OTC Fat Burners
There are lots of ‘fat burners' out there. Depending on how recently you've done a walk through a GNC, you may be more or less familiar with the different brands. It's been a long time since I walked through a GNC so I am not up on the latest. You may need to experiment with different products to see which works best with your own body chemistry, and also keeping in mind things such as whether you can take it on an empty stomach (e.g. if you're thinking AM fasted cardio). Generally IMO it's more important to find the one that allows you to function during the day and sleep at night, as opposed to worrying about getting tweaked out enough to "lose weight".
Ephedrine
If you want to go back to basics, you can build your own ECA stack with individual components like NoDoze (classic college-finals week caffeine supplement), Ephedrine and aspirin (cheap off-brand is fine if you want to keep things cost-efficient).
Ephedrine Profile: http://forums.rxmuscle.com/showthread.php?t=27735
Here are a couple articles on the use of Ephedrine:
To build your own stack:
Another variation is ephedrine / caffeine / yohimbine HCl (ECY). Yohimbine is great as an appetite suppressant, but too much of it can leave you feeling sick to your stomach.
You can take any of these combinations at 2-3 times / day, but it is generally recommended to not take anything after 3 pm, or determine how late into the day the last dose affects you, and make that the latest time of your last dose so you can sleep. Anything that affects your sleep will reduce your quality recovery time and begin to negate any progress you make from the compound you're taking.
Non-OTC Fat Burners
Women are often more interested in ‘fat loss' before they are interested in muscle growth, particularly for competition prep. The following compounds are explicitly not steroids, but they are generally controlled substances or by prescription only. These are the first line of supplements that women start to hear about to "lose fat" or "lean up".
Clenbuterol
Clenbuterol is prescribed as a bronchodilator for asthma, but also has the additional effect of increasing metabolism. The claim is a 10% increase in metabolism over ECA, which claims a 3% increase in metabolism. (I have seen this often quoted, but never found an original study to back this up.) Clenbuterol has a 36-39 hour half-life - meaning if you take it, or worse, too much, you have to ride it out for about a day and a half. Some people panic if they take too much, and head to the Emergency Room, where the doctors will still just tell you that you need to ride it out until it wears off. There is nothing you can take to "make it stop" before then.
Clenbuterol Profile:
Clenbuterol has also been called "anti-catabolic" - meaning it does not promote muscle loss as part of the increase in metabolism to reduce bodyfat. Here are a couple studies that imply that clenbuterol, interestingly on a restricted diet, does promote some amount of muscle growth (or preservation) in research animals:
Some additional considerations when using clenbuterol:
With regard to cycling clenbuterol, I suppose this falls under bro-telligence. Following are two common cycles:
Starting at 20 mcg for a week, increase by 20 mcg per week until what you can handle or a maximum of 100 mcg per day, and then stay at that amount for the duration of cycle.
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