Weight Management

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Supplements can aid in weight loss

Dieting – it's Americans' real national pastime

Managing our weight is becoming so important that First Lady Michelle Obama has made it a crusade. 

If there’s one thing we're more famous for then apple pie, it’s trying to burn it off. The drive to thin down and shed pounds is an outright national obsession. But let’s not pad the truth: do we not eat too many slices of pie, drink too many sodas, and over-feast on sweets, pasta (that damn food pyramid!) and savory snacks? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2009 that obesity rates continue to rise. Nine US states now can claim that 30 percent of their population is obese, not just overweight.

The first step in weight loss is calorie reduction, followed closely by making sure the calories consumed are made up of good stuff – the right balance of protein, fruits and veggies, grains, fiber and nutrients. Check out Nutrition.gov[1] for info and resources about weight management, diets, nutrition and the rest.

Next add exercise and supplements to your healthy diet. It’s easy: eat right, work out and supplement for weight loss and weight management. Here’s how supplements can help:

Chromium picolinate for weight loss

This popular supplement is a blend of the mineral chromium and picolinic acid. While over-touted in the ‘90s to “melt fat” and perform weight-loss miracles, studies have found that supplementing with chromium can reduce food cravings, hunger levels and body weight at about 1000mg/day,[2] possibly by working in the brain to increase the feeling of satiety (feeling full, hunger satisfied). Chromium picolinate supplementing by diabetics not only helps reduce fat and weight gain, but also regulates insulin sensitivity and improves glucose balance.[3]

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) reduces fat

CLA, as it is called, first garnered attention as an anti-carcinogen in the ‘70s and ‘80s in animal studies,[4] and interest increased as CLA was found to reduce body fat.

A double-blind clinical trial found that CLA reduces body fat in otherwise healthy overweight adults,[5] and a meta-analysis (a review of all the studies) done in 2007 confirmed that 3.2 grams/day of CLA does reduce body fat. CLA also supports healthy cholesterol levels, which are good for the heart.[6] Maybe that will help with the jogging part of the weight-loss regimen.

Today it’s possible we are a little low on this CLA. We get CLA in our diet, primarily through grass-fed meat and dairy, so as farmyard feed has switched to hay, grain and other unspeakables over the years, it’s likely our diets are a little lean on CLA.

Can multivitamins help you lose weight?

The ol’ standard works again. A recent study of 96 women showed that taking a multivitamin for 26 weeks led to an average weight drop of almost eight pounds, along with the coveted reduction in waist circumference and the added benefit of lower LDL and higher HDL (bad and good cholesterol).

Read about other health conditions here. 

Read about dietary supplements here.

References:

[1] http://www.nutrition.gov

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2753428/

[3] http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/29/8/1826.abstract

[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3119246

[5] http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/79/6/1118.abstract

[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12207834