Why is it so difficult to lose weight?! 

1. Low metabolism

The ultimate source of your body’s energy comes from the food you eat. Your metabolism is the chemical reactions in your body’s cells that break down food into energy to carry out normal functioning. More simply, it is the rate at which your body burns calories. If your metabolism is “high” (or fast), meaning that you’ll need to take in more calories as your body naturally uses energy more rapidly than someone with a “low” (or slow) metabolism. This explains why some people eat more than others without gaining much weight. 

2. Low basal metabolic rate (BMR)

Basal metabolic rate (BMR) accounts for approximately 70% of total daily energy expenditure. Your BMR is largely determined by your total lean muscle mass, as lean mass requires a lot of energy to maintain. Thus, it is important to increase lean muscle mass through exercise when trying to lose weight.

3. Inflamed fat cells

Not many people realise that inflamed fat cells, which often correlate with big bellies, indicate the body has low-grade inflammation. Inflammation makes the body more prone to insulin resistance, in which the body cells are less effective in utilizing blood sugar. This could lead to diabetes and other chronic degenerative diseases.

4. Caloric input more than output due to increased urge of eating

When you eat more calories than you need, your body stores the extra calories as body fat. It will be good for you to keep an eye on what you are inputting daily, how you are preparing your food, understanding the number of calories per serving, as all of these matters in maintaining a healthy body composition (i.e., lean to fat ratio) and weight.

5. Lack of physical activities

Being physically active is crucial for everyone. When we move the body, it expends energy in the form of calories (caloric output). This is an important aspect not only to keep the structural and physiological components of the body healthy, but to maintain a healthy body composition and lose weight as well.

What Is Metabolism?

The ultimate source of your body’s energy comes from the food you eat. Your metabolism is the chemical reactions in your body’s cells that break down food into energy to carry out normal functioning. More simply, it is the rate at which your body burns calories. If your metabolism is “high” (or fast), meaning that you’ll need to take in more calories as your body naturally uses energy more rapidly than someone with a “low” (or slow) metabolism. This explains why some people eat more than others without gaining much weight. 

What is BMR?

Your body needs the energy to carry out daily activities like exercising, walking and digesting foods. Even when you’re inactive, your body still needs the energy to keep your heart beating, maintain stable body temperature, grow and repair the body cells. This minimum number of energy required for basic necessary function at rest or the calories that your body burns when you're at rest is called basal metabolic rate (BMR). They do not factor in the calories you need to perform a physical job or athlete activity. 

How Does Your Body Burn Calories?

Your body burns calories in several ways and your BMR makes up 70% of the calories you burn every 24 hours. Other than that, your body uses calories include exercising in general. Meaning that increasing your BMR helps you lose fat more efficiently. 

In addition to your BMR, the other two factors that determine how many calories your body burns each day are the TEF (thermic effect of food/thermogenesis) and energy expenditure due to physical activity (EEPA). Hence, if you want to lose weight or meet specific fitness goals, the ultimate goal is to increase your overall body’s metabolism and includes physical activities in your daily routine.

Therefore, ingredients that deliver both anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory actions to better regulate the functioning of body processes would be highly sought after. Seek no more, such clinically-proven ingredients can be found in OPTI-Cap!  

One of the variables that affect BMR is the amount of lean muscle you have. Thus by building up more muscle mass, the higher your BMR is, the more calories you burn even if you don’t work out. That is because muscle uses a lot more energy than fat while at rest. 

by further increasing your metabolic rate of resting skeletal muscle. It shifts your muscles from a low activity state to a higher activity state and thus you can effectively burn more calories even when you’re inactive.

Of course, workout helps you build up muscle mass and lose weight. OPTI-Cap shows synergistic effects with workouts by raising your metabolism even further. It helps to regulate energy metabolism during endurance exercise, proving its efficacy as a nutritional supplement for the improvement of exercise ability.

To sum up, combining your physical activity and consuming OPTI-CAP helps you to lose fat with minimum effort, achieving desirable result.

A big belly and large waist are signs of visceral fat -- fat that wraps around and in-between your organs inside your abdomen. The inflamed visceral fat cells around the belly can interfere with your hunger levels, weight, brain function, and other areas of your health. This could subsequently lead to insulin resistance, obesity, diabetes, and other chronic degenerative diseases. (Yoshida et al. suggested the anti-inflammatory action of Ax helps to increase adiponectin secretion, which shrinks inflamed fat cells.
 
When the health status of fat cells improves, it increases insulin sensitivity, which further enhances glucose utilization and fat burning, thus helping you achieve a healthier weight!)

