Bought Controlled Labs REDuction
Just bought Controlled Labs REDuction. Let's see how it goes. :)
I will post again to give my 2 cents, about the product.
Which fat burner would you recommend for an overweight ectomorph?
I'm 39 years old, 5' 9" or 5'10" tall, weigh about 79 Kg (175 lb or 12 1/2 stone), and am essentially ectomorphic (6 1/4" wrists, skinny forearms, narrow shoulders, etc) although I seem to have much more strength in my legs than in my upper body.
I did no exercise at all in the first 20 years after leaving school. Ironically though, I started reading things like Muscle & Fitness and Flex on & off when I was about 19 or 20. I was always too lazy to do any exercise though. I stayed very skinny until I was in my late 20s when I started to slowly put on the pounds, until I reached the 89 Kg (196 lb or 14 stone) I weighed 2 years ago.
I joined a gym in January of 2008. Since then, (according to a BMI chart) I've shifted from the high end of the "overweight" zone towards the low end. I've obviously still a long way to go though! Of course if I could wave a magic wand I'd have Arnold's body in 1973, Sergio's in 1969 (incredible!) or Ron Coleman's now, but I have exactly the opposite type of genetics to these guys & I'm far too old as well! I'll never be a "proper" bodybuilder but obviously I want to have as little fat and as much muscle as possible!
I train 3 times a week - about 45 minutes of cardio (treadmill, cycle & cross-trainer, or a spinning class) followed by about 90 minutes of leisurely weights/machines. I alternate between back/legs and arms/chest/shoulders/abs every time I go. I've put on a bit of muscle in the almost 2 years I've been training (although not so much that anyone's noticed apart from me!) and I've lost much of my belly, and I do look much thinner generally, especially noticeable in the face.
My diet is reasonable - never any junk food or cakes/sweets/biscuits or fried food etc, very little red meat, raw wholegrain oats with rice milk for breakfast, soup & a tuna salad sandwich for lunch most days, chicken or salmon or pasta in the evening. I do love pizza but they're normally small & only have veg & garlic as toppings. I do crave carbs most of the time though, and I know I eat too many carbs & not enough fruit & veg. Fruit wise it's normally blackberries/raspberries/apples/grapes or similar. I love tomatoes too and the odd glass of pure pink grapefruit juice. It's wholemeal bread at home, although during the week the local sandwich shop only has white.
For about 6 months I've been taking Maximuscle Promax Diet (a 215 calorie-per-serving whey protein shake) maybe 4 times a week, normally about an hour before I train (which is usually after work, in the evenings) plus occasionally on non-training days too. I quite like the taste, it mixes ok, and is designed for people like myself who want to prioritise fat loss over muscle gain. It contains the green tea, caffeine, etc that seem to be "de rigueur", and presumably is doing me no harm.
Other supplements that I take (every day) are Solgar VM-75 (a multivitamin/multimineral), 1000 mg of Solgar L-Lysine, and the following, all to combat "atypical" depression: 1000 ?g Solgar Chromium Picolinate, 1000 mg Dr. Tolonen's E-EPA (a vacuum distilled Omega 3 fatty acid that contains no DHA) and 500 mg of Doctor's Best D-Phenylalanine (1000 mg since 5 weeks ago). Conveniently, I've seen the last 3 occasionally listed as ingredients in different supplements that are supposed to promote fat loss/muscle gain, so they might well be helping my physical as well as mental health.
At the end of June I also bought a bottle of VPX Meltdown from this website, as it seemed to have one of the highest overall "out of 10" ratings (at the time) of any of the fat burners that were listed.
The first time I tried it, I took 2 capsules, but after that I always took 3 capsules (the recommended dose) just at the start of my training. The second time I took it, I reckoned I really felt something, like more energy or the cardio being easier. Generally though, the only consistent & reliable effects have been excess sweating (I sweat too much anyway due to taking 75 mg of Venlafaxine per day) and very mild nausea. The very slight nausea is probably in part due to working out hard, plus the high amount of caffeine in my system at the time (there's 126 mg from the Promax Diet plus what's in the Meltdown). I'm not a regular caffeine user anyway - I never drink tea or coffee, (although I have the occasional Diet Coke) so I'm not exactly used to it every day. I occasionally got very mild "shakes" as well. The sweating/nausea/shakes might often be accompanied by a feeling of being slightly wired or energised, but it might have just been wishful thinking or the placebo effect. Apart from that one time, I never felt "wow - my regular exertions feel easier 'cos of this stuff!".
I finished the bottle a few weeks ago, and I want to try something else, but I just can't decide between the bewildering array of alternatives that also have very high ratings.
Things like Purple Wraath, White Flood, VPX Liquid Clenbutrx Hardcore, etc all get rave reviews from dozens of people, but there's no guarantee that I'll get any positive benefit from any of them. I'm not wealthy, plus shipping to the UK isn't cheap, so I want to make the right choice with my next purchase.
What I'm hoping for is that someone out there will have been in a similar position to me (perhaps even with the same bodytype/metabolism etc) will have got the same effects from Meltdown as me, then will have tried something else that they found was fantastic. Other things being equal, if this other person is constructed in a similar way (biochemically/genetically or whatever) to me, then chances are that I'll also get good results from what works well for them! So if anyone out there having read all this says to themselves "wow - he's SO like me - he needs to start taking such-and-such straight away!" then please let me know!
Having said all that, part of me has a strong instinct to try something this time round that focuses on colon cleansing and generally clearing out internal toxins & other garbage as a way to lose weight. There seem to be a lot of products out there that take this approach, often using the Acai berry as a major ingredient (see effectivecleanse dot com for example). There's even a page on this website that takes a not-disimilar approach (search the site for "better_health_inside_first").
I'd also love to know if I should swap the Promax Diet for something superior (another diet protein or creatine shake perhaps?) and if there's an equivalent to it without the caffeine & other stimulants. That way I could take it of an evening when I'm at home, only an hour or 2 before bed, when I get hungry & crave carbs, as an alternative to eating more oats & milk - i.e. carbs!
I DO appreciate that the way to lose fat & build muscle is through a strict diet and hard, regular exercise, not merely supplements. That's the routine I've been on for almost 2 years now & it has paid dividends, but I'd love to be able to take a fat burning supplement that would help shed even more fat than the diet & exercise do alone.
Many thanks in advance for everyone's input.