Research
Hormonal
Cold exposure and beta-3 adrenergic agonists are primary physiological and pharmacological agents that induce the browning of white adipose tissue.
Exposing your body to cold temperatures (like cold showers or cool rooms) stimulates your sympathetic nervous system, which can trigger white fat to turn into energy-burning beige fat. Pharmacological beta-3 agonists do this too, but lifestyle cold exposure is the natural, side-effect-free method.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Physiological stimuli traditionally considered to induce the formation of beige adipocytes include cold exposure, diet, and exercise. In addition to activation of classical BAT, prolonged cold exposure, as well as beta-adrenergic agonist treatment, has been demonstrated to be able to brown WAT.
Why this rating
Supported by numerous rodent studies and some human imaging data cited in the review.
Source
Browning of white fat: agents and implications for beige adipose tissue to type 2 diabetes
Anna Kaisanlahti et al. · Journal of Physiology and Biochemistry · 2018
DOI 10.1007/s13105-018-0658-5
narrative_reviewCited 213×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Activation of beige adipose tissue (browning of white fat) improves glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity, offering a therapeutic mechanism for type 2 diabetes.Moderate
- Dietary compounds such as capsaicin, resveratrol, berberine, and green tea extract can induce browning of white adipose tissue in animal models.Moderate
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