It is very common nowadays to see in health and fitness magazines and over the net commercials for fat burning supplements. There is a vast offering and companies claim to unlock fat burning potential through supplementation. Regardless of (and if) the products and ingredients that might work, there is the body mechanism you should be aware of to understand how it goes and whether there is a potential for accelerating fat burning.
This article is not intended to review supplements but to generally explain the mechanism and why it can work when or why it doesn’t.
Hormones like epinephrine (also named Adrenaline) and nor-epinephrine are part of a mechanism in the body we use to call “fight or flight”. This mechanism is body’s physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived stress, harmful event, attack, or threat to survival.
When this happen there is a stimulation for lipids release, which are also the building blocks of fats. In other words, when these hormones go up, it tells the body to release fatty acids into the bloodstream for energy.
Exercise and stress are two of the most common, as we described the “fight or flight” mechanism. These hormones also suppress appetite and gastric function, so we’re not hungry.
We can also classify the fat burning supplement into several categories:
Thermogenics-type fat burners increase core body temperature hence may increase your metabolism so you can burn fat faster. natural green tea extract for example can make a bit of an impact like this.
Stimulants, like caffeine work primarily by invigorating one’s sympathetic nervous system, which stimulate hormones increase.
Appetite suppressants help to avoid food craving and, when no available source of energy from food consumption, it will go for the stored fat. Examples of ingredients for appetite suppressants are Garcinia Cambogia and Hoodia Gordonili plants.
Lipotropics are substances that affect fat metabolism in the body. Lipotropic compounds are a combination of ingredients that help improve the breakdown of fat in the liver.
HGH (Human Growth Hormone) and testosterone hormones boosters. In such case, the intention is to stimulate for gaining muscle mass, hence more energy consumption.
It looks like a very good idea to boost up those hormones so we can surpress appetite and can make the body burning the fat.
The truth about the mechanism is a bit different.
Energy is not vanish artificially. When body converts fats to available energy and runs it in the bloodstream, there is a need to use this energy. without the actual need to use this availabel energy, you can probably guess what the body is about to do. Yes, indeed, the body will convert the available energy back to stored energy which means, back to fats, and worse, we can even feel hungrier.
In order to use this enery, what should we actually do? We need to increase muscles activity, so they will need to use energy. Meaning, exercising is the key for burning that fat.
As a matter of fact, when we are on a certain heart rate zone, the body prefers using fats for energy, over carbohydrates. and when we are lack of carbohydrates, and depends the type of exercising and other factors, the body will move to fats as the energy source.
In other words, the fat burning supplements, stimulates and accelerate fats based eneregy sourcing, which must be followed by the proper exercise in order to use the available energy.
This is also true for the supplements that work by increasing the HGH and Testorsterone levels. since Also here the proper exercising is required.
other supplements may have neglected impact and also will require the lifestyle adaptation to actually benefit from supplementing.
Also one should keep in mind the side effects may appear by such supplementation and consultation is surely the good path before taking any of those supplements.
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