If you’ve been how to lose stubborn fat that seems to resist diet and exercise, take heart!!! Researchers have found a link between the liver and stubborn fat and stubborn belly fat.

Researchers have been pursuing the study of leptins and how they affect the body’s ability to boost metabolism and shed fat. They have identified a metabolic switch that appears to tell the body to store or burn fat. HHMI Research’s article Identifies Enzyme Involved in Fat Storage:

In an article published in the July 12, 2002, issue of the journal Science , Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Jeffrey M. Friedman and his colleagues reported that the hormone leptin represses a liver enzyme called stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 (SCD-1). SCD-1 catalyzes the production of monounsaturated fats from fatty acids in the liver and other tissues. Genetically obese ( ob/ob ) mice are overweight and show low levels of fat metabolism. In the absence of leptin, the level of SCD-1 rises and more fat is stored in the liver.

Researchers have LONG known that healthy liver function is a key to burning fat and losing weight. However, you’ll notice that while this finding was published nearly 6 years ago, you haven’t heard much about it.

The Science A Go Go blog reports in Fat Storage Enzyme Identified

The results, said Friedman, demonstrate that SCD-1 is a key to leptin-regulated fat metabolism in the liver. However, he said that additional studies would be needed to understand how the enzyme is regulated and whether it plays a role in other tissues and whether there exist other leptin-regulates additional fat metabolism pathways.

While SCD-1 could be a potential target for obesity drugs that would promote fat-burning by reducing level of SCD-1, Friedman expressed caution about the potential side effects of such drugs.

Subsequent studies have shown that our battle of the bulge may have its root in high-carb diets. In the article Waistline growth on high-carb diets linked to liver gene the University of Wisconsin reports:

“It looks like the SCD gene in the liver is responsible for causing weight gain in response to a high-carbohydrate diet, because when we take away the gene’s activity the animals no longer gain the weight,” says Ntambi. “These findings are telling us that the liver is a key tissue in mediating weight gain induced by excess carbohydrates.”

According to Ann Lousie Gittleman, author of Fat Flush Plan and Get the Sugar Out in the 5-19-08 edition of First Magazine,  simply add the juice of 1/2 lemon in 10 oz of warm water every morning.  At night before you go to bed, drink a cup of Parsley Tea.  This one two punch can help restore healthy liver function in as quickly as two weeks according to Gittleman.