Review of Ephedrine Products

NOTE: Since this article was written products containing ephedrine have become banned by the FDA and are no longer for sale in the U.S. I've decided the leave the original article intact.

Before you read this review, please read my article on ephedrine if you have not. This article is a product comparison, not a technical article on ephedrine.

OK, now that we are all up to speed, let's get to the review. I will start off with a personal history of ephedrine use.

I began using ephedrine in 1995. I had just lost 30 lbs. in preparation for the upcoming football season. I was in the process of getting into good shape and got addicted to exercise and took it a bit farther than my offensive line coach would have liked. Nonetheless, I looked great and was into looking perfect for the first time in my life. Take a fat kid and make him have a body others envy and that's what you get. So I was about 175 and probably 10% body fat. I wanted to be ripped to shreds. I went to GNC and asked if anything existed that could help me. At that time I had no idea who else to talk to. The guy there recommended a GNC herbal product that was supposed to speed up your metabolism and increase fat burning. I was in. I didn't even care what it cost. Then when he is getting it, he tells me about Ripped Fuel and how it is the wheel. I ask where I can get it of course. He says he has some in the back in boxes, but he can't sell it because it was recently banned because it has been deemed unsafe by the state of Ohio and 12 other states at the time I believe. He goes on to tell me how awesome it is and how it is so much better than what he is selling me for what I want it for. I ask him if he can sell it and I not tell anyone. Of course, he says no. But he mentions it is legal in Pennsylvania, which is an hour away from my house in Northeast Ohio. He says he knows tons of bodybuilders who make trips there and sell it to guys in their gym every month.

I get home, try the GNC stuff, and am already wishing I had Ripped Fuel after the first dose. I notice nothing after a few weeks. What to do, what to do? ROAD TRIP! Off to PA I go with a few buddies. At 17, you can get guys to go anywhere for a road trip. I could have said Mexico and they'd have been in. Anyway, I get to Erie, PA, the first town across the border, find a mall, find a GNC, and I'm in. 200 caps for 60 bucks I think. Although the label says take 1 and see what happens, I take 2. I feel weird, but more mentally satisfied than anything since I think I have the real deal. Guys on steroids take this stuff and it's illegal in my state! To me at 17 at that time, it was working before I swallowed.

I went on to read a bit about this product in my famous Weider mags. The product I am talking about is Twinlab's Ripped Fuel with the active ingredient ephedrine. It is one of the premier in a list of products containing ephedrine. Over the next 6 months, I came close to dying probably 3 times, once for real. I never got any real good results from it though. I did get a lot of headaches, tachycardia (fast heart rates), sleeplessness, and jitters. I continued to use it every day because who could not stand to have a permanently elevated metabolism? I didn't get as ripped as I wanted, but I thought it was because of something else. The truth was I didn't know how to use the product most effectively and I didn't know anything about training and/or diet. I just followed the fat-free craze and ran and lifted weights a lot.

Then I enter college and with a lot more personal experience under my belt, I am able to take my training and physique to a new level of strength and size. I kept pretty lean all year, around 190 at 12%. I took ephedrine every day, 2-3 times a day on and off for my whole freshman year. Then sophmore year (1997-1998) I got into training heavy and gaining a lot of mass, which translates into eating a ton and rationalizing that fat gain is OK since you are trying to get as big as possible. It means eat everything in sight all the time and train as heavy as you can go. It is the most fun by far. I stopped using ephedrine every day because I didn't want to remain so lean. I did take it an hour before I worked out for the energy. This worked really well. I hit 230 and was deadlifting 500 pounds for reps.

