# Weight Loss Supplements?



## Jai (Mar 16, 2010)

Hi guys,

Just wondered who, if any, use supplements to aid their weight loss? If you do, what do you use and how well has it worked for you?

Reason I ask, I've noticed I've gained a bit of weight and it really has crept up on me without me noticing. I've now hit around 22% body fat. Got my better half to take a picture of me front and side on while relaxed and it was really scary. 4-5 years ago I was in great shape, I never really noticed the weight gain. So I've starting pounds the pavement and going to be investing in some decent running shoes soon. Going to make more use of my gym membership too! I do karate 6 days a week already. My diet is improving, as before I was a bit of a takeaway junkie. I'm cutting out boozing too (not that I drank much anyway, as soon as I went past 25 years old, the hangovers took hold). Now I'm considering supplements. I'm aiming for 5-6 meals a day, being careful with portion size and encorporating protein shakes (meal, shake, meal, shake, meal) as I have been advised. I'm about to hit 27 and want to make sure I'm looking after myself and look good before I'm 30, as it's true what people say, it gets harder as you get older.

I'm now considering other supplements to help. I've been looking into Sci-MX stuff and it all looks/sounds great but wanted some honest opinions from anyone who's tried this kind of thing.

Thanks in advance,

Jamie


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## Kriminal (Jan 11, 2007)

Losing or Gaining weight is a bit like 'detailing' your body...

....and as with our cars; patience is your best friend.

I'd say keep yer money, keep up the good work with the diet and exercise, and time will pay you back eventually when you look in that mirror and see a great body that you can proudly say YOU achieved, rather than a tablet overdosed in caffeine


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## MuZiZZle (Apr 18, 2011)

if you can be bothered to do cardio then use hydroxy cut, from ss healthfoods 

if like me you can't be bothered, cut out carbs, and eat 6 times a day and you'll lose weight, keep your metabolism going!


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## ken46 (Apr 20, 2010)

Just done corse of hyperdrive v3 this is a supp but more of a energy/caffine buzz. I think unless you buy a carb/fat BLOCKER then your wasting cash.I cut carbs out / about 80/100g a day and lost just over a stone. But I find my self now watching what I eat and treat to carbs in eve every now and then as gradually ween them back in. Carbs carbs carbs, have you tried hit training on a treadmill?? I hate cardio but 5 mins of this gets the heart racing and your be burning fat even after you stop


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## Kriminal (Jan 11, 2007)

Surely if the OP has already made changes to his 'way of living', ie. cleaned up his diet, and started training, it would be better to analyse how these changes are working first, rather than jumping in with a 'diet' pill ? 

The thing is, I reduced my carb intake a few years ago now, and lost 2.5 stone just by making that change alone. If I would have increased my caffeine intake by taking one off these 'magic' pills, I would merely have been spending money that I could have saved/spent elsewhere.

I'd say, be patient, see how things work with the changes you are already making, and take it from there.

Like detailing - if you use too many polishing products at once, how will you know which one really worked for you ?


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## Jai (Mar 16, 2010)

ken46 said:


> Just done corse of hyperdrive v3 this is a supp but more of a energy/caffine buzz. I think unless you buy a carb/fat BLOCKER then your wasting cash.I cut carbs out / about 80/100g a day and lost just over a stone. But I find my self now watching what I eat and treat to carbs in eve every now and then as gradually ween them back in. Carbs carbs carbs, have you tried hit training on a treadmill?? I hate cardio but 5 mins of this gets the heart racing and your be burning fat even after you stop


Yeah, I use the treadmill. At the gym we have a key which is configured by the PTs and automatically sets the programme for each piece of equipment. At the moment, the treadmill is set to run for 17 mins at variable speeds but I'm dying by the time I reach 10 mins!


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## Kriminal (Jan 11, 2007)

Jai said:


> Yeah, I use the treadmill. At the gym we have a key which is configured by the PTs and automatically sets the programme for each piece of equipment. At the moment, the treadmill is set to run for 17 mins at variable speeds but I'm dying by the time I reach 10 mins!


Dude, if it's any relief to you, I've been going to gym for yeeeears now, and STILL can't use a treadmill.....I just don't DO running 

These things will build up with practice, if you wish, or you could simply try other forms of cardio, such as rowing machines/stationary bikes/cross-trainers.

