This week we’re diving into one of our most asked questions: How do I burn fat? And are there any natural fat burners? Well, as we all know, there is never a quick and easy path to weight-loss and in almost all cases, fat burning pills and questionable quick fixes are unlikely to support you in the long term or the short term!
However, there is still hope… We have spent endless days and nights researching natural fat burners that burn through belly fat and can have a positive effect on your overall health. We’ve even made everything that bit easier for you by including all of these ingredients in our Diet Whey blend but first, lets get into the details of our top 5 natural fat burners.
Green Tea Extract
The benefits of green tea from antioxidants to brain function have been discussed for centuries and it has been used for medicinal purposes dating as far back as the Bronze Age. However, today is not about history, it’s about burning fat!
Firstly, to be clear, Green tea extract is simply the green tea we all know in a concentrated form. This makes it easier to consume higher amounts and as an example, 400mg of green tea extract (contained within one serving of our Diet Whey blend) amounts to as many as 5 cups of green tea, that’s a lot of tea!
Since we could discuss Green Tea benefits all day, we’re going to simplify things: it all comes down to metabolism. Green tea has been shown to increase metabolism (1) through increased thermogenesis (process of burning calories to produce heat) and fat oxidation (essentially ‘burning fat’). This process encourages our body to burn more fat and in recent studies, green tea extract has been shown to increase fat oxidation by as much as 17%(2).
If you combine these fat burning qualities with everything else that green tea has to offer, you have yourself a super fat burner that has to be included in your diet!
CLA
Next we have CLA. Its full name is Conjugated Linoleic Acid, which makes it seem complex, strange, and more science based than natural. However, CLA is naturally found in dairy and animal fats such as beef, lamb, whole milk and eggs but cannot be produced naturally by the body. It is related to our omega-6 fatty acids and is one of the two essential fatty acids that helps boost our immune system, increase metabolic rates and keep our cholesterol levels healthy.
Once again, it all comes down to metabolic rates (you’ll see a pattern emerging here). CLA increases basal metabolic rates, which helps to convert food into energy more efficiently.
CLA is even show to reduce our urge for food intake we don’t need and prevents the production of additional fats. CLA is a special type of fat that replaces our need for other, unhealthy fats.
So what we’re saying here is that CLA encourages us to burn the calories that already exist instead of craving additional calories we don’t need. (3)
Sounds ideal but there is a catch here – studies show that you need to consume around 1.4 – 3.0 grams of CLA per day to see the fat burning benefits (4). This is almost impossible to consume since we’re looking at around 1kg of beef or 3 litres of milk everyday! Fortunately, we have of course made this easy by including 400mg in our Diet Whey blend.
Flaxseed
Another natural food becoming increasingly popular is Flaxseed. Similar to both CLA and Green tea extract in that there are many benefits, however, we will focus on its fat burning qualities today.
The reason Flaxseed is recommended for weight loss is due to its high fibre content. Flaxseeds are loaded with soluble fibre, which slows down food absorption in the colon leaving you feeling fuller for longer. Plus, flaxseeds also contain a high level of insoluble fibre which promotes growth of good bacteria which in turn helps our digestion and therefore the production of short chain fatty acids that help increase our metabolic rate.
As with CLA, Flaxseeds contain a high level of essential fatty acids (omega-3 and omega-6) which, as we now know, help us to reduce fat cravings and increase metabolism.
How much flaxseed do I need to eat each day?
You’ll need around 10 grams of flaxseeds a day to see the weight loss benefits but we’ve packed 400mg into one serving of our Diet Whey blend, which will certainly help you on the journey to burning that fat.
Acetyl L-Carnitine
Similar to CLA in that Acetyl L-Carnitine sounds like a strange supplement but it is simply an amino acid naturally produced in your body to generate energy. It’s also found in animal protein such as red meats.
The importance of Acetyl L-Carnitine is in its support for moving fat around the body, effectively sending fat to be burned. Carnitine latches onto the fatty acids that you have either eaten or already have stored in reserve. It then carries them straight to your mitochondria where your body converts this fat into fuel (effectively burning the fat) (5)
So, if you’re low on L-Carnitine, your fat won’t reach the mitochondria to be burned meaning you need to make sure this supplement is part of your daily diet by choosing our Diet Whey blend which contains 400mg per serving.
Protein
Last but certainly not least is Protein. Although we may all be aware that protein acts as a key building block for muscle what may be less well known is that it is also vital for weight loss (6).
Once again Protein like the ingredients previously discussed, helps to increase our metabolism (7). It also helps us feel fuller for longer which prevents us from stuffing our face with unhealthy foods! Fortunately for all of us, our Diet Whey blend is jam packed with 21.5g per serving which makes it significantly easier to reach your daily protein goals.
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The Supreme Nutrition Team