Experimenting on Other People

My friend (and Gym Buddy of Famed 12.5% bodyfat) Allison has a new experiment. She recently discovered the Women’s Ultra Mega (it’s Ultra! And Mega!!) Energy Vitapaks at GNC. They are marketed as a multi-vitamin. You take 7 pills a day, one of those being their “proprietary energy blend” which has 180mg of caffeine (about 2 cups of coffee). Allison swears that it curbs her cravings, boosts her energy and has helped her lose weight. Being my friend is obviously wearing off on her as she has these numbers to report after 6 days on the vitapaks:
Starting Weight: 159
Today’s Weight: 150
Total Calories Burned in One Day (she wears her heartrate monitor for 24 hours. Yeah, I know. I’d call her nuts except that I’ve done it too;)): 2,600
Total Calories Burned w/ Vitapak: 3,600 (an extra 200 alone whilst sleeping).
A nine pound weight loss in 6 days invariably means some water weight but upping her calorie burn by a thousand – that’s pretty impressive.
I’ve pored over the nutrition labels myself and can’t figure out what is in them that would cause such a metabolic increase. Allison’s exercise levels have remained the same (I can testify to that!).
So… she’s going to try them for a month and we’ll see how it all ends up. Anyone else try these supplements?

7 Comments

  1. you can achieve the same metabolic effect by squatting heavy three times a week.

  2. Elaborate, please, Andrew! We already squat heavy 3 times a week (by “heavy” I mean 3 sets to failure by rep 10). Are you saying that squatting would add a 1000 cal/day burn?? I need more info – don’t tease me like this!

  3. “heavy” as I mean it is means 1-5 reps per set, for a total of 10-15 reps. usually this manifests as three sets of five reps. you would do it first thing after the warm up, and make sure each squat is well below parallel. take 3-5 minutes between sets to rest.

    alternate deadlifts and various presses and you have a potent stimulus for neuroendocrine response. no caffeine drink needed.

  4. These are impressive results. 1000 extra calories!
    Keep us updated at the end of the month. I’m very intrigued now.

  5. wow, those are some dramatic results. Now I’m very interested to check these out!

  6. I bought these and took the first pack with my breakfast. I proceeded to vomit on and off for 24 hours. They went back the next day.

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