Berberine might just be one of the best weight loss supplements that you've never heard of. Through its powerful effects on insulin, muscle mass, and an enzyme called AMPK, there's a very high chance that it can help you lose weight. Its effects on these systems are so strong that it has been compared to a pharmaceutical medication.
The medication I'm talking about here is metformin, and I'll dive into that in a little bit. But for now, let's talk about weight loss. Like any other weight loss supplement out there, berberine is not going to be a magical cure for your weight, but it does have a lot of potential benefits that are supported by research that can help you lose weight, especially when combined with diet and exercise.
How berberine promote weight loss
With that caveat out of the way, let's talk about how berberine can help you lose weight.
1. It helps reverse insulin resistance and improves insulin sensitivity
One of the most important beneficial effects of berberine is its impact on the hormone insulin. High levels of insulin drive obesity by dysregulating the breakdown of fat tissue. In other words, your body is storing fat instead of burning it. One way that berberine may induce insulin sensitivity is through its actions on AMP kinase.
We know from various studies that berberine is a weak activator of this very important enzyme. And when this enzyme is activated, it causes or triggers a cascade of beneficial effects, including the stimulation of your metabolism, a reduction in inflammation, and improved muscle performance. In at least one head-to-head study, berberine has been shown to have an equal effect on blood sugar as the prescription medication metformin.
Just like berberine, metformin has been shown to be a weak activator of AMPK, which is probably why there's similarities between these two compounds. The only difference, of course, is that one is available as a prescription medication and the other as a plant-based botanical.
2. Berberine has been shown to increase the density of mitochondria in your muscle cells
Your muscle mass is largely responsible for regulating your basal metabolic rate, which is how many calories you burn each day. If lean muscle mass declines, then your metabolism will decline as well, and it will be easier for you to gain weight. If you are trying to lose weight, you obviously need to keep your lean muscle mass in mind.
Furthermore, the health of your lean muscle mass is regulated in part by how well each muscle functions and how much energy it's capable of producing. The mitochondria present in your muscle cells are responsible for the bulk of energy production in your muscles, therefore you want them to be high. And that's exactly what berberine has been shown to do.
This is great for someone who is trying to lose weight, because we know that a high sugar, high fat diet impairs the function of mitochondria in muscle tissue. And because increasing your mitochondrial function will not only help to improve your metabolism, but also help to give you more energy. This means you'll have more energy to exercise, and when you do exercise, you'll be burning more calories because your muscles are working more efficiently.
3. Berberine has been shown to activate brown fat tissue
You're probably conditioned to think that fat cells are bad, but the reality is that they are a highly sensitive hormone responsive tissue, and that some fat is actually considered to be healthy. There are two types of fat that you should be aware of inside of your body right now.
The first is white fat, which is predominantly used to store energy. And the second is brown fat, which helps to regulate your metabolism as well as heat production. In animal studies, we know that berberine supplementation has been shown to brown white fat, or in other words, increase the amount of fat that helps to regulate your metabolism.
In humans, research has shown that one month of berberine supplementation is enough to increase brown fat activity and concentration. If weight loss is your goal, then you'll either want to brown your existing white fat or somehow come up with a way to increase the total amount of brown fat that you have.
4. Berberine has been shown to lower or reduce inflammation
This is important because inflammation, when present, makes it easier to gain weight and harder to lose weight. Generalized inflammation in your whole body disrupts your hormones and leads to decreased thyroid function and a condition known as adiposopathy. Adiposopathy is just a fancy name used to describe inflammation and damage to your fat cells.
If you recall, I mentioned previously that your fat cells do much more than just give you cellulite and provide a reservoir for energy. They're actually a very hormone responsive tissue that produces a hormone that is critical for managing your weight, the hormone leptin.
When inflammation levels are too high for too long, they dysregulate your fat cells and lead to an inflammatory condition called leptin resistance. Berberine may act to solve this problem or prevent it from occurring by reducing generalized whole body inflammation. Studies suggest that berberine has anti-inflammatory properties by acting on nuclear factor kappa B as well as the COX-2 pathway.
5. Berberine improves gut health by acting as an antibacterial agent and as an antifungal agent
People often neglect the importance or the connection between their gut and their ability to lose weight, but there is absolutely a connection between these two things. The health of your gut and your microbiome impact your body's ability to stay lean, which means that you need to pay attention to gut problems, which may negatively impact your microbiome.
Because of berberine's actions as an antifungal and antibacterial agent, in addition to all the other benefits I just mentioned, it may also act to clean up your gut and can even be used to treat conditions like small intestinal bacterial overgrowth or small intestinal fungal overgrowth. The healthier your gut is, the easier it will be for you to lose weight. Now you can see why I get so excited about using berberine for weight loss.
How to use Berberine for weight loss
The question you might be asking yourself right now is, how do I get it and how do I use it? Here's how I recommend using it. The ideal dose of berberine is anywhere from 500 milligrams all the way up to 2,000 milligrams taken every day. For most people, the 1,000 milligram dose is sufficient.
However, if you have other problems like diabetes or insulin resistance, you may want to push your total dose up to 2,000 milligrams taken every day. Dosing is best split up and taken twice per day. So in this case, you would take 500 to 1,000 milligrams in the morning and another 500 to 1,000 milligrams in the evening.
Conclusion
No matter what you do, make sure that you always combine the use of berberine with a whole food diet, regular exercise, and I would add on top of that, intermittent fasting. These three treatments form the foundation of your weight loss routine and everything else is supplemental to them.
Having said that, I am sure supplements can be a powerful addition to these foundational treatments and if you're interested in learning more about weight loss supplements that actually work, I recommend checking out our previous post on weight loss.
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