One of the major concerns people have is excess body fat, especially when it poses aesthetic as well as health issues. Though the word ‘fat’ is broadly used to describe all body fat, there are actually different types of fat in your body, each having its own molecular structure and health implications. Some types of fat are beneficial and essential for our health whereas some can have a negative effect on your health.
The top six types of body fat are essential fats, white fat, brown fat, beige fat, subcutaneous fat and visceral fat. Each fat type serves a different role; some promote healthy metabolism and hormone levels, while others contribute to life-threatening diseases.
Essential Fat
This type of body fat is actually essential for your life and a healthy body, as it is the minimal amount of fat necessary for normal physiological function. It plays a major role in hormone regulation, temperature regulation and vitamin absorption, among other essential roles. Though essential fat isn’t highly visible, it is located throughout the body – such as in the brain, bone marrow, nerves, membranes that protect your organs and so on.
This type of fat is not targeted for weight loss, because every human should have a minimal amount of this fat for leading a healthy life. According to the American Council on Exercise, essential fat values for females are around 10-12% and for males, the ideal range is 2-4%. With these essential fat levels in the body, you can avoid bacterial and viral diseases as well as protect internal organs from bruising.
White Fat
Made up of large white cells, this type of fat is usually stored under the skin or around the organs –the abdomen, arms, buttocks, and thighs. These fat cells are considered as the body’s largest energy storage system as it is the body’s way of storing energy for later use. White fat also plays a major role in the function of hormones – such as estrogen, leptin (one of the hunger-stimulating hormones), insulin, cortisol (a stress hormone) and growth hormone.
Since it produces the hormone adiponectin, white fat is essential for insulin management to keep a stable and healthy blood sugar balance.
However, too much of this white fat could be an alarming signal, because, your metabolism slows down and you might start to gain excess weight especially around the hips, thighs and tummy – which is often the most difficult to lose and can also lead to health issues. Therefore, set a healthy body fat percentage depending on your level of fitness or physical activity.
The American Council on Exercise recommends that non-athlete men should consider having a total body fat percentage in the 14 to 24 percent range, while non-athlete women to be in the 21 to 31 percent range. A higher body fat percentage than recommended can put you at risk for the health issues- such as type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, stroke, hormone imbalances, pregnancy complications, kidney disease, liver disease and cancer.
Brown Fat
This is a type of ‘good’ fat that is primarily found in babies. Also known as brown adipose tissue (BAT), adults too retain a very small amount of this type of fat in the neck and shoulder areas. Brown fat provides cellular energy and is responsible for our core temperature as it burns fatty acids to keep you warm.
Being a ‘fat burning’ fat, it may also help keep certain diseases such as diabetes away. As it is not a storage fat, brown fat is easy to burn and researchers are interested in finding ways to stimulate the activity of brown fat to help prevent obesity. In recent studies, scientists have found that lean people tend to have more brown fat than obese people.
Maintain your essential fat levels to support healthy brown fat production. You can also increase healthy brown fat by eating healthy, taking the right supplements and making appropriate lifestyle changes. Exposure to cold temperatures also stimulates the transformation of white fat to brown fat.
Beige Fat
A combination of white and brown fat, Beige or bright fat is found along the spine and collarbone. Just as brown fat, beige cells can help burn fat rather than store it. It is believed that certain hormones and enzymes released when you’re stressed, cold, or when you exercise can help with the browning process and convert white fat into beige fat.
Subcutaneous Fat
A combination of brown, beige, and white fat cells, subcutaneous fat is located right under the skin, which is measured to determine body fat percentage. They are commonly accumulated around the belly or on the back of your arms, thighs and buttocks.
A certain amount of subcutaneous fat is normal and healthy, but too much can lead to imbalanced hormone levels and sensitivity and it could also affect your appearance. Subcutaneous fat is often the most difficult to respond to positive changes in exercise and diet. Here, liposuction or radiofrequency body contouring treatments are the best options to consider.
Visceral Fat
The more ‘dangerous’ deep fat found around abdominal organs such as the stomach, intestine and liver, visceral fat causes serious health issues such as heart disease, high blood pressure or cholesterol, and diabetes or stroke.
You can lose this fat by performing regular exercises and by following a low-fat diet. Liposuction or any other kind of body contouring treatments cannot help remove this type of fat from your body. If you are already getting at least 30 minutes of moderately intense, fat-burning exercise five days a week, along with weight training, you are on your way to shedding visceral fat. However, in healthy proportions, visceral fat is an essential fat for overall health, to cushion and protect our organs and help keep our core temperature stable.
Stubborn fat pockets may prove unresponsive to strenuous diet and exercises. If that is the case, the cosmetic procedure liposuction is the best solution. Liposuction is one of the most widely accepted cosmetic surgical procedures today. With innovative advancements in the field of plastic surgery, liposuction can now be performed using minimally-invasive devices under local anesthesia.
Dr. Chia is board certified by both the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery. As a leading aesthetic plastic surgeon in Manhattan, New York City, he is a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the Medical Society of the State of New York. Dr. Chia is presently a teaching Faculty at ASAPS (American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery) and MEETH (Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital) where he teaches the latest techniques in plastic and cosmetic surgery to plastic surgeons. He was the former Program Director for the MEETH fellowship, and was involved in teaching and continues to teach aesthetic surgery to future leaders in plastic surgery.
