Supplements?!?

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Ladybug_lover
Ladybug_lover Posts: 31 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Anyone take any pills or supplements to help aid with their weight loss? I've tried a couple, but curious what other people use. I'm looking for something that will suppress my hunger the most :)

Replies

  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
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    Caffeine is a pretty good appetite suppressant.

    Other than that...there really are no pills/supplements on the market today that will "aid in weight loss". If there were, no one would be fat.

    If a pill is claiming that it will help you lose weight, it's generally going to say "in conjunction with diet and exercise." In reality, the "diet and exercise" is what is working, and not the pill. So you'd do best just to work on creating a calorie deficit, logging your food accurately, and skipping pills altogether. Save that money for something useful, like a food scale, new clothes when you need to drop sizes, etc.
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
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    Caffeine is the only thing that is legal and might help you out.
  • shagerty777
    shagerty777 Posts: 185 Member
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    A multi-vitamin and two fish oil pills a day have helped me lose 50 pounds...along with proper nutrition and exercise!
  • Ladybug_lover
    Ladybug_lover Posts: 31 Member
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    Lol thank you! I'll try caffeine!
  • Dianesize8
    Dianesize8 Posts: 1 Member
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    I take Juice Plus
  • jennybearlv
    jennybearlv Posts: 1,519 Member
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    I don't take any pills for weight loss and have lost 42 pounds. I do drink lots of coffee, but I did that while I was gaining too.
  • FlufferCat
    FlufferCat Posts: 39 Member
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    You might want to add a fiber supplement.
    You generally want to eat whole foods that satisfy your nutritional needs.But a little extra fiber like psyllium husk capsules can be beneficial.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,583 Member
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    If your diet is correct, you don't need much with supplements. So called thermogenics, etc. have a usual common ingredient.......................caffeine.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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  • cebreisch
    cebreisch Posts: 1,340 Member
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    I would avoid supplements if you can. I did fall into the thing of trying supplements to help speed up fat loss (raspberry keytones, green tea extract, garcenia cambogia, etc.) and it REALLY freaked out my liver. Like others have said, if your diet is correct, you won't need supplements much. If you really want something to curb the appetite, talk to your doctor - or better yet, a bariatric dietitian.

    Focus on lean, quality proteins, and fiber, and that will help you stay fuller longer. That's the better play.
  • farrell16
    farrell16 Posts: 49 Member
    edited January 2017
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    Green tea and CLA are among the most studied and proven weight management supplements.

    a 500mg Green tea extract (which also provides the caffeine) and a straight CLA pill 1000mg x 3.

    Here are a couple of the actual published studies in case you want to do your own research:

    CLA
    • Gaullier JM, Halse J, Hoye K, Kristiansen K, Fagertun H, Vik H, Gudmundsen O. 2005. Supplementation with conjugated linoleic acid for 24 months is well tolerated by and reduces body fat mass in healthy, overweight humans. The Journal of Nutrition 135(4):778-784.
    • Blankson H, Stakkestad JA, Fagertun H, Thom E, Wadstein J, Gudmundsen O. 2000. Conjugated linoleic acid reduces body fat mass in overweight and obese humans. The Journal of Nutrition 130(12):2943-2948.
    • Gaullier JM, Halse J, Høivik HO, Høye K, Syvertsen C, Nurminiemi M, Hassfeld C, Einerhand A, O'Shea M, Gudmundsen O. 2007. Six months supplementation with conjugated linoleic acid induces regional-specific fat mass decreases in overweight and obese. British Journal of Nutrition 97(3):550-560

    And Green Tea
    • Nagao T, Komine Y, Soga S, Meguro S, Hase T, Tanaka Y, Tokimitsu I. Ingestion of a tea rich in catechins leads to a reduction in body fat and malondialdehyde-modified LDL in men. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2005;81(1):122-129.
    • Westerterp-Plantenga MS, Lejeune MP, Kovacs EM. Body weight loss and weight maintenance in relation to habitual caffeine intake and green tea supplementation. Obesity Research 2005;13(7):1195-1204.

    Often people dismiss supplements all together. There is no magic pill lets be clear however; there are certainly supplements that do assist in reaching your goals.... but the key is in the name they are only supplementing what you are already doing... obvious the diet and exercise remain the key... Not sure why people often dismiss them so quickly without at least looking at the evidence available.. Do you need these supplements to get results... of course not but there is enough science available to illustrate they provide help in reaching those goals.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
    edited January 2017
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    farrell16 wrote: »
    Green tea and CLA are among the most studied and proven weight management supplements.

    a 500mg Green tea extract (which also provides the caffeine) and a straight CLA pill 1000mg x 3.

