The perfect summer body takes time to sculpt, but soon the process could be made easier if scientists figure out a way to complement brown fat with the foods we eat.
Researchers at Nottingham University discovered that babies have a high content of brown fat in order to keep them warm after leaving the body.
Children were also shown to have stores of brown fat, however, the deposits appear to reduce as we get older.
While white fat is responsible for our expanding waistlines, brown fat helps to burn calories more rapidly as it generates heat through the body.
The study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, indicated that thermal imaging could be used to identify the level of brown fat among children and adults.
This would help researchers to discover what kinds of food aid weight loss, with the potential for food manufacturers to label foods with information on how effective the product would be for weight management.
Professor Michael Symonds and Dr Helen Budge were involved in the study and explained how the breakthrough could aid the fight against obesity.
The Telegraph quoted Dr Budge as saying: “Brown fat does appear to be present in higher amounts in larger people than in people of lower body weight, but we think the key difference is how active it is from person to person.
“The reason this is exciting is that if you ‘switch on’ brown fat and it uses up energy, then potentially that is one way of controlling body weight.”
Prof Symonds further explained that detailed food labels would enable slimmers to pick out products that would effectively speed up the amount of calories they burn.
While healthy eating habits are the best way to maintain a healthy shape, exercise also plays a crucial role in keeping our figures trim.
