Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Cutting a single amino acid from the diet caused rapid, drastic weight loss in mice by converting white fat into calorie-burning brown fat. The study reveals a powerful new mechanism for weight loss that doesn’t rely on eating less and moving more.

Rapid weight loss can cause a greater loss of muscle mass than losing weight slowly. The popularity of newer weight-loss drugs that shed pounds quickly has raised concerns among researchers about how this will affect the health of our muscles.