CLA Review (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) Dietary Weight Loss Supplement
Phase 1 In an effort to lose a little weight, I began a search for a natural dietary supplement that was well researched, reported to be safe, and didn’t contain any herbs that were in any way, questionable. The other day I had my body fat tested. I came out at 16.1%. Considering I’m not really watching my caloric intake and not doing much cardio, that’s not so bad. In an effort to try out an experiment, I began a one part series to see what CLA would do for me. It’s a well documented weight loss supplement that touts many health benefits other then simple weight loss. For 2 months, I will be taking CLA on a daily basis.
- Part 1 of this article will deal with what is conjugated Linoleic acid? How does it work in layman’s terms. Is it natural and if so, where is it found? Just how much CLA per day is proven in tests to be effective?
- Part 2 will deal primary with how CLA made me feel, were there any noticeable side effects to taking CLA, and what my body fat will be after 2 months of taking the supplement. I will not introduce any cardio into my routine nor reduce my calories per day. If there is be any weight loss, it will have to come from this supplement.
Conjugated Linoleic Acid, commonly referred to as CLA, and was first discovered in 1978 by Michael W. Pariza by accident. During an experiment while looking for the mutagen formations in meat during cooking, CLA was discovered. Much research has shown that CLA counterbalances the negative effect of Linoleic acid while regulating fat and protein metabolism. CLA improves food intake efficiency. In various controlled studies, animals that had diets supplemented with CLA showed an increase in protein (muscle tissue) and a significant decrease in fat. CLA is a naturally occurring nutrient commonly found in beef, milk, cheese, turkey and lamb. To get enough CLA in your diet to make the changes significant, you would need to eat a considerable amount of the above foods. The high caloric risk of eating such fattening foods would off-set any possible loss in body fat due to CLA. On average you’d need about 5000 extra calories to obtain enough CLA to be of any benefit. Eating that much, of those foods, would be self defeating and introduce other health problems. How does CLA work? Reading a bit about this, and not being a scientist myself, I could see that all the technical wording in the world won’t make much of a difference if you don’t understand the technical jargon. In a nutshell, CLA works to reduce body fat by enhancing insulin sensitivity so that fatty acids and glucose can pass thru muscle cell membranes and away from fat tissues. It doesn’t make a big fat cell get little. What it rather does is keep a little fat cell from getting bigger. –Michael Pariza How much CLA do you really need to see some noticeable results? Again, most studies show that 3.4 grams of CLA per day is needed to obtain the beneficial effects of fat loss. CLA is a dietary supplement and does not require a prescription. So if your capsule contains 75% CLA and it’s 1000mg, then you would be getting 750mg of CLA and would need to take that capsule 5 times a day to reach the 3.4g levels which have been proven to be CLA is a dietary supplement that has shown some impressive results in various controlled studies, at reducing body fat levels. The risks are minimal, if any, with most side effects being reported as “feeling green” or having occasional bloating. Part 2 of this series will be to take this supplement in its required 3.4grams per day and report on any side effects and any significant loss in body fat without increasing my metabolism.  My product of choice will be AST’s CLA 1000. 2 capsules, 3 times per day with meals. AST reports their product as 75% CLA in a 2 capsule, 1500mg serving. Translation, 1125mg of CLA with each serving size, taken 3 times a day, should give me 3375mg per day. That is close enough to the recommended 3.4g or 3400mg of CLA that the studies show to be an effective dosage.
Read Part 2 |