As we age, the ability of the body to store and remove fats slows down, causing the body to gain excessive fat, especially if we do not adjust to this slowdown. 

But worry not, recent scientific studies have also shown that piperine shows promising anti-obesity effects that interfere with the activity of genes responsible for the formation of new, mature fat cells. A research team led by Park, Ui-Hyun et al. in 2012 showed that piperine has the ability to interfere with the genes that help form fat cells, potentially reducing the chance for obesity.

A prime fuel for sustaining energy during exercise 

Nutrient for mitochondria (the powerhouse of body cells)

OPTI-Cap in combination with exercise had the greatest effect than with exercise or supplementation alone. The working theory for body fat reduction is to increase lipid metabolism (effective fat burning) in muscles, synergize with exercise.

OPTI-Cap’s powerful antioxidant property appears to protect muscle mitochondria against oxidative stress. This helps to lower lactic acid production, reduce muscle fatigue and soreness, which makes exercise less daunting, keeping you to stay motivated.

OPTI-Cap also functions to produce a cleaner source of energy (ATP) for muscle cells, which effectively improves muscle strength and endurance, and because of this uniqueness, this is the preferred supplement for athletes, coaches, and trainers.

Therefore, it can be said that OPTI-Cap in combination with exercise promotes lipid metabolism or “fat-burning”, without creating a rebound effect.

01: Increases thermogenesis

Thermogenesis is the metabolic process of increasing internal temperature within your body. It is closely linked to metabolism as your body burns calories in order to produce heat. This thermogenic effect of OPTI-Cap raises the internal temperature of the body, increases sweating, and eliminates toxins accumulated within the body.

02: Enhances metabolism

One of the variables that affect BMR is the amount of lean muscle you have. Thus by building up more muscle mass, the higher your BMR is, the more calories you burn even if you don’t work out. That is because muscle uses a lot more energy than fat while at rest. 

OPTI-Cap supports weight loss by further increasing your metabolic rate of resting skeletal muscle. It shifts your muscles from a low activity state to a higher activity state and thus you can effectively burn more calories even when you’re inactive.

Of course, workout helps you build up muscle mass and lose weight. OPTI-Cap shows synergistic effects with workouts by raising your metabolism even further. It helps to regulate energy metabolism during endurance exercise, proving its efficacy as a nutritional supplement for the improvement of exercise ability.

To sum up, combining your physical activity and consuming OPTI-CAP helps you to lose fat with minimum effort, achieving desirable result.

03: Slashes and hinders the formation of new fat cells

A big belly and large waist are signs of visceral fat -- fat that wraps around and in-between your organs inside your abdomen. The inflamed visceral fat cells around the belly can interfere with your hunger levels, weight, brain function, and other areas of your health. This could subsequently lead to insulin resistance, obesity, diabetes, and other chronic degenerative diseases. (Yoshida et al. suggested the anti-inflammatory action of Ax helps to increase adiponectin secretion, which shrinks inflamed fat cells.
 
When the health status of fat cells improves, it increases insulin sensitivity, which further enhances glucose utilization and fat burning, thus helping you achieve a healthier weight!)

As we age, the ability of the body to store and remove fats slows down, causing the body to gain excessive fat, especially if we do not adjust to this slowdown. 

But worry not, recent scientific studies have also shown that piperine shows promising anti-obesity effects that interfere with the activity of genes responsible for the formation of new, mature fat cells. A research team led by Park, Ui-Hyun et al. in 2012 showed that piperine has the ability to interfere with the genes that help form fat cells, potentially reducing the chance for obesity.

04: A prime fuel for sustaining energy during exercise 

Nutrient for mitochondria (the powerhouse of body cells)

OPTI-Cap in combination with exercise had the greatest effect than with exercise or supplementation alone. The working theory for body fat reduction is to increase lipid metabolism (effective fat burning) in muscles, synergize with exercise.

OPTI-Cap’s powerful antioxidant property appears to protect muscle mitochondria against oxidative stress. This helps to lower lactic acid production, reduce muscle fatigue and soreness, which makes exercise less daunting, keeping you to stay motivated.

OPTI-Cap also functions to produce a cleaner source of energy (ATP) for muscle cells, which effectively improves muscle strength and endurance, and because of this uniqueness, this is the preferred supplement for athletes, coaches, and trainers.

Therefore, it can be said that OPTI-Cap in combination with exercise promotes lipid metabolism or “fat-burning”, without creating a rebound effect.

