I tell the clients doing personal training in Singapore with me that most other fat and weight loss pills are close to useless. Some have their uses, but they just speed up the process a teeny bit at the expense of potential bad side effects. They don't do anything that an additional week or two of good healthy eating can't do.

But there are 2 supplements that do help with fat loss. They are not fancy but they do work!

Weight Loss Supplement #1: Protein supplements
It can be tough to get good quality protein in certain situations. When pressed for time, protein supplements are a great addition to a diet as a snack. They also beat any sort of fried, sugar laden "snack" in terms of nutrition. In addition, protein supplements are affordable (check your protein per unit of money ratio) and taste pretty good nowadays.

I still remember the good-old-days about 10 years ago when I took my first "egg based" protein supplement. It was horrible. I needed to add flavored milk and bananas into it to make it palatable, it also took a blender to dissolve. Today however, pretty much all the big brands are decent tasting and dissolve pretty well in cold water.

There are 2 general categories of protein supplements. One is whey and the other is micellar casein. Whey is great for pre and post workout nutrition because its easily digested and gets absorbed for use quickly. It's also cheaper. Casein is a slow digesting kind of protein that's great for meal replacement and bedtime snacks because they digest slowly and release protein constantly over a longer period of time.

Different tools for different situations. But if cost is a factor, get the whey first, as mentioned earlier, pre and post workout nutrition is extremely important.

When I don't take care of these, I notice myself recovering slower, getting fatter and performing poorer. Any of the big names are ok. I usually buy the big economy tubs, the powders have a good shelf life as long as you don't let them get moist.

Weight Loss Supplement #2: Fish oil
This one is pretty much a "must have". I don't care if you are in Singapore, one of my personal training clients, somebody else, or somewhere else.

This supplement is really important. It contains omega-3 fatty acids called DHA and EPA. It has no bad points and an outrageously long list of positives.

Fish oils are a great weight loss supplement and help fat loss because the omega-3s switch on the fat oxidizing enzymes. This is especially true when combined with exercise. Amazingly, if you combine fish oil and exercise, the increased fat loss (when compared to either fish oil or exercise alone) comes from your abdominal region.

Increases insulin sensitivity. This means that you store less fat.

Increases the amount of cell activity making each cell use more energy.

Reduces inflammation. This means more healthy joints and tendons and faster recovery when you are sore

Improved health and lifespan. Omega 3s make heat attack causing blood clots less likely. They also have been shown to reduce the chances of heart disease and cancer which are responsible (in some way or another) for about 50% of the deaths in developed countries.

Omega-3s make you smart and happy. They have the same effect as some anti-depressants without the addictive factors. They elevate mood and reduce stress and tension. There are indications that they also improve memory and indications from recent studies show that they may even improve performance in IQ tests.

Protection of skin from UV rays.

Boost immune system. Less sick less often.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jon_Wong

We are going to go a bit physiologically nerdy here (but don't worry, I will try to make this as simple as I can).

First of all hard training beats low intensity training. Hard is of course relative, for my clients who are senior citizens, hard may be brisk walking. But for my national level athletes, hard could be repeated 200m sprints.

The main thing is that hard training is the best kind. We are already sedentary in most of our jobs and city lifestyles. Are we supposed to be doing minimal work while exercising as well? That makes no sense.

EPOC is one of the coolest things about hard, intense training. It stands for "Excess-Post-exercise-Oxygen-Consumption".

When we train hard, we use energy faster than we can get it form oxygen in the air. This creates a "debt" in our energy system that will eventually need to be repaid. Sounds fair? Yup, all that energy came from somewhere! That somewhere is our anaerobic (no oxygen needed) sources that are already present in our cells.

So what have we just done? We have used energy beyond what we can sustain. If we were doing low intensity work, we could just breathe and get all the energy we need from our aerobic (oxygen needed) source. But no! We have exceeded that source and have tapped into other sources beyond what we can sustain.

It's payback time. Once the intense activity stops, the body starts to recover from that activity. During this time many things are happening to get the body back to a "normal" state. All these things use CALORIES! In fact the above-normal calorie usage can last 30 or more HOURS after the end of the hard training session.

Like I have always said, hard training is like putting money in a growth fund which makes money while you do nothing! With EPOC you literally burn calories in your sleep (just like many of the scam products out there claim) the only difference is that this is real!

Here is a list of what the body needs to do to get back to normal. It's a pretty long list and you will soon see why EPOC has the potential to use lots of calories.

Restore ATP-PC: In simple terms, this means that we need to replenish the anaerobic sources in the body that we tapped into during the intense training

Restore Oxygen Stores: This gets our blood oxygen levels back to normal

Restore Heart and Breathing Rates to Normal: When we stop hard exercise, heart and breathing rates (and depth) do not suddenly go back to normal. This takes time and energy as they are both needed to restore the rest of the bodily functions.

Restore Hormone Levels: There are several hormones (ok fellow nerds - epinephrine, norepinephrine, thyroxine, cortisol) that are increased. To clear the excess hormones out, the body has a chemical "pump" that needs energy to function.

Restore Body Temperature: During exercise, heat production is likely to excede heat removal. That means increased body temperature. For each degree celcius above normal, a 13-15% rise in calorie usage is needed for recovery.

Remove Lactate: Lactate is a by-product of exercise and it accumulates in muscles. It also takes energy to remove.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jon_Wong

As a personal trainer who gives fitness coaching, I know that my clients usually have a question (or 2, or 3 or more!) about fat loss. Here is one of the questions that was recently asked by one of my clients. Variations of this question are all over the internet and are often asked by many people who's fitness goals include weight loss or fat loss.

"What fat burning pill or fat burner product should I be taking?"

In Singapore where I live and in muscle and fitness magazines all over the world, Scorch, Hot Rox, Hydroxycut, and pretty much any other thermogenic product all have convincing "ads". To cut a long story short, the answer is yes they do work.

BUT beware...

They only work in the short term, and there are side effects.

You need to ask yourself how these fat burners work.

The below systems are stimulated...

1. Nervous system stimulation (caffeine and other stimulants)
2. Thyroid (metabolic) stimulation

Does it work short term... yes. BUT no better than another 2 -4 weeks of healthy clean eating.

Long term, just like anything else, it hurts your bodies natural production and regulation of these factors. So its BAD.

Fat burners - if you are a fitness competitor/bodybuilder/going for a photo shoot, sure use them for 3-4 weeks then STOP. And do this only 1or 2 times per year.

If you are anybody else, eat natural food like meat, vegetables, nuts and eggs as well as lots of fish oil and add in some energetic nutrients like L-carnitine. Train hard and let the fat drop by itself.

Everybody can get great results without any fat burning pills. It may just take a little longer.

You need to ask yourself, what do you want? A quick fix? Or a lifetime of healthy and lean living?

Just beware especially in the online fitness forums... the desire to lose fat NOW makes people lose a sense of perspective.

All the reasonable answers which talk about the consequences of fat burning stimulants are often totally ignored and people just continue discussing about where to get the best stimulants and the best prices despite the warnings and side effects.

There is a Chinese saying. "You can bring the horse to the water but you cannot force him to drink". That is the state of almost all fitness forums online when it comes to the topic of fat burning pills and weight loss supplements.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jon_Wong