As many of us know, getting rid of those final few stubborn pounds around the stomach area can be an uphill battle but scientists are now claiming to have made a major breakthrough in the war against the muffin top.
The excess fat that creates unsightly 'love handles' is made of white cells and new research has found that changing these to brown fat cells, which convert the energy in food into heat, could be the key to finally zapping this problem area.
"Not all fat is equal. If we are able to activate brown fat cells or to convert white fat cells into brown ones, it might be possible to simply melt excess fat away," said Professor Alexander Pfeifer, Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology of the University Hospital Bonn.
A molecule called adenosine is known to activate brown fat cells and the signal is transmitted by adenosine receptor A2A.
Professor Pfeifer has been attaching this receptor to white fat cells and observed a process called 'browning' and an increased rate of energy burning.
‘Through the administration of adenosine-like substances, the mice actually lost weight," he said.
"Our results demonstrate that adenosine-A2A signalling plays an unexpected physiological role in [brown fat] activation and protects mice from diet-induced obesity. Those findings reveal new possibilities for developing novel obesity therapies."
But don't get rid of that gym membership just yet as clinical application is said to be "still far off".
