4 Nutrients That Help Fat Burning
When people think of nutrients that help with fat burning, it is expected that most people will include green tea or coffee extract. But you need to know this: these two substances will not do your body any good if you don’t have enough nutritional support to keep your metabolism functioning properly. You can drink a lot of coffee every day, but if your body doesn’t have the necessary nutrients to produce the proper enzymes to increase the efficiency of fat burning, your body will not only lose fat, but it will feel stressed and fatigued.
Today we’ll look at four key fat-burning nutrients and learn more about how they can improve metabolic function. Combining them with a personalized nutrition plan, training program and lifestyle plan in your daily life will allow you to start experiencing positive changes in body composition.
First, let’s repeat the necessities of weight loss.
- Control hunger and avoid food cravings.
- Make you feel energized and active.
- Perform intense exercise to ensure effective recovery.
For most people, the biggest obstacles to achieving the above goals are poor blood sugar regulation and cellular insulin resistance. In this metabolic environment, fat burning is slowed and low energy levels make you feel tired. No one gets up and moves or keeps themselves active when they feel tired, so inactivity in this state becomes a natural state, which is the opposite of what you want to do to lose fat.
In addition, too many calories and a lot of unhealthy carbohydrates dysregulate your body’s ability to control blood sugar due to lack of exercise, which can cause your blood sugar to continue to fluctuate dramatically. This poor blood sugar management is associated with hunger, food cravings, and fatigue.
When there is too much insulin, the receptors in your cells become less sensitive, which means more insulin is needed to regulate your blood sugar.
In this environment, insulin levels are high, fat stores increase, and the ability to burn fat decreases. Because energy is not getting to your cells, it makes you more prone to fatigue and poor exercise endurance.
To address this situation, diet and exercise are your first line of defense, but this is predicated on making sure you have enough of the essential nutrients in your body that help with fat burning, which include:
- Magnesium
- botulinum toxin
- Fish oil
- Vitamin B12
1: Magnesium
Known as an insulin-sensitive nutrient, magnesium plays an important role in energy metabolism and help with fat burning. Any time insulin is elevated in the blood, the body’s work of burning fat stops. When the body starts using fat as fuel, insulin must go down and the hormone glucagon must go up.
Magnesium also affects your energy because it plays a decisive role in the production of ATP, the unit of energy produced by the mitochondria. Magnesium is involved in the conversion process from ADP to ATP (a source of available energy).
All studies have consistently shown that low levels of magnesium in the body directly contribute to insulin resistance. For example, a Newfoundland study found that subjects with the highest dietary magnesium intake had the lowest insulin levels, and vice versa. Magnesium intake was inversely proportional to fat, with those who consumed more magnesium being leaner.
A randomized trial of obese patients due to low magnesium intake found that subjects supplemented with 365 mg of magnesium per day for three months had significantly reduced waist circumference and significantly improved insulin sensitivity and glycated hemoglobin levels compared to controls. There was also a corresponding reduction in the number of metabolic syndromes among the subjects.
KEY POINT: Don’t let your body become deficient in magnesium. Supplementation with 10 mg/kg body weight of magnesium will mention an effective increase in magnesium levels in the body, ensuring a healthy body composition while preventing diabetes.
2: Carnitine
The body burns fat for energy and must rely on carnitine to transport fat molecules into the mitochondria. Carnitine is an amino acid complex found in animal products and is primarily responsible for transporting fats into cells so that they can be used for conversion into energy.
Carnitine also has insulin-sensitive effects. For example, a study of hyperglycemic patients found that taking 2 grams of carnitine daily for 6 months significantly improved insulin sensitivity and lowered blood pressure. In another study, carnitine was found to improve glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity when taken in a short-term low-calorie diet.
By increasing carnitine levels, you will increase fat burning and ensure proper cell function to improve metabolic rate. You will have more energy and increase the number of calories burned by active exercise. For example, in a study of centenarians, it was shown that supplementation with 2 grams of carnitine reduced physical and mental fatigue. At the same time, they lost 1.8 kg of fat and increased muscle mass in the experiment.
Carnitine is present in all animal products, with beef having the highest amount (50 mg in 100 g of beef), white fish, chicken, dairy products, and other animal products having less than 8 mg at the same weight. Therefore, vegetarians, i.e. people who do not eat meat, are better off taking carnitine supplements. Taking 2 – 4 grams of L-carnitine daily can be effective in improving body composition and enhancing athletic performance during intensive training.
In addition, any undigested food will not be able to break down and absorb the carnitine in it. Carnitine supplementation is also a good option for this group of people. Please note that gut health improves digestion and absorption of carnitine and other essential nutrients.
KEY POINT: Carnitine improves energy utilization, increases fat burning, and reduces mental and physical fatigue. For those who do not eat meat regularly, have digestive problems, and are unable to absorb nutrients, taking the proper supplements is the only way to go.
