When it comes to supporting our diet and exercise efforts to lose weight and burn fat, we have various effective supplement options at our disposal.
When browsing through the shaping & toning section at your nearest Dis-Chem or online at www.biogen.co.za, you’ll find numerous products to suit different requirements and lifestyles.
In general, we classify fat burners into two broad categories – body toners and thermogenic products. To get the most from the supplements you buy, it is beneficial to know how each product works to promote fat loss and accelerate your results in a healthy and sustainable way.
Body toners
These products usually contain ingredients that do not stimulate the nervous system to raise your metabolism, such as thermogenic fat burners do.
Instead, the ingredients used are clinically proven to support fat metabolism by helping to break down stored fat more efficiently.
That means you get effective fat-loss support without the buzz, which makes body toners ideal for prolonged use or for use by individuals who are sensitive to stimulants.
When combined with exercise and an appropriate diet, body toner supplements can help you meet more of your daily energy requirements from stored body fat.
Look for products that contain ingredients such as conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and L-carnitine.
Based on available research, CLA may help to increase lean body mass by helping your body burn calories more efficiently and may help to prevent fat storage, particularly in the abdominal region and legs.
CLA is a non-essential polyunsaturated fatty acid, which falls into the broadly accepted ‘healthy’ fats category. It is naturally present in small amounts in various meats and is also found in certain dairy products. However, the quantities supplied from your diet generally aren’t sufficient to meet the levels that studies show can positively impact your body composition.
L-carnitine increases the body’s ability to metabolise stored fat, especially during exercise, by transporting fat molecules into the muscle cell for energy.
Night-time fat burners
Night-time fat burners are another stimulant-free product category that can support fat loss and tone your body. This is a relatively recent product category to hit supplement store shelves but it is growing rapidly in popularity.
These products typically contain metabolism-boosting ingredients that don’t stimulate the nervous system like conventional thermogenic products. This feature makes them an ideal accompaniment to your existing fat-loss supplement regimen.
These science-based formulations generally contain effective all-natural ingredients that help you burn more calories around the clock. For instance, Biogen’s Night Burn includes a combination of active ingredients, including Innoslim.
This clinically-proven plant-based ingredient provides weight and metabolic support by reducing glucose absorption in the intestine, increasing glucose absorption in muscle and fat cells, reducing fat accumulation and inflammation in fat cells, and reducing insulin resistance. The end result is a shift in energy balance in favour of fat breakdown.
Thermogenic fat burner
Thermogenic products are the most potent fat burner available as the compounds used in these formulations raise your metabolic rate, even at rest.
The weight loss experienced as a result of supplementing with a thermogenic fat burner like Biogen RAGE Thermo is generally attributed to:
- Thermogenesis (the production of body heat)
- Increased activity levels due to greater energy
- Reduced appetite
- The direct fat-burning (lipolytic) action of these stimulants on fat cells.
Look for products that contain ingredients such as caffeine, green coffee bean extract, citrus aurantium extract, bitter orange extract, and yerba mate, or any combination of these.
It is important that you only use these products periodically to give your system time to reset and to ensure you don’t build up any tolerances to the substances.
