Ephedrine?

Strong stimulant, makes your heart pound out of your chest. Wouldn't recommend it.

Meh. It's excellent for sinus congestion. Nothing else works, at least not for me. It's hardly a weightloss stimulant though. Any appetite suppression is negligible. My heart has *never* left my chest, and I've taken it off and on for over 20 years. Fear-mongering serves no purpose.

I have hideous allergies a couple of weeks during the year. Still haven't figured out exactly what, but basically I'm a faucet. I also "enjoy" vasomotor rhinitis, which is a fancy way of saying exercise gives me a runny nose. It is also apparently excellent for those people with motion sickness.

So I take pseudoephedrine a few weeks during the year. I actually buy it from a sport supplement store. Is super cheap. And I take it with caffeine too because it helps my allergies as well. So it's a "ghetto stack", if you will.

It didn't give me palpitations or murmurations. I assure you I didn't die. Appetite is indeed suppressed (think of the last time you took a tylenol cold and you weren't hungry? Basically same thing). I don't think it would be sustainable for weight loss in long-term tests since your body quickly builds up tolerance - I had to go from 8 mg to 24 mg last time my nose was a faucet (2.5 weeks).

I kept riding through it. It is a known and banned performance enhancer, so I didn't take it during a couple of weekend races (I am not nearly close to elite, but there has been some surprise tests on loser athletes like me).

And YES, ephedrine indeed increases your metabolism. Specifically, it's an adrenaline analog (so it will stress you out, increase cortisol levels, etc.). However, the effects are not very pronounced like with some steroid compounds (e.g. clenbuterol, etc.).

I don't advice its use for weight loss. In my opinion the benefits are very modest, and you can mostly attain the same with caffeine (appetite suppression, extra energy for workouts plus well documented and legal performance enhancing effects). But fear mongering, outright lying, and going "Reefer Madness" on this is an insult to the intelligence.

Here's the for reals...

Stimulants can help provide energy for a workout. They do NOT cause fat loss, NONE of them. I've tried just about every stimulant there is, and none of them work for fat loss. They work for energy. Some are good for sex, others not so much. But none of them cause fat loss. Period. And NONE of them will make your heart jump out of your chest from a single dose. You have reached overdose level if you go the hospital over any stimulant. Don't overdose. Better yet, stick to caffeine and ginseng. They are the safest, cheapest, and easiest to give you a bit of a boost without causing other health problems.

There.

Now.

/thread

stimulants do help with fat loss tho, so im not sure where you got that info from. also caffeine is a stimulant, and one of the most recommended ones for fat loss at that

No stimulants do not help with fat loss directly. Stimulants are basically only good for appetite suppression so that may help with fat loss indirectly but that it due to appetite suppression allowing you to eat less. It's still about caloric deficit.

they also increase your metabolism allowing for a greater deficit at the same level of calorie intake. ever heard of thermogenics?

No they don't increase your metabolism. Yes I have heard of thermogenics and thermogenics are garbage. A waste of money. A product for the supplement companies to make some quick easy money from people that want a quick fix and don't want to put in the time and effort needed to succeed. You can believe if you want that they actually work, I will pick you up on my pet unicorn later on and we'll grab a slice of pizza to discuss your results.

ok bud, everything youve said is based off of your opinion, not fact. lying to this guy about supplements isnt going to help him make an informed decision

on a side note id love to take that unicorn ride with you

How exactly have i lied to him? Look through the thread and you'll see that I'm one of the few people that said the truth and didn't say oh no you will die.

I'm all up for debating. I love it. I get a rush out of it but please at least make it worth my time. Come strong or don't come at all.
If you think this is my first debate on, conversation, discussion on this topic you are sadly mistaken. First hand experience and understanding of what the topic at hand is goes a long way.

as with me i love a good debate

i was just referring to the fact that you are saying stimulants have no effect on weight loss, when there is proof that they do. the same goes with thermogenetics, something based off raising the heat output of the human body. where do you think that energy comes from? the intake of calories, therefore creating a greater deficit.
i agree if you are saying that they dont directly make the fat run off your bones, but they help in almost every aspect that does burn fat

im not sure what else i can say to convince you, other than post studies that back my claims up, which already exist in this thread

again, not condoning the use of them, they are good for some and bad for others, just want all the facts out there because who knows i may reach a point where i want to indulge

Sorry folks but we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one... If something has that kind of risk factor, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone whether the FDA, the Pope, or anyone else says it's safe...

But I guess that's just me. But Im still not going to let my kids have energy drinks either.

Carry on. God bless.

But you're OK giving them cold meds, right? Because the FDA says they're OK, even though most contain pseudoephedrine, which is essentially the same thing.

500 children deaths every year from cold medicine.

Actually no, I don't give them any cold meds. We focus on preventing colds and other illnesses. My kids haven't been sick for years now.

Oh and why take meds for a cold anyway? They usually don't last very long anyway, the colds that is...

Sorry folks but we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one... If something has that kind of risk factor, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone whether the FDA, the Pope, or anyone else says it's safe...

Those saying ephedrine is a high-risk supplement are confusing it with Ephedra - which is a completely different thing.

Ephedra / Ma Huang is banned for weight-loss due to it's negative health effects.

Ephedrine is banned for weight-loss (in the USA only) because it makes it more difficult for people to obtain the ingredient for cooking meth. It's readily available almost everywhere else. Supplement companies sell it by the case-load and there is simply no evidence that (when used responsibly) it's dangerous.

Sorry mate, these are the same thing. Ephedrine was originally extracted from the ephedra plant. Kind of like caffeine from the coffee plant, theobromine from chocolate, etc.

It is, however, much cheaper to synthesize in the lab. (Yes, I am a chemical engineer. Yes, it's easy to synth. meth, or E. No, you shouldn't do it because you can go to jail. No, please don't insult people's intelligence and curiosity by lying to them just because this is an anonymous online forum )

Ephedra:



Ephedrine:

I used it in college (when it was legal) to stay up all night writing term papers. I subsequently had a lot of heart problems and still need to take something to slow it down 14 years later. I'm pretty sure it was banned for good reason.

PS: I did make the Dean's List every semester!

Sorry folks but we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one... If something has that kind of risk factor, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone whether the FDA, the Pope, or anyone else says it's safe...

But I guess that's just me. But Im still not going to let my kids have energy drinks either.

Carry on. God bless.

But you're OK giving them cold meds, right? Because the FDA says they're OK, even though most contain pseudoephedrine, which is essentially the same thing.

500 children deaths every year from cold medicine.

Actually, most of them contain diphenhydramine or phenylephrine now.

it's one of the main ingredients used for making Meth. ..... just sayin... sketch.

The problem is people like this ^^^^ jump into conversations without having a clue what they are talking about.

don't know what i'm talking about? i once exrtracted 6 pounds of ephedrine to make methamphetamine in my using days. You can't buy it here otc anymore. It's not going to help this chick.

Oh my.

op if you're interested in getting more info on the ECA stack you could read about it in Lyle Mcdonald's rapid fat loss book. He covers the topic there. I think things like this are not even worth thinking about unless you have you have the more major aspects of your intake and exercise sorted.(I'm not saying they're even worth considering then) Like jonnythan says, for the sake of maybe 100-300cals is there really any point? Anyway if you make an informed decision to go ahead it is highly recommended that you assess your tolerance to it before going full dose.