So, a friend of mine feels she’s underweight, and she wants to make up for it with Ectoplan, which are apparently some kind of weight gain pills, which she found out about on the Internet. She says she eats a lot, but she can’t seem to gain any weight, so she’s turning to pills and the Internet.
I know, I know, I think it’s a bad idea, but she’s insistent on it. She really feels she’s underweight, and she thinks her arms and legs are too skinny. Here’s a website which is amazingly sparse on information: http://www.rushindustries.com/ae.html
So, does it really work? Does it have any serious side effects? Help me out here, folks, I at least don’t want my friend to keel over, and maybe it’ll even help her (ha!).
Just for specific information, my friend is a 21 year old female, weight fluctuating between 95-103 lbs, usually at 96, and she’s 5’4". And her Body Mass Index is 16.5, which is definitely below the 18.5 lower limit of normal.
Anyway, she’s pointed me to a bunch of message boards where people have claimed that the Ectoplan pills worked for them. Forgetting about the issue of the reliability of information gathered from strangers on the Internet (yes, I appreciate the irony), can we assume that those weight gains were probably unrelated to the pills? Or that the “treatment” produced a placebo effect in weight? Or can we think that this miracle drug actually works?
The only way these pills will help her gain weight is to either promote fat synthesis, muscle synthesis or both. The first isn’t desirable and I highly doubt it’ll promote both. The 2nd one is crap BS too since if it truely worked it’d really be a miracle drug.
A sugar pill that produces an insulin spike and a blood sugar crash will spike someone’s appetite, but that’s not a great way to go about it.
I did a quick google to find info on Ectoplan but didn’t come up with anything. Can you possibly find out what the ingredients are from her and post them?
A sugar pill that produces an insulin spike and a blood sugar crash will spike someone’s appetite, but that’s not a great way to go about it.
I did a quick google to find info on Ectoplan but didn’t come up with anything. Can you possibly find out what the ingredients are from her and post them?
Through most of my life I have been underweight and I eat constantly. Every fat person I know tells me how lucky I am :rolleyes:. If I slowed down on my eating I would loose weight.
Perhaps this isn’t the case with every skinny person but I know from personal experience it is possible to take in a large amount of calories and still be underweight.
“How? Simply take one-a-day ECTOPLAN tablets along with our scientifically prescribed meals.”
They’re pushing the pills so much that you can MISS out the fact that you have to do that WITH their meals. How much do you want to bet that you would gain the same without the pills and just eat the meals?
Secondly, you said “She says she eats a lot, but she can’t seem to gain any weight, so she’s turning to pills and the Internet.”
She eats alot but it would take her a day to eat a Snickers bar? Come on now, hun … My momma didn’t raise no fool
*** Though the woman in the ad is GORGEOUS, the first thing I noticed is that she’s a bit heavier than another advertisement would use. But EVERY so slightly. Rat bastards, all of them.
Typical lunch would be a double Wopper and large fries or the equivilent. When eating meals at home I would typically eat twice as much as everybody else or more. And of course high calorie snacks in between.
5’ 11", I was about 140# when I was in my teens and early twenties, I am around 165# now. I had my body fat checked in a gym when I was in my early twenties and it was around 10%, now it is probably a little higher but not much. I am a male and now 31 years old.
She doesn’t know what the ingredients are, all she knows is what’s on that website and testimonials from successful users. I told her I think it’s a scam, but she still wants to use it. She’s already bought some pills on E-bay and they’re arriving in a little while.
I told her to just try eating and exercising more, but she thinks exercise is boring. Oh well, I showed her how to do supersets with her 5 lb free weights, and maybe she’ll do them.
**First of all, whoever keeps saying “try a food journal” has obviously never had this kind of issue themselves. And a snickers bar does not make everyone gain weight if they are eaten! I am 22 years old, I am 5’2 and weight 96lbs. I am also a mother of a one year old little boy. Even while I was pregnant I never weighed over 138lbs, and I ate everything in sight! I have been on anti-depressants (doctors who thought I wasn’t eating due to depression, obviously wrong), kept food journals, drank shakes made for gaining weight (they would have thousands of calories in one shake), eaten healthy, eaten unhealthy (junk food) and absolutely nothing would work for me…the most I ever gained was 2lbs and that was when I was drinking the shakes…but the down side to the shakes was that they would make me incredibly full/stuffed and I wouldn’t be hungry for the next half of the day. I would honestly feel like I was going to vomit at tiems because I was sooo full.
