Hydroxycut? Diet pill....Good/bad????

[akachan]

Anyone know of the values/drawbacks of Hydroxycut? its a diet pill that supposedly decreases the process that converts excess carbs to fat and increases metabolism.

It contains hydroxagen, ma huang extract(herbal form of ephedrine??), guarana extract (herbal form of cafeine)...

I know someone taking it and I don't like the idea of it. I guess I don't like the idea of anything unnatural and unnecessary.

Thanks for your input.

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[DZT]

From what I hear, Ma Huang can be quite deleterious in the long run. Limit your usage time to 1-2 month intervals and cycle it. Use Ripped/Diet fuel until you reach your fitness goals and stop it immediately. Stick to the normal 2 pills a day; dont do more than that or your heart will fall to sh#$. Take Care.

 

[EMDrMoe]

I agree with the unnatural and unnecessary opinion. Stick with basic biology- a quick fix may get you there, but it won't keep you there.

 

[akachan]

What bothers me most is that a doctor is letting my friend take these pills and is not telling him all the facts. If these pills aren't good for one's health, then why is this doctor not saying anything about it!

What specifically will this drug do to one's health? I want my friend to rethink what he is doing. Hopefully you guys can help sway him.

 

[8deuce]

THE PROBLEM WITH HYDROXYCUT IS THAT THEY RECOMMEND THAT YOU TKE 8 PILLS EVERYDAY....

that is alot to ask your nervous system to handle. also inorder for you to not feel bad symptoms , you constantly have to be moving.

if some one takes these you should start with less pils per day and gradually increase to the recommended....then take it for 6 weeks then stop for a few weeks.

cycle the use and remain active.

but to be honest....if you are a student always studying, then has to go to work behind a desk, this is not for you!

you are asking to be a victim of tachycardia

take care!

 

[C U in MD school]

I got a better solution… exercise and diet.

 

[leorl]

no, do NOT Take hydroxycut. Do NOT take anything with ephedra in it IN THIS COUNTRY. This is one of the reasons I want to go into sports med. Because it is a dietary supplement, there is no FDA regulation at all. WHAT is ON THE LABEL may not be in the bottle and actually in the US, there could be 100s or even 1000s % more than recommended dosage!!! I don't know about hydroxycut, but for ephedra supplements, the content could range from having 0!! of the active ingredient to having the full range. While ephedra has been proven to be beneficial mainly for weight loss, this is in Scandanavia only, where supplement regulation is extremely controlled. However, in the US these negative effects have been noticed, I'll just list the most serious: heart palpitations, hypertension, hyperthermia, cardiac arrhythmias, 34 deaths, and 800 people so ill they had to be hospitalized. And these were ATHLETES OUR AGE (20s)!

There is no real ergogenic effect. Ephedra, already a stimulant is then put with guarana which is almost exactly like caffeine!! BUT, it's a very huge dieuretic. Much more so than what's in coffee/tea/pop. Ephedra also causes nausea, so they put ginger root (or antiemeritics) in there, sometimes they put vitamin B5 in there which is funny because there IS NO SUCH THING as Vitamin B5, and sometimes they'll put willow bark in there too which is kinda like aspirin. The reasoning behind that is so for atheletes, they won't realize they're in pain when they're pushing themselves to the limit.

So essentially, Hydroxycut, Ripped Fuel, Xenadrine...all these products are a bunch of bull ****. Don't succumb to what they say, they're just exploiting the consumer and people are literally throwing money at them. Sorry for the language, this industry makes me really mad.

 

[FSUMED]

These drugs are NOT really for you average fatty looking to lose 50 pounds. In this case diet and exercise are the best plan. BUT, they can be quite helpful for people who are already in pretty good shape are looking to REDUCE BODY FAT. So yes, while they may work for people in general to lose weight, I dont really think it is worth it. But if you have a decent body and want to "CUT UP", the by all means. Basically the reason I say this is the person looking to lose 50 pounds is not only going to be dissappointed when the weight comes back after stopping the pills, but they are much more likely to develop a dependancy on them. They are nothing but amphetamines. So be careful.

 

[leorl]

While FSU brings up a good point (i.e. it's not really meant for heavily obese people and that it *may* reduce fat of fairly healthy people), I would not advocate use AT ALL. Diet and exercise best, but yes, easier said than done. People always want that magic pill. But with ephedra, I'd say don't take anything at all because you have no way of knowing what goes in them. These pills could contain no ephedra, to ephedra 1000s of times the recommended dose. The regular joe schmoe has no way of knowing because what is printed on the bottle is most likely false. Actually, they don't even print the amount of active ingredient on the bottles. In case you're wondering, the Scandanavian studies suggested that no more than 25 mg/day of alkaloid (pseudoephedrine/norephedrine) should be ingested per day, and no more than 120 mg daily in total. However, as I keep repeating...you have no way of knowing how much you're getting in these pills that they sell in the US.
If you're really interested in its safety and studies, do a search in a respectable medical journal (i.e. JAMA), there's still thousands of studies currently being done on it. It is a banned substance for amateur sports. There really are a lot more cons than pros for taking it, in this current environment. I wish the medical community could band together against companies and fight for a dramatic and stricter change in the way food supplements are regulated/enforced.

Oh, and just in case anyone reading this wants to try out Kava, DON'T DO IT. It dramatically heightens liver toxicity!

 

[Detroit Mick]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by C U in MD school:
•I got a better solution… exercise and diet.•••••Enough said. Pills aren't going to get you anywhere.

