What is the Idea behind Fat Burners?

[Elementality]

Yo. I have been doing a ton of reading on this forum and elsewhere about dieting and fat loss. My attempt here is to obtain a knowledgeable explanation on the role of fat burners. First of all, from what Ive read, to develop a fat loss strategy <generalized> you want to calculate the amount of calories you need daily (through age/sex/height/weight/physical activity) in order to maintain a healthy functioning body. Then you want to consume 15 - 25 % less of those calories as a strategy to lose 1 - 2 pounds of fat a week. Obtaining these calories through fats, carbs, and protein can be approached at different strategies depending on personal goals.

So, basically, correctly forming a strategy of diet and exercise should allow for muscle growth and fat loss. My question is, where do these fat burners like lipoflame, hydroxycut etc. come in to play? My understanding is that they increase metabolism rate <through different ways> and control appetite. Provided that is correct, then, fat burner supplements allow someone to eat more calories than usual because those extra calories will be burnt through an increased metabolism ? and or, the exact opposite, will allow someone to control their hunger so they don't exceed the recommended calories they need to lose fat?

Am I on the right track of thinking here? If im right then fat burning supplements allow you to cheat on your diet and exercising, allow you to be a little less on top of it eh? They dont "magicallY" burn the fat away.

So my ultimate concluding question for the geniuses on this topic is this: If I am able to calculate my lean body mass which allows me to calculate my necessary daily calories and then develop a diet/exercise program which I am able to follow 100%, then fat burning supplements in theory really wont do anything for me at all.

For example, if my recommended calorie intake is 5,000 and I plan to consume only 75 - 80 % of that, keeping protein as a main source for those calories, eating 6 times a day, then fat burning supplements wont do anything for me, in fact they may increase my metabolism too much and make it so I only get 65 - 70% of my recommended calorie intake each day which may lead to muscle loss.

In conclusion here, is my knowledge on this topic correct? Or do fat burning supps have other methods of burning the fat off your body which cannot be achieved by the use of natural dieting and exercising?


Thanks in advance for the help, I think someone can get an entire college education on health and weight lifting through the information available on these forums ;p

 

[NJL52]

In short; It isn't how many calories you spend in day that matters, it is what your body needs for standard functions.

That means your Basal Metabolic Rate(amount of calories needed to sustain heart, lung, brain, and other vital life processes). My BMR is 2000. If I drop under 2000 then my body reacts by metabolizing muscle in order to keep my vital organs stable.

Fat burners increase your lipid and glucose metabolism which has no effect on your BMR. For simplicity sake, a fat burner does the same thing that a little extra time doing aerobic training does.


Granted everything I just said accounts for modest numbers. Don't eat 2000 calories if your BMR is 2000, still not that smart. Don't run all day long because you will end up metabolizing your muscle.

 

[Elementality]

So, eating less calories and taking fat loss supplements dont do the same thing? Fat supplements are aimed to burn away at the fat causing calories is what your saying just like aerobic exercises?

 

[NJL52]

So, eating less calories and taking fat loss supplements dont do the same thing? Fat supplements are aimed to burn away at the fat causing calories is what your saying just like aerobic exercises?

Yup. If your interested in learning more, order Tom Venutios(forget what his name is exactly) Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle.

As the title points out, the goal in fat loss is to feed the muscle and the body by eating above your BMR while burning the fat(by running/training and, to an extent, supplements.)

 

[Elementality]

Right on man. I found this in another part of this forum, and damn did this answer lots of questions. Its 6 different video clips, watch them all in order 1 to 6. I think everyone should see this.

http://www.dailymotion.com/related/4706780/video/x2st3r_milos-sarcevs-seminar-pt1_extreme