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This 1970s Compound Can Burn More Fat Without Triggering Muscle Loss
UC Berkeley researchers say TOFA increased energy use in obese mice, preserved lean mass, and kept weight off longer after treatment ended in the study
Aug 31, 2026
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Obese mice given a new experimental compound lost, on average, 18 percent of their body weight in a month. And they did not eat less, move more, or lose any significant lean muscle mass
That’s the headline finding from a new study out of UC Berkeley. The compound, called TOFA (short for 5-tetradecyloxy-2-furoic acid), takes a fundamentally different approach than the popular GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy – and that difference could matter a lot for how safely and sustainably people lose weight
GLP-1s work in part by suppressing appetite. That’s effective, but it comes at a cost; some patients losing meaningful muscle mass along with fat, which can lead to frailty over time, particularly in older adults
TOFA flips the equation. Instead of getting people to eat less, it gets the body to burn more
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“Body weight responds to two levers: taking in fewer calories, or spending more energy,” Anders Näär, a UC Berkeley professor of metabolic biology and the study’s senior author, said to Berkeley News. “GLP-1s work almost entirely on the first, so we went after the second.”
The science behind the fat loss
In mice fed a high-fat diet, TOFA increased whole-body energy expenditure by as much as 18 percent with no change in food intake, physical activity, or body temperature. Most of the resulting weight loss came from fat, while lean muscle mass was largely preserved, according to the study
TOFA works in two ways at once: it blocks enzymes that produce new fat, while also switching on genetic pathways that help cells burn fat for fuel. Earlier compounds that block fat production alone tend to raise triglycerides, a heart-health risk. TOFA didn’t, possibly because its fat-burning activity offsets that side effect
