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Fat burners: panacea or sales pitch?
Fat burners or body sculptors that promote weight loss are hot. Although you can feel in your water that the promise cannot be fulfilled (for example, because it only works in mice and rats). Yet you garden in it again. So what is in those nutritional supplements?
A food that contains the Fat Burning stimulates, satisfies hunger or the absorption of Fat and sugar by the body slows down… Isn’t that the dream of everyone who wants to to lose weight? It is fair to say that such substances exist. But they have little or no effect if you want to lose weight safely. Nevertheless, many people keep falling into the trap of handy sellers who promise great results. It is estimated to generate $2.4 billion a year in the US. And the use of fat burners is also increasing in Europe.
No lasting effect
A number of scientists recently published three studies on the various substances touted as fat burners, body sculptors and the like. According to Margriet Westerterp-Plantenga, professor of human biology at the Dutch Maastricht University, caffeine, tea and capsaicin (the spicy compound in hot peppers) increases daily energy expenditure by 4 to 5 percent (or 70 to 95 kcal) by boosting fat metabolism. Not much, but in principle sufficient for some loss or to keep the weight stable, says Plantenga. However, she also says that it is a complex matter and that losing weight requires a lot of effort and discipline.
Asker Jeukendrup of the English University of Birmingham and Melinda Manore of the University of Oregon in the US are more critical. According to them, there is no conclusive evidence for a contribution to real weight loss for most substances. A few hundred grams or even a kilo less, it hardly matters for those who are seriously overweight.
In addition, the loss is rarely final. All in all, you can hardly call this surprising. For example, many fat burners contain caffeine. The effect of this on fat metabolism has already been extensively studied, partly because athletes finally wanted to know for sure whether they actually perform better after a shot of caffeine. If you think for a moment, you should also realize that caffeine cannot have an impressive effect on fat metabolism. Why else would so many people still struggle with being overweight in coffee-drinking countries?
A mouse effect
Furthermore, commercials rarely, if ever, mention that certain results come from animal research, often with specially bred mouse or rat species. Such research usually proves little, for example because unrealistically high doses were used. Or because the animals were fed extremely different diets. Such studies are interesting for discovering how a substance works and for gaining more insight into metabolic processes, but that is where their merit ends.
It is therefore important to realize that you have no certainty about the composition and safety of products that you buy via the internet. So don’t!
click here for an overview of common substances in fat burners.
Sources):
- Plus Magazine