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- The Raw Food Diet Plan
- Is Date Sugar A Healthy Alternative Sweetener?
- The Engine 2 Diet
- Going On A Diet May Have The Same Effects As Drug Withdrawal
- Lack Of Sleep Has Some Scary Side-Effects
- 7 Healthy Alternatives To Coffee
- Why You Should Never Use Splenda And 3 Healthy Alternatives
- The Volumetrics Diet Plan
- How To Start Working Out In The Morning
What’s The Best Weight Loss Supplement For Women?
I’m sure you’ve seen all the ads for supplements that promise to make you slim like a supermodel. In fact, the ad probably had a model pretending to take the supplement. All you have to do is give them the numbers to your credit card and they’ll send you the supplements. Before you know it, you’ll look exactly like the model in the ad!
Good grief. Do they actually think that’s going to work on us? Yes, they do. And for good reason…we continue to buy these weight loss supplements. But it’s time to get real. We need to start talking about what really works.
When you’re looking for the best weight loss supplement for women you need to know a few things. One is that most supposed fat melting pills don’t work, and some are outright dangerous. What makes the problem even worse is that there’s not a lot of regulation on weight loss supplements for women or men. This means that there are no rigorous tests (or any tests at all) to make sure the supplements on the shelves at the store or online are safe, or even work.
Now, before you decide which is the best female weight loss supplement, let’s go over some information that you need to know to make the right decision. Plus, below we’ll go over some of the safer choices (there’s even a chart below that lists supplement claims, effectiveness and safety). Of course, before you take ANY supplement for any problem, make sure you talk to your doctor first.
Is The Best Weight Loss Supplement A Natural One?
Weight loss supplements are BIG business. You can get them in a wide variety of forms like pills, capsules, powders, extracts, gel tabs and more. They’re available online and at your local health food store.
You need to be careful though, because a lot of these supplements claim to be natural and while they may be all-natural, this doesn’t mean they’re safe. Most weight loss supplements that are natural still have a drug-like effect on your body.
And a mistake we all make is to assume that because the pill or supplement is “natural” it must be safe. This is far from the truth. There are many products that claim to be natural that can cause you serious harm and can even be fatal!
Compare Weight Loss Supplements
Weight Loss supplement Guide Source
The 7 Best Supplements
Below we’ve listed 7 women’s weight loss supplements that have been proven to work. However, there are side-effects to each so make SURE that you talk to your doctor or health care provider before you take any of these.
1. Alli (Orlistat)
This weight loss supplement for women was originally a prescription drug known as Xenical. Alli is a much lower-dose version that is available over-the-counter. It works by preventing your body from digesting around 25% of the fat you consume. The amount of fat calories that are blocked by Alli depends on how much fat each person eats, but most people that take it end up blocking around 200 calories per day.
Caroline Cederquist, M.D., a spokesperson for the American Society of Bariatric Physicians (ASBP) says “Alli, like Xenical, will be useful for people who eat out often and don’t have much control over the amount of fat they are served. So if you eat more fat than you intended, you’ll get rid of it.”
Even the best weight loss supplement for women involves risk. The risks for taking Alli are vitamin loss which can lead to other health issues and bowel control problems (you may leak!). “My patients on Xenical often find that when they eat a high-fat meal, several hours later they may have diarrhea or loose stools. In extreme cases, they can’t control their bowels — they’ll leak all over their pants,” says Cederquist.
2. Caffeine Supplements
Caffeine not only helps you wake up but it also seems to be effective at aiding weight loss. Because caffeine is a stimulant, it can help speed up your metabolism and help you feel energized so you’re more likely to be active (which burns more calories). Also, caffeine has been shown to suppress appetite and boost the weight loss power of other ingredients.
Be careful to not go overboard. Don’t start drinking 20 cups a day or start taking additional supplements because more caffeine doesn’t mean more weight loss. More than 400 milligrams per day (which is equivalent to about 2 shots of espresso or 3 cups of coffee) won’t cause you to lose more weight. Also, any more than that and you may start to feel “jittery” and have problems sleeping.
With supplements that contain caffeine you need to be careful because some supplement packages make it hard to determine how much caffeine they contain. Some have as much caffeine as 10 cups of coffee!
3. EGCG
What the heck is EGCG? It’s the main antioxidant in green tea and it’s what you’ll find in most green tea weight loss supplements for women (or men). EGCG does more than just help you slim down, it’s also been shown to help fight cancer and heart disease. When looking for a supplement you want to look for one that contains around 90 or more milligrams (which is equivalent to about 4 cups of green tea).
A few small studies of EGCG showed that it helped the participants burn about 80 additional calories per day.
There are no specific risks except the jittery feeling you may get if you take a supplement and drink coffee or green tea.
4. CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid)
CLA is a natural fatty acid that comes from meat and dairy sources. It’s on our list because after a few studies it was shown to help lower body fat percentages and build muscle. In one study participants lost about 6 percent of their body fat after taking CLA for 6 months.
The studies showed that the effective dose of CLA is around 3,000 milligrams per day. Most over-the-counter CLA weight loss supplements contain around 1,000 milligrams per pill.
Be careful with CLA because it can raise cholesterol and worsen insulin resistance, so make sure you talk to your doctor before taking it.
5. L-dopa or L-tyrosine
L-tyrosine is an amino acid that is converted into L-dopa in your body. The L-dopa is then converted into dopamine which is a chemical in your brain that controls cravings. When you’re body has low dopamine levels it can lead to overeating because your cravings are more powerful. Researchers found that patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease that were given L-dopa lost weight. Also, experts have found that L-dopa may trigger the production of HGH (human growth hormone) that builds muscle and reduces the amount of fat that your body stores.
L-dopa has been shown to increase or cause nervousness, tremors, and heart palpitations so be careful if you decide to take it.
6. 5-HTP
5-HTP is an amino acid that your body converts into serotonin. This is on our list of the best weight loss supplements for women because it may help increase the levels of a certain hormone that tells your brain that you’re full.
5-HTP is not recommended for women or men who are also taking triptans (migraine/anti-depressant drugs) because it can lead to tremors or muscle spasms.
7. Chromium
Chromium helps you lose weight because it helps insulin work effectively. Insulin resistance can lead to weight gain because insulin resistance reduces the amount of sugar in your body that’s burned for energy and stores it as fat.
Most experts say that Chromium really only helps people who are insulin resistant but there have been studies showing that it can help people without insulin problems lose additional weight.
Chromium must be taken with care because it has been linked to muscle and kidney damage.
8 Weight Loss Supplements To Avoid
Avoid these 8 supplements altogether.
- Cascara
- Dandelion
- Ephedra
- Carcinia
- Hoodia
- Usnic Acid
- Creatine
- Kava Kava
Be Wary and Do Your Due Diligence When Choosing Supplements
When looking for the best weight loss supplement for women, don’t listen to the ads that you’re bombarded with. Listen to your doctor. It’s that simple. No matter what you hear or read, you need to get the opinion of your health care provider before you take any kind of supplement. As we stated before, the FDA doesn’t scrutinize supplements so it’s impossible to tell just how effective (or dangerous) a certain weight loss supplement may be.
What We Recommend
If you are certain you want a supplement for women then make your decision based on our list and chart above and then talk to your doctor. Of course, as always, we recommend that you lose weight with diet and exercise and avoid taking supplements to lose weight.
william todd
June 3, 2012 at 6:22 pm
intresting article im helping my wife find some wight loss tips and your article seems like it contains reliable information, all the best
william
furosemide
August 4, 2012 at 10:17 pm
great article and blog aswell keep posting more often