Fat Burners - Effective or Waste of Money? [Archive]

Glaive

Sun, March 5th, 2006, 03:43 AM

Generally when people talk about "fat burners" they're talking about combinations of various things sold by supplement companies as a mixture geared to, strangely enough, burn fat. While many of the things you listed are common ingredients in such supplements (green tea extract, ephedra/ephedrine, caffeine, etc.) many are simply supplements that have benefit during a cutting cycle, or at least are believed to be.

Everything you listed works, it's just a question as to whether it does what you particularly want it to, if that makes sense. As for actual fat-burner products, most are indeed complete crap. Even though most contain very valid ingredients, they are typically dosed too low to be of any real benefit and most are also rather expensive.

Here's my take on a variety of supplements commonly used during cutting cycles:

Ephedrine -- Ephedra is another name for Ma Huang, a substance employed in Asian medicine. Ephedrine HCL is the alkaloid extracted from it, and is what you'll find in some over-the-counter asthma medications and other things. I've had very positive experiences stacking Ephedrine with Caffeine (the EC stack) and saw a noticeable difference in fat loss (and continue to do so). While there's much science to back up Ephedrine's effectiveness as a fat loss drug, there's also some safety risks. If you have anything even remotely resembling a heart or blood pressure problem, or such things run in your family, then you should stay far away from Ephedra/Ephedrine.

Caffeine -- Great overall stimulant and thermogenic. Has some benefits on it's own for fat loss, specifically when taken before exercise, but is most effective when stacked with Ephedrine.

ALCAR (Acetyl-l-carnitine) -- The list of positive effects of this supplement would take up pages and pages. Most are not really relevant to fat loss, though. It is supposed to boost metabolism as well as overall energy level and alertness, and I can definitely say it does that. I take 1.5g before cardio and before weight training and it definitely increases my alertness and focus. It's a very smooth boost, not the "wired" feeling you can get from caffeine or sugar. It does have oxidizing properties, though, so it really should be taken with a suitable amount of antioxidants, which is why it is commonly stacked with ALA.

ALA (Alpha-lipoic-acid) -- The "universal antioxidant." ALA is not only great for overall health in that respect, but it also helps both in fat loss and muscle gain. It has the ability to mimic insulin, and helps shuttle glucose into muscle cells as opposed to fat cells. Normally your body tries to dump glucose in muscle first, but there are only so many openings/pathways/receptors/whatever per cell. I forgot the specific science as to how, but ALA is able to cram more glucose into muscle cells, leaving less leftover to go to fat cells. It also contributes to better pumps in the gym. Taking this in the morning and before bed, as well as before meals during the day (preferably the higher-carbohydrate ones) can aid in fat loss noticably. There are multiple isomers of ALA, the r-isomer being the one responsible for all the positive benefits (all the scientific studies you read are generally using just R-ALA). However, R-ALA is very unstable and tends to polymerize in the stomach, therefore most ALA you'll find is half R-ALA and half the synthetic s-isomer. This means that only half of what you're taking is actually really effective, possibly less since there's some evidence that suggests that S-ALA partially counteracts R-ALA. You can buy R-ALA by itself but it's more expensive and very sensitive to temperature and other factors. Another option is K-R-ALA, which is R-ALA bonded with Potassium to (in theory) form a more stable salt form. It is extremely expensive, but in my experience quite effective. I used regular ALA from Kent Nutrition for quite some time, taking 1200mg a day spread throughout 4 doses. Currently I take a product called Glucophase XR from Designer Supplements which contains 250mg of K-R-ALA per dose (you don't need nearly as much R-ALA or K-R-ALA as you do regular ALA). I take 3 per day and am seeing great results.

CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) -- CLA is a fatty acid found in various foods. It is often promoted as a weight loss supplement, but all the studies and research I've seen that claim it has positive benefits show that it contributes to a lower body fat percentage, not actually lower body fat. In other words, it seems to help you gain muscle instead of fat, but not necessarily directly lose fat. As such it is considered by some to be of greater benefit while bulking as a means of preventing unwanted fat gain. There are also others that believe that it is useful for cutting when paired with something that directly promotes fat oxidation.

Sesamin -- Sesamin is a lignan found in Sesame Oil. It is a more recently developed supplement and is available from Scivation in capsules or from Avant Labs in either capsules or a liquid. There's a fair amount of science I've seen floating around that indicates that it has a noticable impact on fat oxidation, and I noticed very positive results using Scivation Sesamin 3 times a day stacked with fish oil and Kent Nutrition's CLA. I've also seen quite a few people advocating it's use in a reduced dosage while on a bulk to avoid fat gain. I'll give this a shot when I start bulking and see what happens.

Fish Oil/Flax Oil/EFA's -- Essential Fatty Acids are necessary for good health, but many also believe they help burn fat. I personally am not well-versed on the scientific reason behind this, since I choose to take them anyways just because they're good for you for other reasons. I do specifically take fish oil with my Sesamin since taking it with fat increases uptake, but that only affects the timing of my fish oil doses not the quantity itself. I personally recommend fish oil over vegetarian Omega-3 sources as it gives you high concentrations of EPA and DHA, two very important fatty acids lacking in flax oil. I use caps for convenience, but liquid works just as well (some say better). Make sure that whatever you get is molecularly distilled to ensure you get the smallest amount of mercury and other toxins. I get my caps from All The Whey for ridiculously cheap, but good prices can be found elsewhere as well.

Green Tea Extract -- Another great thermogenic and metabolism booster. I've not used it by itself, but have as part of Thermocin, which is At Large Nutrition's fat-burner product. I feel that that has worked nicely for me, but I don't know how effective some of the other ingredients are. As such, I'm replacing it with Kent Nutrition's GT-Turbo (Green Tea extract, Caffeine, Rhodilia Rosea) to give a comparison. I know lots of people who've utilized just Green Tea Extract and had positive results.

Lastly, all of this is really only a small adjunct to proper diet and exercise. While I've found some supplements to be useful to help nudge me out of a plateau or in general soothe my impatience, my biggest leaps in progress have always come from refining my diet or training regimen. If you're not already making progress with weight training, cardio (cannot recommend fasted AM LISS enough) and the essential supplements (multivitamin, protein, fish oil) then IMHO you should reevaluate your routine before you start investing in more supplements.:gl: