Fat-burning supplements can work but only if you use them right

With promises to boost your metabolic rate, reduce your appetite and enhance your exercise performance, it's no wonder fat burning supplements can be appealing for people trying to lose weight.

Plenty of scientists spend their days trying to develop a weight loss pill that will make it easier to curb obesity, and looking at the marketing on some of these supplements, you'd swear it had already been discovered.

But exercise and sports scientist Dr Krissy Kendall, from Edith Cowan University, says that while they can be a useful addition for very overweight people, the effect is minimal — and they won't work at all unless you get your diet and exercise right first.

"What we've shown in research is that when combined with reduced [food] calories and exercise, fat burners help you lose more weight than just diet and exercise alone," she tells Coach.

"It's only about the equivalent of burning 150 calories over a 24-hour period, and one study showed that those using a fat burner supplement lost an extra 1.2kg over 12 weeks compared to the control group.

"It's a small but nonetheless significant amount of weight."

How do fat burners work?

Most fat burners rely on caffeine or green tea extract to rev up your metabolism.

"The benefit of using green tea extract is that you get caffeine to boost your metabolism and a compound called EGCG [epigallocatechin gallate], which may increase your metabolic rate, suppress appetite and help your body use more fat for energy," Dr Kendall explains.

"You'd have to have about 10 cups of green tea to get the same dosage."

Given fat burners can contain as much as 200 to 250mg of caffeine – the equivalent of about two cups of coffee – Dr Kendall says that anybody taking them ought to start with a single morning dose.

"We typically recommend that if you do take stimulant-based fat burners, that you start off just by taking it in the morning because anything after 12 could cause you to stay up all night, which can counteract your weight loss efforts," she explains.

"High amounts of caffeine can lead to an increase in heart rate, heart arrhythmias, stomach cramping or discomfort and light-headedness.

"In extreme cases there have been deaths from people taking fat burners without following the instructions and exceeding the recommended daily dose, which can lead to cardiac arrest, stroke or liver failure."

So if you're going to take them, follow the instructions carefully, and also note that if you already have a few coffees a day, then they probably won't work for you.

"If you're someone who already consumes quite a bit of caffeine, your body becomes habituated or accustomed to the caffeine," Dr Kendall says.

Fat binders are another form of fat fighting supplement, which are said to "bind" to fat in your gut so that your body doesn't absorb it.

"Essentially the idea is that you poop the fat out," Dr Kendall says.

"But the research shows that they basically don't do anything – you might excrete a few extra calories."

Use it at a plateau

Dr Kendall says that a lot of people hit a weight loss plateau around the four- to six-week mark, and that's when a short stint using a fat burner can be useful.

"You might notice that you see quite a bit of weight loss in the first few weeks, then you hit a plateau and the numbers on the scale aren't moving, and that's where it might be time to try something different," she says.

"It could be changing the amount of calories you're eating; the amount of protein you're having; the type of exercise you are doing; or taking a fat burner, provided you follow the directions, to see if it will give you an extra boost."

But Dr Kendall says that fat burners aren't designed for people who just have a few kilograms to lose for appearance reasons – they're really for obese people who need to lose weight for health reasons.

"When we've seen supplements work best, it's in overweight or obese populations who have a significant amount of weight to lose," she says.

"The combination of the appetite suppressant, an increase in resting metabolic rate and enhanced fat burn during exercise shows a small but significant increase in weight loss, compared to just diet and exercise alone."

If you're shopping for a fat burner, Dr Kendall says you'd really want minimal ingredients in it.

"You want to look for caffeine or green tea extract – if it's got a list of 30 other ingredients, it's likely the dose of caffeine or green tea extract isn't going to be high enough to have a significant effect," she says.

"It also increases the likelihood of having something illegal in it, and if you're an athlete, you could test positive for it or you could have a bad reaction to it."

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