Unit 14: Overview of treatment
The main form of fat cell in the body, this is what most people think of when they talk about fat. Also called ‘white adipocytes’ these fat cells are white, thanks to low density of mitochondria (microscopic fat burning power plants) and blood vessels.
The cells store fat in the form of triglycerides, padding your energy reserves and body. White fat is the largest energy back up in the body and provides cushion for our organs and external body structure.
What your clients need to know in order to lose weight:
While some white fat helps promote hormonal health and boosts levels of the feel-full hormone leptin, too high levels of white fat can contribute to leptin resistance. When the body is faced with consistently high levels of leptin, as a result of excess white fat gain.
Since most of your non-essential fat is white, you can tell if you’ve got too much or too little white fat by measuring the body fat percentage. In women, total body fat percentages of 16 to 23 are often considered good. Levels of more than 30 are typically classified as overweight.
Brown Fat:
Brown fat is the opposite of white fat, brown fat burns rather than stores energy. Its energy burning capabilities and brown colour are both due to the fact that it’s packed tight with mitochondria. Those mitochondria burn fatty acids to generate, heat and help keep the body at 98.6 degrees. Only prove to exist in humans in the past decade, brown fat levels are especially high in babies.
While trying to lose weight the verdict is still out on whether or not you can convert white fat into brown adipose tissue, but it is clear that by increasing the activity of your bodies existing brown fat, you can boost your ability to burn calories from white fat. Exactly how to do that is still unclear, though.
One Harvard study shows that hanging out in an environment cooled to 60.8 degrees for 10 days straight increases brown fat activity (although it didn’t increase actual levels of brown fat). While it’s likely a good idea to keep your home cool, especially while you sleep.
Beige Fat:
Beige fat looks and acts like a cross between white and brown fat, but research suggests that beige fat is its own unique cell type, rather than a midpoint on the white to brown spectrum. Research does also suggest that white fast can convert into beige fat.
Subcutaneous Fat:
Subcutaneous fat is the layer fast found right underneath our skin. About 90% of fast in our body is in the form of Subcutaneous fat. A combination of Wight, beige comma and Brown fast, and a certain amount of subcutaneous fat is healthy. But, again, too much of the white variety can spell trouble by throwing off hormone levels and sensitivity.
The most common methods of measuring subcutaneous fat levels is a skin fold test in which a professional pinches your ‘fat’ with calliper’s. It’s not exactly fun, but it’s not painful, and many gyms and healthcare professionals are trained to perform the tests.
What other people may call ‘belly fat’ visceral fat is white fast that is stored within the abdominal cavity around several organs such as the liver, pancreas, heart comma and intestines rather than right under your skin like subcutaneous fat. Researchers have found that visceral fat secrets a protein called retinal-binding protein 4, which has been shown to increase resistance to insulin, leading to glucose intolerance and type 2 diabetes. Hi visceral fat storage has also been linked to breast cancer, collateral cancer, stroke and Alzheimer’s disease.
While a visceral fat responds to the rules of caloric balance, just like subcutaneous factors, research shows that is particularly sensitive to the inflammatory effects of processed foods. Meanwhile, evidence shows that a diet rich in unrefined foods, protein, unsaturated fatty acids, Whole grains and fibre can significantly reduce visceral fat levels. As can getting the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep a night. A 2015 study found that strength training is more effective at preventing age related increases in Belfast compared to cardio.
