Turn Up Your Body's Fat Burning Ability

Did you know that our bodies contain two kinds of fat? Yellow and brown fat. The yellow fat is the kind that clings to your bones, while the brown fat will actually help burn up the yellow fat, according to Ellen Kamni, author of An Alternative Medicine Definitive Guide to Weightloss: 10 Ways to Shed Unwanted Pounds.

That means if your body contains more brown fat than yellow fat, your body is a fat burning machine. But if you're one of those people that can't seem to lose weight even while restricting calories, your body probably has more yellow fat than brown. Compared to men, women in general have more of the inactive yellow fat insulating the body in order to reproduce.

To turn up the body's fat burning ability, Kamhi recommends supplementing with gamma linolenic acid (GLA), an essential fatty acids. She suggests taking 500 mg of GLA daily in the form of evening primrose oil, black currant oil, hemp oil or borage oil.

The other kind of fat Kamhi recommends consuming to turn on the body's thermogenic furnace is medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) such as grapeseed oil or virgin coconut oil (see recent post on coconut oil). She recommends one to two tablespoons a day.

Cayenne pepper, ginger and cinnamon are not only delicious spices to add flavor to food, but they also can break down fat. And adding a cup or two of green tea or yerba mate to your meals can also turn up the body's metabolic rate and ability to break down fat cells.

Two supplements to consider taking are ginseng and hydroxycitric acid (HCA), which studies have found to help encourage weight loss by suppressing the appetite. Additionally, HCA lowers the production of cholesterol and fatty acids, blocks the conversion of carbohydrates to fat, and activates the body's fat burning capability.

Of course, if you really want to burn the yellow fat, remember that exercise is paramount to any weight loss regimen.

Sources:
An Alternative Medicine Definitive Guide to Weight Loss: 10 Ways to Shed Unwanted Pounds by Ellen Kamhi (Celestial Arts, Berkeley, California). 2007.