Can anyone answer this

[BillyWilliams]

Is it healthy to use hydorxycut to lose some extra body fat if i wanna tone muscle?

[Tigger]

I would say no, but I don't know that much about Hydroxycut. I'm always distrustful of products like that.

[joel]

Billy - I actually wrote a review for this that I haven't had time to publish, so I'll post it here. It's long, but gives you a good picture for the product.

History of Hydroxycut:
Muscletech came to be in the mid to late 90's. The original hydroxycut was simply the ECA stack - ephedra, caffeine and aspirin, with a bit of Garcinia Cambogia thrown in. It was a great product, if nothing new. The ECA stack had been around for years. For those of you new to the diet pill scene, the ECA stack is itself simply a substitute for clenbuterol, a synthetic adrenaline molecule that in addition to helping shred the last 5 pounds of fat has also been shown to induce permanent muscle damage.

Eventually ephedra was banned and Hydroxycut was and has been reformulated several times over the years until it no longer appears anything like the original ultra potent formula.

So how does the latest incarnation of hydroxycut hold up? First let's examine the ingredients and then take a look at the claims and finally evaluate the product from the framework of a healthy approach to lasting weight loss.

The Formula.

Dose size: quasi Kudos’ to the boys at Muscletech for putting a decent dose in the Hydroxagen panel and non kudo’s for the chromium, calcium and green tea.

Regular readers here at LookCut are familiar with my pet peeve about supplements - ineffective dose levels of key ingredients. So many products utilize ingredients with valid research at ineffective dose levels.

With supplements, assuming there is research behind the ingredient, the first thing you have to consider is 'at what dose?’

Although the formula is proprietary, the primary panel in the product, Hydroxagen, is over 1.3 grams (of which I'm going to guess that a good portion of that are the soy phospholipids), so kudos here. The product comes up a bit short on the green tea stack. New research indicates that 532 grams is the magic dose size with green tea, although I would guess Muscletech would counter that the phospholipids allow for a smaller dose size.

Ingredients:

At the top of the list are Chromium and Calcium, which is really Hydroxycitrate from Garcinia Cambogia. The chromium is there for insulin support, although the dose is a bit small. The calcium in the form of hydroxycitrate is most likely here for appetite control. New research shows additional calcium helps hunger. The problem here is even though there is some decent research with humans showing a very very slight advantage to exercise alone by taking hydroxycitrate, the dose level was 4.6 grams of hydroxycitrate per day! The amount here in Hydroxycut (156mg) simply too small to be considered effective.

Now let’s look at the Hydrogen Plus panel:
So we have a bit more appetite suppression from the products namesake, hydroxicitic acid (Garcinia Cambogia), although the dose is again too small. Check out our supplement index for the rundown of Garcinia.

Gymnema Sylvestra is in there for insulin support. The research on Gymnema is mixed. I happen to be a believer so points here.

Soy Phospholipids - hmmm. Very nice. Phospholipids act as a delivery mechanism, increasing permeability of the cell membrane. The trick is you need a lot of them, so I wonder how much of the 1.32 grams of this panel is composed of phospholipids. Still, this is a very smart (if a few years overdue) inclusion.

Rhodiola Rosea has a lot of good science, mostly in Russian studies. You can check it out in our supplement index. Rhodiola Rosea is basically a catecholamine stimulator. It stimulates dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin. It has also been shown to activate adipose lipase, a key enzyme in fat burning. It's not as potent as ephedra, but give the product points for including it.

Withania Somnifera is primarily a diuretic. You drop a bit of water so the perceived effect is that you are losing weight. I hate this kind of crap. It's simply manipulating the short-term perception so you think the product works. There is one study that points to Withania improving insulin sensitivity in rats, but it's a single study. It's a bit of reach to say it’s in the product for insulin sensitivity. There are a lot of other ingredients that would work much better if that were the case.

Now on to the stim panel, the HydroxyTea.

First up, as already mentioned, the dose is a bit small. Check out this tidbit of research we reported on for optimal dose size.

We see caffeine listed, probably between 100 to 200mg would be my guess - equal to a cup of coffee.

