My old college roommate had a firm belief that if you wait long enough, science will solve all your problems for you. And he may be right: scientists have discovered factors that may help your body turn fat straight into muscles!
Although we all wish we had a little less of it, fat is essential for managing our energy balance and helping to regulate body temperature.
But there are two distinct types of fat tissue: white 'bad' fat acts as an energy store whereas brown 'good' fat, which largely disappears by adulthood, also helps in burning calories to generate body heat, which is crucial to keep babies warm.
Now one team has shown how to promote the manufacture of "good" brown fat, so we can burn more calories, while a second team, also working nearby on the US east coast in Boston, has shown how brown fat and muscle are linked, suggesting ways to interconvert the two. Both offer a new strategy to fight flab.