Metabolism Boosters

If you’re looking for a faster way to lose weight and you spend a lot of time watching television, you’ve probably had more than a passing interest in those ads for products that promise to boost your metabolism so you can get fit quick.

Those before and after photos plastered on the ads make the product seem almost like a magical cure that will help you melt away body fat without much effort. If you read the small print, you may notice that the products work when combined with other lifestyle changes but it still seems like a wonderful way to get healthy by doing as little work as possible.

What is Metabolism?

Metabolism is the term that refers to all of the body’s processes which run on energy. That includes digesting your food and thinking. Remember that the entire idea behind eating is to supply our body with the energy it needs to keep working.

When your body works harder to complete these processes, you’re going to need more energy. It’s that simple. Our bodies all burn energy at different rates, partially depending on how much fat and muscle we have. Because muscle burns more energy, you’ll lose more calories by building more muscle. Fat, on the other hand, burns fewer calories. That means the fatter we become the less calories we use up thus the fatter we become.

How do Metabolism Boosters Work?

Metabolism boosters are known collectively as thermogenics. They are a wide variety of chemicals, such as ephedra, which make the body work harder so you supposedly burn more calories.

One way these products boost metabolism is by causing your heart to beat faster. That means your heart is working harder and that means you’re burning more calories, at least in theory.

Do Metabolism Boosters Really Work?

Although no clinical trials have ever proven the effectiveness of metabolism boosters, the products may do what they promise. However, the boost they do give doesn’t result in much weight loss. Instead, most of the weight loss comes from appetite suppression and lost water weight.

The problem is that this approach to losing weight generally costs the body muscle mass – something you don’t want to lose. In fact, the best way to lose weight is to work on increasing your muscle mass because that will boost your metabolism.

Are Metabolism Boosters Safe?

While no one can generalize about all metabolism boosters, those that have been studied have not been found to be very safe. Take ephedra, for instance. This chemical was once widely used in these metabolism boosting drugs and in energy enhancing products as well. Then reports linking the use of the drug to an increased risk of heart attacks in otherwise healthy people prompted the FDA to pull the product off the market.

Even if you don’t put your body at risk thanks to making it work harder than necessary, you do stand a good choice of becoming addicted to them and that’s never healthy.