Exciting new discovery white or brown fat

All of us know that a healthful diet and exercise are important to our health; and all of us know that exercise will burn calories. So it’s clear that the more exercise we get and the more calories we burn the more likely we are to remain fit and maintain a healthy weight. The more calories we eat and the fewer calories we burn, the more quickly we become fat and fatter. Think of all that snowy white fat pushing our bellies out, enlarging our thighs and giving us double or triple chins. Notice I said snowy “white” fat because that’s what it is. Almost all of our fat is made up of white fat cells that store calories and are very difficult to break up. But there’s another kind of fat called brown fat that’s made up of brown fat cells. Brown fat cells actually burn calories rather than store calories. Don’t we all wish that most of our fat was made up of brown fat cells instead of white fat cells?

Now a new study has revealed the reason why exercise will help us burn calories even when we’re not exercising. A study in the Journal of Nature published online in January 2012 revealed that exercising muscles produces a recently discovered hormone called “irisin”. The importance of this hormone is that it actually converts white fat cells into brown fat cells. So what does that mean? Well, white fat cells store calories and brown fat cells actually burn calories, even while we’re resting. So when we exercise our muscles they produce more irisin and the irisin causes white fat cells to become brown fat cells and burn calories…again, even when we’re resting. This is of extreme importance to those of us who are overweight and even more particularly for those of us who have type II diabetes…because insulin sensitivity is also increased.

At Nifty after Fifty we design your exercise program to improve your heart health, your balance and your strength…to improve the management of any chronic disease and to prevent falls and fractures. Now we know we’re changing your white fat into brown fat. Good for us and Good for you.