Bodybuilding supplements can help a great deal in alleviating your fat loss efforts. They are not a sure shot way to lose fat but they can be useful if you combine them with a solid training and nutrition plan.
Those who are passionate about their bodybuilding and fat loss goals often ask questions related to creating their own fat loss stack. While there are several commercial fat burner stacks available in the market, experts often suggest to get your own ingredients and stack them together. This enables you to add the clinical dosage of a particular ingredient as per your requirement to maximize the fat burning process. Also stacking your own fat burner gives you long term benefits and understanding of what exactly goes inside an effective fat burning supplement.
Here, we have broken down the most effective and commonly used fat burning supplement ingredients as per their mode of action, so that you can create your own fat loss stack efficiently.
Fat Releasers
Fat cells store all your body body fat and in order to lose body fat you need to make these fat cells as small as possible. This can only be done by pushing the fat cells to empty the fat they are holding. Though there are several ingredients that can be used for fat release process, but most of the fat burning stacks rely on below mentioned classic ingredients to do the needful.
Caffeine: Caffeine and buzz go hand in hand because of its stimulating effect and an ability to burn calories efficiently. Caffeine does actually aid in fat loss, but in a stack it acts more as an ingredient that frees fat from the fat cells effectively. Several studies have confirmed that caffeine is most effective when it is consumed before workouts.
How to stack it: 200-400 mg of caffeine 15-30 minutes before workout, on training days
Yohimbe: People often consider yohimbe just as a sex aid supplement, which in reality is not true. Yohimbe contains rich content of active compound yohimbine that is known for its excellent fat burning effects. Much like caffeine, yohimbe aids fat loss by increasing the amount of fat getting released from fat cells. However, people suffering from liver, kidney or heart problems should avoid including yohimbe in their fat loss stack.
How to stack it: 5-20 mg of yohimbine extract per dose 2-3 times per day. One dose 30 to 60 minutes before workout on training days.
Calorie Burners
Caffeine and yohimbe can only help in releasing fat from the fat cells, to burn that fat for good you need to take calorie burners. Also, you need to ramp up the calorie burning process, so that the freed fat can be used as a fuel source. Shared below are two fat burner supplement ingredients that will boost the calorie burn process in your body by forcing the fat to burn for good.
Green Tea Extract: If you are looking for a no brainer fat burner ingredient then green tea extract tops the list. It aids the fat loss process by boosting the number of calories burned per day by your body. Additionally, green tea extract comes with a host of other health benefits such as enhanced muscle and joint recovery process. Also, it is a great source of natural antioxidants.
Catechins in particular epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is one such fat burning ingredient present in green tea that speeds up calorie burning process in the body.
How to stack it: Take about 500-1000 mg of green tea extract-preferably one standardized for high EGCG content-2-3 times per day. One dose 30 to 60 minutes before workout on training days.
Capsaicin: It is a natural plant chemical responsible for heat in spicy peppers. It raises epinephrine levels in the body, thus leading to increase in the amount of calories you burn everyday. Including capsaicin in your meal can raise the calorie expenditure by up to 30 percent.
How to stack it: Take enough to supply 40,000-80,000 units. Take 30 minutes before meals 2-3 times per day. One dose 30 to 60 minutes before workout on training days.
Fat Transporters
Though we have said a lot about fat releasing and fat burning, but at times increased calorie burn is not enough to ensure that its all getting torched up for a good cause. All the fat that our body is releasing and burning needs to go to the tiny power plants, called mitochondria, located in the body to ensure that it will be burned up as a fuel. Fat is not allowed to pass into mitochondria freely, but it needs to carried in, here the role of fat transporters arise as they help in maximizing the amount of fat that gets in mitochondria.
Carnitine: The amino acid like molecule is one of the most critical components of the complex transporting system the helps in bringing fat to the mitochondria, where it is burned away for good. Studies have confirmed that carnitine brings significant increase in the amount of fat that body burns.
How to stack it: Take 2-3 grams of carnitine in the form of L-carnitine, L-carnitine L-tartrate, or acetyl-L-carnitine, 2-3 times per day with meals. Take one dose with your pre-workout meal and another dose with your post-workout meal.
Fat Stoppers
Fat loss is an ongoing battle where you constantly try to consume more than you can store. While taking supplements that free up the excess fat for burning is a good idea, you should also considering including supplements that can decrease the amount of fat your body stores.
Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA): One of the naturally occurring group of Omega 6 fats, conjugated linolein acid (CLA), is known for enhancing fat loss while giving boost to muscle strength and growth simultaneously. It inhibits the enzyme known as lipoprotien lipase (LPL), which allows fat cells to take fat directly from the bloodstream and store it as body fat. Once the LPL in inhibited, CLA prevents the body from storing fat and encourages it to burn more of it.
How to stack it: Take 1-3 grams of CLA with breakfast, lunch, and with your last meal.