How Effective Are Weight Loss Supplements?

All of us have at one point in time searched, and rummaged the internet for a fast and, most importantly, easy solution to weight loss. I can bet anything that most of you, as have I, stumbled upon ads such as “lose weight with one simple trick” or “we have discovered something that can be called exercise in a pill” or anything in between those two. Anyone with two ounces of the brain inside their skull knows that this is not true and has to be a clickbait or some sort because if that was the case and all of these “scientists” making these things up would see me in the first lines shouting “Shut up and take my money first!!!”

These kinds of supplements come in all shapes and sizes and you can have anything from pill like, tea form supplements to powder substances that have to be mixed with something. Most of them do not affect weight loss at all, but some latest researches give us some hopes that these supplements can help us lower our body weight both safely and healthy. These new researches are based upon new insights that tell them how your body absorbs nutrients and uses its energy.

Source: Medical News Today

Now let’s make a quick breakdown of what you can get. If you didn’t know you can have weight loss medications prescribed by your doctor today and you can opt for currently two versions of that – something to suppress your appetite and something to block fat. The first ones’ work in a rather complicated to explain why, but we will make it simple. What the first category does is block your body’s ability to re-absorb chemical signals that your brain uses (neurotransmitters) to regulate hunger. The principal that this works on is the ability that these chemicals will block your ability to reabsorb these chemicals and the result is that you feel a lot fuller and need to eat less. Now the question is do these work? Well, honestly, for a while only. If you take these in combo with a steady diet and exercise you can expect around 1.5-2 kg loss but after seven or so weeks, the brain sort of resets itself and manages to adjust to the new levels of these neurotransmitters and the weight loss benefits disappear.

Fat blockers, on the other side, work a bit differently. They inhibit the enzyme called lipase which is responsible for binding to with fat molecules to break them enough to pass through your molecules. When you use these chemicals you allow them to bind with lipase leaving fats unbroken and passing through your intestines in that way without being absorbed. If you wonder how well these work, well actually pretty good. With fat blockers, you can end up with more than 30% less fat in your organism and with 2.5 kg less than people not using those, but through a course of two years.

Source: – Wikimedia Commons

Now we go through the over-the-counter weight loss supplements. According to what Office of Dietary Supplements at the NIH nearly all supplements are phoney and will not help you lose any weight at all. In simpler term, you are wasting your money and possibly destroying your health. They also said that the only thing that has stood against their reputable trials and is legal in the USA is, believe it or not, Green Tea. Yes, this tea has both caffeine and an organic compound called catechin. Now, these two apart don’t do anything but when together and combined they give results to weight loss. Caffeine stimulates the nervous system and gives a thermogenic effect – heats your body by telling your nervous system to go a little faster. Catechin on the other side has a bit of that fat blocker effect by inhibiting the actions of lipases and helps stimulate the production of norepinephrine that controls hunger. These two combined turn out to be a mild appetite suppressant that works charms and its healthy.

Now for the other stuff, keep one thing in mind – there are a lot of supplements out there that are more harmful than useful. You really should look everything up thoroughly to try and find more natural supplements, that are good for you. The only downside to natural supplements is that you will not lose weight by simply using them. You will have to adjust your life, your habits, and start working out and eating healthy. As the word suggests these are supplements that will speed up the process of fat loss but only with your effort included as well. That means a steady diet, workout almost on a daily bases and some life changes for these to work.

Source: Men’s Journal

We will give you a glance at what you can find and if you want a little bit more information check this article out.

The best way to burn fat by one of these natural supplements is by using something called Glucomannan. This dietary supplement helps you keep your appetite in check. When you try and lose weight you naturally try and restrict the amounts of food you use, and with time when you decrease the amounts of food, it becomes less easy to control the appetite. This is where this supplement jumps in and saves the day. This is a type of fibre, soluble fibre, that comes from a particular type of yam and it fills up your stomach and decreases your appetite.

According to Vivarin Gum, caffeine is probably one of the most popular active ingredients that can be found in almost any weight loss supplement. We previously explained what the effect of caffeine is through the usage of green tea, but we should also mention that there is some evidence that suggests that caffeine can greatly reduce your appetite as well. Thanks to some researches they found out that taking a coffee can mean that you can inhibit your appetite from 0.5h to 4h after consumption. The same study showed that 3-4h after taking coffee the appetite suppressant effect finally wore down.

Source: Health Benefits Times

Protein powder has proven benefits for weight and fat loss. Yes, it might not seem like a natural supplement but it offers one of the best natural ways to boost your metabolism. Thanks to the thermic effect of food digesting protein requires that your body uses a lot of energy. The protein source will provide 15-30% of the energy that your body uses while digesting food. It also fills you up decently and can decrease your appetite by increasing fullness hormones and at the same time decrease hunger hormones. A win-win situation if we saw any, but you have to keep in mind that these protein powders (mixed into protein shakes) are a replacement for a high carb snack or meal.

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