Supplements for Fat Loss

A while back I looked at what I called the three basic supplements to ensure you are getting all you can out of training:

1. A good multivitamin

2. Omega-3 (from fish preferably, or walnuts / flaxseeds / chia seeds)

3. Protein powder

My logic here is simple: give the body what it's made of to maximise what you're making of it.

In a world where we don't always eat right all the time, having supplements gives you a bit of extra 'insurance' - since the definition of an essential vitamin, mineral, amino acid or fatty acid is that you can't produce it yourself. And it's easier to eliminate any potential small excess rather than try to invent molecules to fill a deficit.

When it comes to supplements for weight loss, there's certainly a whole lot more to be wary of. The weight loss industry is rife with gimmicks, dodgy products, misleading information and fads. Whilst there are some things that definitely do work, it's important to be able to judge what is more likely to at the very least harm your wallet, if not your health.

Firstly I'll cover off some things to be wary of with any advertised weight loss product or system - then provide some ideas of product types that can help. Of course, exercise training plays a huge role in managing healthy weight reduction - so if you're ready to take that challenge contact us! 

Here's a couple of things to watch out for:

* "Diets" are not a long term good option for weight maintenance -behaviour and habit change is. If you start on a prescribed diet, use it as an opportunity to learn about how eating affects your energy, weight, moods and appetite. Set yourself up for life with better eating habits rather than relying on meal plans, and you'll be ahead of the game.

* Weight loss is not the goal - fat weight loss however, is. You lose fat with a combination of good diet and full-body exercise. You lose fat AND muscle when there is no exercise included, and/or very little protein in a diet. The more muscle you lose, the lower your metabolism drops, and the easier it is to regain fat weight.

* Weight loss comes from taking in fewer calories than you burn off in a day. There is almost no exception to this rule. Your options are to either burn off more through exercise and daily movement, or consume fewer calories. I'm afraid you just can't escape that law, no matter what a product or system tells you. Low carb, low fat, low GI - all these forms of diet work when they help you lower your total calorie intake.

* Fat burners do very little to nothing on their own without some attention to eating and moving. You can't take enough fat burners to make up for a bad diet, period. Also, remember their effects will be temporary at best - so are useless for long term weight management.

* Appetite suppressers - may work in the short term, and to varying degrees. Once again, you can't expect them to work if you pay no attention to diet and exercise, and they are not a long term solution.

* Get support. The more people you can work with - friends, family, health professionals, even yourself in the form of food and exercise logs - the better your results. Weight loss groups and centres can be great because they provide that environment of support and working together for a common goal. It's a powerful motivator for us!

* Record, record, record. In large scale studies, those who lost and kept the most weight off were those who kept the most reliable records. Food diaries, weight and girth measurements every 2-8 weeks - they're all good at keeping you accountable to your own best ally in the journey: yourself.

That being said, there's still room for some fat loss boosting supplements:

* The Basic 3. If nothing else, use a multi, fish oil, and protein supplement to make up for dietary shortfalls.

* Caffeine - used wisely, a little before exercise this can ramp up your exercise intensity to allow you to burn more calories or perform better.Green tea seems to be quite useful for fat burning specifically, with a form of caffeine that helps boost energy output, and antioxidants

* Carnitine - an amino acid necessary for fatty acid oxidation (read: fat burning). Supplementing extra increases your total capacity to burn fat. That won't have an effect though until you start doing something to burn fat (like exercise).

* Thermogenic formulas - designed to increase your rate of thermogenesis (body heat production) for short periods. Usually include a caffeine source like green tea or guarana, synephrine from bitter citrus like orange, and things like liver tonic herbs or cayenne pepper.

Whilst this isn't an exhaustive list, and if you ask me I probably have an opinion on a range of other supplements available, the point here is to emphasize:

Without attention to what you're eating, or how you're moving, there's often no point in forking out cash for weight loss gimmicks or supplements!

Form and function - the way we were

There's a move afoot to have more of your gym exercises more closely resembling natural human movements. And quite frankly, it's not such a bad way to get a quick, effective and all-over workout.

I mean, hands up here who has just gotten in after a long day tilling the soil? Or who has erected a barn in, oh say, even the last week? Or who hunted and gathered their family foods for the last week (and no, taking the Land Rover to Coles to rummage around the cold meats section is not included here)?

We don't tend to live as overall an active life as we used to. And hey look, that's not such a bad thing. Pretty much the main driver of technology like steam engines, electricity and computers was to cut down physical labour so we could spend more quality time with loved ones and leisure. Whether we avail ourselves of all this "free, extra time" is another story.

No, the human body was designed to produce a whole range of basic movements. Walk, run, jump, throw, hop, squat, push, pull, lunge, kick - these are all elements of movement that we traditionally combined regularly over a day just in the course of staying alive. Now we're more ruled by "sit", "push (mouse)" and "type".

It's a world with less effort - which is nice. But we can't deny what we were actually made to do. An unworked muscle is an unhappy muscle, and it's something that shows up years down the track after it's gone into hiding, producing toxic buildup from underusage and neglect. Diabetes, cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases all spring from disuse or misuse of tissues in the body.

So why not keep muscles happy? If they are meant to produce certain movements, and disuse leads to metabolic problems, why not just do what comes naturally?

This is a relatively new concept in making whole-body exercise more time efficient.

If I had you training every muscle used in a single throw, individually and using traditional body building isolation exercises, it would take me at least 45 minutes to successfully cover everything. Yet we learnt throwing way back in childhood. If we got to practice a few times with increasing resistance, we'd get to hit all of those muscles (and build up co-ordination) much faster and with less instruction.

Cutting down exercise time to more easily fit in with our busy schedules can come from adding one or two movements in a sequence, against resistance like bodyweight, rubber tubing or weights.

A dumbbell squat-press for example, will hit shoulders, chest, triceps, core, back, lower back, glutes, quads, hamstrings and calves all in one movement. A burpee combines a squat, a jump, a reach, a bend and a press - what better way to hit vast amounts of metabolically yearning muscle than that??

Getting your body to do what it was designed for, regularly, keeps your muscles primed and ready for whatever life throws at you. The more variety of moves you can do weekly - push, pull, squat, jump, throw... whatever - the more muscles you'll target and the better your metabolism will fare!

If you're thinking about cutting out your exercise session to fit more work time in your week - think again. Like your ancestors remember to get some full body, functional moves in each week and you can at least keep those muscles ticking over til when you've next got the time to do some more comprehensive exercise programs.