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Supplements to Turn White Fat Cells to Brown

By now, you’ve probably already read our post about brown vs white fat cells, but if not, you might want to read that article first to get an overview of white vs brown adipose tissue.

This article will go over turning white fat cells to brown, as well as what supplement turns white fat to brown fat — hint, there are many!

Jump there now:

• How Can I Activate My Brown Fat Cells?
• How to Turn White Fat Cells into Brown Fat Cells?
• Xandro Lab Supplements

How Can I Activate My Brown Fat Cells?

As our previous article discussed, brown fat helps the body produce heat which then warms our blood. It does this by breaking down sugar and molecules of fat in a process called thermogenesis, which helps us maintain our body temperature.

Why would someone want to activate their brown fat? Well, brown fat helps the body maintain body temperature, it produces and stores energy, burns calories and also helps control blood sugar and insulin levels.

So, let’s go over some ways to activate brown fat cells:

• Cold therapy: As you might guess, brown fat activates at cold temperatures, just before you start to shiver. You can take a cold shower, have an ice path or even just turn down the thermostat to help your body produce more brown fat to burn calories.
• Get more iron in your diet: Brown fat is actually rich in iron, so taking iron supplements or increasing your intake of foods rich in iron can help your body keep your fat cells healthy.
• Eat a healthy and well-balanced diet: Similarly, make sure you maintain the appropriate amounts of vitamins and minerals through a healthy diet to increase brown fat. Some research suggests eating foods that contain ursolic acid, which activates brown fat, including apples and dried fruit, may help. Also, eat plenty of nuts and seeds, green tea and fibre-rich foods.
• Exercise: As we mentioned in our previous article, exercise activates your body’s blood hormone, irisin, which tells white fat in your body to burn like brown fat.

Can You Turn White Fat to Brown Fat? Yes, numerous research studies are coming out about converting white fat to brown fat, with more studies undergoing, as well as ways to increase brown fat in the body. Let’s go over the research below.

How to Turn White Fat Cells into Brown Fat Cells?

Researchers are exploring how certain foods and dietary supplements can turn white fat into brown fat, which helps burn energy. Here are some promising compounds:

Capsaicin and Capsinoids

Capsaicin is the compound that makes hot peppers spicy, and capsinoids are similar compounds found in non-spicy red chili peppers. Both have been shown to help burn fat and increase energy expenditure.

How They Work:

Capsaicin and capsinoids interact with receptors in the gut, stimulating nerves that affect fat cells. This process boosts the production of proteins that help turn white fat into brown fat.

• Increased Fat Burning: Studies have found that capsinoids can help reduce abdominal fat and boost fat burning.
• Enhanced Energy: Capsaicin has been shown to increase resting energy expenditure.
• Activation of Brown Fat: Capsaicin and capsinoids promote the activity of brown adipose tissue (BAT), which helps burn more calories. This effect is linked to the activation of certain receptors (TRPV1) in the body.
• Increases BAT Activity: Capsaicin increases BAT activity and fat burning, especially when combined with cold exposure. It helps convert white fat to a brown-like state by affecting certain cellular pathways, such as promoting SIRT1, UCP1, BMP8B, and PPARy activity, and promoting the development of brown and beige fat cells.

Resveratrol

Resveratrol is a natural compound found in grapes, red wine, chocolate and peanuts. It has been studied for its potential in managing obesity and promoting fat loss by activating AMPK and SIRT1, which are key in turning white fat into brown fat and boosting fat metabolism.

How It Works:

• Reduces Fat Accumulation: Resveratrol has been shown to lower visceral fat and reduce fat cell formation in animal studies.
• Promotes Brown Fat: It helps convert white fat into brown fat by increasing the levels of certain genes and proteins involved in fat burning, like UCP1 and PRDM16.
• Boosts Metabolism: Resveratrol activates pathways (AMPK, SIRT1, PGC-1α) that enhance energy expenditure and mitochondrial activity in brown fat.

