June Article

Is There a Magic Weight Loss Pill?

By Todd Markley, Owner of SuccessMeals, Inc.

Many people believe that the cleverly marketed fat burning products for sale today are that “magic bullet”, the “secret ingredient, super fast, fat burning supplement. In other words, the answer to their weight loss needs. That's compounded by all the well-known radio, TV and celebrities endorsing and promoting these products. These “endorsements” are exacerbated by the phenomenal “before” and “after” photos of highly-paid “spokespeople” who swear that they got their incredible physiques by taking just three of these miracle “fat burning” pills a day.

A friend of mine bought into the marketing hype of a product claiming to increase metabolism and produce the instant shedding of body fat, despite my advice not to buy into the hype. After just three weeks, he was noticing his hands were numb. The second symptom was a racing pulse. A week later, he had migraine headaches three days in a row. His physician wisely told him to throw that weight loss supplement away before he seriously hurt himself. Now, my friend is a believer -- following my suggestions for losing body fat instead of all the hype. The bottom line is this – if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And that applies to most things in life, not just “miracle” diet pills.

I read the labels of several miracle metabolism boosters. Here are some of the most popular ingredients, what they claim to do and what they really do.

Chromium supplements are claimed to help you burn body fat and build muscle. There is no real scientific evidence that indicates that chromium aids weight loss; however there is some evidence that chromium (as chromium picolinate) may cause cancer. Which would you like to bet on?

Ginseng has been used for over 4,000 years in the Orient as an "energy booster.” Today, many people take ginseng products to boost their own energy levels and increase their ability to exercise, thus burning more fat. In double blind placebo-controlled studies of ginseng, researchers have concluded that oral ingestion of ginseng for seven days prior to exercise did not improve exercise performance when subjects rode an exercise bike. M

a Huang, ephedra, or ephedrine mimic the effect of stimulating hormones like adrenaline in the body. Ephedrine is a drug that is widely used in over the counter cold and asthma medications and is also found in weight loss products, even though there is no substantial evidence that it is an effective weight agent in obese individuals. Ephedrine is known to elevate blood pressure and heart rate and may also result in restlessness, headaches, dizziness and insomnia, psychosis, memory loss and muscle injury. These three supplements do suppress appetite, which would obviously elicit a weight loss effect. However, abstaining from eating mostly promotes the loss on muscle, not body fat.

Pyruvate has ballooned into one of the biggest selling weight loss products on the market today. Pyruvate is a molecule formed during the breakdown of sugar (glucose) for energy. Unlike the vast majority of weight loss products on the market today, there are scientific studies reported in reputable scientific journals, backing up its claims relative to promoting weight loss. However, a close analysis of the results of those studies makes one wonder if it really works in the miraculous way that is claimed by weight loss product manufacturers. Increased metabolism is one promise from proponents of pyruvate. This claim that combinations of pyruvate and the substance dihydroxyacetone result in increased metabolism is based solely on studies using rats, not humans. The most recent human study found that those using pyruvate and dihydroxyacetone actually had lower metabolisms at the end of the study than those who did not use them!

Enhanced weight loss is the biggest claim from using pyruvate and the few studies investigating pyruvate's role in enhancing weight loss say that it works. However, the subjects in the studies were extremely obese (200 lbs overweight). In addition, the subjects were on very low calorie diets (500 calories per day), and the increased amount of weight lost in the group using pyruvate was only an average of 1.5 - 2 lbs. per person more than the control group. So, there is no evidence that pyruvate would aid weight loss in the average individual.

I wish that there were a “magic bullet” fat annihilating pill available on the market today but, unfortunately, there's not. We can, however, still achieve a desirable level of leanness with some sound principles and a little tenacious hard work. Here are the suggestions for effective metabolism boosting and fat burning:

Set a goal and commit to achieving it. Measure yourself. Set a goal for losing 1-2 lbs a week or 1-inch per measurement each month. Re-measure every 4 weeks, then reset your goal as needed.
Do strength training exercise. Lift weights or use resistance bands. Muscle is metabolically active tissue, so increasing muscle will help your body burn more fat. When a person does regular resistance workouts, it can result in an increase in metabolism of up to 8.3%.
Do regular aerobic exercise. Condition your heart and burn calories. Your metabolism can increase up 3.5% if you do an aerobic workout 5 or 6 times a week. (Add that to 8.3% from lifting weight and you have a total metabolic increase of 11.8%!)
Exercise daily with strength training, aerobics, or both. Keep that body moving every day. Do simple things like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and find time – no matter what – for exercise for at least 30 minutes of exercise of some kind every day. Think of it as your "metabolic optimizer" workout, spreading your efforts over all 7 days of the week.
Eat 5-6 smaller meals a day. Every time you eat, you increase your metabolism. It takes energy to digest your food. When you go for long periods without eating, you shut your metabolism down, most often resulting in overeating at your next meal. Keep your metabolism high by spreading your calories out.
Drink plenty of water. Take your body weight and cut it in half. That's how much water, in ounces, that you should drink a day.
Never eat a carbohydrate by itself. Eating carbohydrates alone (without a protein source) will illicit the hormone called “insulin.” When insulin is “spiked” it carries the majority of those calories to fat cells. Eating a protein source will negate any insulin surge.
Be patient. Today's society has become accustom to efficiency. We want it and we want it now! Experts term this as “the microwave mentality.” As efficient as we've become, we have yet to come up with a way to develop a great physique overnight. If you've not paid attention to your health in years, then don't expect to get into peak shape in a week or two, it takes time.

If you believe these infomercial fitness gurus who tell you that you can develop 6-pack abs in two weeks, then believe me everyone would be walking around with their shirts off sporting their 30-inch waistline. Here's the good news, you can develop a lean, tone physique in a relative short period. It's been proven time after time that one can go from ordinary to extraordinary in just 12-weeks. Next month I'll be writing about the “12-week transformation” and detailing what one can expect to see in terms of results each week of this 84-day endeavor.

Until next month, remember, the only way to the top is by persistent, intelligent, hard work.

Back to Monthly Articles & Insight from Todd Markley, Owner, Success Meals, Inc.