Research has shown that the fatter your body becomes, the harder it becomes to burn that excess fat.
As people eat more fat than they burn, the body stores this excess in various parts of the body and as this storage increases, metabolism changes.
However, all is not lost: a recent study by researchers at the University of Cambridge identified one of the proteins underlying this blockage of fat burn. "[This protein] is part of the system in place to help the body store more energy," says Antonio Vidal-Puig, Professor in Molecular Nutrition and Metabolism, who worked on the study.
The culprit, called sLR11, was found to block the functioning of brown fat cells -- responsible for generating heat to keep us warm -- and instead help the body store fat more efficiently by preventing excessive heat generation.
The benefits of brown fat
There are two forms of fat cells -- brown cells and white cells -- and each plays a different role in our metabolism.
While brown cells help generate heat, the white cells are responsible for the storage of fat -- or energy -- ready for release as needed. Levels of brown fat are known to be high in children but recent findings showing the presence of brown fat in adults, restored hope to use them as targets to treat obesity.