Q: Hello. I am 5'7 and I weigh 137 lbs. I am looking to loose 12-15 lbs. I have been working out about 5x a week since Jan. and I haven't seen much results. I have been considering trying Ephedra-free Hydroxycut. I was wondering if that would be an ok thing to do, b/c i have heard some bad things about once you get off pills like that, etc. Thanks!!
A: A WORD OF WARNING
It's a good thing that the new
Hydroxycut is ephedra-free: there were too many cases of severe side-effects on ephedra-based over-the-counter products.
"Due to a significant number of reported adverse events, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed regulations for dietary supplements containing ephedra alkaloids and requested an independent review of case reports linked to these products." -- Pharmacotherapy. 2001 May;21(5):647-51
Still, the manufacturers advise against using the the product if you have high blood pressure, cardiac arrhythmias, heart, liver, kidney, or psychiatric disease, stroke, angina, diabetes, asthma, nervousness, anxiety, depression, seizure disorder, peptic ulcers, or if you are using any prescription or over-the-counter drug, or if you are sensitive to the effects of caffeine.
ACTIVE INGREDIENTS
There are two main active ingredients in Ephedra-free
Hydroxycut: extract from Garcinia cambogia and green tea extract. Medical science's conclusion about their efficacy is: they do work, but their success depends on many factors. Naturally, infomercial articles published in Men's Fitness and Flex magazines in 2003 described only pros with no mentioning of any cons.
For example:
"A study conducted on the primary ingredient in ephedra-free HYDROXYCUT (calcium/potassium salt of 60% extract from Garcinia cambogia) showed that subjects lost an average of 10 pounds in 8 weeks by combining it with a 2000-calorie-per-day diet and 30 minutes of walking, 5 days per week."
This might be true. Unfortunately, they don't cite the original article so I can't tell what it was that the subjects were compared with: how much weight the control group (without Hydroxycut) on the same diet and exercise plan lost, what was the initial weight and exercise habits of the subjects -- and that all matters a lot.
GREEN TEA EXTRACT
The
Green Tea ingredient seems to have a more favorable scientific coverage.
"In one study, subjects who consumed key ingredients found in HYDROXYCUT (green tea containing 90 mg of EGCG and a total of 200 mg of caffeine) showed an average daily caloric expenditure 158 kcal higher than when using a placebo (2410 kcals/day vs. 2252 kcals/day)" wrote Flex magazine in May 2003.
This observation is supported by many studies published in peer-reviewed medical journals describing the two major effects of green tea:
1. Green tea increased the 24-h energy expenditure (Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2002 Mar;42(2):163-78.)
2. Green tea reduced body fat build up caused by high-fat diet (J Nutr Biochem. 2003 Nov;14(11):671-6.)
However, it also depends. The fat burning effects of green tea were more prominent in subjects with higher initial body fat content. (J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo). 2003 Dec;49(6):437-41.)
Here we come to your question about what happens after you lose the weight you wanted to lose. Good news! Researchers from the Netherlands observed that weight maintenance after 7.5 % body-weight loss was not affected by green tea treatment.
GARCINIA CAMBOGIA
The active compound of the Garcinia ingredient, hydroxycitric acid (this is where the name "Hydroxycut" came from) is obtained from a plant native to India, Garcinia cambogia. Hydroxycitric acid was first described in the late 1960s when it's been demonstrated that it inhibited NEW body fat storing, suppressed food intake, and decreased body weight gain in experimental animals (JAMA Vol. 280 No. 18, November 11, 1998.) Note that nothing was said about burning the OLD body fat.
When a double-blind controlled study was conducted on humans, there were no significant differences in weight loss between those who received 3 grams of Garcinia (containing 50% hydroxycitric acid) a day and those who received a placebo.
To explain the trial settings: "placebo" is a non-active substance of same appearance as the active drug, sort of a "sugar pill."
"Double-blind" means that subject didn't know what they were receiving: active or non-active pills PLUS the doctors also didn't know which subjects were receiving what, only the person behind the scenes knew -- but he or she didn't have contact doctors and subjects. It often happens in pharmaceutical trials that without double-blind placebo control, a drug influences subjects, but with double-blind it fails -- meaning that doctors and/or subjects' mind(s) are at work, rather than the chemical properties of the drug in question.
Two other double-blind trials seemed to show effects in favor of treatment with G. cambogia compared with placebo but they were never published (cited in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 79, No. 4, 529-536, April 2004)
"Overall, the evidence for G. cambogia is not compelling," concluded M. Pittler and E. Ernst, researchers from Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, United Kingdom.