After that year, I knew how to use ephedrine, which products I liked since I had tried them all, and how to do what I wanted with my body through training and diet. Here is what I found and what has guided my using of this product ever since:

All products are not created equal. I responded different to certain products. I started off using Ripped Fuel for a year. Then I began ordering different products to try them out. I found Twinlab makes a product called Metabolift, which is cheaper than Ripped Fuel, has the same dose of ephedrine, and is only missing L-carnitine, a minor ingredient. I actually got better results from Metabolift I found. I tried Thermadrene, which I didn't like. It seemed to not give me a kick at all. I tried straight ephedrine in a capsule form and then took the caffeine and aspirin (the other 2 parts of the Ephedrine/Caffeine/Aspirin stack) separately. I tried the AST ephedrine, which is just ephedrine. I liked that one a lot. I tried straight ephedra, a slightly different form but with the same result, with caffeine and aspirin. It was OK as well. Still, I always went back to Metabolift. Then when Xenadrine came out, I had to give that a shot because it was all the rage in the supplement industry. The truth is I didn't really like it. I gave me bad headaches and I didn't get very good results from it as compared with Metabolift.

In my years of abuse then proper use, I would go through stages where I could take 25 mg of ephedrine 3 times a day and be OK. Then after a month or 2, that same dosage would drive me up the wall and I had to taper off to 12.5 mg 1-2 times a day without being super jittery and having head rushes. Then I would stay at this dosage for a while then try a higher one, found I was OK, and would kick it up again to 75 mg/day. I never ever tried 37.5 mg/dose until later on. In 1999 was the first time I tried a higher dose than was recommended. The standard is 25 mg 3 times a day 1 hour before meals/workouts. I was not getting what I wanted from 25 mg and decided to try 37.5 once, then 25, then 12.5 each day. This worked well for fat loss. Then I got to 37.5 mg 3 times a day. I still could cut back the dosage, as long as it was Metabolift, and not get bad headaches or real withdrawal like I did from the other products, most noteably Xenadrine. Here is my dosage schedule today for my 2 different usages of the product. The 2 main goals this product can aid in are losing fat and improving training intensity.

Let me start off with this: I only use Twinlab's Metabolift. It is dirt cheap and the most effective in my mind with the least undesirable effects. Since almost all the ingredients are identical between products, I have no real explanation as to why this may be excpet for Twinlab using better ingredients. They are a very reputable company and their products that I have tried have all been good.

To speed fat loss, help retain muscle mass, keep energy high when dieting, and to curb the appetite, I take 2 capsules of Metabolift, 1-2 times per day, the first always on an empty stomach. To note, 2 capsules of Metabolift contains 25 mg of ephedrine amongst other ingedients. I may get as high as 3 doses in a day, all on an empty stomach. Empty stomach to me means 2-3 hours after having last completed a meal, when your stomach feels empty. If I am lifting weights that day, I would take 2 capsules an hour before training. Always drink a lot of water - a good-sized (16 oz.) glass with the pills to speed absorption in the body. I would continue with this dosage schedule until I am done dieting. This usually happens when I am sick of watching my diet so close, no more than 4-6 weeks.

When not dieting, I use this product before I train with weights. I take it on a semi-empty stomach with large glass of water 1 hour before training. I take 2 capsules (once again, 25 mg of ephedrine in 2 capsules of Metabolift) each time. I may get to 3 capsules at times, but not generally. I do not take it at any other time during the day or on off days.

If I were to do cardiovascular exercise for calorie burning/fat loss (which I have not done for a few years now), I'd take 1-2 capsules a hour before with water on an empty stomach. I found in the past ephedrine can make cardio more effective. This does present a great danger given the blood pressure and heart rate increases one experiences with cardio plus the same effects from ephedrine. I have had to step off a stairmaster many a time because I thought I was going to pass out.

As with many supplements, you must taper your intake to let your body deal with the addition or subtraction of a substance. In other words, don't start off taking 25 mg 3 times a day. Start off with 12.5 mg 2 times a day, then after a week, try 25 once a day, then 12.5 the other dose. Then after a few weeks, you are at 25 mg twice a day. The reverse goes for stopping to use the product. Don't just stop taking it. Taper up and taper down.

What you should take away from my dysfunctional experimentation with this product is that it is dangerous yet effective. It is the only supplement outside of vitamins and minerals I truly believe in. I try and keep my family and friends away from it though if that tells you anything.

If you need help with a dosage schedule, let me know. I'll be happy to help with that and any other questions you have about ephedrine.