Brown fat helps lose weight: Intestinal bacteria are key

Fat doesn't just accumulate in the body and cause obesity. If you can convert ordinary white fat into beige fat or brown fat, you can burn more calories! Foreign studies have found that cold weather can change the composition of intestinal bacteria, promote the production of more brown fat, and help lose weight.

Beige and brown, two dark-colored fats, have strong abilities to metabolize blood sugar and fat, and can also help keep the body warm. Babies have large amounts of brown fat in their bodies, but adults have relatively little brown fat, mostly in the neck. Generally speaking, people with more brown fat in their bodies tend to be slimmer. So, how do you increase brown fat?

Changing gut bacteria increases brown fat

The Daily Mail reported that exercise and cold temperatures promote more brown fat and beige fat, burning more calories. Research from the University of Geneva shows that exposure to cold environments can significantly change the composition of intestinal bacteria, promoting fat burning, enhancing blood sugar metabolism and reducing weight. This research has been published in the journal Cell.

Researchers say that gut bacteria can directly regulate our energy and help the body adapt to changes in environmental temperature. When we consume more calories than we burn, white fat accumulates, leading to obesity; but brown fat can burn calories to generate heat energy, cope with cold weather, and reduce weight at the same time.

Studies show that cold weather can change intestinal bacteria and help lose weight.

Cold changes gut bacteria to promote food metabolism

The researchers exposed mice to temperatures as low as 6 degrees Celsius for 10 days and found that this changed the mice's intestinal bacteria and prevented them from gaining weight. The researchers then transplanted these cold-induced gut bacteria into other mice raised in a sterile environment.

The results showed that these mice had improved blood sugar metabolism, increased tolerance to cold temperatures, and, because those intestinal bacteria could promote beige fat production, their weight decreased. However, after three weeks of exposure to cold temperatures, body weight began to stabilize.

Gut bacteria may allow mammals to extract more energy from their food to cope with the cold, researchers say. The report states that gut bacteria can influence how we metabolize different foods, and therefore affect our weight.