Scientists figure out how to make the body burn more fat

Have you ever thought how amazing if there was a way to program your brain to make your body burn the fats you ingested right after meals? For this is more or less what a group of scientists have just shown us that it is possible to do.

The discovery may hold great hope for treating obesity, which is already reaching world epidemic levels. This new study looked at the mechanisms that make our bodies choose to burn or store fat and, moreover, sought to understand how we use the energy from the food we eat.

The researchers sought to understand how the body transforms white fat, which stores energy, into brown fat, which is used to burn white fat. Our body can change the color of these fats and hence their function in our body so that it is possible to induce a fat burning.

Mechanisms

When we eat, the body releases insulin, and the brain signals us to start expending energy. When we are not eating, however, our brain causes brown fat to turn white, and so we store fat and energy. It sounds slutty, but in fact it happens so that our weight, whatever it may be, is stable.

This whole process is controlled by a “button-like” mechanism that activates every time we eat and helps our body regulate the way we consume and use fat.

The problem is that this switch, so to speak, doesn't work very well on obese people, and when they eat it, the button doesn't turn off, and the energy they ingest is stored, not spent.

Hope

"What happens in the context of obesity is that the switch stays on all the time, " said study manager Tony Tiganis of the Monash University Biomedicine Discovery Institute in a statement published in The Independent.

This is why obese end up burning less fat and accumulating even more, which only contributes to continuous weight gain. With this discovery, it is hoped to create a way to manipulate this switch so that it is turned off, and these obese people begin to lose weight.

Tiganis also explained that obesity is a worldwide problem that triggers other diseases, being responsible for the drop in life expectancy of people in modern history.

Even though these results are really exciting, the researcher says we are still far from being able to control this switch that causes the brain to burn energy instead of storing it. Anyway, it's nice to know that this may be possible someday. Until then, if the idea is to lose weight, it is best to consult an endocrinologist and a nutritionist.