Getting Shredded with TSN's Caltrim 1000 and L-Carnitine Plus

[abendm]

Hello BB'ers,

This is my first supplement log, so be gentle. This first post will contain a lot of background, so it'll be kind of long. I'm starting this log at 191 pounds and around 14% bodyfat. When I got the supps I was around 193 pounds. As my weight jumps quite a bit depending on carb intake, it'll be most useful to compare weekly or even monthly changes.

Background

I started my transformation in August of 2011, weighing in at 311 pounds. The first 40 or so pounds came off with ease, all I did was maintain a caloric deficit and I was losing 3-4 pounds a week. Once I discovered training and BBing in general the weight-loss slowed, but I knew I was preserving my LBM, and as a bonus, I've gotten much stronger. Almost a year and a half later, I have lost 120 pounds, upped all of my biggest lifts such that I'm no longer a noob, and have started to see significant vascularity and definition. Right now I'm sitting somewhere between 13-14.5% bodyfat and can clearly see my top four abs unflexed, my biceps vein runs from my wrist to my shoulder unpumped, and I can see new veins in my calves and one sick one running from my knees up my vastus medialis. However, I still have at least another 10 pounds to go before I get to my goal of 10% before beginning a slow bulk. As losing the last ten pounds is the hardest part of the process, I need all of the help I can get. That's where Caltrim 1000 and L-Carnitine Plus come in.

The Supps

http://www.topsecretnutrition.com/we...en-coffee.html
http://www.topsecretnutrition.com/we...e-blocker.html

Cliffs - L-Carnitine Plus
L-Carnitine Plus is taken every day, preferably with meals. The L-Carnitine is designed to improve fatty acid metabolism. Green Coffee Bean extract is a newer supplement that has taken the fitness industry by storm. As it's newer, there are fewer studies on its efficacy, but evidence suggests that the primary active compound (cholinergic acid) may have effects on glucose metabolism. As I do IF, I will be taking this supplement daily with my two meals.

Cliffs - Caltrim 1000
Caltrim 1000 is a bit more interesting. I actually received the TSN supps a few days ago, but didn't start the log until today as I was a bit unsure about how to go about taking this one. Caltrim has three main compounds: Neopuntia and Innoslim, which are proprietary compounds, and white kidney bean extract. The Neopuntia is designed to bind to fat making it unavailable for metabolism. The Innoslim affects lipayse, an enzyme necessary to metabolize fat. In other words, the Neopuntia makes some fat indigestible, and the Innoslim causes the body to be less efficient at metabolizing whatever fat is not bound by the Neopuntia. Innoslim also affects the absorption of glucose in the small intestine, which means that even fewer eaten calories will contribute to a person's daily intake. Finally, white kidney bean extract affects amylase, the enzyme necessary to break starches down into simple sugars for metabolism. All of these ingredients combine to make the body less efficient at absorbing fat and carbohydrates, hopefully making some of the calories eaten unavailable for use by the body.

To keep it simple, if you subscribe to the notion of calories in vs. calories out (and you should, it's basic physics), Caltrim 1000 reduces the calories in portion of the equation without requiring a reduction in food intake. The idea is (and I'm making these numbers up), if I eat a meal containing 1000 calories and take Caltrim as directed, perhaps only 750 of those calories will be digested, the rest going directly into the toilet bowl.

As the supplement is designed for larger "cheat" type meals, and I do IF, I don't want to affect my main post workout meals. As such, I will be taking this supplement as directed (2 tablets before eating, 2 after) on my 3 cardio only days at dinner.

My Nutrition and Workout Plan
As I've foreshadowed above, I practice intermittent fasting. For those who have been living under a rock, this means I take in all of my calories in a 4-8 hour eating window. Other than that, I get typical BBing macros. Some days I eat more keto-like, others I eat balanced, and still others I follow something like carb backloading (eating carbs only at night). All of this is done merely out of convenience. I will be posting my macro breakdown for the day during each post. I aim for between 1800 and 2200 cals on non-lifting days, and 2K-2600 on lifting days.

