Globally, the struggle with obesity has led many to seek effective and unconventional weight reduction methods, including herbal and natural dietary supplements. Fat burners, supplements believed to raise metabolism, burn more calories, and hasten fat loss, have gained popularity. However, despite the perception that herbal remedies are free of adverse effects, some supplements are associated with severe hepatotoxicity. This article delves into the science, risks, and realities of keto extreme fat burners, providing a comprehensive overview for those considering these products.
The Allure of Fat Burners
In recent years, there has been an alarming increase in obesity worldwide. Fat burners are advertised to work by increasing thermogenesis and the basal metabolic rate, thus, mimicking exercise. The growing numbers of obese individuals are struggling to find the best way to lose weight. This has created an enormous industry for weight loss and related health products. Because they are not subject to regulatory testing by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), herbal remedies continue to be a popular choice due to their perceived safety and easy availability. Among the more popular remedies are the ‘fat burners’.
How Fat Burners Claim to Work
Fat burner supplements are said to work by increasing your resting metabolic rate. The active ingredients help get rid of body fat. Fat burners work by elevating your blood pressure and increasing your overall energy expenditure, which may eventually lead to weight loss over time. You should take precautions if you already have high blood pressure, though, because taking these supplements could lead to hypertension.
These supplements claim to block fat or carbohydrate absorption, curb your appetite, or speed up your metabolism. At the same time, some of these supplements can interfere with other medications you are on.
Studies have shown that fat burner supplements might not work the way you want them to. They don’t make your fat cells magically disappear. Instead, they can work by helping weight loss in other ways. This includes:
Read also: Easy Low-Carb Cheese Crackers
- Increasing your metabolism
- Reducing the amount of fat your body absorbs
- Suppressing your appetite
Fat burners work in theory. However, it all depends on the ingredients. Since fat burner supplements aren’t FDA-approved, you can’t always be sure what’s inside. They can make any claim without factual evidence to support the claims.
Common Ingredients in Fat Burners
Fat burner supplements are typically tablets or "burn capsules" taken by mouth. They contain a range of vitamins, minerals, fiber, caffeine, herbs, and other plants.
- Caffeine: This is a common ingredient because it stimulates your nervous system and potentially helps burn calories. Supplements may contain more caffeine than your typical coffee, tea, or chocolate.
- Green tea extract: This is another common ingredient because green tea helps burn calories and reduce the fat you absorb from food. Chinese green tea extracts are derivatives of the leaves of Camellia sinensis, which belongs to the aceae family. Green tea extracts have been marketed as effective weight-loss supplements, and for the prevention and cure of solid tumours.
- Carnitine: This is a compound that boosts your metabolism and gives you energy. It can be found in meat and dairy products, and it’s made naturally by your liver and kidneys. However, its weight-loss benefits are questionable.
- Yohimbe: This is another plant compound that comes from the bark of an evergreen tree. It’s common in fat burner supplements but can cause negative effects. Yohimbe can cause headaches, anxiety, agitation, increased blood pressure, heart problems, and kidney failure.
- Soluble fiber: This ingredient isn’t found in all fat burners, but you can find some with high amounts of fiber. Fiber helps control your appetite, and soluble fiber can help prevent your body from absorbing fat from food.
- Usnic acid: Usnic acid is a component of nutritional supplements that are promoted for weight loss and have been associated with liver-related adverse events including mild hepatic toxicity, chemical hepatitis and liver failure requiring liver transplantation. Usnic acid is derived from a lichen species of the genus Usnea. It has been investigated for diverse uses as an antimicrobial, an anti-inflammatory, an antioxidant, an analgesic/antipyretic, an antiproliferative and as a natural supplement for weight loss.
Most supplements contain a lot of different ingredients, typically more than what’s beneficial for your health. These unknown ingredients can cause fat burners to react unpredictably with your body.
The Dark Side: Risks and Side Effects
Fat burner supplements aren’t regulated by the FDA. Because of this, you may be taking a health risk by taking them. First, you don’t always get a complete picture of what is in the supplement. Some studies on these supplements have found ingredients inside that aren’t listed on the bottle.
Second, just because a supplement calls itself “natural” doesn’t mean that it’s safe. Some fat burner supplements have been linked to problems like liver damage. Some herbs, like ephedra, that were once used in fat burners are now banned by the FDA because they cause high blood pressure, mood change, irregular heart rate, stroke, seizures, and heart attacks.
Read also: Keto Calorie Counting: A Detailed Guide
Several slimming aids and herbal medications associated with severe hepatotoxicity have been reported in the literature.
