Using A Slimming Patch

Is the slimming patch the dream answer? Can sticking a plaster to your arm bring about the same type of success that the nicotine plaster has done for smokers?

How Do Patches Work?

Believe it or not it's incredibly simple. Attach to your skin, as you would ant normal plaster, then sit back and let the ingredients contained in the plaster get absorbed into your body through your skin. There's little more to it than that.

Do Patches Help You Lose Weight?

Diet patches have been marketed as a simple way for you to lose weight, as you go about your daily business. As we all know though, you don't often get something for nothing and you are not going to go from 16 stones to 9 stone with the help of a plaster.

People also ask whether the ingredients are safe and do they actually promote weight loss - or is this a new placebo?

What Do They Contain?

Well on a positive note, the key ingredients are nothing revolutionary! All have pretty subtle effects at best and will not lead to much in the way of weight loss without accompanying changes to diet and lifestyle. Ingredients like HCA and bladderwrack don't have much going for them in the way of proven results.

There are a complete range of diet patches on the market, but most contain four main ingredients:

Guarana

A stimulant which is mildly thermogenic (mild fat burning properties). HCA is found in guarana and it is this that has been found to be a fat burning agent that stimulates and balances metabolism to manage weight.

Chromium

Helps to regulate insulin function and therefore balance blood sugar level. Can promote a healthy metabolism, reduce body fat and preserve lean muscle.

Garcinia Cambogia (HCA)

An exotic fruit grown in South India and a source for the natural diet ingredient hydroxycitric acid(HCA). May help prevent conversion of carbohydrates into fat (by inhibiting action of the enzyme citrate lyase). Not proven 100% to provide any benefits, there have been some results according to the Journal of the American Medical Association

Fucus Vesiculosus (bladderwrack / brown seaweed)

Can help to return low levels of iodine in thyroid gland (if you have low levels) thus helping to burn fat. However, this ingredient is only of value where there is a low level of thyroid hormone, and you are not overweight for other more common reasons.

An Alternative Patch

So it's almost an alternative alternative then!

Crave Control! This product is impregnated with a vanilla-like scent which operates on the "smell" theory quite simply, people exposed to the smell of foods for long periods of time tend to lose their appetites. Crave Control is activated by body heat, with the aroma released into the air rather than being absorbed through the skin into the blood stream.

Our Opinion

Although most of these products claim that they work without the need for diet or exercise, the effectiveness of any of them will be greatly improved if you use them in conjunction with a well-balanced diet and regular exercise.

Unless you feel that it is worth giving a try to boost your other activities, give them a miss!