Further Reading: Factors that Affect Longevity

Curcumin

Curcumin is a yellow compound found in turmeric, often used in cooking and known for its potential health benefits.

How It Works:

• Boosts Fat Loss: Curcumin can help reduce fat mass and body weight. In one study, it improved weight loss and reduced waist and hip size when combined with diet and lifestyle changes.
• Enhances Brown Fat: It helps transform white fat into brown fat. Curcumin increases the expression of genes related to brown fat and boosts metabolism, especially after exposure to cold.
• Activates Key Pathways: Curcumin works by activating pathways like AMPK, which are important for fat-burning and developing brown fat cells.

High doses of curcumin have been shown to promote fat loss and improve body composition, but the low absorption rate of curcumin can limit its effectiveness. Newer formulations with better bioavailability are showing promise in enhancing fat burning, such as Xandro Lab’s Turmeric Curcumin.

Further Reading: Health Benefits of Curcumin

Green Tea

Green tea, made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant, is known for its potential health benefits, including weight loss.

How It Works:

• Boosts Metabolism: Green tea enhances energy expenditure (EE) and fat oxidation, partly due to catechins like EGCG and caffeine.
• Promotes Brown Fat: In animal studies, green tea increases the activity of brown fat and reduces white fat. It boosts the expression of brown fat markers.
• Synergistic Effects: The combination of catechins and caffeine in green tea may work together to enhance thermogenesis (heat production) and fat burning by affecting norepinephrine levels and related pathways.

Further Reading:The Best Weight Management Supplements

Menthol

Menthol is a compound found in peppermint, known for its cooling sensation and various medical uses, such as being an antitussive, anti-inflammatory, antipruritic, antibacterial and analgesic.

How It Works:

• Activates TRPM8: Menthol creates a cooling effect by activating the TRPM8 receptor, which detects cold stimuli.
• Boosts Brown Fat Activity: Menthol enhances the activity and expression of UCP1 in brown fat, increasing energy expenditure (EE) and improving insulin sensitivity.
• Promotes ‘Browning’: It also activates TRPM8 in white fat cells, leading to the expression of thermogenic genes and converting white fat into beige fat.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Omega-3 Fatty Acids, like DHA and EPA, are found in fish oil and fatty fish such as salmon. Fish oil acts as a ligand for TRPV1 in the digestive tract, causing a brain-mediated sympathetic response that promotes brown fat activity and white fat browning.

How They Work:

• Increase Brown Fat Activity: Fish oil supplements boost UCP1 expression in brown fat, enhancing thermogenesis.
• Promote ‘Browning’ of White Fat: They convert white fat into beige fat by activating thermogenic genes and specific pathways, such as AMPK, SIRT1 and PGC1-α.

Further Reading: Supplements That Improve Appetite and Digestion

Retinoic Acid (Vitamin A)

Retinoic acid, a metabolite of Vitamin A, significantly impacts adipocyte differentiation and energy metabolism. Retinoic acid regulates gene transcription through nuclear receptors, influencing various metabolic processes in the body. It also starts a transcriptional brown adipose tissue program in adipocytes, helping the browning process.

How It Works:

• Promotes Browning of White Fat: Activates genetic pathways that enhance thermogenesis and increase expression of key thermogenic genes like UCP1.
• Increases Vascularity and Beige Adipogenesis: Vitamin A also improves adipose tissue vascularity and promotes the development of beige fat cells from progenitors.

Ginseng

Ginseng, renowned for its therapeutic properties, has also shown potential in treating metabolic disorders, including obesity.

