Weight loss is a very challenging endeavor, and many who struggle with extra pounds find out the hard way how long their journey needs to be to resolve this issue. There’s no losing weight without adjusting your diet and regular exercise, but there are some things that can help you reach your goals faster. One of the more popular options for this is getting a fat burner supplement.
Let’s take a look at these natural supplements and see what the pros and cons of using them are.
Top four pros of using fat burners
The name is pretty indicative of the function of this supplement type. The idea is that you take these before you have a workout session, and you get a boost to your stamina and endurance.
The most often promoted benefits of fat burners include increased blood flow and higher energy levels. This means that you get everything you need to get quicker and more significant muscle gains.
✔️ Controlling food cravings
One of the biggest challenges of losing weight is changing the diet you’ve been used to for who knows how long. Most people that struggle with excess weight indulge in eating habits that cause them to gain weight rapidly. This includes eating a lot of carbs and trans fats along with binge eating, snacks, and late-night meals. These habits can also develop due to psychological effects like stress and negative emotions.
All of this can lead to insulin resistance, cardiovascular issues, and even type 2 diabetes.
Most fat burners worth their salt will have either protein powder or soluble fiber additives to help manage these issues. These substances are great at helping curb cravings by suppressing the hunger hormone (Ghrelin), increasing the feeling of satiety, slowing absorption, and so on, to reduce the strain on the user’s self-discipline when it comes to eating healthy.
✔️ Speeding up weight loss
Most fat burners will achieve this effect by containing ingredients that can trigger the thermogenic process in our bodies. This process occurs in our bodies naturally and includes raising the body’s temperature slightly by burning fat for energy. The most common ingredients that can achieve this effect are Yohimbine, Caffeine, and Green Tea Extract.
Thermogenic ingredients speed up weight loss by doing several things in our bodies. They stimulate the release of norepinephrine and adrenaline, which cause a glucose release, burning fat reserves from our adipose tissue. They also improve energy expenditure and fat oxidation during exercise, making the exercise more effective. Finally, they increase fat and carb metabolism while blocking the absorption and accumulation of fats.
✔️ Increased energy levels
We already mentioned that the process of thermogenesis causes a boost of energy, but there are also other ingredients that do the same in various ways.
One of the ways is through the increase of blood flow, which leads to more oxygen and nutrients for our muscles. This also improves fatty acid oxidation, which is excellent for weight loss. The ingredients also attack the fatty acids and turn them into energy in the form of Adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP).
They also have a pre-workout-like effect as you can time taking your fat burner to hit just as you start your exercise. By boosting our endurance and delaying fatigue, fat burners can vastly improve our performance at the gym.
✔️ A greater focus and alertness
Due to the fact that we reduce our caloric intake when we try to lose weight, we experience a lack of energy which leads to a lack of focus and alertness. Severe cases can even lead to mood swings and irritability, further making things complicated as these can ruin social aspects of a person’s life.
To counteract these effects, along with providing extra energy, many fat burners add nootropics to their list of ingredients to keep that mental strength up to the task at hand.
Top four cons of using fat burners
x Too many brands with varying effects
The fitness industry is massive, and whenever a new product gains traction, everyone starts producing it to make a profit while the hype lasts. Fat burners are no different.
Being that we are still facing an evolving niche of products, we can run into a lot of variations when it comes to ingredients, the way the ingredients are dosed, quality control, quality of the ingredients, etc. With aggressive marketing from the brands trying to reach new customers, it can be quite a challenge to figure out which brands are reliable and which ones are basically ripping you off.
There have even been reports that reliable brands bought on Amazon end up being copies sold by scammers trying to capitalize on their popularity. This is extremely dangerous as we can’t be sure what’s in those pills, so we recommend picking a brand and getting the product straight from their website.
x There are brands that simply don't work
Many unreliable fat burners will promise you the world. They’ll claim that you can lose weight by simply taking the pills, which is usually an indicator of them just being a cash grab.
We know that fat burners burn about 50 calories per day in people who have a stationary lifestyle, and these products are not intended to burn calories on their own.
Some products will have all the ingredients they claim they have, but if they don’t contain the lower limit required for each of them to have an effect, then they are worthless.
x Some ingredients Might not Be good for you
It is enough to take a look at the FDA’s list of tainted weight loss products and check their public notification regarding the products to see how volatile this market can be.
The fact that we get most fat burners online and that we can be targeted from around the world by marketers makes this situation even scarier. The US, EU, and UK have regulations that are pretty strictly enforced, but some products are manufactured outside of these areas, and there are even loopholes in these three systems.
Ephedrine is a prime example of an ingredient that can help with losing weight but cause you harm in the long run. We have studies that prove that it is effective at helping us lose weight, but the FDA recently banned the use of the ingredient in dietary supplements as it can lead to an unreasonable risk to the health of the users.
It is crucial to see what the reviews say about a brand before you purchase it. Bad reviews? Don’t buy it. No reviews? Don’t buy it.
*All fat burners that we recommend on this site are 100% natural and don't contain harmful chemicals or banned ingredients.
x Some ingredients Might Be addictive
There are more than a few ingredients that go into fat burners that can be addictive. Caffeine is one that most people know about, but there are others as well.
The thing is, the longer we use the same ingredients, the bigger the chances are that we will develop resistance or tolerance to its ingredients. The process of weight loss and achieving a healthy physique is not something that happens overnight, and many users tend to rely on fat burners for prolonged periods. This is especially dangerous if the fat burner in question contains the upper limit for dosing, which will give better results at first but will drop off significantly after a while.
It is important you do some research so you know exactly what's inside the supplement you are buying and make sure it doesn't contain harmful ingredients.
Conclusion
As you can see, fat burners can be quite tricky to figure out, especially for those that are hearing of this type of product for the first time.
We know that our cons list has got you worried, and it was intended to. We want our readers to make good decisions for themselves, but keep in mind that fat burners are a legitimate product. The key is to know how they work, what the best practices for using them are, and to find the right brands.
If you understand that they are meant to be used with proper dieting and exercise and that you need to cycle them after 4 to 6 weeks, you should be fine as long as you pick a reliable manufacturer. Do your research before you buy — it would be best to talk to someone who has used the product before for a firsthand account of their experience.