Once you find what makes you happy, or keeps you interested, stick to it until you're giving it your full 100%

As ken put, HIIT training is a very good method for using these types of equipment :thumb:


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## somouk (Jun 14, 2006)

I tried a couple of supplements to cut fat when I hit what I thought was a wall and found that not one of them did anything for me other than stop me sleeping or make me really hot and thirsty.

There are no tricks Im afraid, immaculate diet, lots of water and small regular meals.


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## alipman (May 10, 2007)

I havent used supplements but when I started to try to lose weight I reduced my calories and started exercising.

How much weight are you hoping to lose?

I then got the bug for losing the weight and, although someone will tell me that I did it the wrong way, was taking around 2000 calories per day but exercising to burn about 500. So I really reduced quickly.
I was running around 15 miles per week.

I am now at the point of almost having to force myself to consume more calories just to maintain my weight as I now run around 23-28 miles per week.
Thats around 3200 calories according to my Garmin based on my current weight.

Some of these tablets may help, its probably a case of try and see, but doing the extra exercise will pay dividends.


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## stangalang (Nov 27, 2009)

Life changes as you have opted for are far better than diet supplements to begin with. Get life right and everything else will follow. Simple changes, cut out beer and take aways, beer is both fattening and slows your metabolism so it's doubly bad. Try to eat the majority of carbs in the first half of the day meaning you use them more readily. Eat brown instead of White, caffeine is good in the morning and pre work out as it raises core temperature, and water and green tea through the day help both with hydration and weight management. Most weight loss pills are largely caffeine and green tea extracts anyway

Hth


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## Grommit (May 3, 2011)

Kriminal said:


> Losing or Gaining weight is a bit like 'detailing' your body...
> 
> ....and as with our cars; patience is your best friend.
> 
> I'd say keep yer money, keep up the good work with the diet and exercise, and time will pay you back eventually when you look in that mirror and see a great body that you can proudly say YOU achieved, rather than a tablet overdosed in caffeine


Agreed !

Although if you wanted to actually go for it, perhaps T5 or Ephedrine - although I am not too sure of the legal standpoint of ephedrine.


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## mr-ponting (Jun 15, 2009)

Ephedrine is illegal however you can get it from dodo chest eze, a pill to relief chesty coughs - you can get it from most pharmacists

A true weight loss pill however is metformin
It's a pill used to lower blood glucose levels by diabetics. This in turn reduces sugar cravings and keeps the sugar levels in your blood at a constant level instead of getting insulin spikes from eating carbs. Insulin as you might not know is a hormone release that tells your body to store fat

Through carb cycling, cardio and metformin I've lost 13kg in about 3 months 

HTH


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## David-R (Apr 18, 2011)

I use Thermopure to aid training, although I don't need to lose wait, it definitely increases energy levels, leading to a more focused workout....achieving good results. Can highly recommend, especially combined with good cardio sessions. They genuinely do what they say on the tin. 

edit: http://www.myprotein.com/UK/products/thermopure


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## chrisc (Jun 15, 2008)

mr-ponting said:


> Ephedrine is illegal however you can get it from dodo chest eze, a pill to relief chesty coughs - you can get it from most pharmacists
> 
> A true weight loss pill however is metformin
> It's a pill used to lower blood glucose levels by diabetics. This in turn reduces sugar cravings and keeps the sugar levels in your blood at a constant level instead of getting insulin spikes from eating carbs. Insulin as you might not know is a hormone release that tells your body to store fat
> ...


Ephedrine can also give you heart attack it's a thermogetic or some thing dont use it.People what recommend this will also moe than likely reccomend spiropent glenboottronol(sounds like that cant spell).Used in the bodybuilding world to rip up as they call it.If you do go down this route always make sure you have plenty of water


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## Jai (Mar 16, 2010)

alipman said:


> I havent used supplements but when I started to try to lose weight I reduced my calories and started exercising.
> 
> *How much weight are you hoping to lose?*
> 
> ...


I've not so much set myself a weight loss target, as I'm going to be weight training too. Measuring just weight alone won't give me an accurate indication. What I'm really looking to do is reduce my body fat. It's currently just under 22% which is obviously poor. In the long term I want to get this down to between 10-15%. Once there, I'll see how I feel and perhaps work towards reducing it further. I feel setting a target below 10% may be too ambitions at first. But karate is my profession so I want to be in the best shape possible.


