CLA & Body Fat

Has anyone used CLA and noticed any real and noticeable reduction in body fat? Does anyone recommend CLA for this purpose, and in what form (powder or capsules)? I was considering the powder form to mix in my protein drink or MRP.

I have no persolan experience, but I’ve read teh studies and have a friend who has been using it for about 2 months. The studies show promise. And the friend (not a fat guy by any means) lost 2 inches off his waist in that 2 months.

That’s where I want to lose it. In my waist. Was your friend using a certain diet or excercise program to lose the 2 inches off his waist, or does he attribute it to CLA?

I would go with capsules personally. I bought some protein from the Protein Factory with a good amount of CLA mixed in. I sent it back because it had a terrible aftertaste. I’m sure some more of the hardcore guys here could handle it, but it tasted pretty bad to me. The Factory, nice guys that they are, gave me a full refund on it. I would go with pills/capsules next time.

I have heard certain experts, including Dr. Serrano, say that a minimum of 6 grams of CLA would be needed per day to make a difference…that being said, do you know what dosage your friend is taking Brider? How big of a guy is he?

Well, he’s about 6’ and weighs around 190 (guessing). Not a huge guy, and he wasn’t “fat” by any means. He wasn’t doing any special diet or workout plan to make the change, So he attributes it entirely to the CLA. But the 6g dosing is about what he was doing. One of the studies I saw (and referenced here at T-mag) was that the minimum effective dose was 3.4g/day (of the effective isomers), and that going significantly higher than that really didn’t increase results much. I don’t know if this guy has decreased his dose. They are indeed capsules, and have a 74% (if I remember right) effective isomer content (9-11 and 10-12 isomers).

You have to recognize that supplements like CLA, fish oils, yohimbe, alpha lipoic acid, etc. are all supplements that will give you the extra “edge” when it comes to fat loss. You aren’t just going to start dropping percentages because of any one of them. However, the combined benefit of several of these types of supplements will yield “noticable” results. CLA is a good one to “combine.”

Brider, what brand was he using in capsules? I tried CLA awhile back during a bulking phase to see if it would help minimize fat gain, and couldn’t conclude if it helped at all…I’m very interested in what type he used since I might like to try CLA again.

I got some cla powder from the protein factory. Any more then 2 gms of powder which yields 1 gm of cla, really hurts the flavor of your protein drink.

Although it could be taken year round as a good source of fat, it won’t do much for you on a bulking cycle. The economical use for the product is during a cutting cycle. You can pick up a high quality (180 1 gram caps, 70% CLA per gram) CLA product at Vitaglo.com for $22. You can choose another brand, but 70% CLA is already high quality, and you’d just be paying for the brand name.

BTW- It's free shipping for all orders over $20.

I’ve used the EAS CLA caps for 1 month (3 caps a day), but i cannot say that it was the sole contributor of me losing 3 inches of my waist. I was on a low carb diet with lots of protien and i was also taking 6 caps of EFA’s as well(1 gram per cap). This time around i’m going to use on CLA and see if it makes a difference. I’m still not too convinced that it works really well…but as with what Joel said, its a combination effect that will lose the flab. Besides, those damn EAS CLA caps are so bloody expensive here in Australia!!!.

He used the NutriLite brand (available through www.quixtar.com). I forgot how many caps he was taking per day – something like 12 or so (more than label recommendations). The mechanism seems to be something like toughening of the fat cell walls, miking them sort of a one-way gate, letting the fat out, but not in. And to Joel, one of the studies showed that CLA was effective with no changes to diet or workout regimen. Can’t speak personally to it’s effectiveness as I haven’t tried it. It’s kiind of pricey, but seems to work by some of the anecdotal evidence (my friend in particular).

No product works without any change in diet and/or exercise, regardless of what BS study says it does.

Someone educate me on the difference between Conjugated Linoelic Acid and the Linoelic Acid found in my flax oil. Is this the same thing? If so, no need to buy CLA as a separate supplement, as I get about 6gm per day of Linoelic Acid from flax oil.

Okay, so I guess my friend is just BSing me and he didn’t lose 2" off his waist. Silly me.

CLA is not used very much anymore because: 1. effective dosages are very expesive (I’d aggree with Serrano’s dosage). 2. It didn’t work that great for many people (now perhaps many of them underdosed, but I think this should be considered). Bottom line, there are many supps that have been proven to work for reducing fat, CLA is not one of them. On another note, there is some ev (Bernadi, I believe?) that has suggested that CLA should be used while bulking-which would be more inline with the animal studies.

What’s the difference between Conjugated Lineolic Acid and the Linoelic Acid in flax oil? Anyone?

“No product works without any change in diet and/or exercise, regardless of what BS study says it does.” Joel, you now are saying that scientific studies should be discounted when they don’t agree with your worldview… Or did I read you wrong? Well, no one said Phillips gives those jackets away for brains.

So your saying that if i take Mag 10 and keep on training hard and eating a high protein diet like ive been doing (im not changing my diet or exercise) it wont work?

What I was saying is that no supplement is going to give you measureable results if not combined with proper nutrition and training. And Body for Lifer, you wouldn’t even have made your last comment if you read the forum.

-JM