Table 1 shows the comparison of physicochemical properties between standard Kelulut honey, Kelulut honey in Opti-B and synthetic honey. (Requirements on standard Kelulut honey and synthetic honey are in compliance with Malaysian Standard 2683:2017)

In general, Kelulut honey has higher water content and higher acidity as compared to other types of honey. The presence of various vitamins, enzymes, minerals and plant phenolics in Kelulut honey contribute to its antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory properties.

In contrast, due to the adulteration in synthetic honey with high fructose corn syrup, synthetic honey contains higher levels of total sugar, thus it is much sweeter in taste. The lack of nutritional values and absence of plant phenolics in synthetic honey do not confer any therapeutic values as compared to raw honey.

Impressive Goodness of Opti-B

Your Natural Immune System Booster

Astaxanthin in Opti-B naturally boosts and balances the body’s immune system. It enhances the capacity of immune cells (lymphocytes and phagocytes) as well as antibody production in defending against infectious bacteria and viruses that invade the body. This encourages a faster immune response, and thus a faster post-infectious recovery. At the same time, it alleviates overactive immune response that create unnecessary inflammation3, 4.

The presence of glucose oxidase enzyme, phytochemical components and organic acids in Kelulut honey also contribute to its potent antimicrobial effect5. This is something promising as it lessens the dependence on inappropriate antibiotics use, which prevents further rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). To date, AMR has resulted in 700,000 deaths annually and estimated to reach 10 million by 20506.

Most people consume antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) but found it ineffective, as 90% of URTI are caused by viruses, not bacteria. It is better to try on natural compounds such as astaxanthin and Kelulut honey before resorting to drugs. Research shown that bacteria do not develop resistance to such alternatives. When the body’s defence system is strengthened, it helps to improve productivity in life and at work. 

Effective Agent in Wound Care

Surgeons from ancient Egypt era used honey for open wounds, to prevent infection and to increase rate of healing. The main active mechanisms of Opti-B that are involved in wound healing are its antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory properties.

i. Antioxidant property 

The strong antioxidant profile of astaxanthin that is 6000 times more potent than vitamin C10, couples with the two major free phenolic acids in Kelulut bee, protocatechuic acid (PCA) and 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid11, improve cell proliferation in wound healing process. They scavenge the reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, which protect the cellular DNA, preventing generation of oxidative stress and breakdown of collagen from further worsening the condition of wounded tissue. 

ii. Antimicrobial property 

When a wound is infected by microbes, it could hinder the healing process and eventually cause abscess formation.

Astaxanthin, as an antimicrobial agent, reduces bacteria growth and biofilm formation12. The potent antimicrobial property of Kelulut honey is attributed to the unique propolis-infused content. The anatomical structure of the Kelulut bee itself is also connected with the cuticular antimicrobial secretion in preventing microbial growth, in which the action is more significant as compared to European honey13. 

iii. Anti-inflammatory property 

A prolonged inflammatory response will occur along with tissue damage and delayed healing if the injured wound is left untreated.

Both the astaxanthin and cerumen extracts (phenolic compounds) in Kelulut honey is able to reduce the overproduction of pro-inflammatory mediators, which further reduce inflammation around the wound areas. Kelulut honey also reduces water retention, which lowers the hydrostatic pressure on wound tissue, allowing the access to nutrients and oxygen that are vital for tissue growth in wound healing14. 

Natural Skin Moisturizer 

Astaxanthin has been shown to improve skin moisture and retain elasticity15. Moisture content in Kelulut honey is relatively higher than that of European honey due to the presence of hydroxyl groups. Glycerine, propylene glycol, sorbitol, and vitamins such as vitamins B, E, and K, together with essential minerals like calcium, potassium, and phosphorus, contribute to the hydrating properties of Kelulut honey. This hydrating effect makes Opti-B suitable to be applied as cosmeceutical and skin care products, to enhance skin moisture and prevent dullness 16. 

Easy-to-go Gastrointestinal Support

Both astaxanthin and Kelulut honey are reported to have positive effects in preventing and treating gastrointestinal inflammation such as peptic ulcers, gastritis, and gastroenteritis. With the high antibacterial property, they help to inhibit the culprit of gastroduodenal ulcers, Helicobacter pylori17, 18.

Apart from that, Kelulut honey has the prebiotic effects, which helps increase the population of gut microflora Bifidobacteria for the better enhancement of gastrointestinal health and nutrient absorption19. Consumption of Opti-B can also be useful in the recovery of hydration post-gastroenteritis. 

Unique features of OPTI-CAP