There are a lot of theories out there surrounding your body and the way you feed it. One thing is for sure, regardless of how many of these theories you choose to believe or dismiss, and that is that without the right nutrition, your body simply will not run as it should do. This means that with poor nutrition, you run the risk of getting disease, being over or underweight, and above all, not taking care of yourself as well as you should be.
Let’s look at things logically; our bodies need a certain amount of everything in order to run right. This means that you cannot kick things such as good fats, protein, carbohydrates, fiber and sugars out of your diet. You need certain amounts of everything in order to get the right nutrients in your diet, and therefore in your body, and without these right amounts, you are going to come into problems.
This is also very much the case with weight loss – the wrong amounts of the various food groups, and you are going to run the risk of becoming overweight, and if you are already overweight, no changes will equal little or no weight loss.
Thankfully, supplements help where our diets let us down, and when it comes to the right supplements to achieve fast and safe weight loss, there are more than a few you can pick from.
Carnitine is something that you will find in a lot of supplements, especially those designed for weight loss. Why? The answer is simple – this ingredient will help to move the fat from the areas of the body that it won’t be used, to the parts of the body that it will. This means that it is a great supplement to take just before you partake in any exercise. Ideally, you will want to get the right amounts of carnitine in your diet by eating red meat, but on the topic of weight loss, this is a meat that many people avoid like the plague. You will want to be looking at supplements that take your carnitine intake to around 500-1,000mg daily. A simple urine test will soon tell you how your carnitine levels are looking.
Lipoic Acid. Are you having problems with your blood sugar/glucose levels? This is a common complaint for those that are overweight, and the fact of the matter is with 100-200mg of this smart acid on a daily basis, you could be regulating your fluctuating glucose levels. This in turn will lead to better glucose management, and therefore you will be able to burn it off quicker and better. This is a nutrient that you should see the Doctor first with – you are going to want to make sure that you are not overdosing, therefore blood and urine tests will give you an idea of what size of supplements you are looking for.
CoQ10. You will probably have heard of this coenzyme Q10 in facial and anti-products, but the truth is that it can be helpful in the fight against the flab too! As well as boosting energy levels in the body letting you work out harder and faster, there has also been links between this powerful enzyme and the rate in which carbohydrates and fats are burned within the body. Not only that but this has been shown to have positive effects when it comes to many brain and heart conditions. A blood test will soon tell you whether or not you should be supplementing this nutrient.
So what else can lend a little helping hand when it comes to weight loss?
Green tea, as we all known, is very beneficial to the body, especially for those that are looking to use it as a weight loss supplement. Not only does this smart tea help to boost your metabolism, but it also helps to fight against many life threatening diseases, and ensures your adrenaline levels are at a higher rate, which in turn helps to burn fat. When you use green tea, the increased levels of adrenaline mean that you are going to want to burn off excess energy, perhaps in the gym, and will also help you to work out longer and stronger at the same time.
Available in tea format, pill format, and even in powders, this is perhaps the first port of call when it comes to weight loss supplements.
When you are looking for a daily multivitamin to help your body get through the bad times, you are going to want to look for a few specific things to ensure that the pill itself is doing the right thing for your body. Firstly, make sure that rather than containing folic acid, the supplements contain natural folate which is a much healthier and more natural version. You will also want to substitute the beta-carotene with natural mixed cartonoids, and Vitamin E for natural mixed tocopherols. These are the most purest forms of the ingredients contained within the supplement, and will do your body the world of good.
Of course, if you can avoid the supplements and get the nutrients that you need from your food, it will be even better still. This is very much so the case with things like Omega 3 fatty acids, which although you can get as supplements and food fortified with this powerful enzyme, is freely available in many foods that you may already buy. Fish is a great source of this, and if you can exchange the pill for a few fresh portions of fish per week, you will be laughing.
The same applies to fiber also – you should be looking at getting around 35 to 50g of the stuff in your body per day, so rather than relying on a supplement to do the job for you, you should aim to add more in the way of fiber to your diet. The fiber will help to move things along within your digestive tract – if you are carrying a few extra pounds of waste in your system, you are going to be a couple of pounds heavier, right? It all makes sense when you think about it! Learn more about fiber and weight loss here.
In short although a daily multivitamin designed for your age group will prove to be useful for your health, by making sure that you know what you are looking for you may find that you get a lot more in the way of benefits out them than just plain and simple health boosts. With links to weight loss, and the ever growing problem with obesity, perhaps the supplements aisles in your supermarket are not such a bad idea after all?