For workouts, I generally do an Upper/Lower split, lifting on Sat, Mon, and Wed. On Sun, Tues, and Thurs I do cardio of some kind, generally a mix of HIIT and LISS. I keep track of my workouts, but I don't set my program in stone. Instead, I follow a "movement paradigm." This will be more apparent right now:

Heavy = 3 sets of 4-8, Light = 2 sets of 8-12 (up to 15 for abs)

Lower Day
Heavy Quad Dominant (generally squats)
Heavy Ham Dominant (generally sumo deadlifts for now... sometimes singles, doubles and triples)
Heavy Abs (dragon flags or BB incline crunchs)
Lighter Quad Dominant
Lighter Ham Dominant
Calves
Lighter Abs (Captains chair, crunch variations)

Upper Day
Heavy Push (alternate between vertical and horizontal each workout)
Heavy Pull (again... one workout pullups will be heavy, the next rows)
Shrugging variants
Light Push
Light Pull
Biceps
Triceps

[abendm]

I should also note that I take a number of other supplements:

EC Stack, A multi, Glucosamine Chondroitin, Fish Oil, and Creatine. One of the nice things about these supps is that they're non-stims, so if you don't want that you can avoid it. Conversely, they're entirely stackable with stims, which is what I'm doing.

[qstick99]

Solid intro!

[JacqueAttack]

Great start bro. If I were to choose the winner from Q's thread you would have been my pick as well. Even though you didn't have logging experience, I could tell you put a lot of effort into your app.

Keep up the good work, remember pictures are worth a thousand words

[abendm]

Thanks guys, I'll be making another post tonight with today's workout and macros. I'll also see if I could get my wife's camera for some before pics... my phone isn't that great. Tomorrow should also be a good test for the Caltrim as I plan on eating one giant cheat meal. Mom's making gravy (i.e. meat sauce) and no lifting, so I'll need all the help I can get!

[abendm]

So this post is about yesterday. Started the day with a fairly light pre-workout meal. Mostly fruit and eggs. About 700 cal. Went to the gym and had a pretty productive workout. Notes on names... two of the exercises I did are fairly uncommon, so explanations below. Also, I know my presses generally are kind of weak. Luckily, my physique doesn't reflect that at all, but I'm hoping once I start to bulk, my upper body strength will catch up with my lower body. Being 300 pounds as an adult forces the lower body to adapt quite a bit... but not the upper body, hence the crazy imbalance.

Workout
Smith Machine Seated Overhead Shrugs: 225x5, 185x8, 185x8
Weighted Hammer Chins: 25X2x8, 0x11
Seated DB OHP: 65x3x8
Yates Rows: 155x5, 135x12
Med Ball Pushups 2x12 (no weight)
Typewriter Pushups 2x10
Preacher Ez Curl (one inner grip, one outer): 75x2x10
V-bar Pushdowns: 75x12, 75x10
Crook Raises: 2x40x12
Unilateral DB Shrugs: 95x12, 95x10

Typewriter Pushups: My bench form doesn't feel right, so I've been trying to make pushups a bigger part of my program. As regular and elevated pushups have become too easy, but one arm pushups are too hard, typewriter pushups are a bit of a compromise. Basically, each rep I lower my body to a different arm. Most of the tension in the first rep is over my right arm, then for the next rep it's over my left arm. The off-hand arm is still there to act as a stabilizer.

Crook Raises: Basically you put a heavy dumbbell in the crook of your elbow (like a Zercher squat) and then do lateral raises. It's kind of like a free-weight version of a lateral raise machine, allowing you to do more weight without strain on the elbows or crazy cheating.

Nutrition
Like I said, about 700 kCal for pre-workout. After the gym I went to the movies with my family and dinner was kind of late. Being starving all day I kind of went overboard at dinner. Turned yesterday into an unplanned high-carb refeed. I stopped tracking once I got to 2100 kCal and 177g protein. After that I took in at least 1K more calories, but definitely no more than 1500. It was a great time to use the caltrim, and given that my weight only jumped up 1.5 pounds, I think it must have worked. Normally after a refeed I can jump up 5 pounds due to glycogen formation. I'll be using caltrim again tonight as I'll probably eat about 2500 calories of my mom's famous italian meat sauce. Side note: I totally know that my parents saying "have more" is how I learned poor eating habits, which is why I try not to eat with them more than once or twice a month.

