Body composition is often treated as a matter of restriction. Dr. William Li offers a more useful frame: metabolism is an adaptive system, and the right signals can change how that system behaves.
Cold temperature causes a shock to the body, and they trigger brown fat and really start the engine of the brown fat. Whoosh. Protein is super important, especially once you get beyond the age of 40. Most people need to actually build up on their protein. So, the question is what is your source of protein? I'm somebody who believes that they wanted to look at what the effect of omega-3 fatty acids were on body fat. And guess what? Turns on brown fat, helps you lose weight, burns away visceral fat so your waist size can shrink. Eating salmon three times a week for 8 weeks will actually cause you to lose up to 15 lb. You can always get over your own body fat. Like like you can win that battle easily by doing a couple of things. I tell the first thing It was a study from Iceland that was quite surprising. They wanted to look at what the effect of omega-3 fatty acids were on body fat. And guess what? Turns on brown fat, helps you lose weight, burns away visceral fat so your waist size can shrink. And of course they found it that eating salmon three times a week for 8 weeks will actually cause you to lose up to 15 lb. All right, so that's a lot of weight. Here's what's crazy. And and I think this is what opened my eyes. The same researchers studied what they thought was going to be a non-oily fish like cod. Cod's not considered an oily fish. Cod only has 284 mg, not 1, 500 of omega-3
only has 284 mg, not 1, 500 of omega-3 fatty acids. Pretty low. Guess what they found? People that ate cod three times a week lost 10 lb over 8 weeks. You don't have to eat mackerel and anchovies in order to get adequate omega-3s when it comes to your metabolism to fight fat. Something as low as cod with that amount of omega-3s will do it. So, and this was a a study done by Cornell in New York looking at Swedish women who were normal body size or skinny. So, you've heard of skinny fat. This is what they were studying. And they looked at these women uh uh to see uh they did the DEXA scans as you described um to see how much body fat they had. And then they followed them over 13 years. And then she found that women who did not have extra body fat had, you know, normal risk of breast cancer. But women who had skinny fat, and remember, all the women in this study, that's like 3, 000 women, actually were normal body size. Not I mean, they weren't supermodels, but they were just normal-size women. Some of them were were slimmer than others, but none of them were obese. None of them were overweight. Um just normal size. Um and they but they knew at the baseline what the DEXA scan showed. And what they found is that women who had excess body fat over the period of 13 years had a threefold increase in the risk of
developing breast cancer. And it's linked to higher inflammatory markers in their bloodstream, which makes total sense. The leaking body cream, the leaking inflammation, you know, in a skinny tube, all right, or normal-size tube, normal suitcase. Look, the suitcase can't expand bigger. It's it's got a finite size, um but it's leaking out. And and this is because cancer thrives in an inflammatory environment. If you have inflammation without even a microscopic cancer like we talked about, but a small tumor, putting inflammation in the environment of a cancer is like pouring gasoline on the embers of a fire. Ever go camping? You have a campfire that's almost out at the very end. Now, if you pour some gasoline in it, boom, whoosh, you're going to have to create a bonfire all over again. That's how dangerous inflammation is. So, that's why excess visceral fat, inflammatory fat, is so dangerous and linked to cancer. And by the way, not just breast cancer. Turns out that excess visceral fat has been linked to 14 other cancers, increased risk of 14 other cancers. Everything from colon, ovarian, lung, breast, prostate, uh it it it's the it's a growing list of cancers that seem to be at put you would be at a higher risk if you had had high levels of visceral fat. And it makes total sense given the inflammation. some of the things that can lower inflammation? Berries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, packed with polyphenols. Citrus is a fruit category, all right, that has a
a fruit category, all right, that has a lot of vitamin C. Vitamin C is the anti-inflammatory. Counters inflammation in your body, all right? Oranges, mandarins, tangerines, grapefruits, lemons, limes. But other foods that actually If those are the citrus, other foods that have vitamin C, tomatoes, red bell peppers. Broccoli has got vitamin C as well. Back to citrus, by the way, you can certainly take a vitamin C supplement, for sure. You can actually do that. Or you can squeeze a little bit of citrus into a pitcher of water in your fridge. Point is that there's a lot of ways to actually get vitamin C. I tend to tell people to try to get as much as I can from food, and if you need to top it off, go ahead, take a supplement or a vitamin as well. By the way, another anti-inflammatory food that you should know about, all right, uh is extra virgin olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil has polyphenols that are anti-inflammatory like hydroxytyrosol, oleocanthal, all right? They in fact are the polyphenols that give you a little bit of that peppery zing in the back of your throat when you have really high quality olive oil. You know, you want to dip it with a little bread or cook with it. I like to cook with extra virgin olive oil, all right? That's actually really helpful. Another food that can have anti-inflammatory benefits are foods with dietary fiber. The dietary fiber feeds our gut microbiome. Our gut microbiome releases these short-chain fatty acids that lower inflammation. All right, so what are
