Tuesday, December 29, 2015

SUPER HD EXTREME and CLK - Cellucor - Introduction


SUPER HD EXTREME & CLK – by Cellucor – Introduction

Confession: I this is a late post - I am already half way through this product.  But better to introduce late then never.
So in the past I have used Cellucor products and I have enjoyed them.  I secretly have been suspicious of them from their initial launch.  They do a great job of marketing, branding, and packaging – and as someone who studies business I have always questioned why something would need to be so good at those things – it always made me question quality.  But even in the past I have enjoyed using various products, and I have had varied results.

This times I did something a little different.  In the past I have used their Super HD prouct (green lablel), and I remember stacking it with something, and I felt that it did something (but I didn’t remember what).  On thing about Cellucor products is that they are not cheap – so this holiday season there was a Black Friday sale at GNC and I decided now is the time to give the brand their change to me tracked as they should have been before.  What is different this time is that I have changed up a little bit of their recommendations. 

They have a combo pack for weight loss pictured below which has a months worth of Super HD and half a month of CLK (non-stimulant formula) – it is supposed to be for maximum weight loss. 




I figured I would do this combo – however, since they have launched that combo, they have also launched a new product called Super HD Extreme!  Well EXTREME must be better, right!  So rather than do the regular combo I UPGRADED to the Extreme formula, something I have never tried before.

Now in order to actually have a months worth of the combo I needed to purchase one bottle of Super HD Extreme, and I had to purchase two bottles of the CLK.  The total retail cost is somewhere around $130 bucks for the month.


Super HD Extreme: This is touted as Cellucors new “Weight Loss” Supplement with “Powerful Energy Intensifier and Mood Support.” 

The instructions are to take one capsule in the morning and one in the afternoon – and it is NOT recommended to take any more than that.   As per ingredients there are a number of registered, trademarked, and patented ingredients that I have never heard of – but many of them apparently have some form of Caffeine in them.  There is a small comment on the bottle that each pill contains 300 mg of caffeine!  So although I usually can give some background on what the ingredients are intended to do – this time the only one I recognize is Cayenne Pepper.

CLK: This is a non-stimulant weight loss formula, perfect for stacking because it does not have any caffeine or stimulants at all.  In a nutshell, I am sure that CLK stands for CLA + Ketones (Raspberry).    The principle ingredients in the three capsules (2x a day) is 1.7 g from CLA and a “Toning Blend” with Raspberry Ketones, and a few other ingredients.

The  capsules are kind of fun.  They are red, and they smell like raspberries.  Cute little thing.

The Regimen: To wake up and take one Super HD Extreme and three CLK in the morning; and then a second dose of both in the afternoon.  With that I will continue my morning workouts averaging 1 hour of cardio and some weights. 

We will see how this rolls.

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

CALL for CLEANSES

With only three weeks left on my current cycle of weight loss products, I can already tell I will need a sold cleanse to detox from it (the results of this cycle will be posted much later, with an introduction shortly).  With that being said, I am looking for recommendations for the next cleanse I cycle through before I start my next weight loss cycle.

Any recommendations?  The only rules are I am looking for PRODUCTS, rather than lifestyle changes.  I am trying to evaluate the product, however, I am okay if the product promotes a lifestyle change as a result of consuming the product. 

So if any of you have recommendations - any company, any form, or any fashion, or one that you wish someone else had tested  - please let me know.

Monday, December 14, 2015

5-DAY NUTRITIVE CLEANSE - by Young Living


5-Day Nutritive Cleanse – YOUNG LIVING

Grade – B-

Program Description: This cleanse is supposed to be a five day overhaul of your body.  You get 1 bottle of a supplement called “Digest and Cleanse”, 2 bottles of the Ningxia Red Juice, and 1 canister of the Balance Complete meal replacement.  The instructions of the cleanse is for five days you replace every meals with 1 Digest and Cleanse (30 mins before), 3-6 ounces of the Ningxia Red Juice, and 1 Balance Complete Shake – for the three meals in the day.  You can have some small whole food snacks like apples, or raw veggies, but that is pretty much it.

DIGEST AND CLEANSE – is an essential oil supplements with peppermint, fennel, caraway, and a few others.  It is intended to prime the stomach and smooth the lining of the stomach in preparation for the high fiber shake about to hit it.

NINGXIA RED – is a super fruit juice focusing primarily on the wolfberry from china (more commonly known as the goji berry), and some other high antioxidant fruits.  It is unique in that it doesn’t taste bad, but has no “sweet fruits” in it to sugar it up either.  This in the cleanse is intended to be the nutrient portion – and really the only strong source of energy through out.

BALANCE COMPLETE – this is a shake that is high in fiber, with some reasonable proteins and fats.  It has a light Vanilla taste, and is more enjoyable than it sounds.

