Weight loss supplements-An overview

Weight loss suplements have fascinated people for the past 20 years. Part of our fast-food, fast-fuck, fast everything culture makes us want results fast, we do not like to put in the work. At first I wanted to categorize them based on method of action but on second thought i will just run through them in no particular order. This is not a guide as to how to take them. I am against the use of drugs for weight loss. Firstly because I believe if you do not change your eating habits and your lifestyle, when you stop taking these compounds the weight will come back. Secondly because many of them have either possible irreversible long term side effects or fatal acute side effects. Another reason that came to mind just now is that some of them are made in shady underground labs and you do not know if they are properly dosed.

Ephedrine is non-catecholamine sympathomimetic with cardiovascular effects similar to those of epinephrine: increased blood pressure, heart rate and contractility. It has a similar structure to metamphetamine. It is often used as part of the ECA stack, the C and A standing for caffeine and aspirine.

How does it work? It works by increasing the levels of certain neurotransmitters, particularly norepinephrine and dopamine. As a general rule of thumb you should know that anything that raises neurotransmitters will have a comedown effect-in the short term and a withdrawal in the long term.

From a medical point of view it does all kinds of things like slow gastric emptying and increase thermogenesis in brown fat tissue but the real reason it works is because it gives you energy, it makes you feel good and it kills your appetite.

I do not have experience with it. I can not take any kind of stimulant because it makes me pee like crazy. I know this for a fact. At first I thought I was imagining things but then i found this.

"In patients with prostatic hypertrophy, ephedrine can produce urinary retention".

Or this "Vesical sphincter spasm may occur and result in difficult and painful urination"

But this is not the main reason I do not take it and do not advise you to take it. The main reason is the withdrawal that you feel after coming off of it. Another guy who I follow on youtube claimed he had a mildly swollen face which he attributed to the cortisol levels, probably elevated by the use. He made an experiment just with Ephedrine so confounding factors can be excluded.

Clenbuterol

Clen was invented as a treatment for people with breathing disorders. It was patented in 1967 and started being used in 1977. It is part of the beta2 agonist class. It works as a thermogenic drug, which means it increases the fat burning even when resting. It makes you burn more calories than you would normally.

How much more do you burn with Clen? Depends on the dosage and the time since you first took it. Clen builds up tolerance. As a rule of thumb, any drug which is an agonist or an antagonist works on some kind of receptors. When you take such a drug the human body works in the opposite way. In the case of clen, which is an agonist, meaning it targets certain receptors, the human body will reduce their number. So the same amount of Clen will provide weaker results after a while.

It is popular among bodybuilders because it is said to help promote preservation of lean mass during a cut. Another thing that people like is that it slightly reduces the appetite.

I do not have experience with it but that being said i still want to warn you about the potential side effects. One of them is myocarditis as seen here. Notice the guy was only 22 years old.

Clenbuterol-Induced Myocarditis: A Case Report

We present a case of a 22-year-old bodybuilder diagnosed with myocarditis secondary to clenbuterol use.The patient was primarily managed conservatively by the discontinuation of clenbuterol and the temporary use of dual anti-platelets, beta-blockers and…

PubMed Central (PMC)Natassja Moriarty

Another relevant case, the guy was only 25 years old. He lived after a 5 day hospital stay.

Case Report: Case of low dose clenbuterol toxicity

We present a case of acute clenbuterol toxicity following ingestion of 20 μg of clenbuterol, resulting in symptoms of sympathetic activation, sinus tachycardia and electrolyte derangement. The patient was managed conservatively with fluid…

PubMed Central (PMC)Michael Waight

Ridicolous what people expose themselves too only because of a lack of patience and willpower.

T3

T3 is the more potent of the 2 thyroid hormones, the other one being T4. T3 is the one with a shorter half life. As you may or may not know the thyroid is the gland responsible for the speed of the metabolism. There are many interesting things to say about it and I will make a separate article only about it but for now let me explain the idea. As opposed to Ephedrine(which makes you feel good, energetic and forget to eat) or Clenbuterol(which makes you burn more calories doing nothing and also slightly supresses appetite-but nowhere near ephedrine) this compound, T3, makes you burn more calories in general but greatly increases appetite. With this i have experience, i tried a couple of pills. A few hours after I took 25mcg of Cytomel I had the need to eat like nothing you could imagine. I felt like I could eat anything.

So, a drug used for fat loss that increased your appetite. Not very smart, it seems. What happens in reality is that people who take T3 usually take it alongside other things that compensate for the increase in appetite that T3 creates. So you can not lose weight just with T3, you would need to take something else.

There are 2 more problems worth considering.

The first is that after you stop T3 you will experience a withdrawal. You will be tired because your body will have slowed down the production of your own thyroid hormones.

The second is that there are some associated side effects most importanly atrial fibrillation. People reading this will just take a look on pubmed and see stuff like this:

And say that I am lying or I am providing false info. Here is the thing. People who are hypothyroid and use T3 as part of a treatment have carefully monitored dosages, prescribed by a doctor who also makes you do some blood tests from time to time to carefully assess that your hormones do not exceed the upper limit(this is the situation in which atrial fibrillation occurs-once you go hyper).

DNP

This is by far the most dangerous. I will start off by saying

"It has been used in explosives manufacturing and as a pesticide and herbicide."

It was one of the first weight loss drugs ever used. Imagine that they banned it by the end of the 1930's, knowing already the danger.

