L-Carnitine has gained popularity in the recent years, and is being touted as one of the best substances that can help you lose weight. If you check out blogs, forums, and web sites that feature weight loss tips, L-Carnitine is bound to be mentioned a lot. But what exactly is L-Carnitine? What does it do to help you lose weight? It is really an effective substance to help you in your quest to shed off those pounds?
Let us take a closer look at L-Carnitine and go through some weight loss tips involving this substance as well. Enjoy this fresh recipe for life, brought to you by o5!
What is L-Carnitine?
L-Carnitine is a substance that is oftentimes lumped into the amino acids category. Strictly speaking, however, L-Carnitine is not an amino acid, but is actually more similar to the B vitamins. Then again, since its structure – chemically speaking – is quite close to amino acids, it is commonly referred to as such.
In any case, what you call it is not that important. What you need to know is rather simple – what L-Carnitine does. Think of it as something that transports fatty acids in your body to the energy centers: the mitochondria. In short, this substance makes your body burn fat more to create energy! If that isn’t a great thing for weight loss, then I don’t know what is.
What are the specific benefits of L-Carnitine?
We already know that this substance aids in weight loss. What else can it do for your body? Now bear in mind that it takes away the fat to be burned and converted to energy. So, these are some things that L-Carnitine can do to improve your overall health.
- Keep your heart and arteries healthier. Since L-Carnitine moves all that fat around for “disposal,” it aids in preventing fatty build up. It is common knowledge that fatty build up in arteries can lead to many complications such as strokes and heart attacks. With enough L-Carnitine, these build ups can be avoided.
- May help with Alzheimer’s and other conditions related to memory. This is not a proven effect yet, but studies are currently being done to test how L-Carnitine can help delay the onset of memory problems such as Alzheimer’s. Some studies seem to point towards the substance being effective, but nothing is conclusive as of yet.
- Help deal with chronic fatigue syndrome. This makes sense as L-Carnitine enhance fat burning, which releases energy. If you feel tired all the time, then taking L-Carnitine supplements might help you.
Sources of L-Carnitine
Where can you get L-Carnitine? Is this something that you can obtain just by eating certain food types? Well, yes, this is a naturally-occurring substance, so you can actually find it in your every day food items. Based on studies, red meat and dairy products actually contain the highest concentrations of L-carnitine! Now you might not find that in your usual list of weight loss tips – red meat is normally discouraged – but it this simply means that you do not have to pass up on the red meat all the time. Other sources of L-Carnitine include pork, bacon, chicken breast, American cheese, whole milk, and avocado. There are many other food items that have the substance, but there the concentration is quite low. In fact, that second group of food items already have low concentrations.
So what to do? There are supplements, drinks and beverages, vitamins, and other products being sold in the market which are touted as containing L-Carnitine. Here’s a tip: make sure that you take a close look at the labels before you actually shell out money on a product saying it has L-Carnitine. You ought to take a look at just how much of the substance is contained in the product. To give you an idea, take a look at the amount of L-Carnitine in these food items:
- Beef steak (100 g) has 95 mg
- Pork (100 g) has 27.7 mg
- Chicken breast (100 g) has 3.9 mg
- Whole milk (100 ml) has 3.3 mg
- 1 medium avocado has 2 mg
So, before you go on an L-Carnitine shopping spree, read the fine print!
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