Personal Trainers Forum

[Jasmin]

Are Fat Burners Effective?

Is it too good to be true that you can burn up to 500% more
with fat burners? For legal issues, manufacturers are not
permitted to make these bold claims on the bottles that they do
work. However, companies can use other forms of strategic
marketing to entice the consumer by luring vulnerable
individuals with commercials, ads in newspapers and magazines.
Before I actually discuss this topic I'll address what they are,
how it functions through our system, is it safe, and does it
really work?

The usage of fat burners induce thermogenesis. This is the
process the body uses to burn fat by manipulating our
metabolism. The derivative for thermo is heat and genesis is
production. The most common ingredient on the market today is
Ephedrine and referred as Ma Huang (an ancient Chinese herb). It
has been around China for over 3000 years in preparation to help
with colds, flu, asthma and allergies used as tea. Other common
ingredients on the market are caffeine and aspirin. These 3
combined are known as the ECA stack and the ingredients are
greater as one maximizing thermogenesis. Aspirin is salicin
which is a component of white willow bark which led to discovery
of aspirin. Guarana commonly found in northern Brazil is also
known as caffeine. Researchers or others have said that caffeine
boost the effects of ephedrine and aspirin. Thus, combining the
ECA stack together are greater than each ingredient alone. Green
tea is another ingredient found in fat burners. A common
ingredient found in most fat burning supplements is L-tyrosine
which is a nonessential amino acid. L-tyrosine is also the
precursor of several neurotransmitters that include L-dopa,
dpamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine. In addition,
Cordyceps, yohimbe along with the others I've mentioned
possesses the ability to simulate specific fat receptors such as
the hips and buttock area for women.

I'll now be discussing about our nervous system such as our
autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS helps regulate blood
pressure, hearts activity, movement and work in the stomach,
intestine/salivary glands, secretion of insulin, and sexual
functions. The ANS is subdivided into 2 components which are the
sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous
system (PNS). The SNS is a excitatory system which meditates the
body response to activity, stress, danger which includes
increased heart rate, constriction of arterioles in skin,
digestive system, and inhibition of digestive functions. The PNS
is an inhibitory system which has a decreased heart rate, blood
pressure, temperature, etc. As we can tell our bodies are very
complex involving our hormones and neurotransmitters. Imagine
this is only a small percentage of what is being addressed on
how our body functions. Consider our body similar to a car. I
would like to think of my body like an Audi R8 (by the way, my
favorite car!) which allows us to excel in every aspect such as
acceleration, cornering, speed, etc. Then you sneak a peek to
see what is under that hood, it is quite complicated and
sophisticated appreciating what it takes for this car to
perform.

Within the SNS has a chemical called catecholamines which
checks the level in your blood. It is a hormone produced by the
adrenal glads found at the top of the kidneys releasing blood
during physical or emotional stress. This is the process when
you are grasping for air doing 5-20 minutes of jogging depending
on your physical conditioning. The fat burners work a few
different ways: first thing, we understand fat burners assist
the body to break down body fat which involves releasing it from
fat cell. It then enters the bloodstream as fatty acids to be
transported to the muscle cells where it is burned. Secondly,
fat burners will tend to suppress our appetite. Last, weight
loss is inhibiting the body from absorbing fat during digestion.
Fat blockers do not work if that person isn't eating fat in
her/his diet. They also wont prevent weight gain if a person is
overeating protein or carbohydrates. Of course the negative side
effects we may consider taking these fat burners are digestion,
stomach discomfort, diarrhea, interference with other
medications such as birth control pills, estrogen, decreased
appetite, stress, teeth grinding, muscle fatigue, alarming
incidents of death, and possible long term effects we aren't
aware yet.

So it is apparent that fat burners are effective. Indeed the
public is becoming more knowledgeable these days with products
but why do more people only rely on fat burners to lose weight
and discontinue their routine with exercising and eating right?
Wouldn't it be more effective with a monitored diet and exercise
program? In my opinion, this is where most people go wrong and
individuals truly convince they have a slow metabolism so they
will only use the fat burner and not exercise. My point is that
if people do decide to use fat burners, it is only 1 portion of
the equation of maximizing your results. Also, we should be
careful of what we put into our system by researching and
understanding the product. Sometimes we have to think of the
short and long term effects of anything we do in life. So, next
time you make a decision think of the long term consequences
rather than the immediate benefits.