CLA: The Thinning Fat?

The quality fat I’m talking about is called Conjugated Linoleic Acid and while it sounds like a chemical you’d find listed on a bottle of Mr. Clean, CLA is a naturally-occurring trans fat found chiefly in meat products like cow, sheep, goat and deer. Further, unlike most trans fats, which are manufactured in order to keep products’ shelf life longer, Conjugated Linoleic Acid does not have to be listed on meat packaging’s nutritional facts because of its chemical make-up.

What makes CLA so special, though, is that when it’s taken as a dietary supplement, it may help in expediting fat loss, according to research done on CLA that’s been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Leah Whigham and her team of researchers, all from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, write that when “[g]iven at a dose of 3.2 grams per day, CLA produces modest body fat in humans.”

But the good news doesn’t stop there. For the muscle heads among us looking to put on size, CLA can help you there as well.

Again, as we all know, weightlifting actually breaks down muscle. The rest that comes afterward is what causes muscles to grow stronger, combined with quality caloric intake. As reported by United Press International, a Canadian researcher has discovered that combining CLA with weightlifting and creatine monohydrate increases muscle endurance while at the same time decreasing body fat. The study was done on approximately 40 elderly men and women (65 and over), where some were given creatine with CLA, while others received a placebo. And according to lead researcher Dr. Mark Tarnopolksy, the results spoke for themselves.

“This data confirms…that a combination of creatine monohydrate and conjugated linoleic acid can enhance some of the beneficial effects of training over a six-month period,” said Tarnopolsky in a press release.

It may sound paradoxical…quality fat. But believe me—if you want to lose fat, you need to eat fat…the right kind, of course. And CLA is that fat. Doctors and researchers have warned for years now that, generally speaking, people aren’t getting enough CLA into their diet. CLA helps convert dietary fat into muscle, but because the American diet has become so saturated (pardon the pun) with processed foods, it’s not getting into our bodies (food processing eliminates a lot of the vitamins and minerals from foods, including CLA).

Get CLA into your body. Supplementing is your best bet because CLA-rich foods such as red meat pose an increased risk of cancer and heart disease.