    Here are a couple of the actual published studies in case you want to do your own research:

    <snipped for brevity>

    And when you check the research at examine.com, which is a credible, unbiased third-party supplement research site, the evidence says quite otherwise.

    Summary regarding CLA (studies linked in Human Effects Matrix):
    However, human studies on CLA are very unreliable and the overall effects seen with CLA are not overly potent as well as sometimes contradicting. CLA is a good research standard to investigated fatty acids and the PPAR system, but its usage as a supplement for personal goals is quite lacklustre....

    ...CLA appears to be a good research molecule, since there is a lot of evidence after human ingestion and it was one of the first of its mechanisms (PPARa / PPARy modulator) to be used.

    A pretty poor fat burner, and even more unreliable than it is bad at burning fat. It might make you lose enough fat to compensate for that cookie you had once.

    It has no astounding other affects on health or anything, it just seems to be quite an overhyped and uneventful molecule(s)



    Regarding Green Tea (links to 6 studies specifically regarding fat mass provided):
    There appears to be a fat reducing effect associated with green tea, but it is minor and unreliable

    Regarding fat oxidation (links to 8 studies provided):
    There appears to be a slight but unreliable increase in fat oxidation (percentage of overall calories used coming from fatty acids rather than glucose) associated with consumption of green tea catechins


    When you look beyond the advertising hype, there's actually not much science at all to illustrate that they provide any help in reaching weight loss goals.
  • not_a_runner
    not_a_runner Posts: 1,343 Member
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    OP, if you are hypothyroid as mentioned in another thread, medication from your doctor is all you need (aside from some vitamins maybe).
    I've read that it's discouraged for people with thyroid problems to use many of these "fat loss supplements." You may want to check with your doc to make sure you're not doing more harm than good.
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
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    TresaAswegan wrote: »
    OP, if you are hypothyroid as mentioned in another thread, medication from your doctor is all you need (aside from some vitamins maybe).
    I've read that it's discouraged for people with thyroid problems to use many of these "fat loss supplements." You may want to check with your doc to make sure you're not doing more harm than good.

    If this is true OP then go and get it sorted as this will be a massive benefit for you.
  • ReadyToWorkx
    ReadyToWorkx Posts: 7 Member
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    I drink around 2 liters of water a day, so I'm not hungry enough to go over my calorie goal. I do have C4 and whey protein to supplement though :)
  • farrell16
    farrell16 Posts: 49 Member
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    AnvilHead wrote: »
    farrell16 wrote: »
    Green tea and CLA are among the most studied and proven weight management supplements.

    a 500mg Green tea extract (which also provides the caffeine) and a straight CLA pill 1000mg x 3.

    Here are a couple of the actual published studies in case you want to do your own research:

    <snipped for brevity>

    And when you check the research at examine.com, which is a credible, unbiased third-party supplement research site, the evidence says quite otherwise.

    Summary regarding CLA (studies linked in Human Effects Matrix):
    However, human studies on CLA are very unreliable and the overall effects seen with CLA are not overly potent as well as sometimes contradicting. CLA is a good research standard to investigated fatty acids and the PPAR system, but its usage as a supplement for personal goals is quite lacklustre....

    ...CLA appears to be a good research molecule, since there is a lot of evidence after human ingestion and it was one of the first of its mechanisms (PPARa / PPARy modulator) to be used.

    A pretty poor fat burner, and even more unreliable than it is bad at burning fat. It might make you lose enough fat to compensate for that cookie you had once.

    It has no astounding other affects on health or anything, it just seems to be quite an overhyped and uneventful molecule(s)



    Regarding Green Tea (links to 6 studies specifically regarding fat mass provided):
    There appears to be a fat reducing effect associated with green tea, but it is minor and unreliable

    Regarding fat oxidation (links to 8 studies provided):
    There appears to be a slight but unreliable increase in fat oxidation (percentage of overall calories used coming from fatty acids rather than glucose) associated with consumption of green tea catechins


    When you look beyond the advertising hype, there's actually not much science at all to illustrate that they provide any help in reaching weight loss goals.

    The studies referenced are the ones that are actually approved and vetted by the government of Canada, not a website. I believe the government's database of approved monographed ingredients would certainly be deemed non biased. Although I certainly like what Examine.com does it should be noted even there own website notes that the director of the site Kamal Patel is currently on a hiatus from his PhD in Nutrition, as in not yet completed... not to discredit the information at all as I do like the site but the Natural Health Product Directorate who has teams of PhD's approved those listed studies. And are equally non-biased and I'll put a little more faith in their reviews of the evidence to be honest

    Here are the links:

    http://webprod.hc-sc.gc.ca/nhpid-bdipsn/atReq.do?atid=greentea_thevert&lang=eng
    http://webprod.hc-sc.gc.ca/nhpid-bdipsn/monoReq.do?id=67&lang=eng

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