Does Garcinia Cambogia control appetite?
Registered Dietitian and Certified Personal Trainer Melanie Douglass explains the benefits of adding Garcinia Cambogia to your fitness routine.
Garcinia Cambogia is a small, pumpkin-shaped fruit that was used historically throughout Indonesia, India, and Southeast Asia to make meals seem more filling due to Garcinia's appetite-blocking abilities.
This all natural supplement will help:
- Reduce appetite,
- Control emotional eating,
- Inhibit your bodies ability to convert sugar into fat.
Does Garcinia Cambogia control appetite?
When it comes to losing weight, diet and exercise combined have been shown to be more effective than either alone, but when you really look at the equation, it isn’t a 50/50 split. To really see success, your focus needs to be about 80% healthy eating and 20% exercise. Your body does not like losing weight and it will happily replace all the calories you lost during exercise (and more) if you don’t focus on what you eat.
Your body has all manner of subconscious tricks to get you to eat more than you were planning on after exercising (or when you’re tired, or stressed, or bored, or whatever). For people that work hard but can’t seem to lose weight or have trouble controlling emotional eating, I typically recommend a supplement called Garcinia Cambogia.
Garcinia Cambogia is a small, pumpkin-shaped fruit that was used historically throughout Indonesia, India, and Southeast Asia to make meals seem more filling due to Garcinia's appetite-blocking abilities. The natural extract is called hydroxycitric acid (HCA), and it works by increasing serotonin levels in the brain to improve mood and decrease emotional eating.
Not only does Garcinia Cambogia decrease appetite, but it also blocks the ability of your liver to convert sugars into fat by inhibiting the enzyme Citrate Lyase. This one two punch of decreasing your appetite and decreasing your body's ability to turn consumed sugar into stored fat will drastically increase your results.
How you should use it
Garcinia Cambogia is most effective when you take 500 to 1500 mg of HCA 30 minutes to an hour before a meal on an empty stomach. Start with 500 mg for a meal and increase it if you need to. Feel it out and see what works best for you. I’ve also found it works well to control “habitual eating.” Say you’re always in the mood to eat at 3 in the afternoon whether you’re hungry or not. A little Garcinia Cambogia works well to squash this emotional eating habit.
Is it safe?
People have been eating Garcinia Cambogia for years without issue, and to date, no case studies have shown any adverse effects from the HCA extract up to 3000 mg/day.
People that should avoid taking HCA extract include: women that are pregnant or breast feeding, people taking statins because it can increase the risk of muscle degradation and rhabdomyolysis, those with Alzheimer's or dementia, and diabetics should consult their doctor first because HCA could cause blood sugar to fall below normal.
Mindful Eating
Garcinia Cambogia is an impressively effective appetite suppressant, but as I mentioned in a previous post, you can "eat through it" if you aren't conscious of your eating. If you're used to eating large meals and subconsciously overfill your plate, Garcinia Cambogia might not keep you from mindlessly clearing it. However, if you want to silence the little voices in your head that tell you to abandon your diet plan, Garcinia Cambogia will help reinforce your willpower.
Sticking with a diet is tough, but HCA can make it easier. Don't be afraid to cut your portion sizes down and let Garcinia Cambogia carry you through. You'll be amazed by how well it works.