Case Study: Fulminant Hepatic Failure
A previously healthy 28-year-old female bodybuilder with no risk factors for liver disease presented to her local emergency centre with fatigue, malaise, inability to exercise and new-onset jaundice. Her symptoms worsened over a span of one week before hospitalization. The patient was a professional bodybuilder taking a multi-ingredient, nonstimulant health supplement and fat burner (Somalyz and Lipolyz, Species Nutrition, USA).
Somalyz contains usnic acid (4 mg), propionyl-L-carnitine (167 mg), phosphatidylcholine/phosphatidylethanolamine (50 mg), gamma-aminobutyric acid (667 mg) and vitamin E (27 IU) per capsule. Lipolyz contains usnic acid (12 mg), propionyl-L-carnitine (500 mg), green tea extract (300 mg), guggulsterone Z and guggulster-one E (10 mg), cyclic adenosine monophosphate (2 mg) and vitamin E (20 IU) per capsule (Table 1). She was taking one to two capsules of Somalyz at bedtime and one capsule of Lipolyz with meals three times a day as recommended for one month before illness.
On evaluation at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, there were no stigmata of chronic liver disease. Blood work revealed a total serum bilirubin level of 82.08 mmol/L (normal range 1.71 mmol/L to 20.5 mmol/L), a direct bilirubin level of 47.88 mmol/L (1.71 mmol/L to 13.6 mmol/L), a serum alanine aminotransferase level of 1220 U/L (1 U/L to 53 U/L), a serum aspartate aminotransferase level of 577 U/L (1 U/L to 50 U/L), an alkaline phosphatase level of 111U/L (30 U/L to 110 U/L), a gamma-glutamyl transferase level of 125 U/L (8 U/L to 35 U/L), an international normalized ratio of 2.6 and a serum creatinine level of 53.04 μmol/L (44.2 μmol/L to 106.2 μmol/L).
Etiological workup included the following: negative viral serology (hepatitis A virus immunoglobulin M, hepatitis B virus surface antigen and core antibody, hepatitis C virus antibody [polymerase chain reaction assay], cytomegalovirus DNA and Epstein-Barr virus immunoglobulin M); negative syphilis rapid plasma regain; negative autoimmune markers (antinuclear antibody, antiliver kidney muscle antibody, antimitochondrial antibody and antismooth muscle antibody); and normal serum gamma globulins. Extensive toxicology screening was negative, with no features of acetaminophen toxicity (acidosis, high lactate or renal failure). She had normal levels of ferritin, ceruloplasmin and alpha-1 antitrypsin. A pregnancy test was negative. A computed tomography scan of her abdomen revealed a normal size liver with a patent portal vein, hepatic artery, hepatic vein and normal biliary anatomy.
Read also: Magnesium Supplements for Keto
The patient’s encephalopathy worsened and she remained unresponsive. A computed tomography scan of her head was normal. An intracranial pressure monitor was placed, which measured an intracranial pressure of 19 mmHg and a cerebral perfusion pressure of 77 mmHg to 82 mmHg. She underwent successful cadaveric orthotopic liver transplantation on hospital day 2. By postoperative day 4, she was awake and alert.
Histology of the native explanted liver revealed confluent necrosis resulting in parenchymal collapse, confirmed by reticulin stain. High-power magnification showed the formation of ductular hepatocytes in periportal areas.
Based on the temporal relationship between the use of the dietary supplements and onset of liver failure, literature supporting reports of hepatotoxicity associated with dietary supplements and exclusion of other causes, it is fair to assume that the patient developed fulminant hepatic failure due to dietary supplements. In view of the bulk of the literature, of all the ingredients, usnic acid may have been predominantly responsible for the hepatoxicity.
According to the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, dietary supplements are regulated as foods and are not subject to regulation as drugs by the FDA; manufacturers are not compelled to provide safety data to the FDA. However, increasing reports of liver failure due to usnic acid have triggered a regulatory warning and one voluntary product withdrawal (LipoKinetix) (20). Usnic acid is still available and advertised on the Internet as an ingredient in various other dietary supplements and fat burners.
Green Tea Extract and Liver Issues
Although there is little scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of green tea extracts, serious side effects, including acute liver failure, are increasingly being reported. Similar cases have been reported from France and Spain resulting in the removal of the green tea extract ‘Exolise’ from the market (15). Two cases of fulminant hepatic failure associated with green tea extracts have been reported (16,17). Mitochondrial toxicity and the formation of reactive oxygen species have been demonstrated with epigallocatechin-3-gallate, a key constituent of green tea extracts.