inflammation. All right, so what are some of the my favorite sources of dietary fiber? Well, I mentioned one, raspberries. Pound for pound, one of the most fiber, um, potent, uh, foods that there are. They're pretty pretty light, so you'd have to eat a lot of them. Um, but guess what? Avocado, also rich in dietary fiber, uh, mushrooms, a lot of dietary fiber called beta D-glucan, um, and a lot of other foods that are anti-inflammatory like quercetin in apples, uh, have anti-inflammatory effects, uh, as well. And of course, broccoli, kale, bok choy, um, brussels sprouts, those also have potent anti, uh, inflammatory uh, benefits including the contribution made by the amount of dietary fiber themselves. Now, just wanted to tell you, I got I do have a favorite, uh, anti-inflammatory substance, and you know what that is? Got it right here. Green tea, just had some, loaded with anti-inflammatory polyphenols. One of the categories is called catechins, specifically EGCG, epigallocatechin gallate. I dare you say it as fast as I can. I've had a lot of practice. Plus, as a researcher, I got to deal with a lot of chemical names, complicated tongue twisters. But the EGCG polyphenol that's found in green tea, right here, okay, um, helps to fight oxidative stress. This is cellular stress and can help to fight inflammation in the body as well. Cold
inflammation in the body as well. Cold temperature causes a shock to the body that releases epinephrine and and norepinephrine, these hormones that actually are produced by our brains, and they course through our nerves, and they uh, turn on they trigger uh, brown fat and and really start the engine of the brown fat. Literally like the clicker on your gas range and your oven to start to before you put boil some water. Whoosh. All right. And so cold will actually do that. It turns out that the one of the receptors is called the beta-3 adrenergic receptor. Beta-3 adrenergic receptor is a receptor for adrenaline, which is a shock hormone, a stress hormone, a fight or flight hormone. Uh so brown fat actually lights up when you actually have a shock to your system like a cold plunge. For those who want to do it, go for it because it's it that's actually how it works. It turns out that there's a bladder medicine, bladder spasm medicine called mirabegron. Because that also does the same thing because the beta adrenergic receptor can actually be found on your bladder all over your bladder as well. And in the bladder it does something different than your brown fat. It actually helps your bladder contract, and which you need to contract your bladder to pee. All right. But some people have a spasmodic bladder, it's contracting all the time. And you get leakage and all this other unpleasant stuff. And so there have been medicines that have been discovered to actually hit the beta adrenergic receptor in your bladder to calm the bladder down. It it hits the beta adrenergic receptor. Interestingly,
researchers at the US National Institutes of Health have studied that bladder medicine to see if they can target brown fat. And when they do, boom, it lights up the brown fat beautifully. And I show pictures of this. I've got permission from the researchers to show how this this mechanism can light up brown fat. Now, I don't recommend anybody to use medicines to light up their brown fat because the doses of the medicines that were tested were way higher than you you would normally use uh for bladder spasms. So don't do that. But that's the setup to say, well, what else can light up brown fat by with the beta adrenergic receptor? Well, turns out it's not just the beta adrenergic receptor, but once you click that, once you tip that switch, after that the next dot that gets checked in this cascade is something called uncoupling protein one, UCP1. And that that trigger lives on the mighty mitochondria, which is a little organ in your cells, especially in your brown fat, that is packed our brown fat is packed with mitochondria. These little sub organs in our cells the mitochondria is the fuel cell. I remember when I was in medical school and I had to memorize everything, I thought of it as mighty chondria because it's small but mighty and it actually burns fuel, creates a lot of energy, it actually processes, creates ATP, burns ATP to create energy. Well, it turns out mitochondria have a lot of iron in it naturally. Iron, when it's oxidized, it's naturally brown.