Hopefully pics and another post tonight! For now, off to the gym for an hour of MISS to try and burn off any liver glycogen!

[abendm]

Today went unexpectedly great. 48 min of cardio with an average HR of 150 beats per minute in the AM. My planned cheat meal ended up coming in to normal macros. It was still roughly 1700 calories, so I'm hoping the Caltrim and L-Carnitine took care of some of that.

Macros and Calories for the Day:
1994 kCal
229 g CHO
88g fat
173g proats

[qstick99]

Nice work, always great when those meals you think are going to put you overboard fit within the plans!

[abendm]

Nice work, always great when those meals you think are going to put you overboard fit within the plans!

Yeah man! Weekends can be tough, but it's nice to have a little help from compounds that block absorption and metabolism of the junk I succumbed to on Sat. night. During the week I'm solid, so by next weekend I should see a bit more results. At this current moment I'm sitting at 190 pounds, at 13.8% bodyfat (according to my Omron handheld BF analyzer). We'll see where I'm at next Monday morning.

[abendm]

Today was great. As I wanted all of my post-workout meal to get to my muscles, I only took the L-Carnitine Plus. Tomorrow I will take both supplements as it's an off day with zero cardio aside from the walking portion of my commute.

Macros: 2135 Calories, 166g CHO, 93g fat, 163g proats

Worked out in a different gym without a power rack, so my lower day was a bit different than normal. Additionally, I did quite a bit of brisk walking to and from different appointments in NYC, about 30 minutes total.

Squats: 225x10, 225x10, 275x8, 295x6, 245x8
DB held to chest hyper: 3x85x8
Incline BB Situps: 3x50x8
Unilateral Calf Press on platform: 155x6, 155x6
BB Calf press on platform (i.e., both feet): 245x12
Plate loaded unilateral hammer leg extensions: 2x55x12
Seated Leg Curl: 170x8, 155x10
Cable Crunches: 2x85x12

[abendm]

Tuesdays are gonna be interesting during this log. I have class from 9-6 with basically no break at all, so until I get home at 8 (it takes almost two hours to commute) I basically only have whey and jerky throughout the day, and I have no time to do any workout. As it's an off-day, it seems the perfect candidate for a Caltrim-1000 style meal. That's what I did today! 700 calories during the day, 1400 calories from 8:00-12:00.

Calories: 2090, Fat: 75, CHO: 176, Proat: 188

[qstick99]

Putting in some strong work right there!

[abendm]

Workout yesterday went weird. Was strong on all of my pulling movements, but generally felt weak on pushing. I ended up compensating by doing a lot more isolation work on chest and shoulders. That's the bad news. The good is that I woke up to a "whoosh"

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...uishy-fat.html

This morning I was 189, and my BIA analyzer put my at 13.2%! Tonight will be another opportunity to try the caltrim 1000 along with the L-Carnitine. I plan on following Keto style macros, so I'm not sure if the L-Carnitine will be effective or not (my research suggests it needs carbs to be absorbed... the green coffee extract should still be fine).

[qstick99]

How things coming along over here

[abendm]

A bit of weirdness over the last few days. I had a few days of keto from Thursday through Friday of last week. Weight dropped to 186 as of Sunday morning, but the handheld body fat analyzer put me at 14%... glycogen depletion is a bitch. I figured it was time for a high carb refeed. So... yesterday I woke up at 193 and 13.2% bodyfat. I put on 7 pounds of mass and dropped fat at the same time!!!Z! (not srs).

This morning I was .5 lb lighter, and I'm sure by the end of the week I'll be back down to at most 188. For the ease of tracking progress for this log I will try and get a minimum of 150g of carbs in a day, because glycogen depletion makes this stuff much harder.

Lifts have been good. I squatted 325 for two sets of 4, which ties a PR set during a maintenance period. All other lifts have more or less stayed constant.

I'll be able to comment more on my progress and the efficacy of the supps later on in the week. Today I'll be more or less PSMFing out of necessity (back to back classes 9-6) until dinner, which will be a carb rich affair.

[qstick99]

Solid work on the squating! You seem to be on spot with your program and what you have to get done, thumbs up there!

