what is peoples opinions on fat bruning suppliments, you know they ones you can find in the shops next the the whey?
i'm currently trying to recomposition my body, i don't really need to lose wiegth per say just tone up and lose the fat and im wondering if these are any good??
do they work or are they just a gimic?? and do they do horrible things to your body??
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Depends - the most effective ones have been taken off the market for being unsafe and potentially doing horrible things to your heart, and the replacements for the ECA stack aren't terribly effective.
Most of them are based around caffeine, green tea, and various hot spices like chilli peppers and ginger.
It's not as silly as it sounds, green tea extract was shown to increase your resting metabolic rate by about 4% in one famous study. Using extract instead of green tea makes sense since you'd have to drink about 40 cups of tea to reach the levels used in that study. And various hot spices can give you a transient spike in resting metabolic rate of a few percent and/or help promote lipolysis like caffeine does.
4% isn't a whole lot, if your RMR is 1500 it's about 60 calories, meaning you increase your daily burn to 1560. Assuming that the various other extras can give you another percentage point or two you might get up to 1575-1600.
This amounts to between 420-700 calories a week extra, or the equivalent of 0.12-0.2lbs of fat. You tell me - is the equivalent of ten minutes of calisthenics a day worth it for you?
Given how cheap green tea extract is, I answered that question in the affirmative - it won't do a whole lot, but along with CLA and some cod liver oil it's a slight bit of help to encourage the body to rely more on fat burning for energy.
There's a whole lot of pricier stuff out there than green tea capsules with more ingredients in'em; and for my part I've opted to make liberal use of cayenne pepper and chili in my regular cooking instead.
Then there's the stimulant-based ones containing yohimbe, synephrine, or other alkaloids that'll get you jacked up and twitchy; they're in a whole other class, and while not as effective as the classic ephedrine, caffeine, aspirin (ECA) stack they do work with somewhat higher effectivenes than the spice-based ones or green tea + CLA which takes forever to work in comparison. But side effects are more pronounced and frankly I'd just as soon add an extra 30 minutes of walking which has the advantage of being free; though Bodyscience has singled out the new Dren as being particularily interesting for contest prep, and thinks that some of the milder ones similar to Lipo-6 (5 now that they had to take ephedra out) can be worth it if you've got diet+exercise alredy taken care of.
Whether it's worth it for you, you'll have to decide for yourself, but I note that a month's supply of green tee capsules (Lean Green 500mg) is about 10 pounds, while Lipo-6 or methyl ripped is about £30-£35.
Most of them are based around caffeine, green tea, and various hot spices like chilli peppers and ginger.
It's not as silly as it sounds, green tea extract was shown to increase your resting metabolic rate by about 4% in one famous study. Using extract instead of green tea makes sense since you'd have to drink about 40 cups of tea to reach the levels used in that study. And various hot spices can give you a transient spike in resting metabolic rate of a few percent and/or help promote lipolysis like caffeine does.
4% isn't a whole lot, if your RMR is 1500 it's about 60 calories, meaning you increase your daily burn to 1560. Assuming that the various other extras can give you another percentage point or two you might get up to 1575-1600.
This amounts to between 420-700 calories a week extra, or the equivalent of 0.12-0.2lbs of fat. You tell me - is the equivalent of ten minutes of calisthenics a day worth it for you?
Given how cheap green tea extract is, I answered that question in the affirmative - it won't do a whole lot, but along with CLA and some cod liver oil it's a slight bit of help to encourage the body to rely more on fat burning for energy.
There's a whole lot of pricier stuff out there than green tea capsules with more ingredients in'em; and for my part I've opted to make liberal use of cayenne pepper and chili in my regular cooking instead.
Then there's the stimulant-based ones containing yohimbe, synephrine, or other alkaloids that'll get you jacked up and twitchy; they're in a whole other class, and while not as effective as the classic ephedrine, caffeine, aspirin (ECA) stack they do work with somewhat higher effectivenes than the spice-based ones or green tea + CLA which takes forever to work in comparison. But side effects are more pronounced and frankly I'd just as soon add an extra 30 minutes of walking which has the advantage of being free; though Bodyscience has singled out the new Dren as being particularily interesting for contest prep, and thinks that some of the milder ones similar to Lipo-6 (5 now that they had to take ephedra out) can be worth it if you've got diet+exercise alredy taken care of.
Whether it's worth it for you, you'll have to decide for yourself, but I note that a month's supply of green tee capsules (Lean Green 500mg) is about 10 pounds, while Lipo-6 or methyl ripped is about £30-£35.
Save yourself the money and work out in your target heart rate zone to
burn fat. I bought a watch to help stay in that zone and it really
seems like a slow rate compared to what I'm used to but I am seeing the
difference. Also, strenght training two times a week instead of all
cardio.
A question. What is the difference between ephedra and the pseudoephedrine in my Claritin-D? Is it the same thing? If yes, I am not sure it has made me burn any extra fat but it does seem to decrease my appetite quite a bit. I take it everyday for allergies and when I don't take it for a couple of days, I am ravenous! It is the only thing that keeps my allergies under control but it I can't lie I don't mind the added appetite reduction either.
