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For more than 30 years, scientists have been intrigued by brown fat, a cell that acts like a furnace, consuming calories and generating heat.  But it was generally believed that humans lose brown fat after infancy, no longer needing it once the shivering response kicks in. Thinner people appeared to have more brown fat than heavier people; younger people more than older people; people with lower glucose levels, presumably reflecting higher metabolic rates, had more than those whose metabolisms were more sluggish; and women had more than men.

Brown Fat Identified as Heat-Yielding Cells in Humans – NYTimes.com.