[abendm]

Last few days have gone well. My weight is back to where it was pre carb-load; but I've been eating 150-300g carbs per day, so I know I'm not glycogen depleted. Lifts have been good as well.

Wednesday:
Deadsquats (hips low trap bar DL) 3x5 at 415, 1x7 365, 1x8 315
Seated Leg Press (selectorized) 3x12 at 310
Assisted Natural GHR: 2 sets to failure
KneelingCable Crunch: 2x12, 1x10 at 105
Unilateral BB Calf Press on platform: 3x8x155

Friday:
DB Bench 3x8x80
DB Rows 3x10x90
Hammer Shrug Machine: 3x10x365
DB OHP 55x12, 55x9
Chinups 2x8
BB Curls 2x12x70
Seated Dip Machine: 2x10x200
DB Shrugs 2x15x75

[abendm]

So, in addition to the post about my workouts, I wanted to make one about the supps themselves. As a bit of background, when I carb-load, my body can only handle so much carbohydrate at a time. When I eat too much carbs in a sitting (or day), what doesn't get digested in my small intestine heads into my large intestine where it gets broken down by bacteria. The result is what I like to call carb-farts. A similar thing happens to some people when they eat beans (some people don't produce enough of the enzymes necessary to break down the complex carbs in beans).

So, after my workout yesterday afternoon I did my typical PWO shake with some carbs, and did so without taking the supps. About two hours later, I figured, why not take some caltrim, just for whatever boost it may provide. So far, other than seeing my weight/fat go down, I've found no strong circumstantial evidence, and absolutely no direct evidence that either supplement was doing anything. That changed last night...

Last night for dinner I had half a box of kraft mac n cheese (I've got the blues!) light prep, 2 soy dogs (my wife is a vegetarian, so I do eat SOME soy), one container of presliced turkey, and two matzos (great cheap source of carbs, stock up now while you can get them for like a dollar a box). All in all, it was about 120g of CHO on an empty stomach, within 3 hours of my workout. The result? Carb-farts. On a typical carb-load day without supplements it takes about 400-600g CHO before carb farts start. To me, this is pretty solid evidence that Caltrim at the very least blocks some of the digestion of CHO.

[abendm]

After a week with no carb loading I am back to a baseline where I feel comfortable reporting. I think last week's carb load did me well though. I'm back to 188 again, but this time I'm not glycogen depleted; I've been eating around 200-300g CHO a day. Yesterday the Omron gripper had me at 12.8%, this morning 13.1. Both days the scale had me at 188.2. Haven't lifted since the last post, and other than about 4 hours of shoveling out of the nor'easter, no real cardio to speak of.

[abendm]

Weighed in this morning at 186, Omron gripper had me at 12.8%. I definitely had carbs the past few days, and hadn't lifted since Friday nor done real cardio, so that's not glycogen depleted.

Had to lift completely fasted (no whey/BCAA, literally fasted) this morning, and while my lifts didn't suffer too much, after a year or so of IFing and trying various things, I definitely have better worouts after a small pre-workout meal of some kind.

Squats: 2x295x6, 1x295x5+2 (i.e., did a set of 5, rest-paused, then did two more reps)
RDLs: 3x285x8
Hyperextensions: 1 plate behind head for 1 set of 12
BB roman chair situps: 1x10x50, 1x8x50, 1x7x50
Seated life-fitness leg press: 3x325x12
"Natural" GHRs: 2x12 (and they were really mostly negatives... GHRs, especially without a bench are hard as fuark)
Standing Smith Machine Calf press on platform: 3x295x6
seated bent-knee calf: 2x120x12
Cable Crunches: 2x85x12

[qstick99]

Glad ypu are seeing some effects and training looking good.

[JacqueAttack]

Great RDL numbers bro!!

[txnbuilt]

What are your reviews on the top secret L-Carnitine? They have the raspberry one also they have a green coffee one. I was trying to look for reviews for both the products but I noticed not only on reviews on bb but also amazon and other sites that the reviewers reviewed ONLY top secret products and gave 5 stars for all their products. This makes the product seem a little iffy to me because how do i know those people arent paid by top secret? I did a search on the forums and i found your thread so I was hoping for a real review. Thanks!

