What Sorts of Herbs are Used in Weight Loss?

Weight loss herbal pills are usually synonymous with one particular ingredient, and that is unfortunately caffeine or some other sort of stimulant that some people, like myself may be sensitive to.  You can’t get my skin near some of those herbal weight loss formulas without my skin breaking out in zits like I was 16 years old again because I’m so sensitive to many stimulants.  And that’s just one of the side effects, there’s also jitters, nausea, dry mouth, rapid heart beat and other rather unpalatable side effects that both scare and repel us from using these potentially harmful substances. 

But there are some formulas that are made with non stimulant ingredients that also help you to lose weight by cutting the appetite or helping with fat loss through thermogenesis, which is the assistance with the breakdown of fats in the body (although it is unclear whether this works through helping them break down in the digestive tract, or whether it is meant that they actually help “burn” fat off the body that is already there, which I think is very hard.

Take for example, hoodia gordonii, which is made in so many different ways and formulas that it is hard to tell what is actually pure hoodia and what it just a fake.  You have to be careful with this one because you may be getting a very watered down version of the effective appetite suppressing herb, or you may be getting something that isn’t even the real hoodia plant that has gotten all the press for suppressing hunger of the san bushmen in Africa on long hunting trips. 

Another one is guarana, which is essentially a stimulant, but it is fairly effective at staving off hunger if you use it correctly.  Be careful with any stimulants as they may have a rebound effect that can make you even hungrier and make you eat even more when you are off of them because your appetite returns with a vengeance. 

Another ingredient in herbal weight loss pills is chromium picolinate.  This one is supposed to help your body stabilize it’s blood sugar levels, which in turn helps you become a fat burning machine, eat less because you are not overly hungry ever thanks to a balanced blood sugar, and also may even help with the slower burning of foods so you stay fuller longer. 

None of these herbs and natural ingredients is without controversy of course, so you really have to read around and find something that works for you, with your chemistry before you make a judgment call on what herbal formula to go with.