L-Carnitine tablets

Any thoughts about those tablets?

I was told yesterday about the wonders of it and am looking for facts.

L-Carnitine is made in the body from the amino acids lysine and methionine. It increases the use of fat as an energy source by transporting fatty acids into the mitochondria, where they are ‘burned’ to release energy for body functions. The L-carnitine form may cause adverse side effects however. It is available in several different forms including propionyl-L-carnitine and acetyl-L-carnitine. Propionyl-L-carnitine, through its enhancement of metabolism has been proven to prevent ischemia-induced heart dysfunction, and acetyl-L-carnitine has been suggested to delay the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. L-carnitine is found naturally in avocados, breast milk, dairy products, red meats (namely lamb and beef), and tempeh (fermented soybean product). A deficiency of L-Carnitine can cause muscle fatigue, cramps, or low blood-sugar levels.

I don't have any personal experience with them.  So, i cannot comment on their effectiveness.

PubMed.

There's some theorizing about how L-carnitine supplementation might possibly increase fat mobilization and shift substrate utilization more towards fat at any given activity level which might possibly be performance-enhancing for endurance athletes and make overall fat loss somewhat easier.

 Color me skeptical though, I haven't seen any convincing studies that shows there's any real-world effect on dieters other than slimming their wallets.

I take acetyl-L-carnitine for my brain (depression) and for the fat conversion.

When I was dieting a couple of years ago, it bumped me out of a plateau. Too bad I didn't realize that it wouldn't last once I went off the diet.

But I have been taking them off and on ever since. (You shouldn't always take a supplement (except vitamins); you should have a month or so off after 2 or 3 months)

You can spend thousands of dollars on the "next big thing" in supplements and not get much results. Oddly enough, when a supplement is found to be as good as they claim it's often banned like ephedra and pro-hormones, which does mean it was legit -- oh well. Even if it does work, like ephedra does, you have to determine if the extra cost is worth it since your proper diet and exercise will be the most effective method in the long run.

When it comes to the research: a lot of times you get "significant" results in the lab that translate into a lot of cost for little results in the real world because "significant" means statistically speaking and not practically speaking.