Leave brown fat to the scientists, lose weight by making smart choices about diet and exercise.

Brown fat's benefits have yet to be proven; exercising and eating right will help you lose weight now.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—This week, the media are all agog about a study by researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center, which found that adult humans can posses “brown fat,” a type of fat tissue that was thought to exist only in babies and children. Unlike the regular ol’ body fat that keeps most of us from becoming supermodels, brown fat tends to be burned off by the body for calories. It’s fascinating science, but the study is probably not going to result in a weight-loss treatment any time soon (though somebody’s probably working on a brown fat infomercial even now). “In no way does this study clearly define the practical role of brown fat in helping to lose weight, says Jeannie Gazzaniga-Moloo PhD, RD, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association (ADA). “I wish I could say, Eureka! we’ve found the magic bullet for losing weight easily,” she says. “The best advice to date for losing weight remains eating a low-fat diet emphasizing plant-based foods such as vegetables, fruit, whole grains, beans, and lentils, and lean choices of protein, married with consistent physical activity so you burn more calories that you eat.”

While scientists unravel the mysteries of brown fat, here are five weight-loss strategies that are actually doable, effective, and don’t require a subscription to the New England Journal of Medicine.

1. Drink water, not soda or juice. Calories in our drinks are particularly insidious, because we tend not to compensate for them by eating less food. A study that Rodale.com reported on earlier this week, which didn’t get as much attention as the brown fat discovery, found that avoiding the calories found in soda, juices, and other sweetened beverages has a bigger impact on weight loss than eliminating calories in food. The researchers calculated that every sweetened-drink serving eliminated from your day translates to about a pound of lost weight. Today we have a story about a movement to tax sugary beverages as a way of combating the obesity epidemic. It’s an idea bound to meet with resistance, but it shows how serious the medical community is about getting us to drink fewer calories.

2. Call an RD, or a friend. In February, a study found that regular counseling sessions with a registered dietitian (RD) helped people lose weight, even if the sessions were done by phone. You can find an RD by checking the ADA website. The advice and encouragement of a professional certainly helps, but just knowing that someone will be paying attention to your progress can motivate you to stick to your game plan. You can get a similar benefit by finding a friend or family member who’s willing to talk with you regularly and help keep you on track (without being critical).