A guide to weight /fat loss supplements

Health & Fitness

Calcium/vitamin D: Calcium is clearly great for bone loss, and there is evidence that it can help reduce body fat — increasing dietary calcium can lead to significantly increased weight and fat loss and increase the percentage of fat loss around the trunk region. Vitamin intake affects weight and fat loss, too. The major function of vitamin D is to help maintain normal levels of calcium. This dynamic duo is important for achieving a lean body.

CLA – conjugated linoleic acid and fish oil: Like CLA, fish fat is polyunsaturated. Studies have shown that fish oil reduces body fat and stimulates metabolism in healthy adults. Scientists studied the individual and combined effects of omega 3 fatty acid supplements and exercise on body composition and cardiovascular health. Fatty acid supplements and exercise both reduced body fat and improved cardiovascular and metabolic health.

Fibre: Fibre plays an important role in healthy body composition. Studies show that the more fibre you eat the less likely you are to be obese. Glucomannan is a soluble, fermentable, and highly viscous dietary fibre derived from the root of the elephant yam. Preliminary evidence shows that GM at doses of 2-4g results in significant weight loss in overweight or obese individuals.

Forskolin: From the Indian coleus plant, this supplement improves body composition in overweight people; it decreases body fat percentage compared with the placebo group, and forskolin increased bone mass with a significant increase for lean body mass.

Green tea: Green tea with its high content of caffeine and catechin polyphenols can jack up your daily energy expenditure and fat burning. Green tea is also said to promote fat oxidation beyond that explained by its caffeine content. Green tea extract may play a role in the control of body composition via the sympathetic activation of thermogenesis, fat oxidation, or both.

Hoodia: Hoodia gordonii is used as an appetite suppressant; it can produce an increase of food consumption and body mass.

MCT oil: Medium chain triglycerides belongs to the club of special fats similar to CLA and fish fats in that it can help you lose body fat. A study was undertaken with overweight volunteers that found that consuming a diet rich in MCTs results in greater loss of body fat compared with long chain fats. This was due to the increased energy expenditure and fat oxidation or burning.

Yerba mate: Yerba mate has been found to have a protective effect against high fat diet induced obesity. It is found to prolong gastric emptying so that subject felt fuller for a longer period.

Dietary protein and leucine: Besides its muscle building properties, protein is a fat burning nutrient. We know that a diet with a higher protein and reduced carbohydrates can enhance weight loss due to a higher loss in body fat and reduced loss of lean body mass. Studies report beneficial effects associated with increased feelings of fullness, increased thermogenesis, sparing of muscle protein loss, and enhanced glycemic or sugar control.

A key element to high protein diets is leucine, one of the essential amino acids. Leucine acts an activator of regular cell growth, it promotes protein synthesis, and suppress protein catabolism. In addition there is some new information showing that leucine affects overall glucose and energy metabolism. Increases in dietary leucine intake substantially decrease diet induced obesity, hyperglycaemia, and hypercholesterolemia.

Soy: Studies undertaken showed that supplementing with soy during a weigh resistance training increased lean tissue mass and strength, and so soy is a high quality protein that can promote improvements in body fat ratio.

Whey and casein: Whey is a unique protein in that it confers a performance enhancing effect and improves health under select conditions. A study was undertaken for three months with consuming whey protein. It was found that the whey protein group were superior to the casein group in lessening percentage of body fat and improving exercise performance.

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