People typically take pills to raise metabolism to lose weight. When your metabolism increases, you burn more calories. Metabolic processes include muscle contraction, breathing and digesting food. Pills containing caffeine and green tea extract can temporarily raise your metabolism. However, boosting your metabolism by increasing your body's muscle to fat ratio is a long-term solution.
Caffeine
You frequently find caffeine as an ingredient in pills claiming to raise your metabolism. It briefly suppresses your appetite, elevates your blood pressure and increases your heart rate. Caffeine increases your output of urine, which temporarily reduces water weight. It may also stimulate thermogenesis -- a metabolic process by which your body chooses to burn fat instead of storing it. Side effects associated with caffeine include insomnia, nausea and nervousness.
Tea
Some pills raise your metabolism by increasing your body's use of stored fat as energy, according to a scientific review by Maastricht University in the Netherlands. The review, published in the April 2010 issue of the "International Journal of Obesity," examines caffeine and capsaicin, along with green, white and oolong tea. These ingredients appear to raise metabolism by increasing the calories you burn without exercising by up to 5 percent and increasing fat oxidation by 10 to 16 percent. Capsaicin comes from chili peppers.
Hidden Ingredients
Over-the-counter pills claiming to raise your metabolism may contain hidden ingredients. According to the Food and Drug Administration, weight loss claims on these types of pills include, but are not limited to, "Melt your fat away!" and "Diet and exercise not required!" The products may contain illegal ingredients not listed on the label such as sibutramine -- which was withdrawn from the market in October 2010, warns the Food and Drug Administration. Other hidden ingredients in diet pills uncovered by the FDA include seizure and blood pressure medications.
Efficacy
Many ingredients in metabolism boosting pills are ineffective. The FDA permits manufacturers to make false claims, as long as a disclaimer also appears on the label. While some metabolism-boosting ingredients have supporting clinical evidence to substantiate those claims, others do not. The FDA does not have sufficient scientific evidence to rate the efficacy of many ingredients in metabolism boosters. These include but are not limited to bitter orange, chromium and country mallow.
References
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration; Beware of Fraudulent Weight-Loss 'Dietary Supplements'; March 2011
- "International Journal of Obesity"; Thermogenic Ingredients and Body Weight Regulation; R. Hursel, et al.; April 2010
- MayoClinic.com; Over The Counter Weight Loss Pills: Do They Work?; February 2010
- MayoClinic.com; Caffeine: Can It Help Me Lose Weight?; Katherine Zeratsky; May 2011
- Medline Plus; Metabolism; August 2010
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