If you’re looking to lose weight quickly and easily, fat burners can seem like a tempting option. Many people believe that taking these supplements is all they need to lose weight. At the same time, however, the concept of pills that do all the work for you can sound almost too good to be true. So what’s the truth? Are fat burners effective and – more importantly – safe to consume? If you’re confused about whether or not taking these pills is a good idea, read to learn the answers to all the questions you may have.
What Are Fat Burners?
Fat burners are supplements designed to help you lose weight and get you into shape. However, despite their name, fat burners don’t actually make fat cells vanish. Instead, they help you lose weight in a variety of different ways. This includes:
- Increasing your body’s metabolic rate, which helps you lose more calories with the same amount of effort.
- Reducing the amount of fat your gut absorbs, thereby reducing visible fat.
- Helping suppress your appetite. This, in turn, reduces the amount of food you eat and the calories you consume, which slows down weight gain and allows you the opportunity to shed existing weight without the accompanying challenge of food-driven weight gain.
The actual effect of any given “fat-burning” supplement will depend on the product’s unique formulation, the ingredients it includes, and the proportion of those ingredients.
Are Fat Burners Safe And Effective?
The challenge with determining whether or not fat burners are safe lies with the fact that, as dietary supplements, they are not subject to FDA regulations the way that medicines are. It’s unsuitable to take any random supplement, and this is why the team at www.chron.com notes that you need to be careful when buying a supplement. Make sure to check the ingredient list carefully, and only opt for those products that include clinically dosed ingredients.
Many lower-quality “fat burning supplements” include ingredients that are beneficial for weight loss – but only have a tiny amount of said ingredients in their formula, which means their effect is negligible. However, if a product offers ingredients in clinical doses, you can be confident that there is enough of it in the supplement to be effective.
Additionally, make sure to discuss the supplement in question with your doctor or pharmacist before making a purchase. They’ll be able to let you know whether a given supplement is safe, not only in general but also for you as an individual. This step is especially important if you are already on other medications – even the best-regarded, safest, and most effective fat burner may be dangerous if it negatively interacts with your existing medications.
Ingredients To Look Out For
As discussed above, the presence of certain ingredients in a fat burner indicates whether the product is safe or not. Additionally, as the team at SFGate.com points out, they are also one of the biggest indicators regarding the supplement’s effectiveness. So, which ingredients should you look out for?
Some key ingredients that you should keep an eye out for include:
Caffeine
Caffeine has been shown to accelerate the speed of fat loss in the body. This is done by increasing the number of catecholamines in your body. Catecholamines are chemicals that help increase your metabolic rate and are the reason caffeine is an effective fat burner.
However, there are downsides to this ingredient. Not only can your body become desensitized to it (which means it loses its effectiveness), it can also cause insomnia, jitteriness, a high heart rate, and only similar concerns.
Green Tea Extract
Green tea extract contains plant-derived polyphenols, which help boost your liver’s ability to process fat. Additionally, green tea also contains catechins. These are antioxidants that have been proven to not only help your body lose abdominal fat faster they have also been shown to increase your body’s triglyceride levels.
Catechins inhibit the production of an enzyme that breaks down the hormones adrenaline and noradrenaline. These hormones help boost your metabolic rate, and preventing their breakdown means they have more time to help you lose fat.
L-Carnitine
L-Carnitine is a compound naturally found in a variety of foods, including meats and dairy products. Additionally, it helps boost the use of fat cells as fuel in the body, making it a popular weight loss supplement.
This substance transports fatty acids to the mitochondria, where they are then used as a source of fuel. The higher the amount of L-Carnitine in your body, the more this process takes place, and the faster you burn fat.
However, it should be noted that, as yet, the supporting evidence for the efficacy of this ingredient is limited. Additionally, consuming too much of this compound can result in your body giving off an unpleasant, fishy odor and can also cause issues such as vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea.
Soluble Fiber
While soluble fiber doesn’t directly help with fat reduction, it does help with appetite suppression. This means you eat less food – and your efforts to lose weight aren’t inhibited due to overconsumption of calories.
Additionally, it can also help prevent your body from absorbing all of the fat you eat. Again, this staves off weight gain, which makes weight loss much easier to achieve.
Yohimbe
While you may not have heard of it before, Yohimbe is a plant compound sourced from the bark of specific African evergreen trees. It’s a popular addition to a variety of weight loss supplements.
However, there is very little research available on this ingredient. Not only are there questions about its efficacy, what is known is that in high doses, but it can also be dangerous. It can cause increases in blood pressure, headaches, agitation and anxiety, and – in difficult situations – kidney failure and heart problems. Ideally, it’s best to avoid it as much as possible.
There are a lot of understandable concerns about fat burners among consumers. However, if you opt for proven supplements that have a track record of success, a brand name you trust, and positive reviews from past customers, you’ll find that they can actually be effective weight loss tools. However, it’s essential to remember that they should only be a part of your weight loss regimen and should be paired with exercise and a healthy diet.
Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash
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