WE are a nation searching for one thing: Instantaneous Weight Loss Results.

Sadly many of us are often seeking such things without truly putting much thought about the amount of work and effort it takes to achieve the body we want.

One of the most common questions I get asked by people when they first start out on their training journey is ‘what supplements can I take to speed up the rate of fat loss’ or ‘do fat burners work’.

People in general have a vast interest in supplements: quick fixes that nearly always end in disappointment. There are far more important supplements to our lifestyle that need addressing before we should even begin heading towards the ones you can buy from specialist vendors.

Top 3 Supplements

The three supplements I am going to reveal today are not glamorous nor really that interesting. They are going to take hard work, sacrifice and dedication if you want true benefit to ensue.

For those that listen and start utilising these ‘supplements’ in combination with a nutritious diet designed for your body however I would love to hear from you 28 days from now.

You WILL be a completely different person.

So without further ado, my top three supplements for mind, body and energy change:

1. Sleep

As a nation we are sleeping less and less. In a poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation in 2002 15% of adults recorded they were getting less than 6 hours sleep per night. A 2% rise on the same data collected 4 years prior. 40% of adults recorded getting less than 7 hours per night.

Whenever light stimulates your skin or eyes regardless of the source your brain and hormonal system naturally think it is morning which releases the stress hormone cortisol (also responsible for belly fat storage).

Adequate sleep is just one way of keeping this hormone in check. Try the below three strategies to boost your body composition with my number one supplement:

• Make it your priority to be in bed ready to sleep by 10pm.

• Try reading fiction 30 minutes – 60 minutes before bed with use of just a lamp. It will calm your mind and help you drop off to sleep.

• Create the bat cave – your bedroom should have no light sources whatsoever. Not even the red spot indicating standby on your television. These all affect sleep quality.

2. Hydration

I love the quote: ‘The solution to pollution is dilution’. The more toxic our bodies, the more backlogged our liver is. In this scenario water will be retained to protect the bodily tissues from inflammation. This is often felt as bloating. Toxins come from our food, our water source as well as our general environment.

Along with working on supplement 3 of this article, consuming water can literally halve a person in size in a matter of days simply by giving the body enough of what it needs whilst improving liver function and reducing general toxicity levels.

As well as reducing the toxicity of your diet the average male or female you should be consuming AT LEAST 2-3 litres of bottled water per day.

3. Digestion

It is possible to have a weight issue even if you aren’t actually eating that much. Just because you take in food doesn’t mean that it is necessarily used by the body.

Due to the pitiful state of our modern society’s general digestion, a lot of what we intake often is just the same on the ‘outtake’.

We are becoming worse and worse at absorbing our food. We are poor absorbers for a variety of reasons, but one of the major reasons is due to high levels of inflammation from eating foods and drinking beverages that don’t agree with us.

Poor food choices inflame and affect the delicate villi on our gut lining which prevents us absorbing nutrients effectively. Gut health is a key factor in my business and should be a key factor in yours.

The truth of the matter is that you can take in all the nutritious organic produce you like as well as all the off the shelf supplements, if you aren’t absorbing them, this new great diet you are on could be deemed useless unnecessarily.

- Follow a dietary program that avoids environmental toxins and utilises foods that agree with your body.

- Monitor your digestion and bloating to eliminate foods which give adverse effects - Don’t forget protein!

- In more extreme cases look into a full gut health protocol.

Scott Marsh is the director of Xcelerate Fitness (www.xceleratefitness.co.uk), a results focussed personal training company based in Marlow. For more information on transforming yourself in 2012 email info@xceleratefitness.co.uk or call 07921 856308 for your FREE information pack.