Studies have shown that you have two types of fat in your body—brown fat and white fat. Brown fat can aid in weight loss and white fat is the fat you’re trying to get rid of! Thus, researchers believe that activating brown fat may be the secret to eliminating white fat. Read on to find out how this works.

Here are 3 natural ways to activate your existing Brown Fat and get more it:

1. Exercise In a research study using mice, exercise was found to convert white fat into brown fat. As it turned out, the muscles of the mice released an enzyme called irisin during exercise that triggered the conversion.Later, another study with human men had similar results. Those researchers found that white fat turned brown and became more metabolically active.
2. Melatonin Some time ago, lack of sleep was linked to obesity and a lack of sleep speaks to a disturbance in melatonin production. One cause for that disturbance could be not enough exposure to sunlight during the day or too much exposure to artificial light at night. Either way, boosting your melatonin stimulates the appearance of beige fat. Although not fully understood, beige fat is believed to be similar to brown fat in its ability to burn calories to produce heat.
3. Exposure to Cold Repeatedly, scientists have found that exposing adults to cold temperatures activates brown fat. And along with the activation of brown fat, white fat was lost, blood sugar was balanced, and metabolism increased.

You can achieve these effects at home by:

• Placing an ice pack on your upper back and upper chest for 30 minutes per day
• Drinking about 500 ml of ice water each morning
• Taking cold showers
• Immersing yourself in ice water up to your waist for 10 minutes three times per week

For further guidance in boosting your weight loss, just ‘Ask a Naturopath' See also Part 1 of Is brown fat the key to weight loss?