-- Fat Burners --
The
Unadulterated
Truth
QUESTION:
Dear Tom, I am not currently using any fat burners. However, in
many magazines where I see advertisements for fat burners, they
always have a model with a six-pack and the headline is
something like, “It takes more than training and nutrition to
get a six-pack.” Once a person hits a plateau, do we really
need fat burners to achieve that “ripped” or “six-pack” look? I
am having a really hard time getting my stomach to look the way
I want it, and I really respect your opinion, so I appreciate
your thoughts on this. Thanks Tom!
ANSWER:
The short and sweet
answer is NO, you do not ever “need” fat
burners.
While I won’t dismiss the
fact that there are some ingredients in some “fat burner”
products that might help a little bit, I take great displeasure
in seeing those kinds of misleading headlines as well as the
misleading use of models who are often paid to endorse the
product even though they may never have even used it (they’re
just models!)
Many “fat burner” companies
have been sued by the Federal Trade Commission for false
advertising, false claims and falsifying before and after
photos.
The best you get is a slight
thermogenic effect and possibly some slight appetite
suppression. A few products might work through other mechanisms
like improving thyroid, but if you forgive me the
generalization, I consider the effects of all these “fat
burner” products to be minutia. In a previous newsletter, I
wrote that in my opinion, 97% of your results come from
nutrition and training and maybe you get an extra 3% advantage
from supplements.
Just so you know those
numbers arent something I just pulled out of thin air, lets
take an example:
I have reviewed scientific
data that EGCG, the active ingredient in green tea extract, if
consumed in enough quantity, could increase thermogenesis /
metabolic rate by an average of about 75 calories in 24 hours.
Since ephedrine was taken off the market, green tea extract
appears in many ephedra-free formulas these days. What is a
typical calorie expenditure for an active male in 24 hours?
lets say 2700 calories per day. 75/2700 = 2.7%.
That slight little extra
doesnt hurt, especially when its delivered in a healthful
package such as green tea, rather than central nervous system
stimulants, but its minutia in the bigger picture. Another way
to put this into perspective is to make a list of what other
things would burn 75 calories (for 150 lb person:)
* walk your
dog for 15 minutes
* three times a day, walk for 5 minutes at
normal casual pace
* 30 minutes of ironing
* bagging leaves and grass clippings for 14
minutes
* re arrange your furniture for 10
minutes
* wash your car, 15 minutes
* vacuuming for 15 minutes
* 7.2 minutes of walking up stairs (could be
spread throughout the day)
Ah yes, but why move your
body when you can take the pill and metabolism increases while
you sit and watch TV? How about for your health? A body that is
not moved, rots away. Unlike a car which only has so many miles
on it and wears out from over-use, people are the only “machines” on
earth that fall apart from under-use.
Here’s what any good personal
trainer will always tell you: No amount of calorie
restriction or pill-popping will ever give you FITNESS. It
will never give you STRENGTH. it will never get you
MUSCULARITY. It will never give you FUNCTIONALITY. At best
it will help you reduce body mass slightly.
On one hand, I’m tempted to
say that everything counts and that yes, 75 calories here, and
75 calories there, it ALL adds up, because it does. After
you’re exercising regularly and all your fundamentals are in
place, details and little things do matter.
I’m simply asking you to put
the benefits of any fat burners in proper perspective and
realize that (1) there is no “need” for taking them and (2) the
claims made in the ads are often erroneous or
exagerrated.
My advice on fat
burners:
1. NEVER buy a
fat burner unless you get independent verification of the
claims made for the product.
How do you KNOW they
really work? Are you SERIOUSLY going to take the
advertisers word for it? Are you SERIOUSLY going to take
someone else’s testimonial as fact? Get verification for
yourself by going to the pub med data base and looking for
research (try http://www.relemed.com/
too, as their search
results are very thorough and relevant and they provide
links to the pub med citations).
2. Put it in
perspective
With those products that
work, such as those providing a small thermogenic effect,
put that in perspective as compared to how easily you could
burn that many calories with even light exercise like
walking or housework. Keep in mind the additional fitness
and strength benefits you will obtain from exercise as
opposed to doing nothing and popping a pill.
3. See if there
are any side effects or health
warnings.
With all supplements and
especially with prohormones or stronger thermogenics like
the ephedrine and caffeine stack, (if you still have access
to them), understand the risk to benefit ratio, and be
certain you know the dangers and
contraindications.
4. Read the label
and see if the product contains enough active ingredient to
even work.
A classic scam is when a
“fat burner”product quotes research that a certain
inredient boosts metabolism, which might be true. What they
may not tell you is that all the research with positive
results used a large dosage of the ingredient, which might
not be cheap. So the supplement company includes a “pinch”
or “light dusting” of that ingredient just so they can say
it’s in the bottle, even though its nothing more than
“label decoration.” Then they have the audacity to invoke
the research studies in their advertisements when the
amount of the ingredient in their product is no where near
what was used in the research!
5. Proprietary
blend scam.
Some companies, DONT LET
YOU SEE how much ingredient is in the product formula,
because it contains multiple ingredients and they say their
formula is a “trade secret” aka “proprietary”, so they list
WHAT is in the product but not HOW MUCH. If you don’t know
how much is in there then how are we (the consumers)
supposed to get independent confirmation of the facts and
analyze whether this product is any good?
6. Make sure
there is human research, not just rodent
research.
In many cases,
advertisements cite studies on rats and mice as “proof”
under the assumption that the product will produce the same
results in humans. Animal research is an important part of
the scientific method, as it is often used to help find
areas of research where human study should be pursued, or
in the other direction, to trace back the mechanism that
makes something work. However, for obesity research in
particular, a positive finding in rats does not mean the
same thing will happen in humans.
7. Look for more
than one human study.
Consider trying a
supplement after it has human research that has been
replicated by different research groups which are not
industry-sponsored. My policy is that I will usually only
give a “buy” rating to a supplement when a product has an
intitial well-designed human controlled trial published and
then similar research has been replicated by another
research group that is not supplement-industry
funded.
Actually, I think it’s a good
thing that nutrition and supplement companies fund and sponsor
some of the research. They should. They should not only back up
their claims with published clinical trials, they should share
some of the cost of this expensive research.
However, a basic principle of
the scientific method is replication. Other researchers should
be able to duplicate the findings. Therefore, while the funding
source does not necessarily prove bias, if there is only one
study available on a supplement and it is company or industry
sponsored, I usually take it with a grain of salt and put an
asterisk next to it while I wait for confirmation from another
study. (You might be surprised at how IN-frequently this type
of confirmation occurs).
Do you REALLY need “more”
than nutrition and exercise??????
Now, when you weigh the fact
that even the products with research backing them only help a
little, with the fact that many of the ads lie to you about
research, exagerrate claims and hide vital information about
ingredients, and with the fact that you can do a few more
minutes of exercise per day and get the same results for free,
how enthusiastic are you about fat burners?
Yeah, that’s why I’m not real
excited about them either and based on the fact that I use no
drugs and no “fat
burner” supplements and I compete in bodybuilding - very
successfully - I’d say that the assertion, “it takes more than
nutrition and exercise to get six pack abs” is patently
false.
Train hard and expect
success,
Tom Venuto
Click here =>
Burn the Fat Feed the
Muscle
About the
Author:
Tom Venuto is a
natural bodybuilder and author of the #1
best selling e-book, "BURN THE FAT, FEED
THE MUSCLE.” which teaches you how to burn
fat without drugs or supplements using the
little-known secrets of the world's best
bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how
to get rid of stubborn fat and turbo-charge
your metabolism by visiting:
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FAT. To get Tom's
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