Dear friends,

Well, this is my first post on my new blog–and welcome to anyone and everyone who is reading this! I’ll be blogging about recent scientific findings on the weight-loss supplements featured in my new book, THE NATURAL FAT-LOSS PHARMACY. The supplements are (get ready for a blizzard of acronyms): EGCG, CLA, HCA, MCT, chromium, chitosan and other soluble fibers, carbohydrate blockers, 5-HTP, HMB and BCAA. If you’ve read the book, you know that each one of these supplements aids weight loss in a particular way: burns calories, or burns fat, or balances blood sugar, or controls appetite, or reduces carbohydrate cravings, or…well, you get the picture. Come back here often to find out the latest about their scientifically-proven powers.

The new study I’d like to tell you about today is particularly relevant: how to reduce body fat and prevent holiday weight gain with CLA. (CLA is “conjugated linoleic acid”–a building block of fat, found in meat and diary.) The study was conducted by two teams of researchers, at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, and at the University of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada, and published recently in the International Journal of Obesity. The researchers studied 40 healthy but overweight people: 32 women and 8 men, ranging in age from 18 to 44. They divided them into 2 groups. Over six months, one group got 3.2 grams of CLA daily, and one didn’t. The researchers took weight measurements three times: pre-holiday (August-October), holiday (November-December), and post-holiday (January-February). The scientific results? Well, after you read them, you might want to ask for CLA for Christmas…or, if that’s too late, for Valentine’s Day…

The CLA group actually lost a tiny amount of weight during the holidays: about 1/5th of a pound. Meanwhile, the group not taking CLA gained weight: an average of 1.3 pounds. (With many gaining much more.) The non-CLA group also gained a bit post-holidays, while the CLA group stayed stable. Over the six months, the CLA group lost 2.2 pounds, most of it as fat, and most of that fat from the belly.

Maybe you’re figuring the non-CLA group simply ate more. Nope. Both groups ate the same amount of calories and and got the same level of physical activity. The only difference between the two was…taking or not taking CLA.

A couple of other interesting points from this study. The researchers note that pounds put on during the holidays are particularly hard to lose. And that the heavier you are, the more weight you tend to gain during the holidays: the heaviest folks in the study gained an average of 5 pounds. So CLA might be particularly helpful for those who are 20, 30 or more pounds overweight, and want to prevent additional weight gain during the holidays.

How does CLA work to prevent weight gain? Nobody knows for sure. It may stop fat from getting into fat cells. It may affect the development of new fat cells. It may burn up fatty acids in muscle. But that it does work isn’t really in doubt…

A two-year study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that people who took CLA lost 5 pounds of fat and gained 2 pounds of muscle in about 3 months–again, that’s without reducing calories or increasing physical activity.

Can you get enough CLA through your diet to lose weight? No, say the experts I’ve talked with. You’d practically have to live on meat and cheese–and even then you wouldn’t get 3.2 grams a day.

I’ve taken to recommending CLA supplements to anybody I talk to who wants to effortlessly lose some fat and gain some trimming muscle. (And who doesn’t.) And people (particularly women) are telling me that they can definitely see the difference after a month or two of intake: a noticeable trimming and slimming, as fat is lost and firming muscle is gained. Usually, women lose about a dress size in 1 to 2 months.

Studies show that CLA is very safe. And it’s also good for more than weight-loss. It may play a role in preventing cancer, boosting immunity, and strengthening the circulatory system. And it also has been shown to boost mood, particularly among dieters. The researchers in this study reported that “negative emotions decreased significantly” among those taking CLA.

For the full story on CLA, please see chapter 2 in The Natural Fat-Loss Pharmacy.

That’s all for today. I hope you come back often to read my blog for the latest news on vitamins, minerals and herbs that can help you lose weight.

Yours for good health,

Bill Gottlieb

This entry was posted on Friday, December 22nd, 2006 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.