CLA: What's It Done for You?

i have bought a bottle of cla. my friend has been giving it to me before and i dont know if its helping me or not. i just wanted to know if cla has helped anyone and if it works.

It’s lightened my wallet by about $30.

Honestly, I don’t know if it’s helped me or not. I’ve never used it alone. I’m always using in conjunction with something else. I’m finishing a bottle right now but don’t intend to buy another.

Yeah, they say that you need to use it for a seriously-extended period of time to see the effects, and I’ve used it for about 2 years.

So, yes, I’m fairly muscular and pretty lean, but I have absolutely no idea if any bit of that is due to CLA supplementation or not. I’m going to stop using it this month and see if I notice any difference.

Besides, Biotest is including the highest quality CLA in their upcoming EFA supplement.

From what I gather CLA helps to normalize glucose tolerance and lower LDL / improve blood lipids and may favorably effect lipid metabolism. All beneficial effects in the long term, but nothing that should necessarily produce rapid, drastic results.

[quote]mcalabro wrote:
From what I gather CLA helps to normalize glucose tolerance and lower LDL / improve blood lipids and may favorably effect lipid metabolism. All beneficial effects in the long term, but nothing that should necessarily produce rapid, drastic results.[/quote]

Effect of conjugated linoleic acid on body composition and plasma lipids in humans: an overview of the literature.

Terpstra AH.

Department of Laboratory Animal Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands. a.h.m.terpstra@las.vet.uu.nl

Studies in mice have indicated that feeding diets containing 0.5-1% conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) considerably reduces body fat. These findings have attracted much interest because of the potential use of CLA as a tool to promote weight loss in humans. Several CLA studies in humans have now been published, and the objective of the present review was to give an overview of these experiments. Most of the studies were done in free-living subjects and were not strictly controlled for nutrient and energy intakes. None of the studies found a significant reduction in body weight, and only 2 studies showed a significant but relatively small body fat-lowering effect. Some studies suggested that CLA may have a tendency to increase lean body mass. Furthermore, there are indications from animal studies that CLA may have effects on plasma lipids. However, only one study in humans showed a significant HDL-cholesterol-lowering effect of CLA; in all the other studies, there were no significant effects on plasma total, LDL-, and HDL-cholesterol concentrations or on plasma triacylglycerol concentrations. Thus, the results of the studies in humans indicate that the effect of CLA on body fat is considerably less than that anticipated from mice studies and that CLA has no major effect on plasma lipids.

The effects of conjugated linoleic acid on human health-related outcomes.

Tricon S, Burdge GC, Williams CM, Calder PC, Yaqoob P.

Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition, School of Food Bioscienes, University of Reading, Whiteknights, UK. S.Tricon@reading.ac.uk

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a collective term for a mixture of positional and geometric isomers of conjugated dienoic derivatives of linoleic acid. CLA has received considerable attention as a result of animal experiments that report anti-carcinogenic, anti-atherogenic and anti-diabetic properties, and modulation of body composition and immune function. Several studies of CLA supplementation in human subjects have now been published, but in contrast to animal studies there has been marked variation between reports on the health-related outcomes. The consensus from seventeen published studies in human subjects is that CLA does not affect body weight or body composition. Some detrimental effects of the trans-10,cis-12 CLA isomer have also been reported in terms of altered blood lipid composition and impaired insulin sensitivity. Finally, CLA has only limited effects on immune functions in man. However, there have been reports of some interesting isomer-specific effects of CLA on the blood lipid profile, but not on immune function. These isomer-specific effects need further investigation. Until more is known, CLA supplementation in man should be considered with caution.

My wallet lost a lot of weight.

[quote]Bauer97 wrote:
Yeah, they say that you need to use it for a seriously-extended period of time to see the effects, and I’ve used it for about 2 years.

So, yes, I’m fairly muscular and pretty lean, but I have absolutely no idea if any bit of that is due to CLA supplementation or not. I’m going to stop using it this month and see if I notice any difference.

Besides, Biotest is including the highest quality CLA in their upcoming EFA supplement.[/quote]

yeah it takes about a year before you start noticing the effect…according to research that i have read. I have used it but never for a year. you can also find cla in lamb and kangaroo meat

ps
what the hell is an efa?

essential fatty acid. its stuff everyone needs to promote fat loss. the “good” fats.