5 Supplements for Effective Fat Loss

There are some supplements that you should just throw in the trash—they are worthless, especially when it comes down to body composition. Then, there are some supplements that fly under the radar. It’s like they’re not even aggressively making fat loss claims, but they are actually some of the ones that you may want to consider. So, what I’m going to address today are five supplements that you should consider that are not worthless for fat loss. Does this mean you take all of them? No, this is informational. These are ones that you probably could look into and consider taking that aren’t going to be a complete and total waste of your time and money. So, let’s go ahead and dive in.

Carnitine

The first one is one that’s kind of interesting because it’s constantly up for debate, and this is carnitine. Now, I want to dive into this one a little bit because carnitine is very, very, very critical in our bodies. Okay, 98% of the carnitine that is in our bodies is stored in our muscles. We endogenously produce carnitine, right? So, carnitine’s job is to take fat that has been mobilized and transport it into the mitochondria where it can get burned. Seems like it’s pretty darn important, right? Yeah, it is.

The big argument that comes up all the time is, well, if we naturally produce carnitine, do we really need to take it in a supplement form? This begs the question once again: maybe it’s only important if you’re deficient in carnitine. But I’ll get to it in a second—being deficient in carnitine may be a lot more common than you think.

Scientific Studies on Carnitine

Let’s break down a study really quick because I like to look at big meta-analyses to justify things. This study was published in the journal Obesity Reviews. It took a look at nine randomized control trials with over 900 participants. So, it looked at a lot of data, and the cool thing about this meta-analysis is it took a look at a wide range of people: obese people, lean people, people with bipolar disorder, diabetic people—all kinds of different walks of life. They backed out all the data and concluded that carnitine supplementation may lead to a pretty solid fat loss. In fact, on average, it was like 1.33 kilograms of fat loss with the carnitine group in all but one study. So, pretty interesting, right?

So, then what’s the deal here? What’s the actual mechanism? What’s happening? I think it’s important to know. When a fatty acid is in our bloodstream, it needs to get into the mitochondria in order to get burned. First, it goes into the cell, and when it goes into the cell, it turns into what is called fatty acyl coenzyme A. This fatty acyl coenzyme A then combines with carnitine palmitoyltransferase I, and that makes fatty acyl carnitine as well as coenzyme A. So, this carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT-1) that came in and acted upon the fatty acid then turns it into something that can get into the mitochondria. Once it’s inside the mitochondria, it gets acted upon by what’s called carnitine palmitoyltransferase II, which turns it back into a usable form of fuel. Long story short, carnitine comes in, breaks down the fat, and changes it a little bit so that it can get into the mitochondria. Without carnitine, the fatty acid cannot get into the mitochondria to get burned—it is the rate-limiting step.

Green Tea Extract

The next one is green tea extract. Now, there’s a lot of evidence on green tea extract, and it’s actually one that I typically like to play around with too. You have the combination of caffeine, which we know is a good fat burner, and then you have catechins.

Scientific Studies on Green Tea Extract

Let’s take a look at a study first. There’s a study that was published in the journal Obesity Reviews again. It took a look at six studies, so it’s another meta-analysis. It took a look at a mix of caffeine and catechin, and in this case, probably looking at EGCG. They found there is a 4.7% increase in energy expenditure and a 16% increase in fatty acid utilization. So, an increase in energy that’s being expended plus an increase in the majority of fuel that’s being used as fat that’s being used as fuel—I’m pretty sold right then and there. But that’s just one study; let’s take a look at how this could potentially be working in the body.

EGCG, the main catechin in green tea, may actually enhance thermogenesis within our brown fat. Brown fat is the fat that’s on our body that dissipates calories as heat. It’s not like unsightly white fat; it’s actually metabolically active. So, if we increase the thermogenesis of it, we’re increasing the heat of the already hotter brown fat, allowing us to burn more calories just as heat instead of having to exercise for them, if that makes sense.

Probiotics

This next one is never really marketed as a fat loss supplement, and I am personally a fan of it because it’s what I use. I play around with these. I am a fan of adding probiotics into the mix. Interestingly enough, probiotics themselves don’t burn fat, but what could play a role in better energy substrate utilization, better glucose utilization, and better fat utilization are our short-chain fatty acids. When we break down food and fibers, a diverse microbiome—meaning having a good plethora of diverse amounts of bacteria—breaks down that plant matter, those polysaccharides, and that turns into short-chain fatty acids. Short-chain fatty acids are the byproduct of bacteria feeding on food.

Scientific Studies on Probiotics

Short-chain fatty acids are a signaling device, and that’s where the evidence gets pretty interesting. Short-chain fatty acids as a signaling device can improve fatty acid utilization, so fatty acid oxidation in the muscle, in the liver, and in the brown adipose tissue. Additionally, short-chain fatty acids have been demonstrated to drive up AMPK, the same thing I just mentioned, which drives up that energy sensor, so the body becomes a little bit more conditioned to start tapping into stored fuels. Then, short-chain fatty acids, when we have an abundance of them, can contribute to better glucose utilization by activating hormone PYY and also glucagon-like peptide 1. Essentially, you’re not necessarily burning fat better, but having a diverse microbiome could play a big role in helping you use fuels better, which I think in some ways you could extrapolate could help you burn some fat.

CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid)

CLA again comes under fire a lot. Why? Well, because its fat loss potential isn’t huge, but it’s consistent when you look at the research. The other issue we face is CLA in supplement form is not exactly the most absorbable. So, although I’m considering it one of my five supplements that’s not worthless, you are better off getting conjugated linoleic acid from beef, cottage cheese, goat cheese, or higher fat dairy simply because it’s going to be a more bioavailable form.

Scientific Studies on CLA

There was a meta-analysis that was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It took a look at 18 studies. At the time of publication, these were the only studies that were out there, so it looked at all 18 studies that were even available on CLA. It found that when you took a look at CLA supplementation versus control, there was a consistent 0.09 kilogram per week weight loss over generally about a 12-week period. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s consistent and reliable. So, when you look at all these 18 studies, you see that generally over the course of 12 weeks, you can expect almost a tenth of a kilogram weight loss. Again, nothing to write home about, but nice to know that it’s fairly consistent.

Yohimbine

Yohimbine is an interesting one because I think it’s over-marketed and overhyped. I don’t think that it’s a magical fat loss supplement, but when you look at the mechanism and how it works, it’s pretty fascinating.

Scientific Studies on Yohimbine

The European Journal of Clinical Investigation demonstrated that when yohimbine was taken pre-exercise, there was almost 2x the amount of fatty acids circulating in the bloodstream post-workout. So, it liberated twice as much fat; it really stimulated lipolysis. The way that it does this is it’s an alpha-2 antagonist, which means that it binds to what is called the alpha-2 or A2 adrenergic receptor. When it does that, it is basically making it so that more fats are able to get liberated out of a fat cell. Liberating fats is great, especially when you’re doing it through some wrap-around mechanism like blocking a receptor, but if you are not exercising with yohimbine, it will not do anything. You can block that alpha-2 adrenergic receptor, and what’s going to happen is fatty acids are going to be liberated, but if you’re not actually going out and oxidizing the fats that have been liberated, they’re just going to circulate right back, and lipoprotein lipase is going to put them right back into the adipocyte, right back into the fat cell. So, what that means is if you take yohimbine, work out; if you take yohimbine, do cardio.

As always, keep it locked here on my channel. I’ll see you tomorrow.

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