Garcinia Cambogia- another supplement

Adah_m

Hey everyone,
I got an email from my best friend this morning with a link to Doctor Oz's new "breakthrough." It's Garcinia Cambogia, and people are making a big fuss because it contains HCA.
The article says it's from Tamarind fruit, but the picture looks like mangosteen, both fruits I had the pleasure of tasting in the Philippines when I was there for business and that are both wonderful.
I just wanted to point out though another instance where the public is totally undereducated about weight loss and calorie intake and how people are just grasping for an opportunity to try something that will make them confident that the weight will actually come off, like diet and exercise alone just can't do it.
Check out this claim:
"One randomized placebo-controlled study followed 60 obese persons for 8 weeks. With a calorie-restricted diet (1200 kcal/day) and an HCA dose of 1320 mg/day, the experimental group lost an average of 14 pounds (compared to 6.1 pounds in the placebo group). The participants also noted reduced appetite."

Let me just say that my calorie goal is 1200 per day, and I'm set to an average loss of 2 lbs per week, and sometimes I lose more because I don't eat back all of my exercise calories. These people should have lost those 14 lbs without any supplements, (of course depending on their starting weight, but the article claims they were obese, meaning probably around where I started on my journey 100 lbs ago, when I had a 1600 cals per day goal.) They could have lost up to 16 lbs or more, on diet alone with no supplements. Just this statement should show people that the supplement is just a placebo effect.

If the supplement does what it claims to do, which is stop the body from converting excess intake to fat, wouldn't it just be good for people who are trying to maintain so that if they slip up, they would have a safety net?

Pretty much, hokum, just like everything else I see. Another reason I'm thankful that we have gotten educated and know what really works, which is just that: work.

Thoughts?

Our path is a difficult one with a lot of ups and downs because we're doing this the right way, but at least if we follow the math and stick to it, we have gauranteed success in our future. Have a great, healthy day everyone!

p.s. Editing, to add the link to the article
http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/garcinia-cambogia-hca

dixiewhiskey

Oh no.. Dr Oz ruins everything.

Acg67

The Use of Garcinia Extract (Hydroxycitric Acid) as a Weight loss Supplement: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomised Clinical Trials

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jobes/2011/509038/

The evidence from RCTs suggests that Garcinia extracts/HCA generate weight loss on the short term. However, the magnitude of this effect is small, is no longer statistically significant when only rigorous RCTs are considered, and its clinical relevance seems questionable. Future trials should be more rigorous, longer in duration, and better reported.

Acg67

Garcinia cambogia (Hydroxycitric Acid) as a Potential Antiobesity Agent



http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=188147

christocentrist

Bumped for reference. Thank you for useful links!