Brown Fat

My knee jerk reaction, as always, was wrong. When I read the news this morning that scientists have found a way for you to lose excess weight by doing NOTHING, I sniffed a scam. http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20090407/can-brown-fat-make-you-thin Sure, another pill, diet or program that takes your money in barter for a placebo. I am going to say this again (and then again, and then again again): THE HARDER THE EFFORT THE GREATER THE REWARD. If you are the last person on earth still thinking that you can lose weight, build muscle, increase cardio fitness (all the while controlling stress and building your immune system) by taking a pill, or eating nothing but rhubarb and radish, or by doing 1,000 sit-ups a day, please, please, PLEASE send that wasted money to me, and not those "as seen on TV" scammers. The only way is hard work folks. And lots of it.

So imagine my mirth when I see this article on brown fat. How it generates heat and uses white fat (bad) as fuel to do so. So, you say, can we dedicate the brown to eat the white, thereby reducing the ratio of overall fat content and accomplishing the slacker objective of losing weight without exercise? Simply put my dear friends, no we cannot. Nice try and a great headline, but it doesn't work. Yet.

Maybe one day in the 23rd Century, when we evolve a little more, it will, but for today and the rest of your lifespan, you are going to have to do it the old school way, e.g. Frequent visits to Max.

I did however, take from the finding that brown fat is used to generate, control and regulate body heat, primarily in babies and seniors (because they can't do it for themselves), leading me to the conclusion that we can use this (and have been) in our training. Spin in a cold room, and ride in the sleet and rain. We then use what remaining brown fat we have to heat the body as we make yet another assault up the hill where my good buddy Max awaits, humored as always by all these silly human attempts to find the easy way up.

If you have never read the story of Andy Hampsten, it is required reading II: http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=1827