Although there used to be a tremendous amount of trust put into prescription medications, recent research of side effects and dependency issues that have dissuaded many people from using any types of prescribed medicines.

This has turned many consumers from relying on the harsh chemicals that their doctor recommends to the more natural resource of supplements. Although supplements do tend to agree a little better with the body, because they generally work with the body to help you lose weight rather than against it, there are still so many supplements out there, it’s hard to know which ones are going to work and which ones will be a waste of your time and money.

With this in mind, we put together a few key ingredients, along with their functions, to help you decide which ones are going to work best for your individual needs:

Chitosan

This ingredient was discovered within the fibrous parts of shell fish and has been found to be able to block the absorption of fat within the small intestine. It has unique properties that bind to fat molecules, making them too large to pass through the intestinal wall, and thus, to make their way into the blood stream.

This has proved beneficial for those who are already exercising but can’t stick to strict diets very well.

Chromium

This ingredient has shown to be extremely beneficial when it comes to raising your body’s basal metabolic rate. Chromium works to stimulate your body on the cellular level, urging the mitochondria to work faster, therefore allowing you to burn more calories when the rest of your body is not working.

Metabolism boosters can be beneficial for both diet help as well as workout help as they have been shown to improve your mood and energy levels.

Green Tea Extract

Green tea is another very beneficial metabolism booster, increasing your body’s thermogenesis, or rate at which it produces heat.

Green tea is often paired with caffeine which has been shown to increase its ability to help you burn more calories.

Hoodia Gordonii

This plant, found in the deserts of Africa, has proved to be a very powerful appetite suppressant. Although it would probably suppress your appetite in the plant form—its flowers smell like raw meat to attract pollinating flies—it also has been shown to interact with the hypothalamus of your brain, intercepting hunger signals, allowing you to decide when you want to eat.

Cissus Quadrangularis

Cissus Quadrangularis is also a popular appetite suppressant that is found in the botanical properties of an African plant. Recent research on Cissus Quadrangularis has shown that it has the capability of reducing its users BMI by 5.5% on average.

African Mango

Surprisingly enough, there is another effective appetite suppressant that has been found in Africa. Although African Mango has shown impressive results, it isn’t quite as established as the other two, meaning that there isn’t as much reliable evidence for African Mango as there is for Cissus Quadrangularis or Hoodia Gordonii.

All in all, there are many ways to lose weight, but you shouldn’t have to compromise your health by using dangerous prescriptions that are going to leave you in worse health than before—even if you are thinner.