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Turn up the Heat in Our Fat Cells

July 31st, 2008 by asithi · 8 Comments

Sometimes it is not about how much you eat and how much you exercise, but how effectively our bodies use the calories we ingest. Healthy eating and exercise is still important, but sometimes understanding how our bodies function allows us to focus on health rather than skinny. Check out my previous post that breakdown the calorie expenditure in our bodies for more information about energy output. This post is a follow up to the breakdown of calorie expenditure in our bodies by discussing our ability to lose weight when the body’s normal function to produce heat is hindered and how to boost our thermogenesis.

Thermogenesis – Why is heat important?
Thermogenesis is the amount of heat given off by our bodies in response to our environment. For example, if we are cold, our bodies naturally heat up to protect us from freezing. Or when we are in a fight or flight situation, our bodies naturally heat up in case we need the energy to fight to the death or outrun our enemies.

When our metabolism or thermogenesis is impaired, we lose one of our bodies’ natural ability to burn calories. Imagine a lake with one stream flowing in and two streams flowing out. The lake represents our bodies, the inflowing stream represents our eating, and the two out flowing streams represent our metabolism and thermogenesis. When in balance, the lake stays the same level. But when either out flowing stream is blocked, the water rises and starts to flood the shores. When either our metabolism or thermogenesis is blocked then we start to gain weight.

Lean individuals immediate convert 40% of the calories they consume into heat. Overweight individuals only convert 10% of the calories they consume into heat. Thermogenesis is one of the body’s key weight control mechanism.

Why is the color of your fat important?
The common white and yellow fat in our bodies are the stored fuel. The brown fat (brown adipose tissue) is the furnace. Our body has to breakdown the fat, protein, and carbohydrate into adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and heat in the mitochondria before our bodies can use the energy. The brown fat in our bodies is metabolically active because they contain a large number of mitochondria.

Brown fat is located deep in the body, near the shoulder blades, down the spine, and adjacent to the heart and kidneys (the vital areas to keep warm). When we are healthy, brown fat accounts for 25% of the heat generated in the body, but are only 0.5%-5% of our total body weight.

Why do we lose brown fat?
As we age, we naturally lose brown fat. Notice how infants are always so warm and cuddly? Infants have the most brown fat to help stabilize their body temperature when we are most vulnerable to the changes in our environment. In some cases, brown fat becomes deactivated by factors such as:

1. Excessive exercising or fasting.
Excessive exercising or fasting can deplete our existing brown fat. The fuel burners are the muscle mass and brown fat. When we put our bodies in a famine situation (even self induced ones), the first thing it does is get rid of the fuel burners in order to conserve calories (our bodies have no way of knowing when we will eat again). Don’t you just love our survival instinct?

2. A deficiency in the essential fatty acid.
Without adequate amounts of essential fatty acid (yes, there is a reason why they are essential), the furnace turns cold and becomes inactive. This could be a reason why individuals are unable to lose weight when they cut out all fat from their diet. Not all fat are unhealthy!

3. Age and genetics.
We are born with a certain amount of brown fat. Although there are ongoing researches on reactivating or even producing brown fat, it will be many years before we benefit from them.

4. Medication.
We all know individuals who have taken medication and gain weight. It just all depends on how our bodies react to the drug. Some drugs hinder how brown fat burn calories by interfering with the mitochondria’s ability to produce heat.

How do we turn up the heat?
1. Exercise
Exercise burn up 15%-30% of the calories we consume daily. Weight training becomes vital after the age of 50. Increase our muscle mass, increase our metabolism, regardless of our brown fat levels.

2. Start taking plant based gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) omega-6 fatty acid.
There are two essential fatty acid – omega-3 (I have discussed this previously) and omega-6. There are strong evidence supporting omega-3’s claim to fame, but what people do not understand is that it is the ratio (1:1 to 1:4) and source of omega-3 and omega-6 that produce optimal benefit to our health.

Linoleic acid (LA), an omega-6 fatty acid, is found in cooking oils and processed foods in our modern diet. LA converts into gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) in our bodies. The GLA is then converted into mostly arachidonic acid (AA) and some dihomogamma-liolenic acid (DGLA). AA promotes inflammation in our bodies. We get more than enough of LA converted GLA from our love of processed food.

However, GLA that is found primarily in plant-based oils converts mostly into DGLA. That is what we want more of. The plant based GLA omega-6. GLA is available directly from evening primrose oil (EPO), black currant seed oil, and borage oil.

3. Drink green tea.
Any paragraph discussion I offer is going to appear shallow compared to the many articles on the internet offering in-depth information. Besides I am bias with my low tolerance for caffeine and my love for tea.

4. Try drinking yerba mate?
I have not tried this yet. But the thermogenesis boost from this tea comes from a compound called mateine, which is a close relative of caffeine without the side effects. According to William I. Lengeman III at epicurean.com, this tea is an acquired taste - “a combination of lightly smoked wood, weak coffee and flavored hay.” I might try this if I ever come across it at a festival, but I am not sure I would go out of my way looking for it.

5. Eat garlic, red pepper, and curry.
The health benefits of garlic are well documented. In a study where two groups of animals were fed identical high fat diets and where one group was given garlic powder, the weights of the garlic group were significantly lower. Amounts of brown fat and mitochondrial protein of the garlic group were also greater – all indicators of metabolic and fat-burning activity. I would try to incorporate garlic into my regular eating habits rather than eat large amounts of garlic at a short period of time in hopes of weight loss. Too much of anything is not good. Aside from the bad breath and body odor, too much garlic might lead to a thinning of the blood similar to the side effects of aspirin.

Research found that capsaicin in red pepper prevents immature fat cells from becoming full-fledged fat cells.

Curry contains hydroxycitric acid (HCA). Research found that HCA may promote fat burning by indirectly inhibiting the enzymes in the formation of fat so that more fat is burned rather than stored. So the next time you are at an Asian restaurant, you might want to give curry a try.

Until next time and thanks for stopping by.

PS. How do you like the new look on my blog?