The more fat you have, the harder it is to burn fat
The more fat you have, the more your body produces a protein that inhibits the ability to burn fat. An international team of researchers have published a study in Nature Communication that suggests a protein called sLR11 acts to suppress the process of thermogenesis. This is the mechanism by which brown fat cells keep us warm and ‘burn fat’. Using mice models, the researchers were able to switch off the gene which codes for this protein. Mice, as well as humans, increase their metabolic activity when switched to a high calorie diet, this means that they burn calories faster. However these mice without the gene responded with a much greater increase in metabolism, and were subsequently able to lose more weight.
The study looked at data from 1.2 million births from 2003 to 2011, which included 5,530 infant deaths (defined as a death before the first birthday). They also found that levels of sLR11 in the human body correlated with levels of total fat mass. The study brings hope to the use of thermogenesis as a target for obesity therapy, and related co- morbidities. This is because thermogenesis, when controlled properly, offers a way of disposing of fat in a relatively safe manner. The study also sheds light on the problem of many overweight individuals not being able to lose weight, as they have more sLR11, and therefore store more fat rather than burning it.
To learn more about obesity, its prevention, and its treatment please look at CCH’s Postgraduate Academic Courses in Obesity Care, and CPD Short Courses in topics such as childhood obesity and behaviour change, designed to up-skill health professionals in this vitally important, and often overlooked, area of care.