Sibutramine

This is a substance that i had contact with in the 2010, when my grandmother who wanted to lose weight heard about it and asked me to buy it. It went under the name Meridia. Indeed she lost weight, I do not remember now how much. A few years later, a popular football player in my country was suspended 9 months for having this substance in a blood test. I remember i did not make much of it at the time but after a while I read about it and it seemed it also gave you an euphoric state, similar to cocaine. What is funny is that this player was earlier banned for cocaine use, during the time spent with Chelsea.

So what I read about the euphoric states given by sibutramine make sense, at least in his case. Sibutramine is a serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor similar to a tricyclic antidepressant. It also works as an appetite supressant. Again, something I want to highlight: whatever makes us happy also makes us not think about food. Keep that in mind, will get to it later. A lot of countries banned it since 2010 because of cardiovascular disease risk and also strokes but what is interesting is that it is still included in weight loss supplements but not being put on the label. This is the problem in general when buying "supplements". They put some substance like this in there to make their supplement seem more effective.

I want to be impartial so I will post both the good and the bad.

You can find many positive reviews online, like this:

I have to admit this is the substance that really tempted me. The reviews for it are mostly positive but then again, people who die do not have the chance to contribute with a review.

My verdict: do not take it. Your jawline will not matter if it in a closed coffin.

Ozempic

This is a hot topic for quite some time now. Semaglutide, the active substance in Ozempic is a slightly modified version of a GLP-1 agonist, GLP-1 being a peptide which we produce naturally and among other things has the role to reduce hunger. Ozempic is the injectable form but you should know that there is also an oral form named Rybelsus.

The side effects are mostly gastrointestinal, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and constipation. Recent studies show a correlation between GLP-1 agonist use and thyroid cancer(a certain type of thyroid cancer) and also endocrine neoplasia type 2(also cancer, but a more complex one).

As I mentioned previously, I try to be impartial. There are 2 many reviews out there, both good and bad. I decided to take extracts from this one

It seems it started off very well...

but soon after increasing the dose

This is the same person as above, not a different one. So keep that in mind. If you want more anecdotes I can tell you my mother, a 60 year old recently started taking it. She put on quite some weight especially after hitting menopause. She is now in week 2. She is still at the initial dose. She will increase the dose in 2 weeks time. Hopefully she will not have the same side effects as the redditor above. My mother has the added benefit of having removed her thyroid completely 15 years ago. Maybe for her this is a risk worth taking despite my opposition.

My verdict on this is drug which I did not take but have read a lot about, especially since my only living family member is taking it is that it is too dangerous and not worth risking cancer for losing some kg.

Mounjaro

This is a similar drug as Ozempic(Semaglutide). The active substance in Mounjaro is Tirzepatide. It is a GIP(glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide) agonist which is another hormone which our body produces naturally and is involved in blood glucose control. But it works on both GIP and GLP-1 receptors(so it does what Ozempic does and more). This was approved very recently, in Europe in 2022. It is supposedly a little stronger than Ozempic. It has a similar side effect profile(thyroid cancer included) so my opinion is clear, I would not take it and would not recommend anyone close to me to take it.

Phentermine

This is a medication that I should not even write about as it is very similar to Ephedrine in the similarity to amphetamine. Phen is basically a derived improved version of amphetamine.

It supresses your appetite as a result of stimulating your CNS(central nervous system). Common side effects include a fast heart beat, high blood pressure, trouble sleeping, dizziness, and restlessness.

Reviews on it are interesting, to say the least.

As all euphoria inducing drugs do, you build up a tolerance, like this user mentions.

And, of course, when you come off of it you will have 2 demons to fight. Depression/low mood and insatiable appetite.

Adderall

The last of the substances I plan to write about. I do not plan to write so much about it because: 1) it is well known and 2) it is basically an amphetamine, so similar to ephedrine and phentermine.

Adderall is a mix or 4 amphetamine salts. It is primarily used for ADHD, a disease which certainly exists but which I suspect is overdiagnosed because this drug, the "treatment", is a substance that also makes you feel energetic and very good in general, while you are high on it.

It is also used recreationally but for this you need a higher dose. Common effects are: increased alertness, apprehension, concentration, initiative, self-confidence and sociability, mood swings (elated mood followed by mildly depressed mood), insomnia or wakefullness, and decreased sense of fatigue.

The fact that it is not used only for ADHD is the numerous mentions it has as a festival drug, on reddit and other places.

My opinion and some conclusions

I think that in general, not only in weight loss, people tend to always choose the easy weight out. Weight loss in general, especially going from overweight to normal should be more than doable without any kind of drugs. Losing fat is much more easier when you are >15% bf than when you go below it.

Let's divide the obesity spectrum in the following: obese/overweight/normal/fit/shredded.

I think if you are obese than maybe, just maybe, the risk/reward ratio is decent enough to try some weight loss drugs. What drugs exactly, it depends on you. I would choose something tried and tested and without cancer or other side effects.

If you are just overweight/normal and want to get fit/shredded than definetely these drugs are not for you. The risk/reward ratio is ridicolous and depending on your determination and your starting point you might be disappointed.

If you want to lose weight and are not doing all of the following: weighing food, couting calories, keeping track of the deficit, weighing yourself every day, doing some form of exercise(it could be just walking) than I think you have no business doing drugs. Absolutely no business.

One downside that is not often mentioned in the articles I read is the messsing your dopamine system aspect. Any stimulant drug will leave you with mood disorders for a short(or long while) after you stop taking them. That mood disorder will mean you do not feel motivated to do stuff. That stuff could mean essential things like work, spending time with your friends, your family, taking care of yourself, etc. Do you really want to do this to yourself just because you do not want to put in the work?