Pseudoephedrine has somewhat the same chemical structure as ephedrine but not quite the same effect. The fat loss pills containing ephedra/ma huang relied on the apetite supressant effects of pseudoephedrine combined with the increased fat-burning effects of ephedrine (and the interactions with aspirin and caffeine that extended the effects of ephedrine on fat burning) but had nasty side effects on the beta receptors in the heart.
Considering the amount of users and the side effects per 100,000 reported ECA wasn't all that harmful compared to other medication when taken in the indicated doses - but when it comes to fat burning supplements, people are in general idiots and it wasn't uncommon for people to take 10 times the recommended dose. Which as it turns out is bloody dangerous, particularily when combined with dehydration.
Synephrine, the ingredient in Bitter Orange that a lot of companies are using to replace ephedra in a desperate scramble to find something that at least works a bit and can save their cash cows are nowhere near as effective, has a little less side effect potential and doesn't jack up your nervous system as much, but I've seen a study that says people taking synephrine lost 30% of their 1RM strength which makes me shy away from it entirely ;)
Considering the amount of users and the side effects per 100,000 reported ECA wasn't all that harmful compared to other medication when taken in the indicated doses - but when it comes to fat burning supplements, people are in general idiots and it wasn't uncommon for people to take 10 times the recommended dose. Which as it turns out is bloody dangerous, particularily when combined with dehydration.
Synephrine, the ingredient in Bitter Orange that a lot of companies are using to replace ephedra in a desperate scramble to find something that at least works a bit and can save their cash cows are nowhere near as effective, has a little less side effect potential and doesn't jack up your nervous system as much, but I've seen a study that says people taking synephrine lost 30% of their 1RM strength which makes me shy away from it entirely ;)
Original Post by melkor:
Pseudoephedrine has somewhat the same chemical structure as ephedrine but not quite the same effect. The fat loss pills containing ephedra/ma huang relied on the apetite supressant effects of pseudoephedrine combined with the increased fat-burning effects of ephedrine (and the interactions with aspirin and caffeine that extended the effects of ephedrine on fat burning) but had nasty side effects on the beta receptors in the heart.
Considering the amount of users and the side effects per 100,000 reported ECA wasn't all that harmful compared to other medication when taken in the indicated doses - but when it comes to fat burning supplements, people are in general idiots and it wasn't uncommon for people to take 10 times the recommended dose. Which as it turns out is bloody dangerous, particularily when combined with dehydration.
Synephrine, the ingredient in Bitter Orange that a lot of companies are using to replace ephedra in a desperate scramble to find something that at least works a bit and can save their cash cows are nowhere near as effective, has a little less side effect potential and doesn't jack up your nervous system as much, but I've seen a study that says people taking synephrine lost 30% of their 1RM strength which makes me shy away from it entirely ;)
Interesting. Well, I will take the appetite suppressing benefits and I'll just have to keep up the killer workout (just finished 3X15 Workout B) to get my results.
What about L-Carnitine, I've been hearing a lot about it. It's for proper Fat metabolism.. Isn't it. I'm going to Search it a little more. I've done the CLA, and it's great with a great Fish oil supplement.
I've heard mixed rewievs of L-carnitine; though it plays a role in fat metabolism and does appear to support fat burning, in practice the effect isn't all that great. Though I note that Strikez (who, when he isn't being annoying knows his chemistry) thinks L-carnitine supplementation makes sense.
I haven't researched it in much detail beyond some cursory literature reviews and googling for consumer experience so I couldn't even begin to comment on how large the effect is, but I'd be seriously surprised if it was on the order of magnitude of the classic ECA stack and that's really only a few percentage points more effective than green tea. Though if it makes you burn more energy from fat at a given level of effort, it would make all your fat loss efforts more effective regardless. Hmm.
Think I've got to go read up more on that, actually ;)
Fish oil is one of those things you should be taking regardless of fat loss benefits - the essential fatty acids in fish oil are important for porper higher brain functions. Though you could get the same effect by eating salmon, mackerel or other fatty fish at least 3xweekly, but I'm lazy and prefer to use supplements as insurance ;)
I haven't researched it in much detail beyond some cursory literature reviews and googling for consumer experience so I couldn't even begin to comment on how large the effect is, but I'd be seriously surprised if it was on the order of magnitude of the classic ECA stack and that's really only a few percentage points more effective than green tea. Though if it makes you burn more energy from fat at a given level of effort, it would make all your fat loss efforts more effective regardless. Hmm.
Think I've got to go read up more on that, actually ;)
Fish oil is one of those things you should be taking regardless of fat loss benefits - the essential fatty acids in fish oil are important for porper higher brain functions. Though you could get the same effect by eating salmon, mackerel or other fatty fish at least 3xweekly, but I'm lazy and prefer to use supplements as insurance ;)
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