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## slim_boy_fat (Jun 23, 2006)

Surest way to lose weight is to load your plate with your 'normal' helping, then put half of it back - exercising more doesn't hurt either.....:thumb:


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## Jai (Mar 16, 2010)

The supplements I'm considering are Pyro-Mx Leanburn and Sci-MX CLA-1000 as both are APPARENTLY clinically proven, or at least the latter is...I wasn't thinking anything hardcore. I just wonder how much of this stuff working is psychological?


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## stangalang (Nov 27, 2009)

Jai said:


> The supplements I'm considering are Pyro-Mx Leanburn and Sci-MX CLA-1000 as both are APPARENTLY clinically proven, or at least the latter is...I wasn't thinking anything hardcore. I just wonder how much of this stuff working is psychological?


Most are effective as they are thermogens, but like I said you can achieve the same with foods and diet in general. But you still have to eat sensibly and burn more calories than you consume to loose weight which ever or whatever


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## Fin2982 (Feb 20, 2009)

drop the calories, keep up resistance work and hit the treadmill at the end of your session will see you get results.

as for suppliments, Animal cuts work well, but you end up taking 6-7 pills each time. I never got any twitches and my sleep pattern was never effected.

Thermo Grenade works well as well but over a full cycle I found my sleep pattern was effected resulting in me sometimes laying in bed just looking at the ceiling.

I did try one recently called Gaspari Spirodex, I found myself always thirsty, was drinking over 4 litres of water a day, but on the diet I was on I did see good results from it.

most of these fat burners are designed to give results by shifting water weight, it is very rare that you will find anything that will better a decent diet and a well proportioned training schedule


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## ken46 (Apr 20, 2010)

Eat less, move more!!!


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## Jai (Mar 16, 2010)

ken46 said:


> Eat less, move more!!!


Not helpful!

Although I will be hitting the gym more, it's not a matter of just moving more for me personally. I already do well over 20 hours of karate a week!

I wasn't looking for training advise, I was after supplement advise from people who use them.

Repeating my question from the original post, which clearly hasn't been read by some...

"Just wondered who, if any, use supplements to aid their weight loss? If you do, what do you use and how well has it worked for you?"

In the future, can people just answer the question...Also, if supplements didn't work for you, what was it you tried? I'd like to know what products are useless too!


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## Alex L (Oct 25, 2005)

I can't comment on the Thermo's as I haven't tried them yet, but for diet I'm just trying to get my head around the Cyclical Keto Diet.

It seems to be the most popular diet on bodybuilding.com for stripping fat and keeping muscle mass.


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## Alex L (Oct 25, 2005)

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=36497 :thumb:


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## ivor (Sep 24, 2008)

When I go for supplements I use these guys 
http://www.lamuscle.com/products/fatburners
the fat stripper works well and I've also use xenadrine efx this works really well as an aid for cutting but is really best used once you start to see your muscles instead of the layer of fat covering them.
http://www.vit-shop.co.uk/store/p/1691/1/Cytodyne-Xenadrine-EFX-120-Capsules.html


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## prideinyouride (May 2, 2011)

For heavens sake don't use EPHEDRINE. It's an amphetamine and the molecular cousin of SPEED. I got desperate in the pursuit for weight loss as exercise and diet wasn't doing much. I used it for a month and it did no good. As it's not a controlled substance you can't guarantee the quality/contents. I suffered heart palpitations and a severe lack of concentration. From my experience there's NO quick fix, they all have draw backs. Religious diet and regular CARDIO exercise will help you loose it. SWIMMING is great as it used a huge amount of muscles yet with very little strain on joints. Good luck mate!


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## tonyflow (Mar 6, 2006)

Dont think supps will help a great deal mate - I am about 18% bf, trying to get down to 10% whilst keeping muscle loss to a minimum and have in the past tried clenbuterol and ephedrine (which will be stronger than any legal supps you can get) - neither worked wonders, afraid hard work is what is shifting the fat! I think that these types of supp have a place - mainly for Boybuilders who want to lose the last few % before a show - but for "normal" fat loss - just save your money!


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## tonyflow (Mar 6, 2006)

I tried CKD and also leangains diets - CKD did nothing for me, leangains I havent tried properly yet, due to my situation at home changing, and not being able to exercise until early evening (benefit of Leangains diet is because it is a periodic fast type diet, you can perform fasted cardio etc on it which- in theory - will burn the fat away).


