Trying to shed weight? These popular supplements may not work

Let’s face it – weight loss is a challenging and complicated journey in the era of hustle-mania and overconsumption of fast food. It becomes more tricky because of several factors, including your metabolism, hormones, stress, and environment. For starters, when you try to lose weight, your metabolism slows down to maintain your current weight. This is because your body stores fat for energy. Moreover, as you age, your metabolism slows down a bit too. Additionally, many overweight people have built up resistance to leptin, a hormone that tells your body when you have enough fat. Besides, stress triggers the release of cortisol, a hormone that can increase appetite and cravings for high-calorie foods. Poor sleep can make you more likely to reach for sweeter foods, which eventually adds on more pounds.
While, we mostly focus on working out to shed excess weight, a clean diet is also very much important on that journey. Now, when one takes on a proper diet, they tend to replace food with several supplements – and that is a dangerous trend to pursue.
It is imperative to point out the supplements you ought to let go of that might keep you from losing weight. Here are the four supplements that dietitians caution against.

Green Coffee Bean Extract:
If you’ve been searching for weight loss agents online, you sure have come across this one – green coffee bean extract, Green coffee bean extract is derived from the coffee plant’s seeds, which are green before roasting. Although it’s been widely claimed that green coffee bean extracts help you lose weight, as per Danielle VenHuizen, M.S., RDN, a Seattle-based dietitian and owner of

Food Sense Nutrition

, this “has chlorogenic acid, a coffee compound that can supposedly decrease fat absorption and speed up metabolism.” She added that these claims are mostly unwarranted.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), only a few human trials have examined the effectiveness of green coffee bean extract on weight loss, and on top of that, these trials had poor study design and showed mixed results.
A 2020 review in Complementary Therapies in Medicine found that green coffee extract may help reduce weight and body mass index. However, there wasn’t a significant effect on body fat percentage, which meant that the mass lost could come from water or muscle.
VenHuizen added, “In my clinical experience, I have yet to meet a client who has lost weight by using green coffee bean extract.” Moreover, there isn’t much information on the safety of green coffee bean extract, which doesn’t really make a favorable for the supplement.

Raspberry Ketone:
The compound, raspberry ketone, is found in the raspberry fruit. Small test-tube and animal studies suggest it may suppress the buildup of fat in the body. However, the results are extremely limited.
As per the NIH, there has only been one human study on the effects of raspberry ketones on weight loss where the participants took the supplement for eight weeks while also following a calorie-restricted diet. For that study, the raspberry ketone supplement was combined with caffeine, bitter orange, ginger, garlic, cayenne, L-theanine, pepper extract, B vitamins, and chromium.
The 45 participants who finished the study lost weight. However, it would be an overreach to claim that it was due to the raspberry ketone blend as they already were on track for calorie deficit.
To summarize, there isn’t enough evidence to support raspberry ketones for weight loss, so save your money. Instead, we recommend snacking on some raspberries, which have several health benefits, including filling fiber and inflammation-fighting anthocyanins.
Garcinia Cambogia:
Garcinia cambogia is a fruit with hydroxycitric acid (HCA), a compound thought to reduce fat production in the body and suppress appetite.
As per VenHuizen, “Studies seem to indicate that some of these claims might be true, but unfortunately, the benefits are modest, and the research is conflicting.”
A 2020 review in Diabetes, Obesity & Metabolism states that there are only a small number of studies on garcinia cambogia, and the methodology is poor, meaning that these results shouldn’t be trusted.
What is more alarming, according to VenHuizen – “Several studies have reported liver issues with long-term use of this supplement.”
One of those studies was published in 2022 in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, which speaks for why one should avoid adding this supplement to your weight-loss regimen.

Caffeine:
Caffeine is probably the most popular and widely acclaimed supplement on this list, that is considered an agent of weight loss.
Caffeine is a compound that stimulates the nervous system. It’s naturally present in tea, coffee and chocolate, as well as in herbal supplements like guarana. Caffeine increases thermogenesis, the body’s natural production of heat. During this process, the body burns extra calories.
Research does suggest that caffeine can help with weight loss, but there is a pre-notion to it – a large dose is necessary to create that particular response. A 2020 review in Nutrients found that more than 3 milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight is necessary to stimulate the breakdown of fat. For a 150-pound person, that’s 200 mg of caffeine or two cups of coffee.
The

Food and Drug Administration

states that it’s safe to consume up to 400 mg of caffeine daily, but everyone has a different tolerance level for caffeine intake. People sensitive to caffeine may experience symptoms like nervousness, jitters, heart racing, and headaches among other conditions of over-caffeination.
Although caffeine may increase fat loss, it’s not the best way to lose weight.
Why?
Because supplements with caffeine may contain more than that, plus other stimulants.
However, caffeine from natural sources like coffee is the safest way to consume caffeine. So, it isn’t harmful to indulge in a cup of coffee or tea for an energy boost. However, expecting that one or two cups of coffee will do wonders in case of your weight loss – would be foolishness.