Are Ephedrine/Ephedra
Based Fat Burners Finished?
The
writing may very well be on the wall for ephedra and ephedrine
based fat burners. Supplement super power EAS (makers of Myoplex
and other popular products), announced recently that they are
ceasing sales of ephedra-based products altogether, despite
booming sales. EAS is confident that their newest ephedra free
product, Thermo Dynamix (available March 2003) will be as effective
as the leading ephedra-based products.
Other
manufacturers have already made the jump away from ephedra based
fat burners. Muscle Tech has already reformulated its very popular
Hydroxycut, and it is now doing its utmost to convince the public
that the new formula is as good or better than the old product.
Twin
Lab will also be following suit, and so it appears will Cytodyne,
makers of the extremely popular Xenadrine Rfa-1. Cytodyne is
also hard at work doing its best to demonstrate that its own
ephedra-free product, Xenadrine EFX, is as effective as Xenadrine
Rfa-1 and other ephedra based products. There's good news on
this front... a new report seems to indicate that Cytodyne's
ephedra free Xenadrine EFX does significantly outperform
two popular ephedra-based products for both caloric expenditure
and metabolic boost, making it a very potent fat burner indeed.
(Source: Journal of the American College of Nutrition 2002;
21 (5))
So
there's both good and bad news on this front -- due increased
public perception that ephedra-based products are dangerous,
it looks like we can expect to see a lot fewer stimulant based
fat burners on the market. On the other hand, some of the newer
ephedra free products (like Xenadrine EFX, reviewed here,
and Lean System 7, reviewed here),
do look promising indeed.
For
those of you who are big fans of the energy boost and fat burning
effectiveness delivered by ephedra/ephedrine based products,
take heart...
As
long as these sort of products are not legislated out of existence,
demand will always dictate a supply. Unfortunately, we're very
likely to see prices for stimulant based fat burners rise significantly,
especially if demand exceeds supply.
Interesting
developments on the way. Stay tuned!