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## sargent (Aug 25, 2009)

Here's my 2 cents worth....

I started on a weight loss adventure this year. And let me just say I've wasted a hell of a lot of money on 'supplements' of all shapes and sizes.

The thermogenic stuff - yeah it works. It raises your temperature, speeds your heart rate up and if you're not careful you'll get addicted to the stuff. The downside is, they give very heavy crashes a few hours after taking them. I no longer can take caffeiene based stuff, my system goes into overdrive and won't tollerate it. 

The simple answer, as everyone has said, cut out junk food, eat sensibly and train 3-5 times per week.

In 'weight' terms, i've lost little over a stone. But by bodyfat has dropped and i'm more toned.

The only supplements I would recommend are:

CLA - proven to aid with weight loss
Protein - have a shake after your workout, and take it during the day if you feel hungry.

Hope this helps


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## paddyirishman (Sep 21, 2009)

Ive tried the lazy route (with supplements) and the only one that did anything for me was OxyElite Pro. I cut a lot of rubbish out of my diet as well though and ate small portions often. Part of my problem was not eating reguarly enough. 
I started cycling as well and have about a stone off but my body shape has changed a lot. My clothes are hanging off me


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

Should stay clear of supplements.

A good diet and regular exercise will bring anyones fat down.

Cut out carbs from your diet, eat regular small meals and do weights as well as cardio and within a few months you will have lost a fair amount.

People end up doing one or the other or get bored and stop and start moaning about not losing weight.


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## Shiny (Apr 23, 2007)

Choline Inositol? A body building friend of mine used to bang on about these years back, i have no idea if it is any good though, but i understand that there aren't the problems with side effects like some of the pills around.


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## ivor (Sep 24, 2008)

I've been back in training a month now at the start I used a product called nemesis as it stops the body burning muscle and also had bio activator protein shake in the morning and evening I used to do 15 minutes of 1minute sprint 1 min walk then light weights to ease my body back into I lost about 1/2 stone in two weeks then felt the urge to get back into decent weights and now I'm back up t 16 1/2st but have regained it through muscle I still use protein but have added Nuclear Creatine and centurion all these are by LAMuscle it's the only stuff I will use.

I think supplements including protein shakes have their place and can help a lot whether as a placebo or actually doing the what they advertise there are a lot of supplements out there that don't actually do a lot and have very little research behind them to back up their claims some as has been said like the weight loss ones are caffeine based and one tablet is usually the equivalent to 2 and 1/2 cups of decent coffee the diuretic ones you can trick your body into shedding water by drinking more as the body for all that we know about is still designed to hold food and water incase of famine or drought which is why you find a lot of pro body builder eat little often and drink loads of liquid as it tricks your body into thinking there is an endless supply


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## Killahertz (Mar 8, 2007)

By all means consider CLA, but be wary of branded options as they quickly become very expensive. You need to use a minimum of 2g of active CLA for ideal function. Bear in mind that 1000mg caps will not be 100% active, more like 75-80%, so that means using at least 3x 1000mg capsules per day (some recommend much higher doses). I use and get mine from Just Vitamins.

Thermogenics: I use a combination of ALRI Hyperdrive and Nutrex Lipo 6 Black. I'm not overly sensitive to supps, but both are reasonably potent. What they do physically, beyond placebo, is debatable. They 'work' for me, whether that be placebo or not. I also stack (on weight-training days) with Superpump 250 or Nutrex Hemo Rage. Hemo Rage underground dosing stacked on top of ALRI certainly 'works'


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## Ross (Apr 25, 2007)

I am taking these and they seem to be working well http://www.healthrack.co.uk/cla-1000.html


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## Miglior (Feb 12, 2006)

Jai, from what your saying it sounds like your gym uses technogym equipment? If so get your PT to set you some HIIT programs sorted. Do a few of these a week and it will roll off you. 

With regards to supplements it's simple to me. If I want to loose weight, I want it to stay off and be sustainable for me to maintain. If I cheat and use suppliments to do this, the minute I stop taking them, my body is going to slow down and put weight on more. 

Do I want to be on a bunch of chemicals for the rest of my life? Nope! 

If you do it without the help of pills you can be so much more proud, plus you'll have a benchmark and know how your body reacts to excercise. And you wont need to worry about your body piling weight on after you've stopped the pills. Just keep it maintained.


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