There are two major types of adipose tissue: white adipose tissue (WAT) and brown adipose tissue (BAT), which stores energy and generates body heat, respectively. When brown fat burns, it creates heat without shivering. This process is called thermogenesis.
WAT is stored subcutaneously and viscerally, where it surrounds intra-abdominal organs such as the liver, pancreas, and intestines. Accumulation of the visceral WAT is highly associated with insulin resistance and diabetes.
In general, thermogenesis is used to describe a facultative, or adaptive, process of heat generation, i.e., a process in which heat is the primary product of metabolism. It is also used to describe the heat produced in direct response to a meal.
Physiologically, thermogenesis is made of basal metabolism, post-prandial thermogenesis, exercise-induced thermogenesis and adaptive thermogenesis induced by changes in the environmental temperature. Biochemically, thermogenesis comes from exergonic reactions from a loose coupling between endergonic and exergonic reactions.
Consumption of coffee helps the lipid metabolism by increasing thermogenesis as part of an increase in fat oxidation.
What is thermogenesis?
