I’ve read the past threads on the subject, and opinions varied widely about the safety and effectiveness of the fad diet pills, such as Hydroxycut, Xenedrine, etc. Many of the safety concerns revolved around ephedra, which has since been taken off the market, so I felt safe enough to give them a try.
I currently weigh about 224 pounds, and I’d like to take that down to about 190-200. I was at this weight about a year ago and frankly was quite the sexy beast. I am 6’2", for the record. Mainly looking to take a bit off the middle.
For the last 2 days, I have been taking a generic Xenedrine (the Walgreen’s brand - Xedrale$$). I will post here with my progress and relate any side effects. I will combine the pill regimen with trips to the gym 2-3 times per week for some Stairmaster torture and weights.
I am drinking a lot of water to prevent losing a lot of “water weight” or becoming dehydrated. Other than that, no noticeable effect other than a definite reduction in appetite. I’m not driven to snack all day like I usually am.
CynicalGabe, I’m glad for you that you’re taking a very active approach to your health; it’s great that you’re doing it while you’re still very young, this will be a healthy habit to get into!
Ephedra is once again on the market in smaller doses and being legally sold; I bought some a couple weeks ago. It’s already working. I’ve used it before, always in lower doses than suggested on the bottle and never in conjunction w/ any other pills, unlike the MLB pitcher who died a few years back. It cuts back on my appetite and desire to snack and I feel more alert as well. (It also helps me to feel like leaving the house on those days I feel paralyzed by loneliness.) Doesn’t help my handwriting look any better, but them’s the breaks. I want to fit in all the clothes I looked good in before the Desk Job*. I’m drinking lots of water, too, and taking vitamins. I’m also still eating meals, just far smaller portions and making each meal as healthy as I can.
I understand the risks of ephedra and will be on the lookout for anything untoward. It’s still far more dangerous to my health to take up smoking, but you’ll notice no one’s making that illegal. Ephedra just needed a better paying lobby; maybe that Abramoff guy can go to work for them? ;j
Time for an update:
I’ve had to stop taking the pills for now, because combined with a weird sleep schedule and alcohol, they seemed to cause insomnia.
Benefits to the pills:
-They really did seem to suppress my appetite, I didn’t feel the constant urge to snack. Granted this could be a placebo effect, but I bought the cheap generics, so even a placebo effect is good enough for me.
-I was losing weight at the rate of about 1-2 pounds per week.
Drawbacks:
-Insomnia
-Acid reflux that tastes like alfalfa ( I already had GERD, so they didn’t cause that, just the weird taste). Due probably because I didn’t take them with food.
-Felt a bit wired, but not to a troublesome degree, except as noted below
Several things have thrown me off, including being sick twice. This probably correlates with two duck hunting trips (the first time I typed that I wrote “fuck” hunting. hehe), and sitting in a swamp for 12 hours in the pouring rain has never been shown to benefit the immune system. But being sick prohibited me from taking the pills because I’m not going to be both wired and feeling like crap.
The “wired” feeling became pronounced combined with the insomnia, making me feel a bit like the lead character in “Fight Club”.
Once school starts, I’m no longer sick, and my sleep schedule is fixed, I’ll start my regimen again and report back.
Cynical Gabe,
IANAD but I would recommend not drinking alcohol while taking ephedra or at least drastically reducing alcohol intake.
I, personally, am wary of using ephedra at all but if you’re going to do it, please do so cautiously.
One thing that may help with insomnia is perhaps exercising a little during the day. Take a long walk in the morning or afternoon (just not at night) or take a few walks throughout the day.
And yes, I’m going to say it just as a CYA, talk to your doctor before starting any exercise program, yada yada.
There isn’t a complete ban on the stuff in the US, though I think there is in Canada. The stuff I’m taking has lower doses of ephedra than the previous formula of stacker product. I take my last dose around 2 pm, no later, and I wouldn’t typically have anything alcoholic before 7 pm or so. I haven’t ever had any trouble falling asleep unless I take it after 3 pm.
I don’t make up for eating poorly by taking more ephedra either. I am using it cautiously, I enjoy looking good far too much to ruin it by dying.
Not necessarily. Ephedra works quite effectively. It’s basically a (natural) mild form of speed. I’ve still got half a bottle left of the kick your ass potency ephedrine and one or two of these capsules will put a hammerlock on your appetite for the whole day.
I don’t use Ephedra anymore (which is why I’ve still got half a bottle) because of two main issues.
1: It makes you somewhat “wired” and that makes your nerves a bit jangly and buzzy after a while
2: The appetite suppressant effect is entirely undone and washed away if you eat anything other than tiny snack. Eating a big, low cal salad (or other high volume food) essentially destroys most of the suppression effect and you’re hungry again.
Preach it brother! Difficult as it was, I pretty much gave up my favorite libation so I can lose some weight. I need to drop 40-45 pounds and my beer consumption was at about 3-5 per day. That’s damn near 1000 calories a day that my ass and hips did not need.
That’s one of the things that prevented me from ever taking the full strength epehdra products. Has there been similar issues with the lower dose formulas that are on the market now?
Also, does anyone know how well the ephedra free formulas work?
I was actually at Meijer last night checking out some of their diet pills and I am most likely going to return today to give the Stacker 2’s or 3’s a try.
One more question for you; the 3’s dont’ produce an overly “speedy” effect do they? I want the energy and I want to curb my appetite but I do not want to twitch and shake like I have before when I took some ephedra a couple of times to stay awake on long drives.
I’ve never had any kind of side-effect taking the pills (and have taken three at once on a few occasions) except for unpleasant aftertastes but I know at least two friends that couldn’t use them because they made them too twitchy. I’d suggest buying one of the small boxes instead of the large bottles to give them a try.
