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Do I need supplements to lose weight?
................................................................................
 Michael
Collins: No, you don't need supplements to lose weight.
People
lose weight without supplements, no matter what the fitness
magazines and supplement manufacturers tell you.
I'm not against all supplements, as some are actually very beneficial.
However, you need to consider the return on your investment time- wise,
money- wise, and side effects- wise.
Losing weight at it's very core, comes down to
creating a caloric deficit. (Even if you are taking supplements). A
caloric deficit is where the number of calories you take in (food, drink,
whatever) is less than what you're expending in a day.
For example:
Calories burnt on Monday = 3,000 calories
Caloric intake for Monday = 2,500 calories
If you do the math, you'll see that you end Monday
with a 500 calorie deficit. This means your intake was not enough to sustain you
through the day, therefore your body had to dig into it's reserves (stored body
fat and some glycogen) to provide the rest of the energy.
When the body uses body fat as fuel, the fat
stores get smaller. Think of a deflating balloon.
On Monday, you burnt 500 calories from your
reserves. To give some reference, 1 pound of body fat is 3,500 calories.
So, if we do the math once again, you'll see that
if you were to create the caloric deficit all week, as you did on Monday, you'll
have lost 1 pound.
500 x 7 days= 3,500
calories (1 pound of fat)*
“Fat burners” don't actually burn fat as much as
they'd like you to believe. If you were to add
thermogenic supplements to the mix, you'd burn perhaps 540 calories instead
of 500. So you're taking an extra 40 calories out of your stores each day.
First of all, this is a small amount of “extra”
calories you're burning each day for the price of the supplement itself- usually
priced in the $40- $60 range.
Second of all, you can simply take a small piece
of something out of your diet (for free) and create this deficit. Take the top
slice of bread off of one sandwich, and mission complete. 40 calories gone.
Third of all, many of the “fat burning”
supplements are loaded with caffeine and other xanthines which can cause
anxiety, jitters, difficulty to concentrate. Coming off of these supplements
with very high amounts of xanthines can cause mood
swings and depression due to depleted resources.
Seems like a lot to put up with to simply burn an
extra 40 calories.
Here's a list of articles that will tell you what
you need to do to create a proper caloric deficit, without all the nonsense from
above.
Michael
Collins
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