How It Works:

• Promotes Browning of White Fat: Increases expression of brown adipocyte markers like UCP1, which are important for thermogenesis, and enhances energy expenditure and reduces lipid droplets in white fat cells.
• Ginsenoside Rb2: This compound in ginseng reduces body weight and improves insulin sensitivity. It activates brown fat and browns white fat by stimulating UCP1 and thermogenic genes, and causing AMPK phosphorylation, which is important for these effects.
• Ginsenoside Rg1: This compound in ginseng has also been found to promote adipocyte browning via the AMPK pathway.

Quercetin

Quercetin, a flavonoid found in many fruits and vegetables, has shown potential in promoting the browning of white fat cells and enhancing metabolic health. Quercetin induces white adipose tissue (WAT) browning and activates BAT through the AMPK and PPARγ signaling pathways, preventing obesity and improving metabolic status.

How It Works:

• Promotes Browning of White Fat: Improves mitochondrial creation and increases the expression of thermogenic genes, such as UCP1, which is crucial for thermogenesis.
• Increases Energy Expenditure: Activates brown adipose tissue (BAT) and induces the browning of white adipose tissue (WAT), increasing energy consumption and non-shivering thermogenesis.

Quercetin shows promise in converting white fat into brown fat, increasing energy expenditure, and potentially aiding in weight management and metabolic health. Combining quercetin with resveratrol produced a stronger browning effect in white fat and increased UCP1 protein expression in brown fat.

Further Reading: Does Quercetin Remove Grey Hairs

Oleuropein (found in green olives)

Oleuropein, a polyphenol found in green olives, has also shown potential in stimulating the browning of white adipose tissue and enhancing metabolic health.

How It Works:

• Stimulates Browning of White Fat: Increases the expression of thermogenic markers such as UCP1, contributing to higher energy expenditure. Olive leaf extract containing oleuropein significantly reduced weight gain, visceral fat accumulation and improved serum lipid composition in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mice. It also lowered the expression of molecules involved in adipogenesis (fat formation) and thermogenesis (heat production). In humans, oleuropein helps the expression of thermogenic genes and causes the browning of adipose tissue via mesenchymal stem cells.

• Activates Key Pathways: Activates SIRT1, PPARγ and PGC1α pathways, which are crucial for enhancing thermogenic activity in brown and white adipose tissues. It also stimulates secretion of adrenaline and noradrenaline, which are hormones involved in thermogenesis.

Berberine

Berberine, a compound that comes from the Chinese medicinal plant Coptis chinensis, has been shown to promote the conversion of white adipose tissue to brown adipose tissue by activating specific genetic pathways.

How It Works:

• Activates AMPK: Berberine activates the AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase) pathway, which enhances mitochondrial activity and increases the expression of thermogenic genes like UCP1 in white fat cells. It also helps in the transcription of PRDM16, a master regulator of brown/beige adipogenesis, through active DNA demethylation of the PRDM16 promoter.
• Enhances Brown Fat Activity: Berberine reduces weight gain, improves cold tolerance, and enhances brown adipose tissue (BAT) activity in obese mice. It, however, induces the development of brown-like adipocytes specifically in inguinal white adipose tissue (WAT), but not in epididymal fat.
• Improves Energy Expenditure: Berberine increases whole-body energy expenditure by 20 per cent without affecting physical activity. It improves glucose uptake in BAT and shifts fuel preference towards fatty acid oxidation. Chronic berberine treatment stimulates BAT development, enhances BAT heat production and increases global energy expenditure.

Does fasting turn white fat into brown fat? There is some research to suggest that intermittent fasting may help change white fat to brown fat by speeding up metabolism. For example, it may promote white fat cell browning and lower obesity by shaping the gut microbiota

Xandro Lab’s Supplements

Xandro Lab has a range of certified supplements that help turn white fat cells to brown. You can buy trans resveratrol and curcumin supplements from Xandro Lab, or you can get your hands on our latest supplement, called Lean XP.

It will help you burn off visceral belly fat without the need of caffeine, stimulants or steroids, by helping boost your metabolism, improving energy expenditure and preventing fat production.

Get your hands on it when it releases in August!