Many of America’s population is overweight, or are on the wrong course to achieving that title. It seems as if their is an upward trend over the past few years in childhood obesity and obesity in grown adults doesn’t seem to promising either. Unfortunately, bearing extra pounds comes with a slew of other health problems as well. Diabetes, heart disease, stroke, gout, osteoarthritis, cancer, sleep apnea, asthma and gallbladder problems, all have been linked to being overweight. There is hope for anyone looking to reverse this fate towards the other end of the scale. It doesn’t have to be that difficult, however, I will tell you that you have to want to do this and be somewhat motivated for this to work! Thermogenics has been around for many years, however, many people are not familiar with what thermogenics are or do for that matter.
Exercise and diet are the key ingredients essential towards sculpting that body you always wanted to have, to remain energetic and in shape. Taking this concept one step further and you find out that many people that delve into the exercise and diet craze don’t stick with it, often finding themselves being bored, not receiving substantial results quickly and becoming unmotivated and uninterested. Consequently, with diet and exercise, one needs to grasp other important pieces of the puzzle that work together towards obtaining desired results. Without these puzzle pieces and one often succumbs to the inevitable, fatigue, depression and failure.
The three biggest counterparts to the diet and exercise program are reduced stress, efficient sleeping patterns and duration of sleep, meaning REM sleep! the third concept that can help with obtaining the desired results of weight loss is thermogenics.
Thermogenics/fat builders, basically speed up your metabolism as would cardiovascular exercise(aerobic). Many people try to lose weight quickly similar to cramming for a mid term and fail miserably. Weight loss can happen quickly, however, body fat loss doesn’t. Our bodies are made to survive in the event that we have to endure a long period of time without food. Storing calories as body fat enables the body to use these calories later on if the need arises. Telling your body not to do this is not an easy thing to accomplish. Losing body fat quickly eventually lead to the body switching gears. Reducing metabolism rate, burning lean muscle tissue first due to its ease of access and burning capability and increase appetite are the bodies natural way of com batting trying to lose body fat to quickly.
OK, so body fat loss is a slow process but there is a way of cheating the system and speeding up the process somewhat without the body’s natural starvation response kicking in. Thermogenics stimulate the body and its nervous system to speed up metabolism rates thus generating more heat in the body. This elevated heat level in the body, basically does what heat does to fat in bacon or hamburg. Do you notice the liquid fat content that is removed and collected from the bacon and hamburg as you heat it on a skillet? This same process holds true with cardiovascular exercise and thermogenics. The monkey wrench that potentially could dismantle this process is that you have to take in fewer calories than you consume over the course of a day! If you consume more calories than you burn off this won’t work. Also, it is best to do cardiovascular exercise and take thermogenics on an empty stomach not after having eaten a meal before hitting the gym.
Three of the best natural thermogenics out there that can be found at any supermarket, health food retail outlet or on-line venue are Green Tea, caffeine or herbs that contain caffeine in it and capsaicin.
Green tea has been around for over four thousand years and originated in China. Its effect on the body and heath have been studied in great lengths. Fat oxidation, providing stability of blood sugar levels, efficient antioxidant and cholesterol reducer all have been linked to green tea. Green tea contains caffeine, polyphenols, carotenoids, tocopherols and catechins. The caffeine that is part of the tea’s make up is responsible for the thermogenic capacity of the tea. However, unlike coffee, green tea has many desire able accolades to its credit when ingested.
Caffeine is a drug. It is a stimulant to the central nervous system and can become addicting with a dependency for it over time. It maintains mental focus, alertness and is also thought of as a diuretic. Many fruits, beans and leaves contain caffeine. Gotu kola, yerba mate, coffee beans, tea leaves, guarana and ginsing all contain caffeine to some degree. Because of this, many weight loss products and thermogenics will contain some of these products, or bi-products of these, in their list of ingredients. Contrary to popular beliefs caffeine and its diuretic properties do not provide significant results. A better bet for diuretic capabilities would be in dandelion root, nettle, fennel and apple cider vinegar, in my opinion. Caffeine is a great thermogenic however, as it speeds up the bodies metabolism which again heats up the bodies inside core to break down fat.
The third prospect is capsaicin. It is normally associated with “heat”, pungency and spice in the culinary trade. Capsaicin is found in the chili pepper family. Depending on the amount of capsaicin that determines how hot the pepper is based on the scoville scale degree of heat. From very little capsaicin found in red peppers to cayenne, jalapeno, serrano to the very intense heat encountered in the ghost pepper, there are many species of chili pepper with various degrees of heat, even from peppers of the same family. Capsaicin increases the amount of internal body heat causing sweating in people who have a large amount of this hydrophobic compound. Often times people will consume this chili pepper active component after eating a carbohydrate meal to help to breakdown these carbohydrates and regulate blood sugar levels.
So there you have it. Some insight into the thermogenic dynamics and its capacity to expand the results of body fat loss over and above those experienced through a cardiovascular exercise program alone.