it's oxidized, it's naturally brown. Lots of mitochondria, lots of iron, lots of oxidation, and guess what? That's why brown fat is brown. So, for just for people wondering, you know, why is brown fat brown? That's the reason. It's packed with this mighty chondria, mitochondria that is actually fuel cell. So, anything that can activate the beta adrenergic receptor, anything that can actually turn on uncoupling protein one, anything that can activate the mitochondria will turn on your space heater, and this is where foods actually come in because beyond the cold, beyond the bladder spasm drugs, is a whole collection of foods, produce, dried, canned, jarred foods, seafoods, and beverages that can actually turn on one or more of these processes. Wherever your starting point is, this is the key thing. You can always begin a healthier life and get over your own body fat, like like you can win that battle easily by doing a couple of things. I tell the first thing you do is to do an assessment, a food diary is what I call it, okay? Don't try anything it just do what you're going to do for a couple of weeks, take out a piece of paper or maybe even notes on your mobile device Uh-huh. and just record what you're eating and how much you're eating every single meal. Why is that important? Because a lot of us don't realize what we're eating and how much we're eating. Every time you snack, pop out that piece of paper or your your notes section and and write it down. No guilt, no shame. Uh this is all about just recording it. Okay. Now after 2
just recording it. Okay. Now after 2 weeks, go back and look at it and most of us will be surprised at what we ate, how often we ate and how much we actually ate. By having that self-realization, by documenting it, you know, it's kind of like uh you're trying to develop an allowance or teaching children how to spend money responsibly, write down what you spent and then add it up at the end of a couple of weeks and then you'll know exactly what you did. Then you go on to the swap in phase. What I call it swap in, not swap out. Swap in. I thought you said swap. I'm like swamp. Like I'm like that doesn't sound good. Okay, what is swap Swap in. Okay. Right? Because basically people like go, "Oh, so now the part now's the part where I actually have to deprive myself, right?" Nope, I'm saying, "Listen, you know when you're not eating good stuff. Let's talk about swapping in. Take something that you love to eat that's healthy and swap it in. Okay? And there's all kinds of things that we uh love to eat that is healthy and that's in my book Eat to Be Your Diet. I I give lists of 200 different food items, ingredients ingredients that are all delicious that you can swap in. The reason I call it swap in is because when you're eating something, you're displacing something that is not so good for you. Mhm. The more good stuff that you swap in, less room you're just going to have in your life for the stuff that's not so good for you. Protein is super important as especially once you get beyond the age of 40, most people need to actually keep up and build up on their protein. And so, the
build up on their protein. And so, the question is, what is your source of protein? Now, I'm somebody who believes that uh having a balanced diet, more of an omnivore type of diet, you're you're capable and willing to you're opening your mind to eat anything that's good for you. Uh and and by the way, preference is also really important. You want to eat the things that are good for you that you actually enjoy eating. Like, that's the alignment you're really looking for. Listen, you want to live long and live well, you want to do the things that you want to do. You don't want to actually feel like you're in a box or a cage, right? And so, this is why the choice of protein becomes important. Now, look. Um there's a lot of data and a lot of people that say that you should cut down or cut out red meat. I leave it for the people that really take a stance for or against that, okay? Uh what I say is that, you know, eating meat is part of a omnivore balanced diet. You can have red meat, but you can also have poultry. You can also have fish, all right? And if you want to go into the plant realm, you've got all these legumes and you've got plant-based proteins. They're all good as well. Interestingly, there was a study on longevity that looked at uh different dietary patterns to figure out um what are the patterns that seem to lead to better brain health. okay? So, less dementia. And it turns out and they studied um people who um ate a lot of carbs. They studied people that ate a lot of junk food. Uh and a lot of pro - and a lot of specific protein. They They studied vegetarians
protein. They They studied vegetarians and they studied people with a balanced diet. And it turns out the people who wound up having the best cognition, brain health, in the long run, were the people that had a balanced diet, better than the vegetarians. Mhm. Okay? Now, we don't understand the whole aspect of it, but it just goes to show you, if you take a religious style side about your foods. You might actually be missing out on something that science is still in the process of figuring out. Balanced diet is actually there, and protein is a is one of those critical macros that we have a lot of choices to actually get from. So, that's what I actually think about protein. Hey, if you like that video, then you're going to love this one.
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3x weekly salmon intake discussed in the protocol 8 weeks in the cited omega-3 intervention 15 lb reported upper range of fat loss in the study discussed
Brown fat is not passive storage. It is thermogenic tissue, designed to burn fuel and produce heat. Cold exposure (our guide to cold exposure) activates it because the body has to defend temperature. That signal can increase energy use and sharpen the metabolic response.
The felt experience is familiar to anyone who has stepped into cold water with intention: breath first narrows, then steadies. The body wakes up. Underneath that sensation is a coordinated demand for heat, circulation, and fuel.
Li connects omega-3 fatty acids with brown fat activation and visceral fat reduction. The practical example is simple: fatty fish such as salmon, eaten consistently, supplies protein and marine fats that support metabolic health without turning food into punishment.
This is the quieter side of body recomposition. Not extreme dieting. Not a dramatic reset. Just repeated inputs that tell the body to become more efficient, less inflamed, and better prepared to use stored fuel.
Visceral fat matters because it behaves like active inflammatory tissue. It sits around organs and influences metabolic risk. Reducing it is less about appearance and more about lowering the background burden on the system.
Cold exposure, protein, omega-3-rich foods, polyphenols, fiber, and extra virgin olive oil all point in the same direction: build a body that handles energy cleanly.
Use cold exposure as a measured thermal signal, not a test of toughness.
Build meals around protein and omega-3-rich foods several times a week.
Support the protocol with fiber, polyphenols, and anti-inflammatory fats.
Metabolic change becomes more sustainable when the signal is consistent and the method respects the body.
