Weight Loss Miracle!!!

[KelvinG]

I saw an ad on TV for a product called Hydroxycut, a weight loss supplement that is supposed to work wonders in achieving significant results in shedding pounds. (Obviously this is only one of many products toting such wonders.)

http://www.hydroxycut.com

What really cracked me up is their disclaimer:

Results not typical. A study...showed that subjects lost an average of 10 pounds in 8 weeks by combining it with a 2000 calories per day diet and 30 minutes of walking, 5 days a week.

Now, as someone who has lost significant amounts of weight two different times in my life, I can attest to the fact that cutting your caloric intake and exercising are major factors in weight loss regardless of whether you take a supplement or not.
In fact, all that most people need to do to lose a pound a week is exercise some restraint in the amount of food they shove in their mouth, and get their butts off the couch once in a while.

And of course, if you don't lose weight on Hydroxycut, I'm sure they claim you didn't diet and exercise enough. DUH!!!

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

I don't care what you say. I'm buying it!! I need to lose about 30 pounds.

 

[Eos of the Eons]

Hey, it's the placebo that motivates the exercise. That's worth millions alone

 

[KelvinG]

Hey, it's the placebo that motivates the exercise. That's worth millions alone

Whatever works I suppose.

I just wonder what exactly is in some of these supplements.
This Hydroxycut product was pretty vague on their website as to exactly what was in their supplement.

Myself, I'm going to stick to my weight loss program that consists of eating well, exercising, and looking in the mirror and ridiculing myself!

 

[Gutierrezs Ghost]

I've taken it, it's not a placebo. It's one of those amphetamine type uppers that makes your heart race, your mind go psychotic, your sleep patterns disappear, and your kidneys go into overdrive.

Other than that, it's great.

 

[Eos of the Eons]

I've taken it, it's not a placebo. It's one of those amphetamine type uppers that makes your heart race, your mind go psychotic, your sleep patterns disappear, and your kidneys go into overdrive.

Other than that, it's great.

Well hey, that would make jabba the hutt lose weight! What are we doing just sitting around...I gotta get me some of that, it will work for sure! Umm, is there a clinic I can go to in order to detox once I lose all the weight. I don't think I'll find work if I'm a junkie. A nice thin junkie, but still a junkie...

 

[c0rbin]

I have an amazing device that will help you lose weight.

It's called a hack-saw.

Get one today at Home Depot!

 

[BTox]

I just wonder what exactly is in some of these supplements.
This Hydroxycut product was pretty vague on their website as to exactly what was in their supplement.

The active ingredient is caffiene. Drink coffee, it's cheaper!

 

[Eos of the Eons]

contains the herbal versions of ephedrine, caffeine, and aspirin - a proven weight loss combination of highly potent drug-like chemicals.

http://www.quick-weight-loss-methods.com/does-hydroxycut-work.html
mmhmmm...

have you heard what ephedrine and caffeine can do to you when together? Weight lifting might be okay, just don't try jogging in the hot sun. Heat stroke, dehydration, etc.

Even with the supplement you have to exercise to lose weight. So just have an iced capaccino and go work out.

 

[Dr. Imago]

The active ingredient is caffiene. Drink coffee, it's cheaper!

Actually, the active ingredient is synephrine!!!



Let's back up a bit...

You see, this is all about litigation. Ephedrine gets a bad rap because a few people (one is too many, I agree) died after taking supplements loaded with this stuff. The lawyers got wind of it. Now, don't worry about the FDA making laws about putting ephedrine in products anymore. Any idiot supplement manufacturer still stupid enough to include it will get the crap sued out of them.

"So," the clever supplement marketers said, "what do we do now? We know ephedra works, and we're sorry that a few people died, but we need to keep making our billions selling something that amps people up and makes them lose their appetite at the same time."

They sat around and scratched their heads worrying in great dismay that their billions were gone forever, until some bright botanical pharmacologist said, "I'VE GOT IT!! The plant Fructus Aurantii immaturus, also known as bitter orange, is loaded with this stuff called synephrine. And, guess what? Synephrine is practically the same thing as ephedrine!! We've solved the problem!"

And, the supplement-manufacturer lawyers said, "Hoorah! There's no studies or direct links to deaths as a result of using synephrine. Therefore, it must be safe. More importantly, no one can sue us with precedent! So, we endorse you putting massive, untested doses of this stuff into pill form and selling it to people so that we may continue to get rich! HOORAH!!!"

And, so goes the cycle until these new "designer-drug" concoctions start killing people too.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Caveat emptor!

-TT

 

[Eos of the Eons]

Thanks for that, I had to laugh. You made all the connections I was still confused on. So, now I go be a lawyer and help people sue for the effects of /deaths from synephrine and make big bucks

So, was it the combination of drugs that killed people or were people just working themselves too hard?

 

[Dr. Imago]

P.S. If people must have their ephedrine, Primatene tablets, if they are still sold over the counter (not sure), have this ingredient in them. Of course, that is really the only "legitimate" OTC indication for ephedra: asthma. And, even then, it is a very crappy choice as there are far better and far more selective drugs out there.

DISCLAIMER: I am in no way endorsing the use of ephedrine in anyway to treat anything. It is nasty stuff. Don't take it.

-TT

 

[BTox]

Actually, the active ingredient is synephrine!!!

I'm sure this is used in other products, but Hydroxycut doesn't appear to utilize this loop-hole. It has green tea extract (with caffiene), galenia extract (hydroxycitric acid) and something called ChromaTech that I can't find the ingredients to. Still searching...

 

[sirenbrian]

Another trick they use is...

...to get the sort of numbers that will grab the attention of late-night-tv-watching fatties, they'll give these pills to extremely obese people. I mean the guys in *hospital* who have checked in for serious weight loss.

A week of restricted diet in a person weighing several hundred pounds will easily produce a loss of 5-10 pounds, so that's the number they quote.

They don't tell you that the test subject was morbidly obese !

It's early, so I haven't got the URL for proof, but I know it's out there. I'll dig it up if anyone asks.

 

[BPSCG]

Ephedrine gets a bad rap because a few people (one is too many, I agree) died after taking supplements loaded with this stuff.

Question: People died after taking the stuff, but was it ever proven that they died because they took the stuff? I mean, think of the thousands (tens of thousands?) of people who took it to lose weight. How many of those people were seriously overweight after years of eating at McDonald's and DQ twice a day? How many of them had systolic + diastolic > 400? How many of them had cholesterol > 400? How many of them already had 95% blockages in three or four arteries? And how many of them decided that if they took twice the recommended dosage, they'd lose weight twice as fast?

Remember the initial scares about Viagra causing heart attacks? It was pretty obvious from the get-go what that was all about. A few guys who were so overweight they couldn't even find their johnsons tried having sex for the first time in years and found the job so strenuous that they had that massive coronary. And it was because of Viagra???

So was this a case of post hoc, ergo propter hoc?

 

[Dr. Imago]

Good points. I mean, you don't actually die from being struck by a car, do you? You actually die secondary to massive hypovolemic shock. So, the car didn't kill you. The lack of blood did.

Cause -> effect. Although I haven't actually reviewed the cases in detail, I think ephedrine fits here. Either way, again it doesn't matter. The lawyers and the jury have determined causality(which, IMHO, is one among the three biggest problems of modern medicine in the U.S.).

-TT

 

[sickstan]

Remember the grapefruit 45 diet? Same ol' shtick.

"What's in this" ----> O
"is in this" -----> .

The fine print revealed that taking the pill and eating a calorie-restricted diet yielded moderate weight loss results. Bleh. Not so surprising...