Workout and Diet Advice for Women over 45

What a concept – if you have lots of brown fat you are a calorie burning machine!

Wait a minute – let’s look at all the facts.

• Scientists have known about brown Adipose tissue (“brown fat”) for many years.  Didn’t think adults had it, until they recently found it in specific areas of the body.  Using PET-CT scans, the presence of brown fat in adults has been proven to exist. http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/10/brown.fat.obesity

• Brown fat is activated in cold temperatures to burn calories for warmth.  So bundling up in the cold is unlikely to activate this tissue.
• Investigators found people had more of the fat in winter than other seasons.  So those of you in San Diego should head north for the winter if the objective is to get lean for that sixpack!
• Good news –  women seem to have more than men.   “Among women, 7.5 percent had patches of brown fat that were more than 4 millimeters in diameter, while 3.1 percent of men had similar patches.”   Interesting finding;  can we direct the brown fat specifically to focus on thighs?
• Younger and leaner people appear to have more  and more active brown fat than older or overweight people

Now let’s interpret the value of these findings:

• Can we do something to get more Brown fat?  Well, getting leaner appears to help  –  Hmmm  does that seem circular to you as well?  Before you can get the good fat that will help you burn calories and get lean you need to get lean……….. Well that is an incentive I guess.
• OK.  How about hanging out in the cold?  It appears that “the maximum amount of extra energy that people with relatively large brown fat deposits can burn probably tops out at about 500 calories.” What?  Freeze your ‘tush’, and the reward isn’t “eat whatever”?
• Bottom line  – the research is fascinating and the practical results are still in the future.  “While Cypess is excited about the possibility of drugs that help people burn more calories, he warned that such medicines wouldn’t allow people to slim down without eating healthy and becoming more active.”    So keep up the work outs and watch what you eat  –  this from all that revolutionary research?!

And Ladies,  chocolate doesn’t appear to translate into brown fat.