They have included green, white and black tea. The thing that must be said here is Green Tea is good, both for weight loss, weight maintenance and protection against oxidative damage, which itself promotes weight maintenance. There is such a solid body of research supporting EGCG extract from green tea and thermogenesis that we include green tea in our list of weight loss essential supplements. The evidence for Black Tea (Oolong Tea extract) is primarily in mice, where one study showed it reduced abdominal obesity. Another study showed it enhanced insulin sensitivity, while still another failed to show any effect. (There is currently a bit of web marketing slime afoot on the web these days hyping oolong tea as the cure all for weight loss. This is pure douchebaggery, and in another review, we will give that whole bit its due.)

Ingredient Summary:
To understand the current product we need to go back to its roots. Originally we had ephedra, caffeine and aspirin. The caffeine is still there, but missing is the powerful effect on norepinephrine via ephedra, which targets beta 2 fat cells to release their fat.

The original hydroxycut was a very short-term product. You didn't want to be on it more than three weeks. Being primarily the ECA stack, it was quite powerful.

Today's Hydroxycut is more of a refined shotgun approach to weight loss - a bit of catecholamine stimulation, some insulin support and a diuretic with phospholipids as a delivery mechanism. It's not as potent as the original, but this is a product you can stay on much longer and its much safer.

Does it work?:
Ugh. Where do I start? What we almost have with this product is a decent weight management tool - something you can use fairly regularly, but it doesn't quite fit that bill. As a weight management solution, there are numerous other and better ways to tackle that problem, such as using EPA/DHA and getting serious about insulin support with more chromium, alpha lipoic acid, cinnamon and other things. If I were going to look for something to help get off the really stubborn last 5 pounds of fat, this really doesn't fit that bill either. There are much stronger and better alternatives.

Ultimately Hydroxycut is a product that is best for someone who is going to dedicate 4 months to getting some fat off from exercise and diet. If you are going to get serious for several months, this product is a very nice adjunct. It certainly won't hurt and most likely will help your efforts.

[ladybird]

Thanks Joel for putting such nice elaborate review for hydroxy cut. i certainly agree with you that it is suitable for people who is looking to shed extra fat in couple of months.

[jimbo]

Thank you Joel. I was going to post a question about it but then I found your great post.

[jhellie_baby]

i don't know about hydroxycut, but maybe as what joel said if you are really dedicated for couple of months then its up to you to try.

[Robin55]

So from what you're saying, a person who is morbidly obese would not profit from using this product. It sounds like it is mainly to be used to just get rid of a few stubborn pounds. Is that correct?

[joel]

If you are morbidly obese, your first stop is your doctor. Having lost a family member to obesity, via a liver problem, my strong suggestion is to get with your doctor to understand if an underlying medical reason, such as impaired liver function, is driving your weight gain

As far as hydroxycut goes, the data suggests this product is best used as an adjunct to an exercise program over a 3 or 4 month period.

One thing to understand about morbid obesity is that your bodyfat acts like a magnet. The more bodyfat you have, the more you are driven to eat and the easier it is to gain weight. There are lots of hormonal reasons for this, but the key thing is to understand that excess bodyfat puts you in hormonal overdrive to gain weight.

[Robin55]

Thank you for the info. I was just wondering. I had gastric bypass six years ago and I lost about 130 lbs. I am still considered morbidly obese and wondered how this product might help me lose more weight. I appreciate your help.

[bangaram12]

i found something for you

Ephedrine is one of ingredients that hydroxicut contains. Then Guarana or caffeine and willow bark or aspirin too. Those are herbals form of caffeine and aspirin respectively. Guarana shows stimulating fat stores or other words, it burns fat. Caffeine increases mental alertness and accelerates effect of ephedrine. That’s why those 3 ECA (ephedrine, caffeine and aspirin) combined are so effective. L-carnitine, which is an amino acid studies have shown to carry fats to the interior of cells where they are burned and changed into energy. Hydroxagen, which help in decreasing activity of the enzyme responsible to converting excess carbs into fat. This means it helps you prevent getting fat. Green tea is placed in hydroxycut too, and there are no bad things said about it. Despite some horror stories you might hear, most people are satisfied with loosing weight while using hydroxycut. The only ingredient, which might cause some side effects, is ephedrine so you should check if that is safe for you.

[Tigger]

Doesn't sound too healthy to me, to be honest. Anything with Guarana in it makes me nervous for some reason.

[joel]

Fair to point out that

A. There is no ephedrine or white willow bark in the current version of hydroxycut.

B. There is no ingredient called hydroxagen. That's is simply muscletechs name for the supplement panel in hydroxycut.

C. There is no enzyme " responsible for converting excess carbs into fat"

D. There is no L-Carnitine in Hydroxycut