You Can't Burn Just Fat, Study Finds

Australian researchers have confirmed that the old advice of eating less and moving more is the only way to lose weight. But there's more: Burning fat alone doesn't accelerate weight loss.

These findings have implications for weight loss pills that purportedly help people lose weight by accelerating fat burn. Most dietary supplements that promise weight loss focus on fat burn, which is what people may assume can result in weight loss, but that is not the case, at least in mice.

Scientists from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney found that mice genetically altered to burn more fat weren't more capable of losing weight than normal mice. These new findings, published in Cell Metabolism, suggest that unburned carbohydrates will take the place of used up fat stores, negating the effects of fat-burning diet pills.

"Our data urges a correction in people's concept of a magic bullet - something that will miraculously make them thin while they sit on the couch watching television," Greg Cooney, co-author of the study, said in a Garvan Institute press release. "There are many kinds of so-called 'fat-burning pills' available in the health food, body building and alternative medicine markets, where limited clinical effectiveness data are required."

It is important to remember that supplements are not evaluated the way that drugs are by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The supplements are reviewed for safety and truthfulness, but the process is not nearly as stringent as it is for drugs. Cooney goes on to say that because many of these diet pill regimens are coupled with recommendations to exercise and maintain a calorie-controlled diet, it's difficult to say where the weight loss is really coming from. "If you follow those recommendations, then of course you'll lose weight -- but you'd lose it anyway," he said.

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