Obesity is one of the important factors leading to type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic diseases and cancer. Therefore, how to lose weight effectively and keep a good posture is the golden rule for us to keep healthy.

However, for people who want to lose weight, losing weight is a tug-of-war between willpower and fat!

Among many ways to lose weight, intermittent fasting advertises that you can lose weight effectively as long as you eat within a fixed or limited time, which makes intermittent fasting a new favorite in the slimming world and attracts the attention of all those who want to lose weight. In addition, its operation mode is very simple, and now it has become the first choice for many dieters.

Intermittent fasting is mainly divided into regular fasting and limited fasting. The most common way of the former is to fast every other day, which is simply to fast every 24 hours. The most common method of the latter is 168 fasting method, which can only eat within the selected 8 hours every day, and the rest 16 hours must be fasted.

The biggest headache for dieters is big belly, which is difficult to deal with only by intermittent fasting. Pixabay, it is reported that intermittent fasting can not only lose weight, but also have many benefits to the body. Although its mechanism is still unclear, many studies have pointed out that intermittent fasting can not only reduce weight, but also improve the body's insulin sensitivity, which is conducive to lowering blood sugar, preventing fatty liver and protecting cardiovascular benefits.

But unfortunately, intermittent fasting alone can't effectively deal with the "big belly" that makes dieters the most headache!

The recent study 1 published in Cell Report may explain why it is so difficult to have a big belly.

Fat is not synonymous with evil! Although for people who want to lose weight, the fat in the human body is the number one enemy of losing weight and fasting. But in fact, fat is an important energy source for the body, and it produces more energy than sugar. Fat is mostly stored in fat cells, which have different distribution and functions in human body.

There are two kinds of fat cells in the human body: brown fat and white fat.

Brown fat cells are not as evil as people think. Their main function is to consume fat and "generate heat", not to store fat. To some extent, brown fat cells are good friends to lose weight! White fat cells, which are responsible for "storing fat", are the number one enemy in the hearts of many dieters.

According to different positions in human body, white fat cells can be divided into subcutaneous fat and visceral fat.

Subcutaneous fat is fat attached to the skin. It can not only store fat, but also resist external cold or shock, which plays a very important role in maintaining health. Visceral fat is "fat attached around the abdomen and gastrointestinal tract", which can support and fix the viscera.

As for visceral fat, many studies have pointed out that excessive visceral fat is highly related to the occurrence of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. In addition, the "big belly" that makes dieters itch their teeth is mainly composed of visceral fat.

What happens inside us when we fast? When the human body is deprived of food, the body will send out a series of signals to make white fat cells convert their stored fat into free fatty acids and release them into the blood, so that the free fatty acids can be used as the energy source of other organs.

In view of the fact that the detailed mechanism of intermittent fasting on the body is still unclear, the research team of the University of Sydney in Australia began to study whether different types of fat cells will react differently to intermittent fasting.

Intermittent fasting is mainly divided into regular fasting and limited fasting. In Pixabay intermittent fasting, because the alternate-day fasting method is more convenient for the experimental team to operate, the team adopted the alternate-day fasting mouse model for research. They compared and analyzed the fat cells of "mice that fasted many times every other day" and "mice that fasted only once every other day" and got the following three conclusions:

What is UCP 1 protein? What do these conclusions tell us? Let's interpret them one by one.

Protein, to help you convert energy and promote fat decomposition, the "mitochondria" in the human body are mainly responsible for generating energy for cells.

UCP 1 is a kind of protein existing in mitochondria, and its main function is to convert energy produced by mitochondria into "heat". In the mitochondria of brown adipocytes, UCP 1 will be expressed in large quantities, and in the mitochondria of white adipocytes, a small amount of UCP 1 will also be expressed. Brown adipocytes can generate a lot of heat through UCP 1.

In addition, when UCP 1 converts the energy generated by cells into heat, with the decrease of energy, fat cells will gain more energy by decomposing fat. Therefore, UCP 1 can not only generate heat, but also promote the decomposition of fat into free fatty acids, so that free fatty acids can be converted into energy.

During fasting, white fat will accelerate its decomposition. In the experimental results of the research team, fasting every other day will reduce the expression of UCP 1 in brown adipocytes and increase the expression of UCP 1 in white adipocytes.

What does this mean?

According to UCP 1, brown adipocytes that consume fat and produce heat will reduce their heat-producing ability because of the decrease of food and the decrease of energy-producing materials in mitochondria during fasting.

After all, the body energy is not enough, and it is not cost-effective to consume precious fat to generate heat!

However, white adipocytes will accelerate the decomposition of fat into free fatty acids through the activation of UCP 1, thus providing energy for other tissues.

After intermittent fasting, the responses of brown adipocytes and white adipocytes are different. Reference 1 Our stomachs are also resisting to lose weight! ? So, what do the two results mean: "White adipocytes produce a large amount of protein related to the fat synthesis pathway" and "protein quality decreased related to the fat decomposition pathway of visceral adipocytes"?

We can interpret it this way: with the increase of fasting times the next day, before the next fasting, white fat cells will accelerate the storage of more fat, while visceral fat cells will also resist the consumption of fat and reduce the protein related to fat decomposition, so that we can not only decompose visceral fat, but even accelerate the storage, making it more and more difficult to consume fat!

Visceral fat can adapt to repeated fasting, which may be the reason why visceral fat resists weight loss after long-term dieting. GIPHY "This means that visceral fat can adapt to repeated fasting and protect its energy storage." This adaptation may be the reason why visceral fat resists the weight loss effect after long-term diet. Dr. Larance, the research host, said this.

Fasting vs paunchy: the pace of research does not stop! The research team said that in the future, it will further study the molecular pathway of visceral adipocytes to make themselves "anti-slimming".

How can I have a fit waist? Is fasting okay? The research team is still trying to find the answer. At the same time, Pixabay will also test different fasting modes to see if different fasting methods will get similar results, so as to find out the fasting strategy that can effectively eliminate the "big belly".

Look at what you should pay attention to in this mouse experiment! However, for this study, there are several points to note.

First, the research team analyzed the expression of "protein Group" and concluded that the visceral cells of mice would resist losing weight.

In other words, the research team did not confirm the physiological significance of the fact that "the abdominal fat of mice will not become smaller after fasting for many days". Will the visceral fat of mice really develop anti-weight loss ability? This is still a question to be tested and discussed.

Secondly, can the conclusions drawn from mouse research be directly applied to the human body? Will humans have the same result after fasting for many days? This is also open to question.

Want to lose weight? It is best to take a multi-pronged approach! A healthy diet and enough exercise are indispensable! Pixabay In addition, this study is not used to deny intermittent fasting! The research results just remind us that losing weight has never been a single goal. Or a marathon that competes with willpower! Even books that advocate intermittent fasting in the workshop usually mention that intermittent fasting must be combined with exercise to eliminate abdominal fat more effectively.

Finally, we also want to remind readers once again that there is no way to eliminate the big belly. After all, intermittent fasting has only appeared in recent years, and there are still many unsolved mysteries. If readers want to lose weight through this method, it is best to discuss it with doctors or professionals before implementation!

Remarks: both mitochondria and ATP simply refer to adenosine triphosphate (ATP) produced by mitochondria with "energy".

ATP is the circulating unit of energy in living things, just like the energy currency in our bodies. All the energy sources of life come from the hydrolysis of ATP. You can imagine that cells have to pay ATP to do anything that consumes energy!

In human body, ATP is mainly produced by "mitochondria" in cells, which will oxidize and decompose substances such as glucose, fatty acids and amino acids, and convert energy into ATP for cells to use.