A cocktail of resveratrol and leucine may be able to help you lose weight faster. Nutritionists at the University of Tennessee write in Nutrition and Metabolism that this combination boosts fat and glucose burning in cells.
The amino acid leucine and its metabolite HMB not only stimulate the production of muscle fiber, they also reduce fat mass. This is probably because both compounds enhance the activity of the enzyme in the nuclei that enables cells to repair themselves. Because this repair process requires energy it is thought that this leads to the burning of glucose and fats. This enzyme called Sirt 1 also plays a key role in energy metabolism by being involved in the production of mitochondria, which enable cells to burn glucose and fatty acids, thus generating more energy. Sirt1 becomes more active when you consume substances like resveratrol.
The researchers also wondered whether a combination of leucine and resveratrol would have an enhanced effect on fat burning vs. each compound individually. To determine this they did experiments with mice that had been fattened for 6 weeks. The animals were then given food for another six weeks, which had been enriched with nothing [the control group], resveratrol, leucine, HMB or combinations of these.
At the end of the experiment the animals in a resveratrol-leucine group had 35 less fat than the mice in the control group. The combination of leucine and resveratrol boosted the burning of fatty acids in the mice’s cells.
In the animals that had been given both leucine/HMB and resveratrol, the insulin level went down and the muscle cells’ glucose uptake increased.
Dominick Walsh is a blogger for Performance Nutrition and TMRzoo.com and covers all men’s health topics and exercise issues including protein powders, diets, weight loss, weight lifting supplements, fat burners and supplement reviews. Dominick’s columns cover everything you need to know about your pre, during and post workout nutrition.
