There are many diet supplements out there, it can be hard to decipher the phony from the foolproof. We break down what you need to know about supplements
Diet supplements have been around for years, but
are constantly plagued with inaccurate labels and poor quality testing. But new
things continue to come out every year.
Here's what to look out for in your diet
supplements.
Caffeine
Caffeine is the basis of almost every single weight
loss supplement. Caffeine is beneficial for increasing endurance throughout the
day.
Caffeine works by
targeting the A1 receptors in the brain, which are normally taken up by
adenosine. Adenosine is the chemical our body produces that makes us sleepy
throughout the day.
But by caffeine taking its place, it increases the
amount of time before we start to feel fatigued throughout the day.
There are different types of caffeine that have
different metabolize rates. Caffeine anhydrous has around a 4-hour time frame
before it is out of the system. Caffeine citrate has a 6-hour time frame before
it metabolizes out, but does take longer to kick in compared to caffeine
anhydrous.
Carnitine
Carnitine is an amino acid that is responsible for
metabolizing our fat cells. It should be one of the key and first ingredients
when looking for a good weight loss supplement.
The way Carnitine works is by bringing fat to the
mitochondria to oxidize. It specifically targets long-chain fatty acids, which
are the ones that tend to store around our midsection.
Because of Carnitines ability to utilize fat cells
and food intake for energy more effectively, Carnitine also helps increase
endurance. Anytime we can increase endurance throughout the day, we can continue
to be more active and decrease the number of calories needed for these
activities.
For those who want to know more about fat
metabolizers, check out these things you should know about fat metabolisers.
Green Tea Extract
Green tea extract is
another common basis for many diet supplements. This is because of the benefits
of green tea catechins, which typically increase the number of calories burned
from fat rather than glucose.
Our body will normally use glucose first as the
main source of energy because of its readily available usage from being stored
in muscles. Because fat tends to store in organs like the liver, it makes it
less available.
This is where green tea comes into play. Green tea
extract that has a high ECGC count can tell our body to utilize this stored fat
more effectively.
Do keep in mind, this seems to be strictly based on
being paired with little to no caffeine intake.
Diet Supplements: Always Read the Ingredients
Reading the label is by far the most important
aspect of diet supplements. Avoid taking a concoction of different ingredients
where you do not know the amount of each ingredient. Be wary of fairy dusting,
where a company only puts the ingredient in a product, but at such small
dosages that would not impact performance.
