Metabolic Health
Reduce Visceral Fat and Increase Brown Fat with Two Practical Steps
Knowing the health risks of visceral fat and understanding the benefits of brown fat by following practical tips
Improving Fat Metabolism with Two Practical Approaches
Scientific studies indicate that visceral fat accumulation poses serious health risks. In contrast, brown fat provides significant benefits. The medical literature informs us of two types of body fat, namely visceral and subcutaneous.
The critical difference is the position and chemical composition of the fat. For example, visceral fat exists around the abdominal organs. Yet, subcutaneous fat exists under the skin and the outer parts of the abdominal area.
Visceral fat is publicly known as belly fat as it covers organs such as the stomach, liver, kidneys, intestines, pancreas, and heart.
This stored white fat creates serious health risks for conditions such as heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and even some cancers. They are commonly known as metabolic diseases.
I introduced the metabolic syndrome symptoms and causes in multiple articles before. Therefore, I won’t repeat them in this story.
Here is the link to the latest article titled Defeat Metabolic Syndrome and Slim Down Waistline with Three Tips. Metabolic health is critical to preventing severe health conditions. It is also essential to maintaining a healthy weight, muscle, bone density, and fat profile.
Brown fat is remarkably found in babies.
However, recent studies indicate that adults can also have brown fat, especially around the neck and shoulders, and smaller amounts around the kidneys, vasculature, and heart. More importantly, it can increase brown fat and reduce white fat.
As brown fat has more mitochondria, it can utilize fat molecules as an energy source. In other words, brown fat can help us reduce fat by burning more calories, as it is a thermogenic organ. You can learn to improve mitochondrial health in this article titled: 12 Tips to Get Denser Mitochondria for Joyful Energy.
Without going into details, I provide a two-pronged approach to reducing visceral fat and increasing brown fat in this article.
I offer five takeaway points summarising the critical points of this visionary, well-documented, and proven approach. I also provide links to published articles providing details of these tips at the end of the story.
1 — Practical Tips to Reduce Visceral Fat
The most important factor in reducing visceral fat and having a better fat profile is to make the body insulin sensitive.
As a significant risk factor for metabolic diseases, insulin resistance is the key factor to consider for reducing visceral fat.
The first viable option to make the body insulin sensitive is to balance blood glucose as the pancreas creates insulin to reduce blood glucose. In a nutshell, the lower the blood glucose, the less insulin is secreted.
To make the body insulin sensitive, we have several options. The first option is to reduce refined carbs, such as food that can quickly turn to sugar.
The second option is to increase healthy fat as an energy source. Even though one gram of fat has almost two times more calories than one gram of carbs, the pancreas creates significantly less insulin when eating healthy fats.
Protein also increases insulin secretion but not as much as refined carbs. We cannot sacrifice protein as they are the essential building block of the body.
However, it is possible to sacrifice refined carbs as they are not essential for the body. Some fats like omega-three are also essential for the body as they cannot be produced without dietary or supplemental intake.
The third option to make the body insulin sensitive is spending energy by moving the body, also known as exercise. When we move the body, muscles need more glucose so the insulin can carry it from the bloodstream delivering to the muscles.
When muscles respond to the insulin signals, the body becomes insulin sensitive. As we keep exercising regularly, we can prevent insulin resistance.
The fourth option to prevent insulin resistance is to reduce elevated cortisol hormone. The body creates cortisol to manage stress. So the less stress in our life, the less cortisol is released.
The key mechanism cortisol affects insulin is its use of glucose which necessitates insulin. Studies indicate that we cannot burn belly fat when our cortisol levels are too high.
The fifth option to prevent insulin resistance and make the body more insulin sensitive is going into a fat-adapted state. There are two viable options to gain a fat-adapted state.
The first one is consuming our food in a specific window. It is known as time-restricted eating or intermittent fasting, which might also change the brain chemistry favorably.
The second option is consuming more healthy fat and fewer carbohydrates. It is known as a ketogenic or high-fat, low-carb diet. There are also fast-mimicking diets.
2 — Practical Tips to Increase Brown Fat
The most prominent way to increase brown fat is through thermogenesis. In other words, when we expose the body to cold air or water, it can change and have a chemical and hormonal effect.
For example, the body produces norepinephrine when it senses cold temperatures. Norepinephrine receptors can signal mitochondria to create energy. Therefore, brown fat might burn more calories contributing to insulin sensitivity.
There are various practical ways to create cold exposure. One way is spending time outside in cold weather. However, this might not be possible for everyone due to environmental factors.
So the second option is using cold water. Some alternatives are cold showers and ice baths. However, since cold water creates significant stress in the body, this might not suit everyone. Therefore, medical supervision is essential before using cold showers or ice baths to prevent health risks.
The second option to increase brown fat and decrease white fat molecules is intense exercise in the form of resistance training or high-intensity interval training.
Studies indicate that natural bodybuilders and sprint athletes have more brown adipose tissues than sedentary people.
For example, this review paper points out that “exercise induces browning of white fat tissues through various secreted factors and mechanisms. However, the physiological explanation for this process is unclear.”
As resistance and high-intensity training put the body in a stressful situation, this approach also requires medical supervision.
As a caution, intense exercises might not suit everyone, especially can be problematic for people with underlying health conditions.
Therefore, before starting an intense exercise regime, it is essential to obtain advice from qualified medical professionals.
The third option, which is still controversial and underresearched, is the thermal effects of some food.
For example, a review paper in Frontier’s Physiology journal summarized the current knowledge of some dietary compounds that have been shown to promote brown adipose tissue activation and white adipose tissue browning with subsequent beneficial health effects.
The paper mentioned nutrients such as resveratrol, curcumin, green tea, capsaicin, omega-3 fatty acids, and menthol.
However, as the study concluded, despite the promising data from animal models or cell lines, these findings need to be validated in humans by further large clinical trials with a relatively long-term follow-up period and considering factors such as ethnicity, genetics, and lifestyles. So we don’t know much, but it is a possibility.
Takeaways to Reduce White Fat Molecules and Increase Brown Fat Ones
1 — Find ways to maintain a healthy blood glucose level, e.g., consuming less refined carbs, increasing healthy fats, and eating more nutrient-dense food with adequate protein. Different people need different amounts of protein.
2 — Make the body insulin-sensitive with a nutritious diet, regular exercise, quality sleep, and less stress by preventing elevated cortisol levels that can improve sleep quality.
3 — Enter the fat-adapted state using time-restricted eating and consider ketogenic or fast-mimicking diets. Fasting and ketogenic diets might not be for everyone; therefore require advice and support from qualified medical professionals.
4 — Expose the body to cold temperature gradually with advice and support from qualified health care professionals. Cold showers can be beneficial.
5 — Consider resistance and high-intensity training with advice and support from qualified health care professionals.
When we lose substantial fat, we may end up loose skin. To address this undesirable situation, I shared my experience of dealing with hanging skin effectively and solving it with practical tips. I hope you find it helpful.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
If you enjoyed this story, you might find more details about fat metabolism in the following articles.
Three Tips to Eliminate Insulin Resistance and Shrink Waistline
3 Nutritional Mistakes Caused My Metabolism to Malfunction, Inducing Fat Gain & Weak Muscles
Here is a story summarising my 15 years of health and fitness journey.
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