The short answer is no. While some bodybuilders or athletes use ephedrine, caffeine, and green tea to accelerate fat lost, they don't work for everyone and may even hurt you.
The use of all these products can play a role in:
- Reducing your body's fat stores
- Increase hormones production
- Make you feel more energized
- Increase awareness
The bad news is, ephedrine can cause (from most to least likely) hypertension, cardiac palpitations, stroke, and seizures. These can leave you permanently disabled or dead.
The only "fat burner" we recommend is green tea. It contains caffeine but not as much of the traditional coffee cup and has a mild and extended stimulating effect. We suggest you avoid ephedrine and caffeine caps.
If you're trying to lose fat, we recommend drinking 2 cups of green tea per day. Besides potentially helping with fat lost, you'll benefit from its strong antioxidant power. Bottom line, it's healthy and risk-free.
ACTION STEP 23
Add "green tea" to your shopping list. If you don't like it hot, try this iced tea recipe:
- Fill a container with 4 cups of tap, filtered or bottled water.
- Add 6 bags (6 teaspoons) of tea.
- Cover.
- Refrigerate for 8 hours. Remove bags or strain.
- Serve over ice with lemon, lime or mint for taste.
Adding sugar (extra calories) will cancel out the tea's fat-burning effect: avoid it. If you can't live without the sugary taste, Stevia (the artificial sweetener) is probably the way to go.
Haller CA, Benowitz NL. Adverse cardiovascular and central nervous system events associated with dietary supplements containing ephedra alkaloids. N Engl J Med. 2000;343:1833-1838.
