Fat Burners?

[setapart]

What is everyone's opinion on "fat burners" like Mega Green Tea and Hydroxycut? I was considering adding one since I have quite a bit of weight to lose, but am concerned about the side effects and their general overall healthiness. Would love some input...

[yakubu]

Originally Posted by setapart

What is everyone's opinion on "fat burners" like Mega Green Tea and Hydroxycut? I was considering adding one since I have quite a bit of weight to lose, but am concerned about the side effects and their general overall healthiness. Would love some input...

lots of fat burners are really bad and no good for you but if you buy onre from a reporatable company such as eas u should be ok.

ive tried using maximuscles thermobol. this is a good fat burner unlike all of the other crap on the market but it still had its downsides. for the 1st 5 days u feel like u are on drugs. now anything that does things like that to me i like to stear clear of even if they are ok.

you best option would be to just use CLA. its a great fat burner and its a natural substance

[ozzo]

agree, some are just excessive amounts of caffene - check the label and suggest starting with half recceomended dose, just to see what your reaction is to it.

Also went with CLA as well.

[setapart]

What exactly is CLA and how does it work? I don't want to be a jittery mess, you know?!

[GregCP]

CLA wont make you jittery. Its a nutrient/supplement naturally found in meat and dairy products shown to reduce body fat. I'm currently taking this and pleased with the results. I've taken Hydroxycut before.....and have been taking it for years (off and on)...in conjunction with diet and exercise, i do notice i lose weight faster with hydroxycut than without it. However, i feel too jittery, nauseous, and just plain crappy. I felt my body was taking a toll on me after years of use, then decided to take a full physical...my labs showed raised liver enzymes indicating some liver damage....i did some research and found out that hydroxycut may have contributed to that. So, i've vowed to never take any fat burner supplement again.....and the safest route would be for me to take CLA which is more of a natural supplement compared to any thermogenic on the market.

However if youre still thinking about using a thermogenics, my experience is that after using it, you will gain the weight back fast- . It seemed my body's own metabolism was altered with my usage of fat burners. I then found myself always going back to fat burners because i'd always gain the weight back and thatss how i got trapped into that cycle.

[yakubu]

Originally Posted by setapart

What exactly is CLA and how does it work? I don't want to be a jittery mess, you know?!

cla wont make u jittery. fat burners make you jittery for a few days beacause they are fat burners - they have been designed.

cla is designed, its a natural product. like creatine is creatine, cla is cla. cla isnt some concoction that someone has invented by mixing ingredients together. cla is just cla plain and simple

[yakubu]

Originally Posted by yakubu

cla wont make u jittery. fat burners make you jittery for a few days beacause they are fat burners - they have been designed.

cla is designed, its a natural product. like creatine is creatine, cla is cla. cla isnt some concoction that someone has invented by mixing ingredients together. cla is just cla plain and simple

spelling mistake there - i meant to say cla ISNT designed

[sshultz]

Originally Posted by yakubu

like creatine is creatine, cla is cla. cla isnt some concoction that someone has invented by mixing ingredients together. cla is just cla plain and simple

That didn't answer the OPs question. CLA in natural form, ie. grass-fed meats, IS different that what is provided in supplements.

CLA is a good fat called "conjugated linoleic acid" that may be a potent cancer fighter. In animal studies, very small amounts of CLA have blocked all three stages of cancer: 1) initiation, 2) promotion, and 3) metastasis. Most anti-cancer agents block only one of these stages. What's more, CLA has slowed the growth of an unusually wide variety of tumors, including cancers of the skin, breast, prostate, and colon. New research shows that the type of CLA in the pills may have some potentially serious side effects, including promoting insulin resistance, raising glucose levels, and reducing HDL (good) cholesterol. CLA is also found in natural foods and this natural form is not known to have any known negative side effects.

Really the best option is to give it a shot for yourself. I used to take Hydroxycut but had severe headaches after taking, especially during workouts. If it took it before a workout, I would suffer disabling headaches. I have also been diagnosed with PVCs (premature ventricular contractions), an irregular heartbeat, which could be a result of using such things as fat-burners, which are known to affect the heart. Now, I don't know for sure that's what caused the PVCs but I can tell you that talking to the cardiologist scared me enough that I won't take anything like Hydroxycut again. It's not worth screwing with my heart like that when I'm doing all this to get healthier. I tried CLA and green tea extract, and I personally did not see enough of a change to continue. However, I'm not saying that will be the case for you. I know some people who have noticed a great difference so it's an individual thing. Give it a shot and see how you handle it. Just listen to your body and pay attention to the signs it gives you.

