Pining for Weight Loss

I’m not much into weight loss supplements. Losing weight and maintaining proper weight requires more than a magic pill. While plenty of drugs (and even some natural compounds and fad diets) will promote rapid weight loss, the positive results will be short-lived without permanent dietary changes and exercise. Worst of all, most of these quick weight-loss techniques have been shown to adversely change your metabolic set point. In simple terms, constant dieting lowers your metabolic rate—causing your body to store excess fat and making it harder and harder to lose weight in the future.

When combined with exercise and a proper diet, however, there are certain supplements—such as CLA (conjugated linoleic acid)—that help promote fat reduction within just three months without any detrimental effects. A report presented by the American Physiological Society at Experimental Biology 2006 showed that the location of fat loss when using CLA was different in men compared to women. This location-specific loss of fat was a new finding.

Women taking CLA lost fat in the legs and abdomen while men only lost fat in the abdomen. Neither lost fat in their arms. (It just so happens that additional fat in the legs and abdomen has been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.)

After six  months of CLA use, there was an average loss of 4.4 pounds of fat—which was about six percent of total body fat. It’s interesting to note that the overall body weight loss was only 3.3 pounds, because CLA caused a subsequent gain of lean muscle mass. (I’ve discussed this result before, because many people get disappointed when they don’t seem to lose as much weight as expected after regular CLA use. They often don’t realize that their body is adding muscle as they lose the fat—and muscle is far more dense than fat.)

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