The word ‘fat’ can give you a little jump scare, especially when you are on the road to shed some of your weight. However, not every ‘fat’ is that scary or unhealthy. The brown fat found in your body is actually beneficial, as it protects your organs and keeps you happy and healthy.
The new research might leave you jaw-dropping, but this is what the scientists have found. Previously, it was believed that brown fat was only found in tiny animals and newborn babies, but scientists dug deeper and found that it is actually found in a certain number of adults throughout their lives, as brown fat helps burn calories.
You might have seen newborn babies who cannot shiver. That is because they are born with natural brown fat that helps them stay warm until they age and lose all that fat.
Well, the more you dig deeper, the more you will get to know the benefits of having brown fat in your body, so at a point, if you think all the fat in your body does not have any particular purpose and is meant to shed off only.
So, in this blog, let us talk more about brown fat and how to increase it naturally.
What is Brown Fat?
Brown fat or brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a special type of body fat. Unlike white fat, which pads our bodies and stores extra calories, brown fat burns energy rather than stores it. It is packed with mitochondria (the tiny powerhouses of cells), which generate heat.
That is the reason why more brown fat is often present in infants, who need additional warming to regulate their body temperature. A small amount of brown fat usually appears on the neck and shoulders in adults.
This particular type of fat plays a crucial role in determining how our body reacts to different environments, highlighting the complex ways our system has adapted to promote our overall senses.
What is the Difference Between Brown Fat and White Fat
People usually confuse the two types of fat found in our bodies. So, let’s get a clear picture of both the fats: white and brown.
Brown fat and white fat are two types of body fat that serve very different functions. White fat is the more prevalent type, mainly responsible for storing excess energy in large, pale cells that can be broken down for fuel when necessary.
This fat also protects organs and helps insulate the body, but if it is found in excess amounts, it is associated with obesity and various health risks. In contrast, brown fat is much less common and has a distinct role. It contains iron-rich mitochondria, which give it a darker colour and enable it to generate heat by burning calories. This process, known as thermogenesis, is especially beneficial in colder environments, helping to maintain body warmth without relying solely on muscle activity.
While white fat serves the body as an energy reserve, brown fat is a natural heater, actively burning calories instead of storing them. This difference has led to growing interest in brown fat as a potential strategy for weight management and enhancing metabolic health. This brown plays a role in calorie burning that white fat does not, unfortunately.
How to Increase Brown Fat Naturally – 5 Possible Ways
Increasing brown fat naturally is a goal for many who want to boost metabolism and support a healthy weight. Scroll down and take a look at the best 5 possible ways to increase the brown fat in your body.
Turn Down the Temperature
Lowering the temperature can be an unexpectedly effective method to stimulate your body to generate more brown fat. When exposed to cooler conditions, your body requires extra warmth, which activates brown fat and can even turn some white fat cells into calorie-burning brown fat. Studies suggest spending about two hours daily at around 66°F (19°C) may gradually enhance brown fat levels. Small changes, such as taking cold showers, setting your thermostat a few degrees lower, or enjoying the outdoors in cooler weather, can all have a positive impact.
These simple adjustments engage your body’s natural thermoregulation, helping to boost metabolism and support a healthy balance of fat cells over time.
Exercise
While talking about brown fat, it is clearly impossible if we don’t mention exercise on our list. Exercise is found to play a fundamental role in raising the activity of brown fat and, together with that, other benefits of physical activity such as muscle toning and a healthy cardiovascular system.
If you exercise, your body burns calories and releases irisin-a, a protein that converts white fat into a form that’s more like the good-fat type. This “beige” fat, though not brown, does share that calorie-burning characteristic for thermogenesis and aids in supporting metabolism. High-intensity activities and endurance activities are particularly good at inducing this process. Regular exercise can turn on more of your own brown fat, hopefully allowing your body to burn calories and regulate its temperature more effectively.
Balance your Diet
Maintaining a balanced approach toward eating is key to encouraging brown fat’s activities. Surprisingly, neurons in the brain that regulate appetite and signal when we are full also play a role in converting white fat to brown. It can be generalized by stating that when people eat just enough to satisfy their hunger and not too much, the neurons help activate them when they are sated in supporting the changeover from white fat to brown fat.
Whereas caloric restriction to the extreme halts this process, overindulgence will increase your white fat levels but suppress your brown fat’s caloric burning ability. Healthy nourishment with moderate and nutrient-rich meals that meet and do not exceed your body’s needs can, therefore, encourage the activity of your brown fat and promote a healthier metabolism.
Medications
Of course, there is the part about medications as well. Although there is not a magic bullet to improve brown fat as yet, at least some exciting possibilities are still under research.
Researchers are investigating existing medications, developed initially to treat other health conditions, to see if they might also stimulate brown fat production. Some diabetes and heart medications, for instance, show promise in activating brown fat cells or converting white fat into brown-like fat. Since this is a sensitive area, researchers are cautious about how certain drugs interact with brown fat, which they hope to tap into safely and effectively. Medical breakthroughs may offer new ways of supporting the activation of brown fat and initiating metabolic health.
Increase Melatonin Production Naturally
Melatonin is most significantly known to establish sleep, but it also contributes to the formation of beige fat, which is, like brown fat, constructed for burning calories. Instead of supplementing, experts advise boosting melatonin production naturally by embracing very ordinary lifestyle habits.
Limiting screen time at night, particularly from TVs and computers, helps signal your body that it’s time to produce melatonin.
Enough sunlight during the daytime encourages this process by developing your body’s natural rhythmic cycle. Adding foods rich in melatonin, like almonds, tomatoes, tart cherries, cardamom, and coriander, can also lightly nudge you in the right direction.
Conclusion!
Brown fat can be increased through the use of simple natural approaches to the increase in levels. Higher brown fat contributes to a higher metabolism, and you are, therefore, burning more calories. A few of the daily habits that contribute to improved activation of the body’s natural process to activate brown fat include cooler temperatures and exercise, healthy, balanced dieting and other lifestyle adjustments.