You’ve heard of fat burners, the products that can make fat melt off your body like ice cream in the sun, right?
Except, fat burners don’t burn fat, they are simply supplements bought from a shop. And they don’t actually target fat directly at all, either!
Think of them as gun that aims at the body with aim to kill off fat, but it doesn’t shoot at the fat directly but at the body as a whole.
They work by slightly raising the metabolism in a number of ways (which will be explained a little later on in Fat Burner 101 – Part 2). They however do not actually directly target the fat at all, but the fat burner is the result of an increased metabolism.
Biggest mistake?
The biggest mistake people make is thinking that they can take a ‘fat burner’ and it will burn fat without taking diet into account, that they can eat anything and the fat will melt away. Not so! Not a single product exists on the market that will do this.
To burn fat one needs to be in a calorie deficit, via diet and/or exercise. This will make the body burn fat (stored energy) to provide it with energy. A fat burner will slightly increase the metabolism (the speed at which the body burns energy when doing day to day activities) due to the thermogenic activity of the ‘fat burner’ content which increases your metabolism.
Unrealistic expectations
Just because you are dieting, exercising and using a fat burner does not mean you will be burning 10-15lb fat a week. To burn 1lb of fat, one needs to burn 3500 calories. A fat burning capsule (s) may increase the metabolism a few percent (maybe 50-100 calories a day, just as an example) but it will not in any way turn you into a fat burning furnace, it simply is not possible. 2lb or so a week is towards the maximum one can burn body fat (aka adipose tissue) with minimal lean tissue loss (e.g. muscle).
The box says take 3 a day, I’ll take 6!
Some people feel using 2-3x the recommend dose will be beneficial. Dosing of products is often set at levels that the body can best use them, and often above this figure they either stress the adrenal system or indeed just be excreted as waste. You’ll literally be whizzing the active content away or indeed stressing your heart and other vital organs – not recommended!
Check you are making progress
There is little point haphazardly buying a fat burner and then not trying to register what effect it has on your fat loss. It may be advisable to get yourself burning fat without a fat burner and when you hit a plateau, introduce the fat burner at this point without adjusting your diet. This way you can see what if any effect the fat burner has on your fat loss. If it doesn’t restart/help your fat loss, you know you are wasting your money.
That is the end of Part 1 of Fat Burner 101. Check back soon to see Fat Burner 101 – Part 2!
