Your body has three different kinds of fat, and your body stores those fats in three different ways! They all have a job to do. Some of them are good fats, some are bad fats, and some are stubborn fats.
When they get out of balance, then your body gets out of balance. Are you having an “aha!’ moment about why you are having such a hard time losing or maintaining your weight?
There’s even fat that has been nicknamed stubborn fat if that gives you any clue why you can’t get that last little bit of fat off of your thighs or belly. Educating yourself about the six fats is the key to understanding how to manage your weight.
The Three Different Types of Body Fat
Fat is complicated, so different experts approach categorizing it in different ways.
The main types of fat include:
- White fat
- Brown fat
- Beige fat
And, your body stores them as:
- Essential fat
- Subcutaneous fat
- Visceral fat
In this article, let’s look at the good and bad for your overall health. Although you may think your goal should be to get rid of all fat, your goal should be to maintain a healthy balance of fats.
Brown Fat
Brown fat is good fat because it:
- Burns energy.
- Maintains your body’s core temperature.
- Is not a storage fat.
- Does not require you to manage it.
- Maintains essential fat at optimal levels to support its production.
White Fat
White fat is both good and bad fat. How is that possible?!
White fat:
- Stores energy.
- Maintains a healthy blood sugar balance.
- Helps manage hunger.
- Manages hormones.
However, too much white fat:
- Causes insulin resistance.
- Increases your risk for weight gain.
- Becomes stubborn fat on your:
- Hips
- Thighs
- Abdomen
Stubborn fat requires target training workouts that build muscle tissue and burn more calories than fat to manage it. White fat is made up of large, white cells stored under your skin or around your organs.
These fat cells are the body’s way of storing energy for later use. This type of fat also plays a large role in the function of hormones such as:
White fat is necessary for good health. However, too much white fat is harmful.
Beige Fat
Beige fat is good fat. When you expose your body to stress, your body transforms white fat into beige fat.
Healthy levels of beige fat:
- Support good brown fat production.
- Maintain your body’s core temperature by burning bad fat.
75 minutes of vigorous exercise a week, in addition to high-intensity interval training, can help white fat turn to beige fat.
How Does My Body Store Fat?
Essential Fat
Essential fat is an awesome fat! If you want a healthy body, then you need essential fat.
Essential fat plays a major role in:
- Hormone regulation, including hormones that control fertility.
- Vitamin absorption.
- Temperature regulation.
Essential fat isn’t the type you target for weight loss. In fact, females need about 10-12%, and men need 2-4% for good health.
Subcutaneous Fat
Subcutaneous fat is both good and bad fat. It is located just under the skin and accounts for approximately 90% of your overall body fat. This fat is responsible for the sex hormone estrogen and acts as a cushion between the muscles and the skin.
It can accumulate as stubborn thigh fat in women. Too much subcutaneous fat around the abdomen runs the risk of increased health complications. The body stores subcutaneous fat just in case you need it in an emergency, which makes it hard to get rid of.
The following helps burn off excess subcutaneous fat.
- Reducing calories
- Improving nutrition
- Using regular high-intensity exercise
A certain amount of subcutaneous fat is normal and healthy. But, too much can lead to imbalanced hormone levels and sensitivity. For very stubborn fat, no matter how much you diet and exercise, you may be a candidate for CoolSculpting or Kybella.
Visceral Fat
Visceral fat is bad. It hangs out in the abdominal area between the organs where it accumulates and secretes retinol-binding protein 4, which causes insulin resistance.
Providers link high levels of visceral fat to an increased risk of:
- Breast and colorectal cancers
- Stroke
- Diabetes
- Dementia
- Alzheimer’s disease
You can burn visceral fat by:
- Cutting out processed foods
- Increasing your intake of:
- Lean proteins
- Unsaturated fatty foods
- Whole grains
- Fiber
- Balancing your hormones
We’re Here to Help
If you’re still confused about why you can’t lose weight, we’re here to help. Sometimes losing weight requires a change in your diet and lifestyle habits. At other times, we may need to address your weight struggles through bio-identical hormone replacement therapy or even remove it manually using non-invasive techniques like coolsculpting.
Hormonal Root Causes – BHRT
One key to losing unwanted belly fat and increasing energy, clarity, and a better mood may lay with your hormones. We’re not saying that calories don’t matter. What we are saying is that hormones matter more because hormones control how efficiently your body burns calories.
Dieting doesn’t always work for women because diets fail to address the hormonal root causes common for weight loss resistance. Hormone imbalances like the following contribute to weight gain and weight loss resistance.
- Estrogen dominance
- Excess cortisol
- Low testosterone
- Insulin and leptin blockage
- Problematic thyroid
- Problems with the HPA (hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal) control system
So, you want to get your hormones back on track and get back to a healthy weight? Talk to us about bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT). BHRT uses bio-identical – or human identical – hormones derived from natural, plant-based hormones to bring your hormone levels back into balance.
Non-Invasive Technique – CoolSculpting
You’ve tried everything— personal trainers, every kind of diet on the planet, you even tried to meditate it away, but that last little bit of fat just won’t budge! We know you feel like you’re at the end of your rope with stubborn fat, but now is not the time to quit.
CoolSculpting is a non-surgical, scientifically proven way to freeze away fat. After one CoolSculpting session, you can see a 25% reduction in fat trouble spots like the:
- Flanks
- Abdomen
- Under the chin
Contact Us Today
Make an appointment today! Dr. Norton and her team will get to work on helping you better understand your options and the best course of treatment.