Two New Tools To Rev Your Metabolism For Weight Loss – Maybe…

My wife and I were talking about metabolism and weight loss two nights ago, so when I saw two new studies on this subject, I couldn’t help but jump on it.

Metabolism And Weight Loss

There’s a lot of fuss about metabolism and weight loss.  People like to banter this idea around — the one that says that if we can just find a way to force our bodies to burn more calories at rest, we’ll lose weight without having to do anything else.  Personally, I’m skeptical of this idea.  After all, we’ve established that you can’t exercise enough to lose weight, so any small incremental changes in metabolism won’t help weight loss in a meaningful way, anyway.  But, its one I still like to keep up on, because you never know what marvels science may reveal.

The University of Oklahoma recently completed a study detailing the results of a new herbal weight loss supplement.  The supplement was submitted by GNC, and is called a “tri-pepper blend.”  According to the report it consists of a blend of black pepper, capsaicin, and caffeine.  Researchers used oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production measurements to correlate with metabolic rate, and found a 3-6% increase in metabolic rate, for participants that took the blend.

In a separate bit of work, a group in Munich started if part of the reason mountain climbers are so thin had something to do the high altitude.  They ferried 20 obese, middle aged men to the Zugspitze mountaintop (8700-feet) in Germany, and watched their behavior for a week.  There, participants lost an average of 3 pounds, which was attributed to the fact that they consumed 730-calories less per day than they did at lower altitudes.  Blood works showed that levels of leptin, rose during the stay.  Leptin is apparently the hormone responsible for feelings of fullness.  Researchers said that high levels of persisted for 6 months, before dropping back to the original levels.

I can see a surge of high altitude weight loss spas developing for this.  People could come spend a week to naturally increase their levels of leptin, and be “guaranteed” to lose 2-4 pounds.  Of course, to get the greatest benefit, one would have to be placed on a maintenance program, returning for a week vacation, twice a year.  While there, they could take the new GNC tri-pepper blend, and rev their metabolism to consume an extra 100-calories per day.

Or…

How about we just give up one treat per day.  All this stuff is equivalent to a daily Coke.

Resources:

High altitude and weight loss

New weight loss supplement

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