By Tayor Mize

Most of these term themselves as 'supplements' and each claim to hold the secret to helping people lose weight quickly and in the easiest way possible.

But do they work?

Truth be told, many people have had numerous bad experiences with supplements and that has led to a number of widely circulated horror stories cropping up regarding them. As such, supplements are nowadays widely regarded as being nothing more than scams and are treated with a great deal of skepticism.

Still, for every horror story there is an equal number of astounding success stories. Some people have reported experienced compelling weight loss when they take certain supplements, and this makes people wonder as to whether or not there is more to these supplements than the skeptics think.

To understand what supplements do, it is important that you understand how most work. In general, most supplements end up doing one or more of the following:

1. Aid in appetite control

2. Help boost metabolism rates

3. Assist the digestive system

As you should see, each of these three has the potential to aid weight loss.

For starters, appetite control is an important aspect of avoiding overeating or binge eating, as it is otherwise known. Many people who are overweight generally have problems controlling the amount that they eat, and so this is something that is truly valuable and can cut out that factor entirely.

Similarly, people with low metabolism rates are constantly at risk of gaining weight, and by giving them a quick boost to their metabolism rate, they're going to be better able to work through any excess energy that their body has and thus not store it as fat.

Lastly, assisting the digestive system has been known to really streamline its tasks and allow it to metabolize food a lot faster. In turn, this means that you're less likely to be metabolizing food while you sleep, and then just storing all the excess energy too.

In a nutshell, supplements that do any of the three above tasks which we've just discussed definitely have the potential to help you lose weight. However the big question is: Do they work as advertised.

When it comes to that, there is no easy answer. Sure, most supplements can help, but if they have claims that are more outlandish than realistic, then they probably aren't going to work as you expect them to.

When used to aid weight loss, supplements can be a valuable tool, but at the end of the day if they're not accompanied by other efforts to lose weight, you're probably not going to get very far.

Bottom line: Supplements can be a help, but they're no 'miracle cure'.