fitness, we are striving to help clients in our neighborhood, the Grand Lake area of Oakland, CA stay as healthy as possible minimizing injuries and increasing our bodies fitness potential. We work with self motivated people both young and old to achieve fitness success
If you have questions. Please email me or talk to me at your next session.
Yours in Fitness,
Next Level Fitness
A.Pigott DC
