Fat burners are foods and supplements that perk up the body’s metabolism rate. They break down body fat and reduce appetite. Together, they push the body to burn accumulated body fat to produce energy. While all this appears promising, it’s not without side effects. But having said this, if used prudently, the benefits of fat burners can outweigh their side effects. So, what are the side effects of fat burners? How bad are they? We will get there – let’s first understand what fat burners are.
Understanding the Role of Fat Burners
Fat burners promote weight loss by boosting metabolism and enhancing the breakdown of body fat to produce energy. They can be categorised as thermogenic, lipolytic, and appetite suppressants, depending upon how they burn fat in the body.
While popular natural fat burner foods include caffeine, protein powders, soluble fibre, and green tea, artificial fat burners are available in the form of tablets, capsules, and creams. These are prepared using natural ingredients but are processed with other compounds and can have serious side effects.
Side Effects of Fat Burners
Although popular and promising, fat burners can have a range of side effects ranging from mild to serious. These include:
1. Allergic Reactions
One of the most common side effects of fat burners is an allergic reaction. The ingestion of alien ingredients present in fat burners triggers the immune system. This leads to allergic reactions often exhibited with skin itchiness and dry mouth.
2. Digestive Troubles
The fat burner tablets side effects are most evident in the form of raised digestive issues. Fat burners suppress the appetite by exerting an anorectic effect on the body. This can trigger a range of digestive problems like nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, or constipation.
3. Insomnia
Natural fat burners like caffeine and green tea extract are potent stimulants. They help to keep the body and mind alert and active. While these factors make them good fat burners, these attributes also jeopardise sleep. Lack of sleep also affects the normal body metabolism.
4. Behaviour Changes
Fat burners tweak appetite and metabolism rate. This brings about significant behaviour changes as the brain becomes resistant to eating certain foods. It also causes nervous fluctuations that trigger mood swings.
5. Heart Risk
The ingredients of fat burners are accused of increasing blood pressure and heart rate. The parameters are known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. In severe cases, fat burners side effects extend to chest pain, pounding, rapid heartbeat, and shortness of breath.
6. Weight Gain Relapse
Fat burners follow the ‘quick weight loss’ concept. They show immediate results. But this is short-term and short-lived. While prolonged use of fat burners can even prove fatal, its short-term use causes harmful fluctuations in the body that leads to relapse. One ends up gaining more weight once the use of fat burners is stopped.
7. Dehydration
Fat burners, when consumed especially during hot weather, are linked to dehydration. Thermogenic fat burners like caffeine and green tea extract accelerate the weight loss process by generating more heat. This leaves the body dehydrated during hot weather months.
8. Liver Damage
Despite several claims of safety, fat burners side effects can weigh heavy. Several plant-based fat burners like green tea, kombucha tea, and gulgul tree extracts contain high amounts of usnic acid. The acid is reportedly hepatotoxic and known to increase the risk of liver damage.
In addition to this, many common fat burner additives contain heavy metal contaminants that cause acute liver injury.
9. Addictive
Natural fat burners like caffeine and green tea extract are addictive. Over the years of use, the body develops tolerance, requiring a higher intake to experience the same results. This leads to an increase in the daily dose. But acute caffeine intake is linked to severe health effects and can also prove fatal.
10. Undesirable Drug Interaction
The ingredients in fat burners can have an unwanted drug interaction with ongoing medications. This can pose a serious health threat with a range of symptoms. The side effects of fat burner for ladies who are anaemic are incredibly high.
Who Should Avoid Fat Burners?
Although fat burners are considered safe when consumed in small quantities, their use must be prevented in:
- People with high blood pressure
- People with cardiovascular troubles
- People with liver problems
- Anaemic women
- Pregnant women
- Breastfeeding mothers
- Drug addicts
- Alcohol abusers and regular smokers
- Elderly people
- Young children
How to Prevent Fat Burner Side Effects and Lose Weight Safely?
Obesity is a menace. And the journey to weight loss is daunting and intimidating. Unfortunately, anything and everything that promises ‘quick weight loss’ is accepted with open arms. While the fat burner side effects can be overwhelming, the same can be controlled and managed effectively, resulting in safe weight loss.
Here are tips to maximise fat burner efficacy with minimum side effects:
1. Set Reasonable Targets
Please note that fat burners are not a holy grail when it comes to weight loss. They only supplement your weight loss efforts. Therefore, following a strict diet plan, working out rigorously and adopting healthy lifestyle changes is the key. Also, set reasonable targets as healthy weight loss takes time.
2. Cycle Fat Burners
The best way to take fat burners is to cycle them. Take a fat burner for about a month and stay off fat burners for at least 15 days before starting them again. This will help maintain the hormonal balance in the body and reduce the side effects of fat burners. But when you restart after a couple of weeks, remember to start slow and keep the dose at the lowest level.
3. Start with a Low Dose
While it is natural to believe that a higher dose of the fat burner will induce greater weight loss, it is not the case in reality. On the other hand, to maximise fat burner efficacy with minimum side effects, always start with the lowest dose and then gradually increase the dosage.
4. Concentrate on Building Muscle Mass
Fat burners work best when they supplement proper nutrition, plenty of rest, and regular exercise. When used prudently, the side effects of fat burners are minimum. Therefore, the idea behind using fat burners must be to build muscle mass. This will lead to healthy and effective weight loss in the long run.
5. Consider Using Natural Fat Burners
Unlike artificial fat burner supplements, the incorporation of natural fat burner foods in your daily diet can also help you reduce weight. But one has to be mindful of the daily calories consumed. The common natural fat-burning foods are apples, brown rice, chillies, coffee, eggs, fatty fish, green tea, and olive oil.
Is My Fat Burner Working?
Fat burners, when used prudently, will lead to noticeable weight loss results. But it is always better to track your progress to know how well you are achieving your targets. Click ‘before-after’ pictures, measure body parts, and keep track of your weight. In addition to these parameters, how you feel emotionally and psychologically about your overall appearance, workout regimen, and weight loss mindset are also important.
If there are visible side effects of fat burners, uncomfortable experiences, or no signs of progress, consider changing your fat burner. Remember – fat burners are not magic potions for weight loss. They provide the 10%; provided your nutrition, exercise, and adequate sleep make up the 90% of the weight loss effort.
Conclusion
Fat burners are not a permanent or long-term solution to weight loss. Furthermore, due to the side effects of fat burners, their use in short-term weight loss is also widely debated. Although propagated as a ‘quick weight loss’ solution, this contributes majorly to fat burner side effects.
But prudent use can help melt away stubborn fat relatively quickly. The best way to manage the side effects of fat burners is to use them cautiously. Remember, quick weight loss aided by a high dose of fat burners can have devastating effects on the human body. The ideal way to healthy weight loss is to start with a lower dose of fat burners and complement it with proper nutrition, regular exercise, and plenty of rest.
