Manipulating Diet and Exercise
High fat diets and prolonged low-intensity exercise are two methods that have been suggested as fat burning boosters. High fat diets supposedly enhance the ability of skeletal muscle to use fat as a fuel and a few studies have shown increased endurance during moderate intensity exercise after ingesting a high fat diet. However, the results are mixed. Plus, even if it were true, the focus of those studies is endurance exercise performance rather than fat burning at rest. In any case, the health implications of a high fat diet - increased risk of heart disease, cancer, and obesity - are too well documented to ignore!
Low intensity exercise may burn a higher percentage of calories, but this tells only half the story - by working out at a lower intensity, you also burn fewer calories. Therefore, while you may be burning a higher percentage of fat, it's a much lower overall calorie burn.
If your goal is to lose or maintain your current weight:
- On the calorie intake side, a low fat diet provides more nutritional bang per calorie and is heart healthy.
- On the calorie burning side, the important thing is to burn more calories from both carbohydrates and fat.
Supplements
- Muscle Up and Lose Fat?
HMB and creatine have some scientific basis of support for increasing or preserving muscle mass, increasing strength, and possibly increasing loss of body fat in athletes. However, this does not make them weight loss supplements. The athletes using these supplements are also participating in very intense, high volume training to change their body composition. - Stimulating Fat Loss
Ephedra and caffeine are two popular supplements because of their stimulant effects. Both increase the body's metabolism, which can affect fat burning. - Caffeine by itself has been shown to improve athletic performance through increased alertness, reduction of perceived exercise exertion, and a "glycogen sparing effect" that causes the body to utilize fat rather than glycogen stores during exercise. Even though the performance enhancing effects during exercise are well supported in scientific literature, caffeine should only be taken in the recommended doses (200 - 300 mg). Even then, remember that while caffeine may enhance exercise performance by altering lipid metabolism, it does not create weight loss by itself!
- On the other hand, ephedra works purely as a stimulant and does not appear to have an impact on exercise performance. Plus, it can be very dangerous even at recommended doses.
- Some supplements "stack" caffeine and ephedra in the same dose. The effect is synergistic, which increases metabolism to an even greater level. The danger is an increase in blood pressure, heart rate, and nervousness. People with health problems such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, or diabetes should avoid ephedra and the "stacked" supplements altogether. It is also imperative that perfectly healthy people stay within the recommended dosages of these supplements, but even then any supplement containing ephedra poses serious health risks.
More of What the Body Already Has: Does it make a difference?
This scenario is a familiar one to watch for - just because an amino acid or hormone plays a key role in the body's metabolism does not mean that taking more than the recommended dosages will somehow enhance that role.
The best calorie burner is movement. If you move more, eat a low fat diet, and consume fewer total calories, you can create a fat burning breakthrough of your own.