"Brown" Fat Key To Weight Loss?

Studies Show Type Of Fat Found In Newborns Helps Burn Calories

(WebMD)  New discoveries surrounding a type of "good" fat that promotes the burning of calories could one day lead to better treatments for obesity, researchers say.

Unlike more recognizable white fat, which stores surplus energy, brown fat burns energy to generate heat.

Newborn babies have brown fat -- presumably to help regulate their body temperature -- but adults are believed to have little.

Researchers have studied brown fat for several decades in the hope that unlocking the mysteries of the unique fat could result in treatments to speed up metabolism and promote weight loss .

Two new studies to be published tomorrow in Nature may bring them closer to that goal.

"I really do believe that promoting brown fat growth is a plausible approach to weight control," researcher Bruce Spiegelman, PhD, of Harvard University's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, tells WebMD. "To me it is attractive because of its simplicity. If more of our fat were brown fat, the mouse studies suggest that we would be leaner and better able to resist obesity."


Brown Fat Derived From Muscle

In earlier research, Spiegelman and colleagues identified what he calls a "master switch" in mice, which promotes the production of brown fat.

In their latest animal studies, the researchers showed that the molecular switch, known as PRDM16, regulates the creation of brown fat from immature cells and that knocking out PRDM16 turned them into muscle cells.

"We showed that brown fat and white fat have completely different origins," he says. "Brown fat is derived from muscle. That was a huge surprise."

In the second study, researchers from Harvard's Joslin Diabetes Center described a different trigger for brown fat.

Yu-Hua Tseng, PhD, and colleagues identified the protein BMP-7, which is known for promoting bone growth, as a growth factor for brown fat.

In mouse studies, the researchers found that mice genetically altered to have no BMP-7 protein had less brown fat as they developed than non-altered mice.

And developing mice treated with BMP-7 ended up with more brown fat than untreated mice and had greater energy expenditures.

Tseng tells WebMD that her lab is now studying the impact of long-term BMP-7 induction on body composition of mice.

"The hope is that this research will lead to better ways to treat obesity, especially for people who are overweight because of their genes," Tseng says. "Right now, there are not many good options for these people."


Brown Fat: Unanswered Questions

In an editorial accompanying the two studies, obesity researcher Barbara Cannon, PhD, of Stockholm University, noted that while the two studies answer some questions about the production of brown fat, they raise others about the role of BMP-7 and PRDM16 in obesity and weight control.

"Answers to these questions would take us a step closer to the ultimate goal of promoting the brown fat lineage as a potential way of counteracting obesity."

Spiegelman tells WebMD that he believes obesity treatments that promote the production of brown fat could be a reality in as little as a decade.

"We know that we can stimulate the production of brown fat in mice," he says. "It is not unreasonable to think that we can also do this in humans."

[displeased]

Would that mean that we could legitimately say "it''''s just baby fat". I''''m so glad we have nothing better to spend our money on.
Posted by sereptaann

It''s research to try and help people lose weight or avoid weight gain thus preventing obesity related diseases. Something that is becoming an epidemic in our country. Duh!

Of course studies like this could generate other discoveries that, perhaps one day, some of your relatives from future generations will benefit from.

[sereptaann]

Would that mean that we could legitimately say "it''s just baby fat". I''m so glad we have nothing better to spend our money on.

[cfin5]

Posted by toldyouso12 at 12:07 AM : Aug 22, 2008----- I''m in my mid forties. Never had anything like what you said done in my life,......except some stitches and bandaids for pulling stunts. My Grandmother lived till her nineties, had sixteen kids, died of no disease. She wanted to as she told me she was tired. Her diet was worse than mine to make my point. My Dad eats the same way, he had his checked because of work required physicals every once in a while. He doesn''t think the doctors believed him when he told them his diet after his cholesterol was shown to be low. I think all this formula stuff for good health, other than junk foods getting overate, is all hooey.

[smurfcrusher]

Yeah... I guess if I was a newborn, I wouldn''t weigh anywhere near as much as I do now.

[toldyouso12]

Everything in moderation, it works for me anyhow as I''''m only 10 pounds the heavier than when a senior in High School. I eat what I feel like which is mostly considered "bad" (not junk food), but hardly ever over do it. Home grown potatoes fried in bacon grease or butter mixed in with eggs. Then I top that off with my Creole Bacon gravy, wash it all down with thick cowboy coffee. v
Posted by cfin5 at 09:57 PM : Aug 21, 2008


so ...how old are you? when is the last time you had a full blood panel done (check up on triglycerides and cholesterol? Many overweight people started out as skinny kids and teens and young adults and always bounced back, it was only as the hormonal changes that come in the 30s or 40s hit them, that they found their old habits resulting in weight gain. Humans lose their ability to burn fat as adequately around their 40s and begin to put on up to 10 lbs a year, even if their diet does not change.

[adlibr]

ARE THEY SAYING IN ORDER TO LOSE WEIGHT, WE SHOULD EAT NEWBORNS ?

[cfin5]

Everything in moderation, it works for me anyhow as I''m only 10 pounds the heavier than when a senior in High School. I eat what I feel like which is mostly considered "bad" (not junk food), but hardly ever over do it. Home grown potatoes fried in bacon grease or butter mixed in with eggs. Then I top that off with my Creole Bacon gravy, wash it all down with thick cowboy coffee. With this, I can literally work like crazy all day, even in the winter without getting hungry or slack minded. It is true, you are what you eat,.....that also means the worth in all things of your work depends how you prepare yourself wisely in things nutrition. I always pay attention and eat things I get a craving for that are natural. Folks, delete off that tired obesity making mentality and starting living your life,.....not sitting your life to waste......One other thing my father mentioned one day, he said "It ain''t what you eat that will always get you,.....it''s what eats you". So forgive liberally, and live conservatively.

[creeper00]

Would''ve been nice if they''d given us a clue as to how to increase our supplies of brown fat.

On second thought, I''m having enough trouble with the white kind.

[starleo146]

cut out corn syrup, fructose, sugar,trans fat sat fat and lo and behold no fat

[starleo146]

cut out corn syrup, fructose, sugar,trans fat sat fat and lo and behold no fat

[formrusmcsgt]

Decade after decade people hope they can eat like pigs without looking like pigs.........