Simply continue as before and still lose weight? That’s what the so-called “fat burners” promise, which are supposed to melt fat pads without a diet or sports program. Fat burners are a big hit on the diet market. They and other weight loss products generate billions in sales worldwide every year. Does it already exist, the slimming pill without side effects? But the truth is: without a balanced diet and a sensible exercise program, permanent, healthy weight loss is not possible.
Burn more energy through fat burners
Excess weight has only one cause: if the body is constantly supplied with more energy than it consumes, this excess is deposited as fat reserves (so-called positive energy balance). To get rid of this again, only one thing helps: to consume more energy than is taken in (negative energy balance). The idea behind the term “fat burner” (= “fat burner”) is to artificially make the body consume more energy, be it through an increased body temperature, an accelerated metabolism or the rapid excretion of ingested calories. Medical experts view this with a frown. This is because countless metabolic processes interlock in the human body. Turning one of these “screws” can result in a whole chain reaction of unwanted results.
The fat burner theory under the magnifying glass
Let’s take a closer look at some of the most common fat burner theories: Enzymes, for example, are a major buzzword when it comes to fat burning. Whether the papain from papaya or bromelin from pineapple, fruit enzymes are supposed to empty the fat cells. In theory, this sounds quite good. The only problem is the passage through the stomach, because enzymes consist of protein. And the stomach acid breaks them down into their components at the very beginning of digestion. Enzymes from food can therefore not act in the body. L-carnitine is a substance that plays a role in the body in providing energy for muscle work. It stimulates the power plants of the cells, the so-called mitochondria, to increase fat burning. The only catch is that the number of mitochondria in the body is crucial to the effect. And the number of these little power plants can only be increased with regular endurance training. So again, no miracle pill for fitness without exercise! Many ready Fatburn products advertise with “natural” ingredients. Guarana or green tea extract are popular. The advertising brochures contain important-sounding foreign words such as “lipolytic” – which means nothing other than “fat dissolving” – or “thermogenic” (the generation of heat). If you take a closer look, in most products it is mainly the ingredients similar to caffeine that are the only ones proven to have an effect on the metabolism. In an information sheet published by the German Nutrition Society (DGE), medical expert Professor Dr. Hans Hauner points out that these active ingredients in high doses cause heart palpitations, tremors and sweating. In this state, the body really burns more energy than usual. But who feels good like that? And who is willing to take the health risks for heart and circulation? Who falls back on finished Fatburnprodukte, should study besides in each case the list of contents materials exactly. Often allergy-causing preservatives such as parabens are included.
Attention thyroid hormones!
Special care should also be taken with thyroid hormones and their precursors. Artificially produced hyperthyroidism is nothing more than making yourself sick on purpose. Too much thyroid hormone leads to nervousness, palpitations, feeling hot and sweating. Here, too, more energy is burned than normal. But even in this case, the dangers to health are out of proportion to the weight loss effect. By the way, higher thyroid activity cannot be achieved by taking iodine and other trace elements, as some advertising experts would have us believe. It is true that the body needs iodine to produce the thyroid hormone. However, the abundance of the raw materials does not change the amount of hormone produced. In general, it is not possible to control the production of hormones through a specific diet. Special diets such as the Markert diet, which is supposed to stimulate thyroid function, have now been scientifically disproved. In the Markert case, participants lose weight due to low calorie intake and plenty of exercise.However, no change in thyroid activity is achieved.
Protein bars – often too expensive
Protein bars with vitamins and trace elements are also offered as dietary supplements. They are supposed to alleviate cravings for sweets and boost fat burning. Protein saturates really quickly, also many bars are reasonably composed. However, almost all products are disproportionately expensive. The advice to combine the bar together with 2-3 liters of water or fruit juice daily also reveals the “fat burner trick”: it has been proven that cool water really helps to burn calories, as the body needs energy to warm it up. Whether the water is consumed together with an expensive power bar or with a banana, however, does not change much in the energy balance. Except that the banana, which also works against cravings thanks to its fructose content, contains no fat.
Glucagon – an endogenous fat burner?
The hormones insulin and glucagon play a special role in the formation and breakdown of fat deposits. Insulin is responsible for channeling sugar from the blood into the body’s cells, where it can either be burned or stored as a reserve. Glucagon causes stored energy to be made available by releasing fat from the cells and converting stored sugar into burnable glucose. Glucagon is sold as the body’s own fat burner: taking this “slimming hormone” is supposed to pretend that all free reserves have been used up, thus releasing fat from the cells. But where is the body supposed to go with all that free energy? If it is not burned, it is deposited again. And most of the energy is burned by our muscles. Again, exercise is needed to get the dissolved fat reserves out of the body. And this also works without swallowing pills: If you want to burn fat with the help of your body’s own glucagon, you can achieve this simply through light physical activity. The important thing here is to keep the pulse at an only slightly elevated level. If you get out of breath, you block your fat burning, because the energy production from fat is then switched off.
MCT fats – fat burners with side effects.
To prevent dietary fat from entering the body in the first place, so-called MCT fats (medium chain triglycerides) were in vogue until recently. They cannot be absorbed by the body and are excreted undigested. But after about two weeks, the body also gets used to these fats, so that they are just as fattening as ordinary fat. In addition, diarrhea, nausea and other unpleasant side effects often occurred.
Binding fat and excreting it undigested
To trick the body in a different way, fat-binding substances such as chitosan have been added to the ranks of diet aids. They are supposed to bind dietary fat and send it undigested to excretion. Chitosan is obtained from krill, a small crustacean. Fly larvae are also good sources of chitosan. However, the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports on a strictly controlled trial at the University of Exeter in the UK, where scientists demonstrated that chitosan had no effect on the weight of the subjects. On the contrary, these fat blockers are more likely to cause vital fat-soluble vitamins such as A and E to be excreted with the bound fat. Doctors also warn that chitosan can reduce the effectiveness of some drugs, namely when the active ingredients attach themselves to dietary fat to enter the bloodstream. For example, the birth control pill may be affected. So losing weight is and remains a matter of sensible nutrition, combined with light exercise. Fatburn products help to shrink the wallet. However, they can hardly reduce the waist.