[Chris]

Caffeine seems to be a very popular thermogenic fat burner, I think because it's natural. Green tea extract is one way to take it, and you also get the antioxidant help from the tea, but you can also just drink it too. Whether it's coffee or tea, caffeine seems to be very popular these days. If nothing else, it's good justification for continuing to drink my morning cup.

CLA is an omega-6 fatty acid. If you think about the "classic farm boy" who could eat piles of lard-based desserts, fried chicken, mountains of mashed potatoes, and whatever else he wants without gaining weight (well besides being large by nature), it's probably in part, due to the naturally occurring omega-6 fatty acids in his diet. Since factory farming has become the norm these days, grass-fed cattle is becoming less and less available. Cows are now fed more of a grain-based diet and the omega-6 content of the meat is reduced. You can still get a nice helping of these fatty acids in lamb, as sheep are still raised on grass diets.

So what's the deal with CLA. It's basically an oil capsule, like fish oil pills. Reports suggest that it takes up to 6 months (or longer) to work, but it does seem to work. In addition to the cancer fighting properties sshultz described above, it helps rid your body of stored fats. There's an exchange process that I'm not entirely clear on, but basically your body preferentially binds to the CLA and releases the stored fat instead. The end result is that it helps you get leaner.

So give it a try if you want, a lot of people swear by it... and probably for good reason. But keep in mind that it's just a supplement (so is hydroxycut) and is NOT necessary for a successful transformation. You can certainly do it without the supplements.

[setapart]

WOW! Thanks so much for all of the info. I've decided against any chemical thermogenics - especially since about 22% of my heart beats are already PVC's and I don't think I would want to mess with that. The cardiologist said my heart is healthy, just a bit irritable and I don't want to irritate it any more! I think that CLA is looking like a much more likely option for me.

Thanks again!

[sshultz]

Originally Posted by setapart

WOW! Thanks so much for all of the info. I've decided against any chemical thermogenics - especially since about 22% of my heart beats are already PVC's and I don't think I would want to mess with that. The cardiologist said my heart is healthy, just a bit irritable and I don't want to irritate it any more! I think that CLA is looking like a much more likely option for me.

Thanks again!

Yeah, same here. It's scary to think that something could be wrong, even when told you're fine. I still haven't gotten used to the feeling of those irregular beats, even after almost 2 years. A lot of people say they can't feel them but I can and it still weirds me out. I do have to say that I started taking Co-Q10 about a year ago and it seems to have helped. I take 50mg in the AM and 50mg in the PM and I don't have them nearly as often.

Thanks for the additional info, Chris. I have to say I wasn't aware that it takes CLA that long to work. After that info and some additional reading, i think it's one of those things that will be controversial as to whether or not there are side effects. So there again, it's a personaly choice. I hope it works for you, setapart.

[Chris]

I used to take CLA, maybe back in January or February of this year... I could have sworn it was working. I switched to another "oil supplement" and stopped my regular CLA capsules at that time, but it was definitely less than 6 months. After reading the article about needing 6 months, I think it was more of a placebo effect with me... but I think it was an effect none the less.

Someone else here (forget who, sorry) has praised it for the effects on lowering cholesterol. That happens much faster than 6 months.

[setapart]

Originally Posted by Chris

I used to take CLA, maybe back in January or February of this year... I could have sworn it was working. I switched to another "oil supplement" and stopped my regular CLA capsules at that time, but it was definitely less than 6 months. After reading the article about needing 6 months, I think it was more of a placebo effect with me... but I think it was an effect none the less.

Someone else here (forget who, sorry) has praised it for the effects on lowering cholesterol. That happens much faster than 6 months.

I know that the doctors in my office often suggest fish oil capsules for people with elevated triglycerides, so it seems a consensus in the medical community that they have an effect on cholesterol.

[winnie]

Originally Posted by Chris

Someone else here (forget who, sorry) has praised it for the effects on lowering cholesterol. That happens much faster than 6 months.

I think that was Lo (Dulish). Speaking of, she hasn't been on here in a while. (although neither have I)