FAT BURNERS
There are “millions” of fat burners on the market, and every manufacturer swears that theirs is the best.
One of the formulas that give a good “ fat burning” effect includes these four ingredients: Alpha lipoic acid, caffeine, chromium and L-tyrosine.
Alpha lipoic acid is found in foods of plant and animal origin such as liver, spinach, broccoli and potatoes.
The body produces it by itself until a certain age, but with aging, its production decreases, which leads to an increase in the proportion of free radicals in the body and the risk of malignant diseases or diabetes.
In the process of losing weight, alpha lipoic acid inhibits the synthesis of fats and their transport to fat body reserves, enhances the breakdown of fats, especially with aerobic training, and blocks the conversion of free fats into fat deposits.
A good fat burner contains about 50 mg of alpha lipoic acid in one dose.
Caffeine is the next of the ingredients recommended in the composition of fat burners and one could talk about it for days.
It is important to note that it is a central nervous system stimulator, which is important to mention because weight loss processes are usually accompanied by a low-carbohydrate diet. And when we’re low on carbohydrates, we’re also sleepy, without energy, so we don’t want to train; therefore, a product containing caffeine taken about half an hour before training helps us wake up and get energy to do a hard workout.
Another important effect of caffeine is that it increases the release of free fatty acids into the bloodstream. This way, more fat is used as a source of energy for training and fat reserves in the subcutaneous fat tissue are reduced. Once, caffeine together with ephedrine and aspirin was an extremely powerful means of losing weight, but ephedrine was put on the doping list.
Fat burners contain 100-200 mg of caffeine per dose.
Chromium is a mineral necessary for fat and glucose metabolism. Minerals cannot be synthesized by the human body, so they must be taken in through food or nutritional supplements.
Chromium enhances the action of insulin and increases the sensitivity of cell receptors to insulin. This way, insulin better transports glucose from the bloodstream into the cell and thus stabilizes the level of glucose in the blood.
Chromium also helps the breakdown of fats, meaning that it lowers the level of bad cholesterol and increases the level of good cholesterol.
While other ingredients in fat burners are measured in milligrams, micrograms are needed for chromium. About 120-130 micrograms is the recommended daily dose of chromium in a fat burner.
L-tyrosine is an amino acid that can be synthesized in the body from phenylalanine. Phenylalanine and L-tyrosine help in the production of thyroid hormone, adrenaline and noradrenaline. Thyroid hormone helps to melt fatty tissue, as well as adrenaline, and noradrenaline acts as a neurotransmitter ensuring mental alertness, which we have already mentioned as very important with low-carbohydrate diets when drowsiness and fatigue are experienced often.
The amount of L-tyrosine in a daily dose of fat burner is about 50 mg.
The ingredients found in fat burners that have been praised by exercisers I’ve personally trained or they have had good experiences in the process of losing weight.
I must mention that even the best fat burner in the world will not give you results if you do not train intensively with weights in combination with strong cardio, and if you do not stick to the prescribed diet.