 

[Scooby Doo]

Hydroxycut actually does a lot for you. Definitely physically and psychologically. I was using MD-6 for a while actually and I have another bottle I will be opening up soon.
A few years ago I was taking about 6 hydroxycut pills a day and I was running 5 miles, going to the gym to lift weights, and then going home for food. I was ripped and felt great. I needed a ton of sleep every night but I was able to completely cut out a lot of breads and pasta in my diet and I felt pretty good. That said, it's the only time in my life I have had a very noticeable sixpack. I then switched over to a gaining routine and packed on a lot of muscle. I think the pills are good for some people just don't take them for longer than a month. I prove to yourself you are not dependent on them by doing stuff without them every now and then. Oh, and hydroxycut doesn't recommend 8 a day. It says something like 2 pills twice a day and then work your way up if your tolerance increases. So don't go popping 8 pills all at once in the beginning...

 

[chypes]

I have taken hydroxycut for some time now. It definately makes a difference. It is not right for the person who simply wants to lose weight, but for the athelete who wants to cut up a little it can be great. I have also noticed that it makes me lift much harder in the weight room. The jury is still out on how safe it is, some say its safe, some say its not, the FDA just isnt sure/dosent really care.

I have seen a couple of articles that suggest that the amounts of ephedra alkaloid are not at all standardized, one pill will have way too much and one will have none.

Because of this, what I intend to do when this bottle runs out is buy pharmicuticle ephedrine, caffiene pills, and asprin.

The real truth is that no one really knows how safe it is.

 

[souljah1]

The process in which carbohydrates are converted to fat doesn't really occur that often in human beings. Many studies have been done looking at why diets high in carbohydrates that are eaten in EXCESS of daily caloric needs is associated with increased adiposity. What seems to occur is that lipolysis and mobilization of free fatty acids for beta oxidation is significantly decreased in order to oxidize the excess carboydrates. also, any fat that is in the diet is shuttled to storage, with little of it being oxidized. this occurs b/c they glycogen storage can only store so much glucose so the body preferentially oxidizes CHO instead of Fat in high carb, high caloric diets. so, the fat you already have stays there and the fat you eat is mostly stored b/c the body is predominantly oxidizing carbs.

de novo lipogenesis (carb to fat pathway) is often used by those who feel carbs are the evil macronutrient associated with fatness. if you lable carbons in glucose and then trace them, you will rarely ever see them end up as fatty acids, you'll see them mostly as co2 and in shunt pathways. look up Marc Hellerstein's research on high carb high calorie diets. He is brilliant.

i don't know if my post made sense to you or not, but any claim to reduce de novo lipogenesis doesn't have a lot of relevance in human beings. other animals do rely on this pathway, but human beings don't. making fat from carbohydrate is incredibly energy dependent and seems quite futile if you think about it.

diet pills suck. nothing works better than caloric restriction and increased physical activity. the problem lies in the 'set point' theory which describes how adipose tissue, once aquired, can sense its own loss and send out autocrine/endocrine messages that make it difficult to maintain a loss in weight. once you gain it, it is really hard to keep it off.

Hope this helps.

 

[WarmFuzzyKittens]

just be careful. the semester i took the mcat, i was addicted to diet fuel. it came to the point where i couldn't get out of bed until i popped one. it was a lot of fun, but right now i'm more worried about preventing myocardial damage than staying awake.

 

[Scooby Doo]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by WarmFuzzyKittens:
•just be careful. the semester i took the mcat, i was addicted to diet fuel. it came to the point where i couldn't get out of bed until i popped one. it was a lot of fun, but right now i'm more worried about preventing myocardial damage than staying awake.•••••If you're so worried, ya better lay off those drugs WFK

 

[energy_girl]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by WarmFuzzyKittens:
•just be careful. the semester i took the mcat, i was addicted to diet fuel. it came to the point where i couldn't get out of bed until i popped one. it was a lot of fun, but right now i'm more worried about preventing myocardial damage than staying awake.•••••So how did you manage to get off the diet pills? One of my classmates has been on Hydroxycut for a couple of weeks and wants to get off, but he says he feels really weak and tired the entire day whenever he skips the morning pill.

 

[akachan]

Is it at all addicting or habit forming?

 

[leorl]

I'm not sure about the ephedra itself, but it's often coupled with another stimulant like guarana (like caffeine) which would be addicting. As ephedra acts as a stimulant, it could also be addicting or at least form psychological dependence by people thinking they have to stay on it to stay strong.

 

[DoctorAnnie]

Ok, i have a question to all...my friend kim has been taking hydroxycut....and she has had her period for 3 weeks...can these pills causing the long period?

 

[The Pill Counter]

i can't believe as future doctors, there is such a blase attitude towards stimulant use. they're dangerous, they've caused strokes in completely healthy people, they're psychologically addictive, and the contents are not to pharmaceutical grade. What are we going to tell patients, 'ya go ahead, just read the directions on the bottle...' by the way, the directions are probably written by some college intern on his summer break? what ever happened to diet, exercise and healthy body image? As doctors, shouldn't we be promoting those values, or are we just washing our hands of it?

 

[leorl]

rsk77, MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY. But I think people really are unaware of the dangers of supplementation, especially ones geared towards sports and fitness. The advertisements sound great. They "detail" the theoretical complex mechanisms that the pill/powder/whatever will help achieve. It all sounds great on paper, but it is bull**** in your body. Many either do absolutely NOTHING or very seriously OVERLOADS the system, this industry generates billions of dollars of free money off consumer ignorance. People honestly, most likely you're just being exploited. IF there is an effect, usually there are quite a few side effects as well, many of them dangerous. Hydroxycut is on the banned substance list of the Blue Cross/Blue Shield events. (So is Creatine though, which isn't unsafe taken in the right conditions, but that's another subject).

Cute about the amphetamines, real cute. I don't think this is a joking matter.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Moving to The Lounge...