The plus about the ectoplan pills is that they donnot make you full and it comes with a meal plan on how to continue to gain weight, you dont have to follow the exact meal plan( extremely over eating) but its nice to have some pointers for when your pills run out!
And also, all of you “sugar pill” thinkers, here are the ingredients of ECTOPLAN:
ECTOPLAN
Supplement Facts:
Serving Size: 1 Tablet
Servings Per Container: 30
Dosage: As a dietary supplement 1 tablet daily or as otherwise directed.
Vitamin A Palmitate – 1667 I.U. – Daily Value: 33.34%
Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) – 75 mg. - Daily Value: 125%
Vitamin D (Cholecalciferol) – 167 I.U. – Daily Value: 42%
Thiamine HCL (Vitamin B-1) – 45 mg. – Daily Value: 3000%
Riboflavin (Vitamin B-2) – 45 mg. – Daily Value: 2647%
Niacin (Niacinamide) – 15 mg. – Daily Value: 75%
Vitamin B-6 (Pyridoxine HCL) – 75 mg. – Daily Value: 3750%
Vitamin B-12 (Cyanocobalamine) – 10 mcg. – Daily Value: 167%
Pantothenic Acid
(Calcium D-Pantothenate) – 3 mg. – Daily Value: 30%
Calcium (Calcium Glycerophosphate) – 11 mg. - Daily Value: 1%
Iron (Ferrous Femurate) – 33 mg. – Daily Value: 183%
Manganese (Manganese Glycerophosphate) – 3 mg. – Daily Value: 15%
Beef Liver – 150 mg. – Daily Value Not Established
Other Ingredients: Microcrystalline Cellulose, Stearic Acid, Croscarmellos Sodium, Magnesium Stearate and Food Glaze. **
Its basically a super vitamin and for those people it didn’t help, did you actually take them daily and continue to eat regularly…some people may take them, thinking they would take place of a meal or something…not what this is for!!
I seriously despise anyone who thinks that us “too skinny” people are doing this purposely, and that we are delusional for thinking we eat alot!! Do not judge until you have been in our situation, it sucks!! You wake up one week and your clothes fit and the next week they are falling off…your happy that you have put on 5lbs in 2 weeks but then randomly lose 7lbs the next 2 weeks…its not fun!! I have serious issues with my weight…I eat 3 to 5 meals a day…some meals may be healthy (breakfast= oatmeal+toast+eggs) some meals may be unhealthy(spagetti or taco bell) and I eat junkfood(snicker or reese’s buttercups) daily…I drink coke milk, koolaid and juices and anything else a normal sized person does…it just affects me differently
There are fat people in the world that have a really hard time losing weight…so whats wrong with it being the other way around? Just because its not your average problem doesnt mean its not a problem at all.
If you want to gain weight here are the keys. First work out with weights. This will help you stimulate, your body to grow. You will NOT look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Women always say “I don’t want to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger”
It will not happen. He worked out 15 hours a day, seven days a week and took steriods to look like that. A woman working out 30 minutes a day with weights will not get more than toned.
Second is mush up your food. No kidding, this is the real key. Take a On-Cor Frozen Dinner, like Salisbury Steak and cook it. Then put the meat in a blender and mush it up fine. Now when you eat some chips you have a meat dip to put on the chips. It’s delicious.
By blending your food, your stomach will hold more food with no discomfort.
I used to be one of those skinny guys. Six foot and 140 pounds. The thing is absent a TRUE metobloic illness like Hyperthyroidism (and your friend most certainly don’t have that), skinny people compensate. They think “OK I’ll drink an extra shake.” Then they wind up skipping a meal. Which defeats the purpose of it.
If you make an effort to eat more anyone can gain weight, the trouble is, and I’ve know a lot of “I can’t gain weight” people is simply when they write down everything they eat, they simply compensate for extra food, by not eating down the line
Through most of my life I have been underweight and I eat constantly. Every fat person I know tells me how lucky I am :rolleyes:. If I slowed down on my eating I would loose weight.
