Fat loss supplement manufacturers will hate me for saying this, but it has to be said: Most of their products are worthless junk.

And even when their products do produce fat loss, the effect is typically so small that most people simply wouldn't notice any difference. Nor would most folks part with their hard-earned cash if they truly knew the miniscule results they could expect.

To illustrate my point, let's take a quick look at three supplements currently being hyped for their alleged fat-burning properties: CLA, green tea, and Hoodia Gordonii.

CLA Makes Your Wallet Slimmer

A recent and widely publicized paper published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concluded that conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) "does have a beneficial effect on human body composition." Sounds great, until you look closely at the results. After averaging the results from various CLA trials, the authors concluded that CLA at a daily dose of 3.2 grams resulted in an average reduction in fat mass of 90 grams a week [1]. At that snail-like pace, it will take you 3 months to shed a single kilo!

The longest-running double-blind trial compared the effects of two different CLA supplements (at a daily dose of 4.5 grams) with a placebo. After 12 months, the average body fat changes in the CLA groups were - 1.7 and - 2.4 kilograms, compared to +0.2 kilograms in the placebo group [2]. For a trial that lasted a full year, these results are miniscule! Most people adhering to an intelligently structured diet and exercise program can easily lose this amount of fat in less than 2 weeks!

If you think the piddling fat loss effects of CLA are worth parting with hundreds of dollars, then go for it. If not, leave the CLA supplements on the shelf and get your intake of this fatty acid the way nature intended - from animal fats. Fat from grass-fed animals, by the way, has a higher CLA content than that from grain-fed animals [3,4].

Green Tea - Drink it For Health, Not Weight Loss

Green tea has received a lot of press over the last decade, and deservedly so. An increasing volume of research suggests that this antioxidant-packed beverage possesses a whole host of important health benefits, including protection against cancer.

While the health benefits of green tea may hold much promise, don't let anyone convince you that drinking tea is the answer to your fat loss dreams. Such a claim is little more than untenable hyperbole.

Much commotion was caused by a study published in a 2005 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that reported increased fat loss in men consuming a high-potency tea extract. Those who bothered to read the study for themselves quickly realized the results were little to be excited about.

For twelve weeks a group of Japanese men consumed, in double blind fashion, one bottle daily of a "high-strength" oolong tea mixture or a bottle of low-strength oolong tea (oolong tea is produced by halting the fermentation process before the leaves are fully blackened, resulting in a beverage that is 'between' green and black tea).

After 12 weeks, the men drinking the high potency oolong tea shed 1.4 kg of fat compared to 700g in the control group. Waist circumference decreased 3.4 cm in the treatment group, and 1.1 cm in the control group [5]. It goes without saying, but to lose an extra 700 grams of fat over 3 months is hardly an earth-shattering result. Folks, we're not exactly talking a dud-to-stud transformation here!

It should also be mentioned this study was conducted by the same company who produced and marketed the tea extract. Other trials, conducted by Dutch researchers, have failed to confirm a fat loss effect from green tea [6,7].

Green tea is a pleasant and potentially healthful beverage. Just don't expect it to help you lose a whole lot of weight, as current clinical evidence suggests the results will range from minimal to none.

Hoodwinked by Hoodia?

Hoodia is currently being vigorously marketed as an appetite suppressant. I went looking for supportive data and could only find research showing that rats injected or tube-fed with a glycoside extracted from Hoodia subsequently reduced their caloric intake and lost weight [8,9]. What this means for humans taking oral Hoodia supplements is anyone's guess; I couldn't find any studies examining its use in real live humans. In other words, all the Hoodia hype is predicated entirely on rodent research.

Readers should be very careful when extrapolating the results of animal research onto humans; calcium and DHEA, for example, produce significant weight loss in rodents but have no such effect in healthy Homo sapiens. Save your money until it can be proven that Hoodia produces meaningful fat loss in humans.

Show Me the Research!

When presented with hyperbolic fat loss claims from supplement marketers and media outlets, you should always ask the following question:

"Where's the tightly controlled clinical research with real live humans to support these claims?"

If the aforementioned sources cannot provide you with any such research, then keep your money in your pocket and treat any future claims these folks make with the utmost suspicion. If these sources can provide you with concrete research citations, seek them out and read through the studies for yourself. See whether the results truly justify the fuss being made, or whether they are worthy of nothing more than a great big yawn. With online resources such as Pubmed and nutritional/medical journal web sites, this task is actually a lot easier than it sounds. The few minutes you take to do this could easily save you hundreds of dollars.

References

1. Whigham LD, et al. Efficacy of conjugated linoleic acid for reducing fat mass: a meta-analysis in humans. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, May, 2007; 85 (5): 1203-1211.

2. Gaullier JM, et al. Conjugated linoleic acid supplementation for 1 y reduces body fat mass in healthy overweight humans. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Jun, 2004; 79: 1118-1125.

3. Dhiman TR, et al. Conjugated linoleic acid content of milk from cows fed different diets. Journal of Dairy Science, Oct, 1999; 82 (10): 2146-2156.

4. French P, et al. Fatty acid composition, including conjugated linoleic acid, of intramuscular fat from steers offered grazed grass, grass silage, or concentrate-based diets. Journal of Animal Science, Nov, 2000; 78 (11): 2849-2855.

5. Nagao T, et al. Ingestion of a tea rich in catechins leads to a reduction in body fat and malondialdehyde-modified LDL in men. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Jan 2005; 81: 122-129.

6. Diepvens K, et al. Effect of green tea on resting energy expenditure and substrate oxidation during weight loss in overweight females. British Journal of Nutrition, Dec, 2005; 94 (6): 1026-1034.

7. Kovacs EM, et al. Effects of green tea on weight maintenance after body-weight loss. British Journal of Nutrition, Mar, 2004; 91 (3): 431-437.

8. MacLean DB, Luo LG. Increased ATP content/production in the hypothalamus may be a signal for energy-sensing of satiety: studies of the anorectic mechanism of a plant steroidal glycoside. Brain Research, Sep 10, 2004; 1020 (1-2): 1-11.

9. van Heerden FR, et al. An appetite suppressant from Hoodia species. Phytochemistry, Oct, 2007; 68 (20): 2545-2553.

About the Author

Anthony Colpo is an independent researcher, physical conditioning specialist, and author of the groundbreaking books The Fat Loss Bible and The Great Cholesterol Con. For more information, visit www.TheFatLossBible.net or www.TheGreatCholesterolCon.com .