White, brown and beige fat in the human body 0
Fat in the human body is not the same in structure. Having distinguished it by color, scientists emit white, brown and beige fat. How to lose weight, knowing their features, read the article.
I already wrote that, depending on the origin and location, there are three types of fat in the body: visceral, subcutaneous and fat, determined by gender. But fat can still be classified by its structure. According to this criterion, it can be of three types.
White fat
A white fat cell consists of one big fat drop. This fat is located on the hips, buttocks, around the waist, i.e. at the place of localization – this is fat, determined by gender. White fat is also subcutaneous fat. That is, this is exactly the fatty tissue that our body reserves for an emergency and which we do not like.
To get rid of white fat, it is necessary, as in the case of subcutaneous fat, and fat, determined by gender, at the same time use proper nutrition and physical activity.
Brown fat
Brown fat cells are made up of a few fat droplets. They contain many mitochondria, due to which these cells can consume a significant amount of oxygen. And without oxygen, fat cannot be used as an energy source.
The main function of brown fat is thermogenesis. That is, it is included in the work when it is necessary to “warm” the body. Most brown fat in animals that hibernate and, accordingly, can not raise the temperature due to motor activity.
In humans, brown fat is found in newborns and amounts to 5% of the total mass. It helps children maintain the necessary body temperature until other mechanisms are developed. Localization of brown fat – the area of the neck, shoulder blades, clavicles. However, very quickly a more perfect mechanism of temperature maintenance is formed in children – trembling, and gradually brown fat ceases to fulfill its function.
From the point of view of people who are watching their figure, this fat is preferred, since brown adipose tissue in the human body “voluntarily” seeks to be used for the benefit of our “warmth”. The question is different:
Is there brown fat in adults?
Science has been looking for the answer for a long time. For a long period of time, it was believed that brown adipose tissue was absent in adults. Then, at the beginning of the 20th century, it was nevertheless found in very small quantities in the area of the clavicles, neck and shoulder blades, but they did not come up with how to influence this fat and, ultimately, decided that it was impossible to activate it due to the small amount. They forgot about brown fat for a sufficiently long period of time.
But a turning point occurred in the 2008th year. The topic of brown fat has become relevant, as is often the case in science, by accident. Studies were carried out using positron emission tomography and found not only what they thought was brown fat in the body of an adult, but also an increase in the number of its cells with decreasing temperature.
Another feature was that the more “slim” a person’s body type was, the more brown fat was found in his body. From the point of view of everyday logic, this is not surprising, because brown fat provides the function of maintaining temperature in the body, and it is much more difficult for thin people to warm themselves.
It is not at all surprising that these features have not been discovered before. It just never occurred to anyone to conduct research at low temperatures.
After these discoveries, it was decided that brown adipose tissue cells are able to be synthesized from white with decreasing temperature. Maybe that’s when recommendations appeared in style: if you want to lose weight, you need to be in a cool room.
Beige fat
Later it still became clear that the fat found during research in adults has a structure different from brown. This type of connective tissue was called beige fat. The functions of beige fat are the same as brown fat – the formation of heat. In principle, everything that was said about brown fat in an adult is true, they just call it beige now and some clarifications have appeared regarding the mechanisms of its work. It was because of the introduction of the new concept that a great confusion began in the sources of information, because many still speak only of two types of fat – white and brown. And of course, it will take a long time to wait for a complete update of the information.
The myth that (now) beige adipose tissue is able to form from white has also vanished. In fact, beige fat has precursor cells that are located among white fat cells and simply “nap” until a factor appears that activates them. Then they quickly “wake up”, “grow” and begin to perform their functions.
