Every day, you eat a certain number of calories, and you also burn a certain number of calories. The number of calories burned is based on your metabolic rate and your activity level. Your resting metabolic rate (also called “basal metabolic rate”) is the amount of energy that you expend if you’re not doing any activity. In other words, if you slept all day and had not eaten for twelve hours, you would simply need enough energy to maintain the functioning of your vital organs and nothing more.

Most people do more than nothing (shocking, isn’t it?), but to truly succeed at weight loss and maintain a healthy weight, you have to understand the way calories and your metabolism are interconnected. Taking your resting metabolic rate and adding the kind of activity you do on a daily basis, you’ll determine the number of calories you need. Then, you exercise enough to burn more calories, forcing your body to tap into your fat stores for the remainder of the energy you require.

Thermogenesis

Depending on your metabolic rate, you might need to do more activity for your body to look for energy in your fat cells. If you have a fast metabolism, you are able to do very little activity and still burn up most of what you took in, because your body uses those calories. If you have a slow metabolism, more of your calories will turn to fat, and you will have to work out harder and for a longer period of time if you want to lose weight.

And that brings us to thermogenesis. Thermogenesis is the process by which your body’s metabolism takes fat and converts it to heat. When you have a fast metabolism and need more energy than your caloric intake is providing, your body naturally turns to your fat stores for energy. Natural thermogenesis occurs when you are cold; your body shivers to keep you warm, but in doing so, it is also required to find a source of energy to create heat.

You’ve probably heard at some point that you burn calories when you’re cold and shivering. Now you know why.

Stepping On the Metabolic Accelerator

Of course, while shivering is natural, this isn’t the only way to experience thermogenesis. For a minute, consider your metabolic rate to be like a car. The car is plugging along on cruise control at about 60 miles per hour, and it really doesn’t change too much, except on the occasional hill or dip in the road. However, give it a burst of gas and suddenly it roars to life and starts accelerating, breaking free of the cruise control. Your metabolism is just like this. If you want to have a change in your weight, but your metabolism is still plugging along at the same rate, it will be harder to succeed.

Instead of trying desperately to lose weight and not getting the kind of success you want because of a slower metabolism, you can actually induce what is called the “thermogenic effect” or “thermogenic response.” With this, it’s like you just pressed on the accelerator and revived your body.

Your body will suddenly need to burn more calories in order to keep up with your thermogenic state, and you can take advantage of this if you have a healthy exercise and diet regimen. If you are in thermogenesis, the boost can be all you need to feel more energy, burn more calories, and ultimately, lose more weight.
The great news is you can get this response by taking certain supplements like Muscletech Hydroxycut Hardcore, which contains green tea extract.

There are plenty of products out there that prey on people’s desire to get “instant results” without any effort. Hopefully, you already know that there is no such thing as a miracle cure. With that fact being understood, there is a way to jumpstart your metabolism and experience significant health benefits at the same time: green tea. You may have heard about the benefits of green tea already, or you may be entirely unfamiliar with them.

Weight loss is really all about how much energy you are using versus what you are consuming (best expressed with the popular “calories in versus calories out” expression). When you break it down this way, it sounds deceptively simple, but it really can be a challenge to lose weight. Green tea extract pills induce a higher metabolic rate in you; the official term for this is “thermogenesis.”

Thermogenesis and Antioxidants

In a nutshell, thermogenesis is the production of heat in the body. Everybody converts the food they eat into energy, and in that process, heat is produced. Sometimes, the body needs more energy than you are taking in, and it finds this energy in your stores of fat. As you can tell, exercising enough and eating right are still necessary if you want to be at your ideal weight, but a metabolism boost might be all you need to start shedding pounds and building muscle.

Green tea helps you accomplish thermogenesis through caffeine. When your body is stimulated, it will start burning up more energy. If you’ve ever looked up the ingredients on any diet pill, you have probably noticed caffeine on the list for this reason. Caffeine is a natural ingredient in green tea, and you can enjoy a higher metabolic rate and an increase in fat burning just by regularly taking a green tea extract pill. At the same time, the increase in energy can make it easier for you to hit the gym or go for a jog.

That’s not all that green tea offers, however. While turning up your body’s metabolic rate can help you shed pounds and feel more energetic, green tea also is a very powerful antioxidant, cleansing your body of toxins and making you healthier overall. Catechins are compounds found naturally in green tea, and they serve as both antioxidants and metabolites. From them, you can potentially enjoy a lower risk of chronic diseases (including a lower prevalence of carcinogenesis, which is what causes cancer), antibiotic properties, and even reduced signs of aging.

Other Benefits of Green Tea

While the inducement of thermogenesis and the presence of catechins are green tea’s biggest draws, there are still more benefits that have been demonstrated. Green tea has inhibited two enzymes: one, called amylase, breaks down carbohydrate into sugar, and so slowing the enzyme down keeps you from feeling hungry as quickly after you’ve eaten (an effective way to avoid cravings). The second, called fatty acid synthase is part of the process of converting carbohydrate into fat.

Naturally, inhibiting these two enzymes can result in dramatic weight loss, because you are less likely to overeat and less likely to put on fat. If you want to lose weight and be healthier, green tea extract supplements such as NOW Green Tea Extract and PrimaForce Lean Green are excellent tools that can help you with your health goals.

So which is right? Can you burn fat with no effort or does it take a lot of effort or is the truth somewhere in between? The truth is the body gets some of its energy by accessing the energy which has been stored and the storage units include fat cells.

When you consume food, the nutrients include carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Your digestive system breaks down the food into a form that enables the body to store what it needs for survival. There is a complex process involved of course which includes the need for enzymes called lipases. That is why people with digestive problems often add enzyme supplements to their dietary plans.

Though the body will often rely on carbohydrates for energy, the goal of athletes and exercisers is to efficiently use fat stored in the body in addition to the carbs which power the central nervous system. Once the fat has been stored in what are called adipose cells, the body has a method it uses to access the broken down nutrients.

Fuelling the Body

Fat oxidation is a process which breaks down the fatty acids stored in the cells into a usable energy source. This source is called ATP and it is a major contributor to the ability of the muscle to contract while exerting force at the same time.

Fat oxidation is not dependent on fat consumption. It is more a factor in an energy equation because the amount of fat oxidized is in direct proportion to the amount of carbohydrates available for conversion to energy. When you want to reduce body fat or lose weight, you need to convince the body to release more energy from the adipose tissue cells first instead of seeking carbohydrate energy.

The rate of fat oxidation is a direct result of the amount of exercise you get and the rate of triglyceride release from the adipose tissue. Triglycerides are the fatty acids which result from the conversion of nutrition into usable elements as fat. The process of fat oxidation involves breaking down fats stored in the cells and converting them to either glycerol or fatty acids.

While glycerol is processed by the liver, the fatty acids are carried by the bloodstream throughout the body. That is where nutritional supplements such as the enzyme carnitine can be so beneficial to those wanting to increase fat oxidation in order to reduce fat in the body. Carnitine facilitates the transport of the fatty acids to cell mitochondria.

Improved Transportation System

Supplements including carnitine and other enzymes in addition to essential vitamins and minerals can help the body operate more efficiently all the way to the cell level. Fat oxidation is just one source of energy for the body, but it plays a critical role in weight maintenance and the ratio of fat to lean.

Since carnitine supplements can assist with the transport of fatty acids resulting from fat cell breakdowns to cell mitochondria, levels of energy producing ATP are enhanced as a result of the fat oxidation process. Vitamins, A, B, C and E in addition to glutamine supplements among others stoke that fat burning process so that you really are able to burn more calories, enhance your energy levels, and reduce your body fat at the same time.