Fat Burner or Cough Syrup??

I recently reviewed the fat burner by SAN called Tight. My next review will be of the ready to drink (RTD) fat burner Redline. The tagline for Redline products is "freeze and burn". I'm not actually sure what the "freezing" part is about but I'm sure the "burn" is inferring fat burning. Initially, I wasn't really impressed by the ingredients:

Caffeine Citrate
Caffeine Anhydrous
EvoburnTM (Pure Evodiamine)
N-acetyl-tyrosine
Yerbe Mate
Green Tea
5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan
CAMP (adenosine cyclic 3',5'-monophosphate)
Vinpocetine
Yohimbine HCL

It is a bunch of stimulants sort of like Tight, fat loss by brute force nothing really elegant. I thought that the addition of cAMP was rather interesting. cAMP is a second messenger that is responsible for many things, one of which is lypolysis (freeing stored body fat). But I highly doubt that ingesting cAMP is going to help that AT ALL. Plus it is probably in such small amount that it couldn't possibly do anything (Note: I'm researching an article on supplements that stimulate cAMP so look out for that).

I knew off the bat that this supplement would take away my appetite (and it did) as it has my friends yohimbine HCL and caffeine. Like a jerk I drank the whole 8oz bottle without taking the time to "determine my tolerance level". To make it even worse I took it at 4pm before I went for a jog. Well, I was up literally all night. Man was I wired! I just laid in bed staring at the ceiling for hours. I finally got 2 hours sleep but woke up extremely jacked up and not rested at all. I found I did best with the Redline if I only took 2-4oz.

In the end I only used 2 of the 4 Redline RTDs that came in the package because the taste was awful! It tasted like cough syrup!!! I gagged every time I drank it. Even if the drink was chilled it was nasty. VPX (the makers of Redline) need to go back to the drawing board in the flavor/taste department.

I'll be testing out a free sample of MuscleTech's naNOx9 tomorrow. Now MuscleTech says that "Within 9 seconds of taking naNOX9, rapid compound diffusion is initiated, setting the stage for the most extreme, skin-stretching muscle pumps you'll ever experience." I've never used a nitric oxide supplement before (because I think they are a waste of money) but I'll let you know how it works out.

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Alwyn Cosgrove is a Bad Man.

I've been doing Alwyn Cosgrove's Afterburn II Fat Loss Training program. It is pretty tough but I was able to make it through the first 4 weeks and I felt like I was hitting my groove. However, yesterday I had to change up the rep ranges in the complexes from 8 reps to 4 reps. This coincides with an increase in weight. That coupled with new exercises at lower rep ranges later in the workout (more heavier weight), plus intervals, and the introduction of these devilish things Alwyn calls finishers (we talked about those when Alwyn was on Max-Out Radio) left me EXTREMELY sore this morning when NPR (National Public Radio) woke me up at 6:00am.

With these adjustments in the program Alwyn as arranged for me to become reacquainted with every muscle fiber in my trapezius (he's a bad man).

In regards to fat loss the program is dynamite. My wife even made some comment last night about how I was getting "skinny". I proptly corrected her that the proper term was "lean" not "skinny" (she'll ruin my reputation tossing around the s-word like that!)

Have a great day,
MR

Resveratrol - The New CLA??

The past couple weeks resveratrol has been all over the news. It's popularity and the research that has been done on it makes me think if CLA. CLA? You may be thinking "But CLA is a fat and resveratrol is a phytochemical how are they similar? "

The thing is that a lot of the early work (research) on CLA was done in animals (mainly mice/rats). What we found out with more research is that CLA can turn a fat mouse into Mighty Mouse no problem but it doesn't do the same things in humans. I'm not knocking CLA because studies have shown that it can be an effective agent in the fight against body fat at about 3.5g/day but it hasn't worked in humans like it does in mice.

I wonder if resveratrol will be similar. Below is a quote from a recent NY Times article:

"Resveratrol has been shown, in mice, to double their endurance They also have a reduced heart rate and energy-charged muscles, just as trained athletes do, according to an article published online in Cell. “Resveratrol makes you look like a trained athlete without the training,” author Dr. Auwerx said in an interview.

If this would work in humans this would be incredible! Right? I'm not going to start celebrating quite yet. Plus another thing to mention is that the dosages of resveratrol that they are giving mice are HUGE compared to the average dose of a resveratrol supplement (for humans). In fact the only company that I've found whose product gives a large dose of resveratrol is Rez-V by Biotest. I would guess that if you are looking for the results that they are finding with mice that you would need to take large doses (like they do with mice) and not the small ones found in most supplements.

I'm intrigued by resveratrol. I'm going to start taking it myself. I figure the worst case scenario would be that my health greatly increases. We can sometimes get caught up in all the body composition / performance excitement that has been surrounding resveratrol but forget to realize that resveratrol have been shown to have great health benefits in HUMANS.

And if you're not into taking the supplement....have a glass of red wine. You'll get some resveratrol (not nearly as much as if you supplemented), you'll raise your HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol), but you'll temporally put a stop to fat burning (nobody said it was a perfect world).

Thanks to Aaron W for sending me the NY Times article.

Have a great day (and plan your meals!),
MR