Natural Fat Burners: Which Ones Actually Work?
We all want a magic pill that can help us burn fat. Unfortunately, those don't exist. However, natural fat burners — foods and nutritional supplements that have fat-burning properties — can aid a healthy diet and exercise plan.[1]
However, they cannot solve your weight concerns on their own; that requires you to also change your habits and aim for a healthy lifestyle.
You can find natural fat burners in foods, including herbs, spices, fruits, vegetables, and other plant-based foods. Alternatively, you can purchase fat-burning supplements that come in capsules, powders, and liquids that you typically take alongside meals. All of these offer natural ways to boost your fat-burning and weight loss efforts.
How Do Fat Burners Work?
Fat burners work in several different ways. Some block fat from being absorbed from the food you eat. Others influence insulin in your body, which affects blood sugar and how much fat gets stored in cells. Finally, some speed up your metabolism.
When your metabolism increases, it accelerates the speed that fat and other body tissues break down. The process, called diet-induced thermogenesis, increases your body's calorie burn, helping you drop pounds.
Natural Fat Burners
Several ingredients may help burn fat. Natural options are always better than synthetic, since chemical fat burners which come with a host of side effects. Always go natural and seek the highest-quality ingredients. Below are a handful of fat burners that may help on your weight loss journey.
Caffeine
Caffeine helps you workout longer and even enhances your exercise performance, which helps your body burn more fat!
Caffeine, the main ingredient in coffee, tea, and chocolate, is a natural fat burner. It stimulates the nervous system and helps the body burn fat by boosting metabolism.
Consuming five milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body mass one hour before a workout can even enhance exercise performance and result in weight loss.[2] Even combining caffeine with low-intensity exercise helps the body burn more fat than exercise alone.[3] Plus, caffeine may also help you work out longer.
However, caffeine makes some people jittery, anxious, and unable to fall asleep, so limit your consumption to moderate amounts.
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Conjugated Linoleic Acid
Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), an omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid found naturally in nuts, seeds, pomegranate seed oil, and white button mushrooms, is a common fat-burning supplement that helps break down fat cells.
It can even increase lean body mass and muscle strength and decrease body fat and "bad" (LDL) cholesterol levels.[6] CLA can even reduce body mass index (BMI) and total body mass.[7]Ginseng
Ginseng tea has long been thought to aid weight loss. Ginseng, and the ginsenosides they contain, may reduce fat cell size and fat production
Panax ginseng may even decrease weight and BMI![8]
While ginseng not only helps with weight loss, it can also affect gut microbiota composition — the microbes that make up one's gut ecosystem.[9]
The Best Fat-Burning Foods
If you'd like to try foods that work as natural fat burners, check out the choices listed below. You can easily incorporate fat-burning foods like cayenne or apple cider vinegar into meals, or add them to drink recipes, including smoothies and teas.
Cayenne Pepper
Cayenne pepper is a potent natural fat burner. This spicy red chili pepper with a meal increases fullness (satiety). It also suppresses appetite and reduces cravings for salty or sweet foods.[10] Adding cayenne pepper to meals increases diet-induced thermogenesis and fat burning (lipid oxidation).[11]
This spicy red chili pepper reduces cravings, increases fullness, and is known as a potent natural fat burner.
Capsaicin, the ingredient in peppers responsible for the spiciness, raises your body temperature when you eat it. The cool-down afterward burns calories. However, you may develop a tolerance to cayenne pepper that decreases its weight loss effects over time.
You can add cayenne to recipes, including smoothies and juices. For higher potency of cayenne's active ingredient capsaicin, try supplements. Some people find cayenne too spicy, or that it upsets their stomach. Be sure to always take cayenne capsules with food.
Organic Raw Apple Cider Vinegar
Experts have looked at organic raw apple cider vinegar, or ACV, as a fat-burning supplement for many years. Raw apple cider vinegar can normalize insulin levels, boost metabolism, and burn fat. It may also suppress appetite, possibly by increasing your body's feeling of fullness.[12]
Taking one to two tablespoons mixed with water is the recommended serving. You can also make your own salad dressing and add it to various recipes. Some people dislike the taste, however, or find that it leads to an upset stomach.
Grapefruit
You may have heard that it takes more calories to digest grapefruit than what it contains, and in a sense, it's true! This citrus fruit has a powerful impact on weight. Not only does fresh grapefruit help you lose weight, it even helps normalize insulin and blood glucose levels according to one study.[13]
Eating grapefruit may reduce the lipids, or fats, circulating in your blood and may also balance blood pressure.[14] You can even try grapefruit seed extract for a more concentrated form.
Vegan Protein Powder
Increasing the amount of protein you eat, especially when you lower your consumption of empty carbs, can boost the muscle your body builds. With more muscle, you will burn more calories every day, without doing anything! That is not to say you shouldn't exercise, including both aerobic and strength training, but only that more muscle mass helps burn more calories. Protein also curbs appetite by reducing the hunger hormone ghrelin.
More muscles equal more calories burned per day. Increasing your protein intake can be a great way to burn additional fat!
