6 Types of Fat Cells by Dr. LeiLani Vidal in Business Body Contouring
Body contouring education for estheticians and aesthetic professionals.
I. Essential Fat Cells = good fat
What does essential fat do?
Essential fat assists in regulating hormones, body temperature, vitamin absorption, and supporting cell structure. You cannot live without a certain amount of essential fat.
Where can we find essential fat?
You will find essential fat in many parts of the body, including the bone marrow, nerve membranes, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, intestines, and muscles.
Essential fat: How to educate and treat your clients.
Essential body contouring education for estheticians and aesthetic professionals.
You should not target essential fat with fat reduction treatments. You must maintain a certain amount of essential fat to avoid compromising your health. Most experts believe that women require 10-13% of their total body weight from essential fat.
PRO TIP: Do not use body contouring treatments to reduce essential fat. Do not advise your client to lose essential fat. Educate your client about the importance of essential fat and the dangers of going below 10-13% body fat.
II. White Fat Cells = too much of it is bad fat
What does white fat do?
White fat is what you think about when you think ‘unwanted fat.’ White fat is the likely culprit when you cannot fit into last year’s clothes. Having a certain amount of white fat is not all bad. In fact, it’s necessary. White fat cells serve some helpful functions. White fat provides cushion for your internal organs and padding for the external structures of your body.
The 3 primary roles of white fat include
•Storing energy (calories)
•Providing cushion for your body
•Releasing certain proteins and hormones into your bloodstream
Why too much white fat is bad fat.
Speaking of releasing hormones, white fat cells produce and release a hormone called leptin. Leptin controls you feeling hungry or satisfied. In other words, leptin tells you when to stop eating.
A terrible thing happens when you have too many white fat cells. Your white fat cells slow down or stop producing leptin which causes you to overeat, which causes you to gain weight, i.e. more white fat cells. We call this leptin resistance.
Where can we find white fat?
White fat comprises about 90% of the fat in our bodies. Most experts believe a healthy female body fat percentage lies somewhere between 16-29%.
Subcutaneously
You can find white fat subcutaneously (between your skin and muscle) in the abdomen, hips, back, arms, legs, neck, and face. (More on subcutaneous fat later on.)
Viscerally
You can also find white fat viscerally (underneath your muscle and located between your internal organs) in the abdomen.
White fat: How to educate and treat your clients.
Essential body contouring education for estheticians and aesthetic professionals.
You can help your client reduce white fat located in the subcutaneous area of her body with non-invasive body contouring treatments, such as vacuum therapy and lipo sculpt.
At this time, we cannot reduce visceral fat with non-invasive body contouring technology, but a recent study tells us we may be able to in the near future. Tell your clients that white fat located viscerally responds very well to diet and exercise.
III. Brown Fat Cells = Good Fat
What does brown fat do?
Ready to be amazed? Brown fat does not store fat. Brown fat burns it – just like muscle.
Until recently, scientists believed only infants had brown fat. In the past, accepted belief told us that we lost our brown fat as we got older. But that has been disproven by multiple studies documenting brown fat in adults.
None of us have much brown fat, though the leaner you are, the higher percentage of brown fat you have.
Researchers find great potential in the field of weight loss with brown fat cells. A recent Harvard study found that exposure to temperatures below 60 degrees Fahrenheit for ten straight days caused an increase in brown fat activity. Many more studies are underway.
Where can we find brown fat?
In adults, you find brown fat around the collar bone, spine, center of the ribcage, and near the aorta.
Brown fat: How to educate and treat your clients.
Essential body contouring education for estheticians and aesthetic professionals.
You should not want to reduce brown fat; you should want to increase it.
As of now, experts know of no way to increase brown fat, though scientists continually strive for ways.
IV. Beige Fat = Good Fat, when acting “beiged”
What does beige fat do?
Beige fat cells look and act like a cross of white and brown fat.
Beige fat cells can burn energy, like brown fat cells.
Evidence is not yet clear whether beige fat cells are their own type, or whether they are conversions of white fat cells into beige fat cells triggered by specific conditions. The two conditions believed to trigger the process called “beiging” are (1) exposure to cold temperatures and (2) exercise.
Where can we find beige fat?
Beige fat can be found in small quantities throughout the body. The highest concentrations are found around the spine and collarbone.
Beige Fat: How to educate and treat your clients.
Essential body contouring education for estheticians and aesthetic professionals.
You should not want to reduce beige fat. You may even want to encourage the conversion of white fat to beige fat though (1) exposure to cold temperatures and (2) exercise.
Advise your clients who want to reduce fat or lose weight to help their bodies make more beige fat by increasing exercise. Studies show that during exercise, muscles secrete specialized proteins that may help turn white fat to beige.
Another way to convert white fat to beige? It’s not really realistic in our opinion, but we’ll tell you about it anyway. A Japanese study showed that participants increased their percentage of brown fat by exposure to temperatures of 62 degrees Fahrenheit (without warm clothing) for at least 2 hours a day.
Types of fat based on location in the body.
That’s it for types of fat cells. Now let’s move to implications and differing advice and treatment recommendations depending on where the fat is located within the body: subcutaneous and visceral.
V. Subcutaneous Fat = white fat located between the skin and the muscles
What is subcutaneous fat and where is it located?
When you can “pinch an inch,” it’s subcutaneous fat. It’s located superficially, between our skin and muscles.
This white fat tends to accumulate on thighs, belly, hips, back, buttocks, neck, and arms.
Subcutaneous fat, as long as you are not medically obese, has not shown to increase the risk for health problems.
Subcutaneous Fat: How to educate and treat your clients.
Essential body contouring education for estheticians and aesthetic professionals.
You can help your client reduce white fat located in the subcutaneous area of her body with non-invasive body contouring treatments, such as vacuum therapy and lipo sculpt. Learn more about these therapies on our Body Contouring Masterclass.
Tell your client that a healthy diet and moderate exercise helps yield good results with the treatments, but subcutaneous fat is resistant to diet and exercise. Learn more about why your clients need body contouring treatments to lose unwanted fat.
VI. Visceral Fat = white fat located under the muscle and inside the abdominal cavity.
What is visceral fat and where is it located?
Visceral fat is white fat located deep inside the abdominal cavity, and wrapped around organs such as the heart, liver, and intestines.
When you think of ‘beer belly,’ you’re envisioning visceral fat. The abdomen with visceral fat feels hard, not soft and pinchable.
Visceral fat can lead to a number of health problems such as hypertension, stroke, certain cancers, and dementia.
Visceral Fat: How to educate and treat your clients.
Essential body contouring education for estheticians and aesthetic professionals.
During our many years serving as body contouring providers, medical science has not had a treatment for visceral fat, surgical or non-surgical. This may be changing…and soon. A recent study showed a non-invasive treatment using high-intensity focused electromagnetic energy effectively reduced visceral fat by 14%. More studies are needed, but we are excited about the possibility.
The good news is that visceral fat responds very well to diet and exercise. Oftentimes, your clients have both subcutaneous fat and visceral fat. In these cases, recommend a treatment like vacuum therapy to treat the subcutaneous fat, and diet with exercise to reduce the visceral fat.
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