I “weigh in” on fat loss supplements
by Nick Manzoni

Sparing the irony of only weighing 160 lbs with a 4% b.f. … I’m going to bust the myth of the fat loss supplements wide open. Dropping down 40 lbs of fat from 200 lbs was not easy, but I don’t want you the reader to make it any more difficult to achieve your ideal body by putting your faith in some gimmick. I will start with a story about myself and trying a “fat loss supplement”, something you may have heard of: Hydroxycut.

I was a sophomore in college, I was overweight, and didn’t have time to go to the gym, studying for my nursing degree consumed all my spare time. So I tried Hydroxycut. I followed the instructions to the “T”: DIRECTIONS: As a dietary supplement, take 2 caplets with an 8 oz. glass of water 3 times daily, approximately 30 to 60 minutes before meals (preferably before breakfast, lunch, and dinner). Do not exceed 2 caplets in a 4-hour period and/or 6 caplets in a 24-hour period. Do not take within 5 hours of bedtime. To assess individual tolerance, follow the chart. For best results, use Hydroxycut for 8 weeks in conjunction with a calorie-reduced diet and a regular exercise program. Do not snack after dinner. Consume ten 8 oz. glasses of water per day. Read the entire label before use and follow directions.

Day 1 to Day 3 1 caplet, 3x daily
Day 4 & beyond 2 caplets, 3x daily (I followed the “loading” phase precisely).

Day four was the first day I noticed something amiss. That night, I found it impossible to go to bed, in fact; I stayed up until 7 am the following morning. Fortunately it was a weekend, and I didn’t miss any classes. About a week later I was studying in an outdoor courtyard, when the bell signifying the start of the next classes rang, so I stood up to walk to class…and then landed right on my face! It was 20 minutes of me laying there until someone picked me up off my face and asked if I needed to see a doctor, and I replied I was just simply tired and needed something to eat. It was at that moment I realized that I hadn’t eaten in 24 hours!

So enough of the story, let’s get to facts. Most diet pills like Hydroxycut and Stacker 2 are loaded with caffeine, a stimulant that is actually an anorexiant (appetite suppressant). Most single servings exceed the maximum daily allotment by 1.5 times! 100 mgs./day happens to be an FDA approved serving. Hydroxycut far exceeds that with a two pill serving of 200mgs, while Stacker 2 has less, but more than needed:150mg/serving. Strike one for the diet pill.

Strike two: These pills are designed, and not denied, to increase heart rate and metabolism. The problem is, however; that in order to increase metabolism you need “a workload to increase the threshold of caloric intake”, or basically: use more than you consume. The problem here? People want to work out LESS, and eat MORE… thinking Hydroxycut will cut out the fat because it says it can. Sure, they claim it works in conjunction with a low-cal diet and an 8 week exercise program. But that’s “fine print” stuff, not the stuff they tell you on the commercials. Now what’s the problem with an increase in heart rate? It goes back to my workload scenario. Being in tachycardia (increased heart rate) with no physical stress is considered a BAD thing by ALL doctors and scientists. And that is exactly what Hydroxy-stacker does: puts you in tachycardia. You may be scoffing now, saying that your heart beats faster than normal when you work out….GOOD ! That, and only that, will increase your metabolism. The best way to put how Hydroxycut works on a stimulant level: you just super-charged your car, put plenty of gas in the engine, but all you are doing is spinning your wheels. Meanwhile the same car, with the same gas, spins its wheels slower at first, but begins to move, eventually reaching the same rpms as the first car. The latter is how true metabolism works.

Strike three you ask? The FDA has never and WILL EVER acknowledge ANY of what the diet pills claim to have the power of doing. If you ever have read these labels, you will notice a tiny cross next to some of these ingredients /mg or /dose…†.
Look familiar? That little guy says “we have no idea how much you are supposed to have, but we are going to put in our amount and hope that you don’t go days without eating, insomnia, or passing out”. I’m not even convinced the manufactures know how much of these ingredients we’re supposed to have. And he’s OUT!

How do you lose weight? Simple: smaller sensible meals spread throughout the day, a half an hour to and hour working out 3-5 days a week. Expect a healthy and maintainable 2 lbs of fat a week. Want to know more? Stay with bbpics.com for more articles. Thank you for reading: Stay Healthy!


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