Experience:  Overall, I had mixed feelings on this cleanse.  On one hand it was harder than I wanted it to be, on the other hand it wasn’t hard enough.  What I mean by that is that it would initially rough only eating the cleanse, but it wasn’t the most cleansing of processes either.  For the first few days I was starving! Then as the cleanse really started to kick in, my energy returned and I barely noticed that I was cleansing. 

Day 1 – I was starving, had low energy, a headache and was in a mood.

Day 2 – I was hungry, and had low energy.

Day 3 – I wasn’t hungry so much, and my energy started to return.

Day 4 and 5 – My energy was back to normal and I wasn’t hungry.

As for my cleansing actions – there wasn’t an increase is activity, as much as it made it easier to “go.”  My gas increased, but there wasn’t any bloating. This is where I kind of expected more than I go.  For some reason when I cleanse I except some additional “activity.”  So again, mixed feelings.  I love the fact that it wasn’t an explosive cleanse, but another side of me wishes that it was.

As for weight – I started at 259.6 and ended with 259.  Lost about .5 lbs in the process, and even though I wasn’t cleansing to lose weight – seemed odd considering that I was “cleansing” and still burning 800 calories at the gym a day – while only consuming around 1000 with the cleanse.  You would like there would be a little more movement on the scale as well; but I can’t hold it against the cleanse.

Another factor to consider is price – I usually don’t care about cleansing prices, but this was about $130 for the five days!  That is hella expensive for 5 day cleanse, that doesn’t help you shed a few pounds, and doesn’t really “move” you much more often (at least for the psychological need). 

All in all I give this product a B.  I could have given it better in some areas, and worse in other, but I think we average out to a B-.

I wish I “felt” it more, had more confidence it was a comprehensive cleanse, and that it wasn’t as expensive.  I could have moved it into a B+ if it cost less than $50.

Friday, December 4, 2015

SAVI SLIM - by Savi - RESULTS (D-)



Savi Slim by SAVI – RESULTS

GRADE: D-

RESULTS:  Gained 1.4 lbs., Increase of Body Fat of 5.5 lbs. – Ending Weight 257.6

ACTIONS: Three pills in the morning, average of 40 minutes of exercise a day, kept an average of a 754 calorie deficit.

Experience: I highly recommend reviewing the introduction at the onset of this experience.  In that you will find that this is primarily a multi-sourced caffeine supplement.  With that being said, I would say it is a high quality multi-sourced caffeine supplement.  The multiple sources are formulated well – in the fact that I felt a good increase in energy. 

I was actually really impressed with how sustained the energy was.  I had a nice comfortable boost, and it seemed to last all day with no issues in regards to my sleep.  The first few days of this gave me a good sense of hope.

Throughout the experience, I made sure to go to the gym every day (twice a day) with the exception of Sunday.  I did get a rather bad cold in the middle of the experience (not because of the supplement, but I was just due for one), but that prevented me from attending the gym as aggressively as I would have for about a week.  (You will see that in my time). Nevertheless, if I average out my time at the gym, including the days I missed due to illness – I averaged about 40 mins a day.  This didn’t include additional sauna time (because who knows if that does anything either way).

As for diet, I was pretty proud of myself.  On average I kept a 700 caloric deficit a day, meaning I hypothetically should have naturally lost 4 pounds (didn’t happen); kept my sugar grams below ten; got 200 grams of protein; and a healthy amount of good fats.  I think overall a pretty solid diet by anyone’s standards.

Overall, I felt better with energy, but after the first week’s introduction loss, I slowly and steadily gained it back – and aggressively gained fat.  According to general estimates, I gained up to 5.5lbs of fat over the 30 days.

SUMMARY: I am giving this supplement for weightless a D-.  With the intention of this project being weight/fat loss, I almost gave it a failing grade entirely, however (1) I have had worse, and (2) there may be people out there who just need a little boost of energy to start exercising to shed a few pounds.  This could work for “normal” people who don’t need it – but it didn’t work for me.

DATA:

Date
Day
Morning Weight
GYM Time
11/7/2015
1
256.2
61
11/8/2015
2
257.8
0
11/9/2015
3
256.4
83
11/10/2015
4
254.6
59
11/11/2015
5
255
30
11/12/2015
6
254.8
85
11/13/2015
7
255.2
55
11/14/2015
8
253.8
32
11/15/2015
9
257.2
0
11/16/2015
10
258.8
53
11/17/2015
11
257
53
11/18/2015
12
257.8
0
11/19/2015
13
257.4
0
11/20/2015
14
258.6
50
11/21/2015
15
258.6
0
11/22/2015
16
260.4
0
11/23/2015
17
258.4
89
11/24/2015
18
257
60
11/25/2015
19
255.4
0
11/26/2015
20
255.4
0
11/27/2015
21
256.4
60
11/28/2015
22
256
0
11/29/2015
23
258.2
0
11/30/2015
24
258.2
120
12/1/2015
25
256.6
60
12/2/2015
26
258.6
53
12/3/2015
27
256.6
30
12/4/2015
28
257.6
60