There are numerous supplements on the market that claim they can help you to burn calories. Many of them are full of caffeine or other stimulants that can lead to higher blood pressure or other ill effects. Other supplements, however, have shown positive effects in boosting your metabolism without using stimulants and the addition a few of these can give you a caloric boost. These nutrients tend to work in a common manner, specifically, by increasing your ability to produce and utilize cellular energy, called ATP. An increased production of ATP is also helpful to any system that requires high amounts of energy, including brain and memory health, heart health, your immune system, and energy. Side effects from these nutrients are rare, but it is, of course, always important to ask your own treating physician about supplement additions.
Resveratrol is an extract from the skin of red grapes. Besides providing a great anti-oxidant as well as a potential for increased longevity, resveratrol increases ATP production and also has a thermogenic effect much like Green Tea, causing you to burn a few extra calories. Make sure you get the trans-isomer, and a usual dosage is around 125mg per day.
CoEnzyme Q10, B12, B6, and folic acid all play primary roles in a process in the body known as the Kreb’s Cycle. The Kreb’s cycle is basically the body’s production of ATP from food. By taking any of these supplements, you can make your Kreb’s cycle work more efficiently, and in the process use more of your food calories for energy as opposed to storing that energy as fat. I prefer a type of CoQ10 called ubiquinol, to be taken at 100mg per day. B12 should be sublingual or by injection (dosage depends on form and any other symptoms). B6 and folic acid are easily added with a daily B.
D-ribose is a nutrient that provides the primary structure for the production of ATP, and as such similarly leads to higher amounts of energy production. Usually a powder, it is naturally sweet, and easily added to water or a beverage in the morning or before a work out. Usual dosage is 5 grams one to three times per day.
