The Importance of Acetyl L-Carnitine for Weight Loss and Overall Health

It’s not easy to get in shape, especially when you have other obligations at home or at work. You can’t just spend hours at the gym every day. Even if you do, going every day can get boring pretty fast. 

An effective way to lose weight is by combining a healthy diet with regular exercise and the use of supplements. A popular choice among fitness enthusiasts lately is the Acetyl L-Carnitine supplement to lose weight. These supplements are vegan-friendly and free of gluten, soy, lactose, and added colours.

They support your metabolism, help you lose weight in a healthy and effective way, and offer you an array of health benefits. Keep reading to find out more about Acetyl L-Carnitine and its health benefits. 

What is Acetyl L-Carnitine? 

Acetyl L-Carnitine (ALCAR) is an amino acid that your body naturally produces for generating energy. You can also find it in animal protein like red meats. A lot of people take ALCAR weight loss supplements because of the health benefits they provide and their impact on brain function.

ALCAR transports fatty acids into the mitochondria of your cells, which is vital for energy generation. The mitochondria in your cells work as engines, burning lipids to produce useful energy. Animal products like meat or fish offer you small amounts of ALCAR, in addition to the L-carnitine your body produces. 

Vegans and those with specific genetic conditions usually don’t make sufficient amounts of this amino acid. As a result, they might need to take ALCAR supplements. 

How Does Acetyl L-Carnitine Help You Lose Weight? 

Since L-carnitine helps transfer more fatty acids into your cells to be burnt for energy, the ALCAR weight loss supplements can help you burn more fat and lose weight. However, the human body is complicated, so you can’t solely rely on these supplements to help you magically lose those extra kilos. 

Let’s Talk Biology

Your body converts ALCAR into carnitine. When your insulin levels are low, such as from a keto diet, intermittent fasting, strenuous exercise, or being in a calorie deficit, carnitine becomes critical for fat burning. 

When you burn fat for fuel, your body breaks down stored body fat (or fat you ingest) into fatty acids and delivers them to your mitochondria. Those fatty acids are converted into ATP (energy) by your mitochondria, which then fuels your cells. 

Fatty acids, on the other hand, can’t enter your mitochondria on their own. They use a thing known as a carnitine shuttle. Carnitine binds to fatty acids and transports them into your mitochondria. This provides your mitochondria with the basic materials to create energy and function well. 

ALCAR and Brain Health 

Apart from being great fat stripping supplements, ALCAR supplements are also shown to boost your mood, memory, and cognitive ability. This is because they cross the blood-brain barrier, allowing them to reach the dense collection of mitochondria in your brain as well as the mitochondria throughout your body.  Here are a few scientifically proven benefits for your brain health that ALCAR supplements provide:

• Increased physical and mental energy – Elderly men and women who take ALCAR on a regular basis have a considerable increase in physical and mental energy, as well as improved general cognitive capacity. 
• Boosts cognitive performance – Low carnitine levels cause a significant reduction in brain function. ALCAR helps to enhance brain function quite a bit. After taking ALCAR daily for a year, eight out of 14 patients in a 2010 research were able to reverse their dementia diagnosis and regain their full cognitive abilities. 
• Improves focus – ALCAR is shown to enhance attention in children with ADHD, as well as adults who suffer from mental tiredness. 
• Improves circulation – Muscle and brain function are both dependent on good blood flow. Acetyl L-Carnitine enhances circulation and nutrient-rich blood flow in healthy people. 

Other Health Benefits of ALCAR 

Even if you don’t think you need brain health supplements or dietary supplements for weight loss, ALCAR can still benefit your health in other ways. This amino acid is also shown to boost your heart health, and your exercise performance, as well as offer you relief from type 2 diabetes. 

It Benefits Heart Health 

According to several studies, ALCAR helps to lower your blood pressure and slow down inflammatory processes. L-carnitine has also been associated with benefits in people with serious cardiac conditions such as coronary artery disease and chronic heart failure. A 12-month research found that those who used L-carnitine supplement to lose weight had fewer heart attacks and fatalities. 

It Boosts Exercise Performance 

The advantages of ALCAR in exercise performance can be indirect and take weeks or months to show. This is the opposite of supplements like caffeine or creatine, which can improve athletic performance right away. ALCAR is shown to improve your recovery rate from workouts, boost your muscle oxygen supply, increase your stamina, decrease muscle pain and boost the formation of red blood cells (these cells transport oxygen to your muscles). 

It Relieves Symptoms from Type 2 Diabetes 

L-carnitine is shown to help lessen the symptoms of type 2 diabetes and the risk factors that come with it. Carnitine supplements significantly lowered blood sugar levels when compared to a placebo in a trial of a group of people with type 2 diabetes. It can also help with diabetes by boosting AMPK, an essential enzyme that enhances your body’s capacity to use carbs. 

Bottom Line 

Acetyl L-Carnitine is an essential amino acid that your body needs in order to function properly. Apart from being a great supplement to lose weight, it also boosts your well-being by improving your brain health, heart health, exercise performance, and offering protection from type 2 diabetes.

However, remember that supplements can’t help you lose weight on their own. You will need to also implement regular exercise and eat a healthy, balanced diet. If you have a busy lifestyle and can’t manage to prepare healthy meals by yourself – opt for healthy meal delivery.