Glutamine For Fat Loss?
by Mark Gilbert, BSc
The amino acid glutamine has always been a big favourite of bodybuilders, being used to help increase cell volumization, boost growth hormone, immunity and other processes that are useful to packing on mass. But one thing it has never been recommended for is burning fat. However, this may be about to change.
Glutamine Fat Loss Study
A study conducted by researchers at Iowa State University gave a group of subjects a normal meal containing added glutamine or one with the addition of three non-essential amino acids. They then measured how much each meal increased the amount of fat and carbohydrate they burned over the next six hours. What they found was that for three hours after the meal, the glutamine group burned more carbs and then for the next three hours, they burned significantly more fat! In fact, they burned about 50 percent more energy. In the three to six hour phase after the meal, the glutamine group burned 42 more calories than the non-essential amino acid group. That’s a pretty good increase in calorie burning and could make a difference to your waistline over time. It may not give you the ripped abs of IFBB pros Santana Anderson or Chris White (both pictured below), but it could definitely help you lean out! The researchers speculate that glutamine had this effect by making the hormone insulin work better in the body, meaning this is probably a healthy way to battle the bulge also! The only problem with the study is that they used a very large dose of glutamine (the equivalent of 20 grams in an 176 pound person) which is a massive dose. But as Scott Welch has reminded me; “Ya gotta go big or go home!”
SOURCE: Tropicana Fitness