Adding protein powder to smoothies or meals is a powerful and easy way to boost your protein intake, which helps your body burn more fat. Choose vegan protein powders, like a pea, brown rice, or hemp protein.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Using fat to burn fat? Sure enough! Using extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) in meals increases the amount of fat burned for up to five hours after eating. EVOO also increased diet-induced thermogenesis.[15]
Do Fat Burners Actually Work?
Think of a diet as the most important component of an overall weight loss plan. Exercise is crucial as the second portion, while a fat-burning supplement can be the cherry on top.
Be sure to take fat burners according to directions. Taking more than the recommended daily serving can harm your health. Rapid weight loss is not optimal if you want to keep it off long term, and fat burners should not replace the work it takes to create new, healthy lifestyle habits.
Tips for Choosing a Fat Burner
Once your diet and exercise plans are in order, it can seem tricky to choose the right fat-burning supplement. Don't be fooled by muscled models and catchy packaging. Clarify your goals by asking yourself these important questions:
- Why do you want to take a fat burner?
- Are you sensitive to caffeine?
- Do you take medications or have any serious health concerns?
- How long do you want to take the fat burner?
- Is the fat burner natural without any chemical additives?
- Is the fat burner vegan, organic, and gluten-free?
Once you've established some basics, select the right fat burner for you. Each person's physiology is unique, and yours may respond to one fat burner but not another. You may also have to give a fat burner some time to work, up to several weeks.
As always, buy the highest quality supplements with organic, plant-based ingredients for best results.
Points to Remember
Fat burners, while not a miracle solution, can aid in your weight loss efforts. They may work by increasing your metabolism, blocking fat absorption, or decreasing appetite.
Natural fat burners include herbs like ginseng, foods like cayenne pepper, apple cider vinegar, and grapefruit, or compounds found naturally in food, like caffeine. You can simply eat the fat-burning foods, spices, or herbs, or you may choose to concentrate their fat-burning power in capsules or extracts.
To choose a fat burner, ask yourself clarifying questions such as what you want to accomplish and which part of the weight loss journey you would like the most help with, such as cravings, metabolism, or energy.
Always talk to your healthcare provider before starting to take a fat burner, and avoid synthetic fat burners which usually contain harmful chemicals, and instead look for organic, gluten-free options.
References (15)
- Jeukendrup AE, Randell R. Fat burners: nutrition supplements that increase fat metabolism. Obes Rev. 2011;12(10):841-851.
- Olcina G, et al. Total plasma fatty acid responses to maximal incremental exercise after caffeine ingestion. J Exerc Sci Fit. 2012;10(1):33-37.
- Kurobe K, et al. Combined effect of coffee ingestion and repeated bouts of low intensity exercise on fat oxidation. Clin Physiol Funct Imaging. 2017;37(2):148-154.
- Blankson H, et al. Conjugated linoleic acid reduces body fat mass in overweight and obese humans. J. Nutr. 2000;130(12):2943-2948.
- Blankson H, et al. Conjugated linoleic acid reduces body fat mass in overweight and obese humans. J. Nutr. 2000;130(12):2943-2948.
- Blankson H, et al. Conjugated linoleic acid reduces body fat mass in overweight and obese humans. J. Nutr. 2000;130(12):2943-2948.
- Lehnen TE, et al. A review on effects of conjugated linoleic fatty acid (CLA) upon body composition and energetic metabolism. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2015;12:36.
- Song M-Y, et al. Influence of Panax ginseng on obesity and gut microbiota in obese middle-aged Korean women. J Ginseng Res. 2014;38(2):106-115.
- Li Z, Ji GE. Ginseng and obesity. J Ginseng Res. 2018;42(1):1-8.
- Janssens PL, et al. Capsaicin increases sensation of fullness in energy balance, and decreases desire to eat after dinner in negative energy balance. Appetite. 2014;77:44-49.
- Yoshioka M, et al. Effects of red pepper added to high-fat and high-carbohydrate meals on energy metabolism and substrate utilization in Japanese women. Br J Nutr. 1998 Dec;80(6):503-510.
- Frost G, et al. The short chain fatty acid acetate reduces appetite via a central homeostatic mechanism. Nat Commun. 2014;5:3611.
- Fujioka K, et al. The effects of grapefruit on weight and insulin resistance: relationship to the metabolic syndrome. J Med Food. 2006 Spring;9(1):49-54.
- Onakpoya I, et al. The effect of grapefruits (Citrus paradisi) on body weight and cardiovascular risk factors: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2017 Feb 11;57(3):602-612.
- Soares MJ, et al. The acute effects of olive oil v. cream on postprandial thermogenesis and substrate oxidation in postmenopausal women. Br J Nutr. 2004 Feb;91(2):245-252.
†Results may vary. Information and statements made are for education purposes and are not intended to replace the advice of your doctor. If you have a severe medical condition or health concern, see your physician.
Dr. Edward Group, DC
FOUNDER | HEALER | ADVOCATEDr. Group, DC is a healer and alternative health advocate, and an industry leader and innovator in the field of natural health who is dedicated to helping others. He is a registered doctor of chiropractic (DC), a naturopathic practitioner (NP), and proud alum of Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management. Dr. Group, DC is the founder of Global Healing – a mission and vision he has shared through best-selling books and frequent media appearances. He aims to spread his message of positivity, hope, and wellness throughout the world.
