Losing weight and fighting obesity, in particular, are some of the most popular subjects, as people are constantly looking for methods of obtaining great results quickly. There are tons of available diets, some of them good, some bad, but, unfortunately, there’s no magic formula for losing weight overnight. Well, except liposuction, of course, but that’s another story.
However, it appears that scientists made a surprising discovery: a simple cup of coffee can have some positive effects on humans’ brown fat functions.
To be more specific, brown fat – or good fat, as it’s also known – helps our bodies turn nutrients into energy, thus generating heat. In contrast, other types of fat, known as yellow or white fat, result from storing calories in excess.
Therefore, knowing that it’s impossible to have zero fat in our bodies, it’s obvious that brown fat deposits can actually help us have overall great health, maintain a lean silhouette, as well as proper body weight.
And how can we achieve this? Apparently, drinking one cup of coffee per day!
According to a study conducted at the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham and conducted by Professor Michael Symonds, caffeine has indeed an effect on thermogenesis or brown fat heat generation.
The study began with exposing adipocytes, the fat-storing cells, to caffeine, eventually noticing that this can significantly increase the levels of UCP1, but also boost the cells’ metabolism.
The next step was to validate the same changing on humans, so through thermal imaging, they were able to spot brown fat reserves in the human body, in the neck region, evaluating their overall heat-generating abilities.
It resulted that the effects of drinking a cup of coffee were similar to those of drinking water, but coffee can actually stimulate the temperature of the supraclavicular region. This is where a lot of brown fat accumulates, indicating thermogenesis.
“We need to ascertain whether caffeine, as one of the main ingredients in coffee, is acting as the stimulus or if there’s another component helping with the activation of brown fat. We are currently looking at caffeine supplements to test whether the effect is similar,” Prof. Symonds revealed.
The conclusion of this study could be considered a great start of a revolutionary weight management regime, as well as part of a glucose regulation program, able to prevent obesity or diabetes, as soon as the team will confirm which component is responsible for storing brown fat.
Besides helping you fight obesity, brown fat has way more benefits over one’s health, improving blood sugar control and blood lipid levels. Still, until this happens some time will pass, as there’s no way of stimulating such activity in humans.
Generally speaking, the study’s conclusions are amazing, as it was the first time when it was proving that something as plain as a cup of coffee can have direct effects on brown fat functions. Obviously, the potential implications are really big, since obesity is one of humanity’s major concerns, not to mention the constantly growing diabetes epidemic. Simply put, finding a way to stimulate brown fat can be a solution for a lot of health issues.
There are definitely people out there who are excited after hearing such news, as they are planning to rely on coffee for losing weight. As for those who want slightly faster results, they can opt for something like a massage, as it was proven that it destroys fat-storing cells. But its main purpose is definitely making you feel better!
At Maria’s Professional massage you can start on the path to having a healthier mind and body. Schedule and an appointment today and begin your transformation.
Picture Credit: Burst