[abendm]

What are your reviews on the top secret L-Carnitine? They have the raspberry one also they have a green coffee one. I was trying to look for reviews for both the products but I noticed not only on reviews on bb but also amazon and other sites that the reviewers reviewed ONLY top secret products and gave 5 stars for all their products. This makes the product seem a little iffy to me because how do i know those people arent paid by top secret? I did a search on the forums and i found your thread so I was hoping for a real review. Thanks!

I get the skepticism... and given that this is a sponsored log, this is kind of a moment of truth for me. I said in my app that I would write a detailed log about my actual experience with the product. Given that, I should tell you that in exchange for my logging I was supplied with one bottle of each of the supplements, but was given no other consideration for my log. In other words, I can tell you that I am not paid, and what follows is my honest opinion.

I don't think one bottle of each supplement is enough to really tell if either one is actually doing anything. If you read the post above about "carb-farts," you can see that I have at least some evidence that the compounds in that supplement may be blocking the digestion of some carbohydrates, but I only experienced this in the context of eating at about a 1K cal surplus. Whether or not this affected my cut in a statistically significant way I can't tell you, but it's something positive to go off of.

The nature of the ingredients in the L-Carnitine Plus are such that there's really no way, subjective or objective, to tell if it's actually doing anything. There's no stimulant effect to report on, it's not like a pre-workout where I could tell you I was more focused, or anything like that. The L-Carnitine is supposed to aid in transport of fatty acids into the mitochondria, and the green coffee bean extract supposeduly alters glucose metabolism, but I haven't been able to find any reliable information on how it does this. Neither could I tell you whether the supp. actually did aid in fatty acid metabolism, alter glucose metabolism, or that I lost more weight with either of these supps than I would have without.

What I can tell you is that since starting the supps on Jan 24th, I have gone from 193 lb 14.2% to about 188 12.6%. Those numbers are definitely quite good, but not astronomical. It's about 2lb a week, and I was eating an average of 2300 kCal a day, so if my true maintenance is 3300 kCal, then the supps literally did nothing. I should say that I don't really believe my maintenance is in fact that high, but I don't have a bodybug or similar type device, and trying to use "activity factors" to determine actual maintenance is an exercise in mental masturbation. I gave up on wearing an HRM and tracking the length/intensity of all exercise a long time ago, the game was never worth the candle. All in all, while writing this paragraph, I think the supplements may have actually helped, but I can't tell you for sure.

Also, the BF% numbers, gotten from a BIA gripper indicate slight muscle loss, although my lifts haven't gone down at all, which is probably a more reliable indicator. I would also note that while I haven't been reporting on caliper readings, supra-illiac skinfold measurements have gone from approx. 13.75 mm to just a hair over 10mm.

[qstick99]

Appreciate the thoughts here and honest feedback. Supplements can be an interesting subject, debate or discussion. I was having a discussion with a friend at work today and we were talking about people we both know who fly through supplements looking for that "magic" supplement. In my own opinion I can say that I have tried a number of supps that I believe have aided me in my transformation to this point but I have also put in a lot of hard work and worked hard on the nutritional side. Supps also tend to effect people in different ways, what works for one person may not work for another.

[abendm]

Appreciate the thoughts here and honest feedback. Supplements can be an interesting subject, debate or discussion. I was having a discussion with a friend at work today and we were talking about people we both know who fly through supplements looking for that "magic" supplement. In my own opinion I can say that I have tried a number of supps that I believe have aided me in my transformation to this point but I have also put in a lot of hard work and worked hard on the nutritional side. Supps also tend to effect people in different ways, what works for one person may not work for another.

Definitely this. I mean, on supps generally, I'm of the opinion that they are generally valuable, and virtually every on I have tried has had an effect of some kind, but sometimes just not enough to justify the sticker price. (this is my general opinion on most pre-workouts; they're nice, but I don't need them for $0.70 - $1.00 per serving). What makes this guy's question so hard to answer in this case is that these two supps I'm logging don't have immediate effects you notice with each dose. With a pre-workout, you take it once and immediately notice increased focus, or pump, or w/e it's designed to do. With EC stack, you take one dose and immediately notice the appetite suppression, or increased heart-rate at the gym.

