Well here we are, AFL Lovers, the end of the year.
The first thing that people tend to think about around this time of year is how they can get their act together and get organized with their weight loss.
I’m here to tell you, that it really is pretty simple. Stay accountable to yourself and eat as close to the earth as possible. It’s that easy…. right?
Trust me, I know it’s not, but fundamentally, it should be.
Anyhow, conventional wisdom will tell us that most fat burners are a complete waste of money. And generally speaking, they’re correct. The funny thing is that there are supplements and vitamins that aren’t even marketed as fat burners, that are actually NOT worthless. So we will break them down here.
Before I get into that, someone asked me a few weeks ago if fat-burners are okay for children. No. No and No. I would never recommend that at all. In fact, the only supplements that are worth occasionally giving to kiddo would be the occasional protein shake (collagen is great for kids and I make it with warm milk so it’s like a hot chocolate).
The other one is the occasional Multi-Vitamin since their nutrition can sometimes be lacking (but ideally, you could get this done with proper nutrition).
Here’s a link for the monk-fruit sweetened chewable multivitamin from HIYA that we give to our kids ( no sugar and has 12 fruits and veggies) 50% off using code as well!
Now, for the adults:
1) Carnitine – Yes – it is true that carnitine shuttles fat into the cell to be burned. It is ALSO true that carnitine is only beneficial if you’re deficient in it…. BUT, exercise aggressively depletes our carnitine stores. So supplementing with 1000mg of carnitine per day prior or after exercise COULD be beneficial afterall.
2) Green Tea Extract (EGCG) – This is one of the most documented potential fat burners. I say “potential” because we can never say for certain… just too many moving pieces. But what we can see shows us that the combination of caffeine plus the catechins can really drive up some fatty acid oxidation.
Firstly, a meta-analysis published in Obesity Reviews looked at the effect of a catechin-caffeine green tea mixture on energy expenditure and fat oxidation.
This analysis included 6 RCTs that looked at the acute effects of green tea extract on energy expenditure and fat oxidation over a 24 hour period. They found that across the studies, the green tea extract mixture significantly increased energy expenditure by 4.7% and increased fat oxidation by 16% over a 24 hour period compared to control groups.
The caffeine and catechins contained in green tea extract appear to have a thermogenic effect on the body – explaining increases in energy expenditure and fat oxidation.
I would suggest periodically trying about 50-100mg EGCG prior to a workout.
3) Yohimbine (don’t take all the time) – This one is interesting as it really only seems to have an effect if you’re exercising. But check out the research.
Yohimbine is a natural alpha-2 antagonist, meaning that it blocks the α2 adrenergic receptor. So, when yohimbine blocks these receptors on a fat cell, the process of fat mobilization is initiated inside the fat cell.
A study in the European Journal of Clinical Investigation noticed a concurrent increase in lipolysis with Yohuimbine.
More lipolysis means that the fat stores in adipose tissue can be broken down into fatty acids, taken up by cells that use them as fuel in their mitochondria.
These findings are very interesting as while exercise stimulates the burning of fat, yohimbine appears to mobilize more fatty acids and lead to more fat burning to enhance the effects of exercise that you do!
Another honorable mention is CLA, but it seems like it is best to get CLA from good quality meat and dairy, and not so much from its synthetic form in a supplement. So although I could make a supplement argument here, I think CLA is best to get from a nice bit of aged cheese or a grassfed ribeye from time to time. Sounds good to me ha!
So, with these supplements, exercise moderation. MORE IS NOT BETTER, and there is no guarantee that fat will melt off of you. These are just some of the very few that seem to have evidence as to actually being worth taking. Most of the ones on the market are garbagio.
And once again, a thank you to HIYA for offering up the 50% discount on the chewable kid’s multivitamin. If you don’t have kids, disregard altogether. If you DO have kids – seriously, give it a try – ( code AFL)
We have an epic line up of videos coming out this week on the channel, so keep it locked in closely so that you can really get the good stuff!
Talk soon!
Aggressive Fat Loss
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