The skinny on fat burner supplements

By John Sebastian Rinaldo

January 2004 – According to the FDA, domestic sales of dietary fat burner supplements have surpassed the billion dollar mark on a yearly basis over the last decade, and since Americans have become the fattest population group in the world, this figure is not surprising.

If you take into account this staggering amount of money, the fact that is surprising is the lack of data and research available on the different varieties of these so-called ergogenic aids that are sold over the counter to the general public every day. Consumers are often unaware of what they are putting into their bodies. In this article, we will try to shed some light on fat-burners, their effectiveness, and any potential dangers involved with their consumption.

As you browse through the myriad of supplements in any retail outlet, you may have wondered what actually constitutes a fat burner. In essence, fat burning supplements are used to eliminate excess or unwanted body fat, for all kinds of people from professional athletes to businessmen, while boosting energy levels as a result of a so called “thermogenic effect.”

Health professionals and supplement retailers qualify a supplement under this category if it contains one or more of the combined following herbal and non-herbal substances: 7-keto-DHEA, caffeine, chitosan, chromium picolonate, ephedra(ma-huang), HCA (Hydroxycitric Acid), and pyruvate to name more than a few.

These aforementioned substances, that supposedly contain similar attributes, also come from a variety of sources. For example, 7-keto-DHEA is a pro-hormone derived from DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) found in the body. Chitosan is purportedly derived from the skeletons of marine animals, chromium picolonate is a combination of the trace mineral chromium combined with the amino acid tryptophan derivative picolonate to enhance its absorption, and ephedra or its derivative ephedrine is found in Ma-Huang; an indigenous plant of China. The substance HCA is found in the rind of the pumpkin fruit Garcina Cambogia, whereas pyruvate is the synthetic replication of the end product of glucose metabolism.

As documented by fitness magazines and health journals that are sold at local newsstands, any one of these substances packaged in a variety of products and sold by a multitude of vendors will produce desired results. The research, these magazines boast through advertisements and articles, demonstrates that fat burning supplements work — unequivocally. Many of the claims also include some fine print suggesting that the agents work best when combined with a sound exercise program.

Such claims are often unsubstantiated. Actively searching for and locating peer-reviewed research published in scientific journals from technical databases such as Medline or Biosys that validate the claims of fat burning supplements is difficult and often fruitless. For example, the results on the few human studies available on chitosan, chromium, and pyruvate are inconclusive, inconsistent, and controversial. Also, the few studies that have been undertaken using ephedra are equivocal and the two documented findings regarding 7-keto-DHEA are weak at best.

The remainder of any claims on the effectiveness of fat burner supplements is based on hearsay, poorly constructed studies, the extrapolation of results from animal studies to humans, and blatant false advertising. Some believe that supplement companies can be compared to the charlatan pioneers of the 19th century espousing the benefits of suspect elixirs. One would think, such a state of controversy and lack of hard core scientific evidence would lead either the general public or the medical community to call for tighter testing for supplement companies, or a complete ban of untested products altogether. Unfortunately, this only occurs when supplement use leads to fatalities, as in the case of ephedra.

There is no doubt that greater testing and research need to be performed on any supplement product whose company makes valid claims for its effectiveness. In the case of fat burners this is even more important.

It’s important to remember that the documented findings printed in fitness magazines are sometimes not valid or reliable — they are often paid advertisements. Anyone interested in finding out more about a supplement product they taking, or considering to take, can find out more information at www.supplementwatch.com. In addition, local and collegiate libraries offer access to the medical databases Byiosis and Medline for inquisitive minds looking valid and reliable information.