L-Carnitine: This well-known substance helps you burn fat faster

L-Carnitine

Food supplements are an indispensable aid at certain times in our lives, such as when we go on a diet. And it is that, sometimes, no matter how many of us exercise and have a balanced menu, the fat refuses to leave our body causing frustration.

In this sense, one of the most used supplements to burn fat is L-Carnitine. But what is carnitine? What are its properties? If you want to find out more about this product and know what is the best way to consume it, we advise you to continue reading.

What is L-Carnitine?

There are food supplements that are very common in the sports world and L-Carnitine is one of them. In fact, you have surely heard more than once about the power of this component to mobilize fat , but you probably do not know much more about it, so we are going to explain it to you below.

Carnitine (also known as L-Carnitine or levocarnitine) is an amino acid whose function is to transport fatty acids into the mitochondria , which are the organisms in charge of the energy levels necessary for our performance. That is, the mitochondria is responsible for transforming the fats that our body consumes into energy for our daily activities.

This substance is produced in the liver and kidneys from other amino acids such as lysine or methionine , which we can extract from the food we eat on a regular basis. In this way, it is normal that if we have a balanced diet, we have enough carnitine to function properly, although it is true that we may be interested in increasing its functionality for the reasons that we are going to discuss below.

Carnitine: what is it useful for?

We have already seen what the general function of this amino acid is, but, so that you can understand it better, we are going to talk about the different types of fatty acids. We can divide them into:

  • Short or medium chain fatty acids – acetic acid, propionic acid, valeric acid, butyric acid, etc.
  • Long chain fatty acids such as palmitic acid, stearic acid and oleic acid.

The former can easily cross the mitochondrial membrane to be used as energy, but the latter cannot. This is where Carnitine comes into play, since it helps long-chain fatty acids to cross that membrane to be used in our energy consumption.

In short, high doses of this amino acid help us to favor the use of fats in order to transform them into energy, causing them to be lost in our body , which helps us lose weight. And it also helps us improve our physical condition, since it allows us to reduce muscle fatigue and their recovery time after exercising.

Benefits of consuming L-Carnitine

We have already seen some of the advantages that the consumption of levocarnitine can have for our health but, as they are not the only ones, we will learn more in detail below. Because we must not forget that it is an amino acid that is naturally present in our body.

Here are some of the benefits of taking carnitine:

  • It allows the proper functioning of the body. As we have already seen, this substance helps us synthesize fats to convert them into energy and, its lack, can cause fat deposits to accumulate in our body and we gain weight. With the consequences that this can have for our health: obesity, diabetes, etc.
  • It gives us more energy. Obviously, a greater presence of this substance will help us to have better energy levels and, in fact, when there is little L-Carnitine, it is normal to have a great feeling of exhaustion and that our muscles even fail us on some occasions.
  • Promotes the proper functioning of the liver. It may be surprising, but the truth is that this substance favors the proper functioning of the liver, so it can help us treat certain conditions that are related to it or even prevent them before they develop.
  • It helps us recover faster . In this case, we are talking specifically about sports physical activity because it reduces the feeling of fatigue that we can sometimes experience from doing it. Making, in addition, that our muscles are prepared to face any challenge and much better conditioned.

In other words, it is a substance that is already beneficial for our body, but whose consumption we can increase to get even more out of it. But in addition, we must know that it is a supplement that is especially important in the case of vegetarians or vegans because, by not consuming meat, this group has lower levels of lysine and methionine, something that makes it essential to incorporate levocarnitine outside of your usual diet.

How should carnitine be taken?

Now that we know all the advantages of this amino acid, the time has come to know what is the best way to ingest it. In this sense, the first thing we should know is that it is taken before performing any physical activity (about 40 minutes) and, especially, for those that have a moderate intensity because it is the moment in which our body is going to burn more fat. In the case of high-intensity sports, the opposite effect can occur and cause us to lose even less fat than we should.

The most common is to find it in tablets and there are many brands that work with this type of food supplement, so you will be able to find a wide variety on the market. Finally, regarding the dose and other aspects, they will depend precisely on the brand to which we go when buying L-Carnitine , so we must follow the indications that are marked in the prospectus.
We hope that this article has been useful for you to learn a little more about this substance and the usefulness it can have for fat loss.

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