"I just lost a hundred-and-fifty pounds of ugly fat," said the comedian Henny Youngman. "I divorced my wife." It's funny because we expect to hear yet another incredible diet or miracle pill pitched at us, not a wife joke. There's nothing funny about all the diet claims that are floating around, because they confuse real science with the usual phony something-for-nothing snake oil. The Couch Potato Diet Pill still doesn't exist, despite promises to the contrary. There's only one sure way to safe weight loss -- burn more calories than we take in, thus activating the body's natural system for using stored fat. It doesn't really matter how the flab got there in the first place -- whether it's genetics or Genoa Salami -- a reversal in flow has to happen.

Science has made tremendous strides in finding safe natural supplements that can increase fat-burning metabolism, such as Pyruvate, Co-enzyme Q10, and Carnitine Tartrate, but it's not enough to simply put them into a pill. Research trials have shown that Pyruvate and its co-factors may work best taken as a powder in large amounts just before exercise. Their value as a Couch Potato Diet Pill would probably only work if the Couch Potato was starving himself. With the typical cardio exercise favored today, it takes 20 to 25 minutes to burn off the blood sugar in the muscles and start burning fat, but these cell enhancers can start the process in the opening minutes of exercise.

Think about it. Doesn't it make more sense to take metabolism enhancers just when the greatest amount of energy is being expended, during cardio and endurance exercise? Taking low dosages while doing nothing is a waste. So be wary of those claims on TV and use these new supplements to their best advantage.