3: Fish Oil
Fish oil is a very interesting fat-burning nutrient that can affect insulin sensitivity and metabolic rate. The omega-3s, EPA, and DHA in fish oil increase the sensitivity of every cell in the body to insulin.
Cell membranes are made of fat – a double layer of fat. The fat you eat in your body each day determines the type of fat in this layer and directly affects cellular health. If cells contain high levels of omega-3 fats, they will increase insulin sensitivity.
Fish oil also affects the metabolic rate by increasing something called the uncoupling protein gene. Simply put, uncoupling proteins metabolize excess caloric intake by increasing body temperature. One study found that overweight men who ate about 3 grams of omega-3 fats per day had a 51% increase in metabolic rate and burned 920 more calories per day. This increased metabolism also drove the amount of energy burned (fat).
Another study showed that in a 12-week study in which subjects did daily interval training on a Mediterranean diet and supplemented with 3.3 grams of fish oil, subjects lost an average of 2.6 kg of fat, 5% less abdominal fat, and about 35% less insulin and inflammatory markers at the end of the experiment. This study underscores the fact that fish oil is an important part of all means of improving body composition.
In addition to fat-rich fish, such as salmon and sardines, fish oil can be found in grass-fed animal products, and in insufficient amounts, appropriate supplements can be used. The recommended limit is 3 grams per day, depending on your metabolic status (you may need more if you have insulin resistance, diabetes, and obesity).
KEY POINT: Making sure you have enough fish oil in your diet will optimize insulin sensitivity and improve energy expenditure – a combination that help with fat burning.
4: Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 plays an important role in burning fat and low intake can lead to an increase in body fat. As a nutrient that prevents anemia, vitamin B12 is essential for the formation of red blood cells, and it delivers oxygen to your muscles to ensure daily muscle function and keep you energized throughout the day. It is also involved in the body’s growth and development processes and plays an important role in cognitive and brain health.
A series of studies have shown that vitamin B12 is closely linked to body fat levels in humans. One study from the UK found that vitamin B12 deficiency in pregnant women led to more body fat and more severe insulin resistance, with a 0.6% increase in body deficit for every 1% increase in body weight.
A second study from Turkey found that vitamin B12 deficiency in the body was directly proportional to body fat in 976 subjects. Vitamin B12 deficiency increases the symptoms of metabolic syndrome and raises insulin resistance.
In animal studies, vitamin B12 has been found to affect the ability to burn fat, leading to an increase in fat. For example, a study of pregnant rabbits showed that when vitamin B12 was severely restricted in their diet, their ability to metabolize fat was compromised and inflammation increased. Mortality within 24 hours of birth was greatly increased in the offspring. Researchers speculate that B12 deficiency increases oxidative responses and increases cortisol in the body, which disrupts the body’s antioxidant defense system.
One Caveat: Vitamin B12 needs to be balanced with other B vitamins, all of which are involved in metabolism in some way. For example, thiamine (vitamin B1) and biotin (vitamin B7) act as cofactors in the enzymatic reactions that allow fats to enter the tricarboxylic acid cycle and be burned to release energy. Vitamin B3 (niacin) is involved in the production of molecules involved in fat burning. Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) is involved in the production of ketone bodies (byproducts of body fat burning that provide energy to the body).
Although all vitamin B is obtained from food, it is not available to many people.
- Poor diet quality. Ultra-refined foods can lead to vitamin B deficiency, which is why vitamin B is added to these foods as an additive. However, one expert explained that fortification with synthetic vitamins may not be helpful in the context of a high-carbohydrate diet when vitamin B deficiency is chronic. This is because, in this total situation, the enzyme channels in the body that help with fat burning and related processes are damaged or atrophied.
- Vegetarians or regular vegans. Vitamin B12 is only found in animal foods: meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy products. Supplements can solve this problem, just make sure you are getting the form of B12 – methyl vitamin B12, which is the best type for your body. Many supplements use vitamin B12, but this is not the best nutrient for your body.
- High intake of BCAAs. taking BCAAs regularly can deplete your body’s vitamin B content because they are necessary to produce the enzymes needed to participate in BCAA metabolism.
- Digestive system problems. If you have a poor gastrointestinal function, or if you have inflammation in your intestines, this can cause your body to absorb less. As you age, reduced absorption may make you deficient in vitamin B. In this case, even taking supplements won’t help. At this point, you need to focus on healing your intestinal function: removing foods that cause poor digestive response, supplementing with digestive enzymes and hydrochloric acid, and adding probiotics and plant fiber.
- Medication effects. Medications are a known cause of nutrient depletion. Birth control pills reduce the levels of B3, B9, and B12, while antidepressants, antibiotics, and hypoglycemic drugs reduce the absorption of vitamin B12.
In such cases, it is necessary to choose a supplement to provide support to the body and it is recommended to take a vitamin B complex, who increases absorption and bioavailability.
KEY POINT: Vitamin B12 plays an important role in help with fat burning. Supplementation with methylated B vitamins will provide the body with the required nutrients, good fat metabolism, and healthy body composition.