Supplements - Pills and Potions

Probably the most effective diet products are vitamins and mineral supplements. Vitamin B has long been known to boost energy, and Vitamin C has antioxidant properties good for allover health. If you are training intensively, you may experience leg cramps at night—a horrid but relatively safe indicator of low potassium levels. If you don’t care for bananas, you may choose to take potassium tablets. The more we learn about the body, the more likely it is that science will discover supplements that aid in weight loss, but to date, there are no certain answers in that area.

But there are plenty of claims. You’ve probably heard of all sorts of diet products, drugs and supplements guaranteed to increase your metabolism without your needing to exercise. Most diet pills contain diuretics which promote quick weight loss (but no fat loss) by ridding the body of water.

Many diet drugs contain caffeine or ephedrine, which may increase your heart rate and anxiety level while creating insomnia, stomach upsets, headaches and general twitchiness. With all these side effects, you would expect these drugs to have some weight-loss benefits: they are remarkably useless in creating weight loss!

ECGC, or green tea extract, has been shown to raise metabolism, although without diet and exercise, effects will probably be unnoticeable. You can find the supplement in vitamins or at the health food store.