Gum Guggul Side Effects
Gum guggul and its constituents are increasingly being used as dietary supplements. Gum guggul is the oleoresin of Commiphora mukul, a plant native to India. Its extracts include compounds known for their hypolipidemic properties - the Z and E isomers of guggulsterone and its regulated guggulsterols. Human exposure to gum guggul most often occurs from ingesting herbal remedies or pharmaceuticals, and from the use of cosmetics. Side effects include skin rashes, irregular menstruation, diarrhea, headache, mild nausea and, with very high doses, liver toxicity.
Keto Extreme: A Closer Look
The keto diet - a high-fat diet that keeps your body in a state of ketosis - has its perks. It can help your metabolism speed up, increase your muscle mass and improve your blood pressure - all while helping you lose fat. And it’s all thanks to ketosis, which is when your body uses ketones, a fatty acid, for energy instead of glucose.
Given how challenging the keto diet can be, it’s no surprise that manufacturers have created keto supplements claiming to help you boost energy, burn fat and lose weight fast. For those looking to shed pounds, it’s hard not to be intrigued by these claims.
Types of Keto Supplements
The three most common types of keto diet supplements are:
- Keto pills: Many keto pills contain BHB salts or BHB esters and are promoted as a natural weight loss supplement.
- Keto powders: Similar to keto pills, keto powders contain some form of BHB. Many keto powder supplements may also include electrolytes to help people stay hydrated and remain in ketosis.
- Keto gummies: One of the newer keto supplements on the market, keto gummies are deceiving because many don’t actually contain any ketones. Instead, they are often made with apple cider vinegar, which companies say boosts metabolism and, therefore, promotes weight loss. However, there’s not enough scientific evidence to support this claim. Some keto gummies may also contain MCT oil, and most are sweetened with a non-nutritive sweetening agent, such as stevia.
Potential Benefits and Risks of Keto Gummies
Most keto gummies typically contain medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), a type of saturated fat that help give your body energy, in addition to exogenous ketones. Sometimes, keto gummies may contain gelatin or natural sweeteners like Stevia,” notes Czerwony. “It’s not like eating a traditional gummy. It’s not going to have any additional sugars because if it did, then it would throw you out of ketosis.”
There’s limited research on the benefits of keto gummies. Potential benefits include increasing weight loss, improving athletic performance, and decreasing your appetite. But, again, whether keto gummies or other keto supplements can actually keep you in ketosis has been inconclusive, according to research. In fact, one study explains that supplements may increase the amount of ketones too much. Ideally, your body wants to maintain an even level of ketones. And when this happens, your liver may not produce as many ketones naturally, making it harder to stay in ketosis.
Potential risks include nausea and vomiting, gastrointestinal issues, like diarrhea, and low blood sugar.
Do Keto Pills Work?
There’s not enough research on the efficacy of keto supplements to support the claim that taking keto pills, powders or gummies will help you achieve ketosis. One small 2021 study, for instance, found that people with obesity who followed a low-calorie ketogenic diet and took 24 grams of a BHB salt supplement per day for six weeks experienced enhanced ketosis. However, having higher levels of ketones in the blood didn’t seem to boost these participants' weight loss when compared to other groups, such as those following only the keto diet without the supplement.
One of the reasons why supplementation may not be all that effective is because the body seeks to maintain an even level of ketones to prevent a potentially toxic buildup of these chemicals in the bloodstream. When the body senses that ketone levels are high, the liver stops making its own and will try to flush out excess ketones in your urine, a process called ketonuria.
Ultimately, the jury is still out on whether or not these supplements work. But one thing is for certain: Experts do not recommend keto pills - or any diet pill, for that matter.
Scam Alerts
In addition to health concerns, there’s a risk of scams with some keto products, namely supplements being pushed heavily on social media. Beware of certain words and phrases in any marketing text, such as “quick fix,” “guaranteed results” and “scientific breakthrough.” They’re usually a red flag of false advertising.
Real Customer Reviews
Several customers have reported negative experiences with "keto extreme" products, alleging scams, unauthorized charges, and ineffective results. These unprompted reviews highlight concerns about misleading marketing practices and potential financial risks associated with purchasing these products.
Regulatory Landscape
According to the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, dietary supplements are regulated as foods and are not subject to regulation as drugs by the FDA; manufacturers are not compelled to provide safety data to the FDA.
Making an Informed Decision
Before taking these supplements, you should talk to your doctor. Their ingredients may interfere with other medications you are taking.
If you're intent on purchasing a keto supplement, do your homework and ask the company to provide its research or evidence that the supplement does what the company is saying it does. A reputable manufacturer should be able to provide information about how its product has been tested and what it contains.
If you’re considering the keto diet, Guevara encourages you to ask yourself why you’re doing it and if it’s really worth it. Overall, there are few shortcuts to healthy and sustainable weight loss, and using a supplement to speed up the process could lead you to lose more money than weight.