As a former university researcher, I’m quite familiar with how studies are conducted…I’ve been involved in a few of ’em myself.\u00a0\u00a0 So naturally, when I evaluate supplement claims, one of the first places I look is in the peer-reviewed, published literature.\u00a0 A claim is more likely to be true, if it’s been independently tested, and the results assessed by other experts in the field.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, even the published literature needs to be read carefully, as it’s possible to design a study\u00a0to favor\u00a0the conclusion you want to draw.\u00a0 One need not fabricate data, nor do anything explicitly dishonest: all it takes is the right conditions.<\/p>\n
I have a perfect example right at hand: a fat loss study\u00a0using a designer whey protein product, Prolibra<\/a>\u2122.\u00a0 Prolibra is made by the Glanbia Corporation<\/a>, which markets a wide variety of high quality dairy proteins throughout the world.<\/p>\n The study is\u00a0pretty straightforward.\u00a0 The researchers recruited 158 overweight men and women, and put them on a modest weight loss diet, based on American Heart Asscociation dietary guidelines.\u00a0 The subjects were also instructed to restrict dairy consumption to < 1 serving per day and total calcium intake to less than 500 mg\/day.\u00a0 The subjects in the\u00a0test group were given two packets of chocolate-flavored Prolibra, containing 10 g of protein each; the control group got an isocaloric powder composed of maltodextrin.\u00a0 They were instructed to consume the packets 20 minutes before breakfast and dinner.<\/p>\n With me so far?\u00a0 Ok, so both groups lost weight, but the Prolibra group not only lost more weight and fat than the controls, they also retained more lean body mass.<\/p>\n Good deal, huh?\u00a0 Looks like supplementing with Prolibra might be a good way to shed\u00a0a little\u00a0extra fat – right?<\/p>\n Perhaps…but was it a fair test?\u00a0 If you take a closer look, it’s clear that the study conditions were chosen to give Prolibra an advantage.\u00a0 As noted above, both dairy products (which would be an additional source of whey proteins) and calcium were restricted; and total, dietary protein was kept to 15% of total calories.\u00a0\u00a0The subjects consumed\u00a0an average of 1700 calories,\u00a0so that\u00a0works out to only 63 g protein.\u00a0 This means the\u00a0additional 20 g of protein from Prolibra represented a significant increase.<\/p>\n So, is Prolibra really that special?\u00a0 Or would just a little more dietary protein and calcium have done the trick?\u00a0 Both extra protein<\/a> as well as dairy calcium<\/a> can provide a boost to fat loss, after all.\u00a0<\/p>\n And – in my book – this is an important consideration.\u00a0 I normally buy Glanbia’s cross-flow microfiltered (CFM) whey protein isolate – which is a good source of protein and a fair source of calcium.\u00a0 I\u00a0get\u00a0it\u00a0from\u00a0one of my usual online bulk retailers\u00a0for a little over $10 per pound.\u00a0 The same retailer sells Prolibra for nearly $40 per pound.<\/p>\n Wowsers.\u00a0 That’s quite a difference.<\/p>\n Thus, before I\u00a0shell out\u00a0an extra\u00a0$30\u00a0for a\u00a0pound\u00a0of Prolibra,\u00a0I’d like\u00a0to know how it stacks up against the CFM I usually buy!\u00a0 The study tells me that using Prolibra is better than using nothing (or maltodextrin), but it doesn’t tell me if a comparable source of protein –\u00a0like my (much cheaper) CFM\u00a0– will do the job just as well.<\/p>\n See what I mean about “stacking the deck?”\u00a0<\/p>\n Now this is not to knock Glanbia – heck, I’m a customer.\u00a0 At the same time, it pays to\u00a0understand how studies can be designed to create the best possible impression…especially when there’s that much extra $$$ on the table.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a former university researcher, I’m quite familiar with how studies are conducted…I’ve been involved in a few of ’em myself.\u00a0\u00a0 So naturally, when I evaluate supplement claims, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,9,24],"tags":[642,749,1338,1549,1867,1783],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10202,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions\/10202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}