Can Brown Fat Help You Burn Fat?

Do you ever remember watching or hearing Micahel Phelps, you know that guy who kicked butt in the Olympics not too long ago and broke almost every world record in each swimming event he participated in? Well I remember hearing a statement from him about how he burns around 12,000 calories a day from his training.

Pretty amazing right?

That equates to around 3 pounds of pure fat, give or take a little less or more. Therefore he needs to consume extreme quantities of food just to fuel his workouts, maintain weight and recover. But here’s the kicker, does his actual training really burn 12,000 calories…? Nope. The average person for example burns around 2,000-2,500 calories from running a marathon and this is not taking into account their excess post oxygen consumption levels for hours after.

If you’re not familiar with this term, all it means is a value that is correlated with metabolism and how much oxygen debt you incur through training and activity. The more you “throw” your body out of homeostasis, the more oxygen debt you incur and the higher your EPOC, therefore the more calories you will burn over a long period of time. So even though the average person burns a measly 2,000 calories by running a marathon, how can Michael Phelps go through 12,000 calories in the course of a day while only really spending a few hours in the water per 24 hour period? It’s through thermodynamics.

Without getting all scientific, thermodynamics is simply the study of the transfer of heat and of work from one form to another. And this phenomenon happens inside of our bodies as well in the form of burning calories which get’s released as heat and dissipated. Now here’s the cool thing that relates to fat loss and thermodynamics… Not too long ago researchers only believed we had one type of fat inside of our bodies, which is white fat. The nasty stuff that hangs off of our sides, our arms, etc…

But recently, they discovered that there is another type of fat inside of our bodies, and that’s brown fat. Brown fat was only thought to be in infants when they were born. It’s the stuff that helps them stay toasty and warm. You see, brown fat is actually metabolically active tissue. Here is an exact definition: “The function of brown adipose tissue is to transfer energy from food into heat. And it does this by actively burning up glucose and fat.” – PubMed

Studies also show that brown adipose tissue is activated primarily when the organism needs heat a good example is when you get caught outside in the cold without a coat on. Your brown fat becomes activated, increasing metabolic activity through the burning up of glucose and fat to product heat so you don’t die from cold exposure. Scientists also discovered that the majority of brown fat is present around the front part of our necks, chest, and the back of our necks. This makes sense since our hypothalamus resides in this area, which is responsible for thermoregulation (regulating your body temperature).

So the easiest way to activate brown fat to increase your metabolism and fat burning capabilities is through the use of cold exposure. This can be anything from taking walks during the winter time with just a t-shirt, laying an ice pack on the back of your neck for a period of 20 minutes every day, going for a nice long swim, ice baths, etc… Any type of cold exposure will do.

Now the sad thing about all of this is that there is not much anecdotal evidence of people doing this to lose weight. The only type I found was in Tim Ferris’ book The 4 Hour Body. I highly recommend it if you like reading about underground, odd and weird techniques to lose weight, build muscle, or just take your body to the next level. In the book he profiles a NASA scientist named Ray Cronise who discovered cold exposure and weight loss accidently by looking at Michael Phelps and his training methods vs caloric needs. He also discovered this while he was on a weight loss diet. The first 12 weeks of his diet and exercise program BEFORE cold exposure techniques, he went from 230 pounds down to 209 pounds.

Not bad since this equaled 1.75 pounds of fat lost per week. After he stumbled upon cold exposure and how it can relate to thermodynamics, he went from 209 pounds down to 182 pounds in only 6 weeks! Crazy stuff…and nothing changed in his diet program or exercise plan except cold exposure techniques. He took long walks in the cold, slept without the covers, and drank a gallon of ice water right after waking up. Now do you have to do any of this stuff? No not at all. It does seem like the more frequent and intense, the better the results. For example, instead of taking ice water baths, you can take cold showers instead. I know, it won’t be enjoyable, but something to try. My plan of action is to start off with cold showers for as long as I can take it.

I’ll also implement the ice pack method at night right before bed. Twenty minute walks out in the cold could also be used. All in all, this is pretty interesting stuff that I find fascinating. If you could significantly speed up fat loss from just exposing yourself to the cold and change nothing else, then why not? The body is a pretty cool thing and something scientists still haven’t figured out as evidence by this new research. I expect more about this information to come out in the mainstream in the near future. Then you’ll find drug companies hopping on the bandwagon too.

I’m also thinking that maybe the fastest way to drop a ton of body fat would be combination of a ketogenic diet + fast days + 1 cheat day + cold exposure = MASSIVE RESULTS

I have not seen the above combo used anywhere and would be interesting to hear about the results. In fact, I might do this in the near future when it starts to heat up a little bit and it’s time to look good in a bathing suit. Don’t worry I’ll let you know when I do and of course will keep detailed logs, pictures, etc…

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