Contrast these supps, and the results have to be compared on a weekly or monthly basis. What I can say, after the last few weeks, is that the Caltrim 1K definitely has noticeable effects. I had carb farts again last night, and it made me smile . With that said, at $0.90 per cheat meal (oddly enough, best price here on BB.com), I'm definitely going to pick up 4 (since it's actually, less than 90 cents as they're buy 3 get one) bottles before the promo bottle runs out.

For me personally, the jury is still out on the L-carnitine plus, it's just harder to evaluate; and I'm going to have to compare the 4 weeks or so I spent on, with a month or so off, before I decide on it.

[qstick99]

How things going in here

[abendm]

How things going in here

Things generally are well; I just finished the L-Carnitine Plus last night, so I planned on a final post on the log today, but I didn't get to poop before leaving the house this morning and thus couldn't weigh myself. Lifted yesterday, squatting 3x295x6 and sumo deadlifting 3x5x365 along with supporting lifts. I'll make a much more detailed post tomorrow morning outlining my experience and results on this portion of my cut.

[qstick99]

Sounds good, hope the supps were beneficial and look forward to your final thoughts

[abendm]

So I've finished my use of the two supps and I think the cut has been pretty successful. When I started out, I was in the range of 191-195 at around 13.5-14% BF. Over the 5 weeks or so I used the supplements I was able to cut to about 187 at about 12.5. I have to estimate, because as you can see, both the scale and BIA gripper jump around with me on a daily basis. On the last day I used the supplements the scale read 183 and 11%... and then I carb loaded and the scale jumped to 190.6 the next day and the BIA gripper said 12.2%. 185/12.5 seems like a decent estimate. Either way, the gripper is only a decent tool.

What I can tell you is that I definitely lost a bit more weight than I think I would have without the supps; my squat has maintained strength, my bench has maintained, my OHP has maintained, my deadlift has gone up slightly, my weighted chins have gone up significantly (PR'ed at 3x3x60lb hammer grip chins), and my weighted situps have also gone up quite a bit. In other words, regardless of the BIA gripper, I have lost weight without losing strength, which probably means I didn't lose much (if any) LBM, regardless of the BIA readings. I've also noticed improved definition and vascularity.

The L-Carnitine plus is hard to review, you can see my post above for more detail. The nature of it is that the L-Carnitine improves the cell's use of fatty acids while the green coffee bean extract interfere's with the body's metabolism/storage of carbohydrate. There just weren't enough directly observable indicator's of the supplement's workings to document its effectiveness, especially given that I was using the Caltrim which slightly overlaps with it. For the price, if you were interested in green coffee extract supplementation, I would say it's a great buy. I would try using this one by itself to determine if it will work for you (something I wish I would have done myself). I literally am unable to rate this supp on a scale of 1 to 10.

The Caltrim 1000 is another story. This one definitely works, and if you get it now while there's still a promo on BB.com, is well worth it. I just bought 4 bottles the other day to make sure I have it for large meals on non-workout days. Unlike the L-Carnitine Plus, this stuff DOES give objective indications that it works to do what it says it does... namely the aforementioned "carb farts." The Caltrim has three ingredients designed to block the body's digestion and absorption of fat and carbs. As for the fat, I can't say much, I just don't know, but for the carbs I know it works. When I've done CKD's (keto during the week, carb up on the weekend) I would start ripping these nasty farts about 6-9 hours into the weekend carb-load. With Caltrim 1000 I will rip these farts about an hour after dinner. This is direct evidence that even the much smaller amount of carbs I'm eating in a meal (say 100g CHO for a really big dinner, as opposed to 900g CHO on a weekend carb load) are going through my small intestine undigested, and being inefficiently broken down in my large intestine. Even if only one out of the three ingredients in this supp is actually working, my personal opinion is that it's well worth it to head off an extra few hundred CHO based calories from a cheat meal. The only thing I would say is that you should not use this at a work related meal, as the farting can be pretty intense (not painful or anything, just stinky). Also, the farting doesn't ALWAYS happen, I just mention it as I know it's evidence that this stuff works. I'd give this one a 9/10.