Forget the weight loss pills and fad diets. A piece of fruit may help you reach your weight loss goals.

Researchers from the University of Iowa made the discovery and recently published their findings in the journal PLoS ONE.1

For the study, researchers tested a compound found in a common fruit on mice. Scientists fed the mice a high-fat diet supplemented with the fruit compound. They found the mice whose diet included the compound ate more food, but gained less weight.

The mice also showed an increase in skeletal muscle as well as brown fat. Brown fat is the type of fat in our bodies that generates body heat.2 It’s also called brown adipose tissue. And it is typically found in infants.

No one likes the sound of increasing any type of fat. But brown fat isn’t bad. It actually speeds up calorie burning.

“Brown fat is beneficial and people are trying to figure out ways to increase it,” said lead researcher Dr. Christopher Adams.

When brown fat generates body heat, it burns calories. In turn, you lose weight.

So where can you get this calorie-burning compound?

You can find it in an apple peel. And it’s called ursolic acid.

Adams and his team also found that ursolic acid reduced obesity, pre-diabetes, and fatty liver disease in the mice.

“These data…suggest ursolic acid as a potential therapeutic approach for obesity and obesity-related illness,” Dr. Adams said.

This wasn’t the first time Dr. Adams studied the affects of ursolic acid.

He previously tested the compound on mice to see how it increased muscle mass.3 In that study he also found that the compound found in the apple peels promoted muscle growth. And he found that the mice that ate ursolic acid became leaner. Why? Increased skeletal muscle helps burn calories.

So between the two tissues – skeletal muscle and brown fat – the mice got double the calorie burning properties.

Dr. Adams’s next step is to test ursolic acid on patients. But that doesn’t mean you can’t start enjoying the benefits now.

You can find ursolic acid in a supplement form at your local health food store. Or you can get some in your produce aisle in the simple form of an apple.

No need to waste your time or money on crazy weight loss tricks.

An apple a day may keep the doctor away… as well as those unwanted pounds.

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References:
1 http://plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0039332
2 http://medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240989.php
3 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21641545