Monday, March 9, 2009

Pure Ephedrine for the ECA Stack

It is important to emphasize that you should purchase pure ephedrine and not ephedra. I cannot speak for any ephedra products available for purchase over the internet. Be weary of products sold over the internet that contain the natural ephedra extract. These may also be advertised as containing Ma Huang. Ephedra products could contain toxins or defects especially considering that the products may have been produced in countries with little to no regulation on ephedrine products. Pure ephedrine is less likely to bring about negative side effects due to its lab produced nature and the regulation placed upon it’s distribution by the Food and Drug administration. Any product containing ephedrine hcl that is sold as an over the counter drug in a pharmacy is pure ephedrine. I strongly recommend purchasing pure ephedrine and doing so in person at a pharmacy or from a reputable pharmaceutical company and merchant online. As always I remind the readership that you use ephedrine hcl at your own risk and even though it is an over the counter drug it can still be dangerous if used irresponsibly. I would certainly rather those who are going to use ephedrine as a weight loss tool create their own simple ECA stack using pure ephedrine and pure caffeine that they can physically see and administer themselves rather than buy a magic pill off the internet that contains some blend of ephedra products and whatever other questionable supplements or herbs the manufacturer put into a capsule.

Losing Weight with a Low Carbohydrate Diet and the ECA Stack

Assuming you know about ephedrine and the ECA stack then you might be looking for a diet plan to follow. When people ask me how to lose weight I usually recommend a low carbohydrate diet in combination with an ECA stack. This is of course assuming they are in good health and educated about ephedrine hcl and how to lose weight in general. Low carbohydrate diets have been pigeonholed in recent years as “Atkins”. The Atkins diet is low carb yes but it’s a lazy mans low carbohydrate diet in my opinion. There are multiple ways to go about low carb dieting including using the glycemic index. The glycemic index help you focus on staying away from “bad carbs” and utilize “good carbs” as part of your diet. I want to focus primarily on how to lose weight fast and ensure that when losing weight you are burning as high a percentage of fat as possible. With this in mind I’m going to ask you to cut back carbohydrates to an absolute minimum and consume most of your calories from protein sources. 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of lean body weight should be consumed daily. High consumption of protein and healthy fats will help your body hang onto muscle and optimize fat loss. Hard core low carb diets usually fall under the “ketogenic” category and are best for fast fat loss but many people have trouble keeping the fat off after they finish the diet. The good news is that in combination with an ECA stack you can protect yourself from muscle loss even more. Some studies show that pure ephedrine use aids in protecting muscle during rapid weight loss. Ephedrine hcl will also help suppress your appetite which will come in handy during carb cravings and also give you an energy boost. The energy the ECA stack provides you with is a welcome positive during a low carb diet because low carb dieters tend to experience a low energy carb fog in the beginning of their diet cycle. Gaining back the weight can be avoided if you educate yourself on how to properly eat in the weeks following the end of your ketogenic diet cycle. Not all low carb diets are ultra low in carbs however. Lean body mass is your weight minus the best estimation of how much weight you carry in fat and water. In other words your lean body weight is the sum weight of your bones, organs, and muscle. An important point to drive home when talking about how to lose weight is that your body fat percentage is much more important than your total weight. Someone can be 5’10 225 pounds and be obese according to Body Mass Index but if the person is an Olympic power lifter than chances are his body fat percentage is low enough to show that he is in fine shape.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

The ECA Stack and Me | Beginning me Journey to Quick Weight Loss

The first question many people ask me is how I got started using the ECA stack. In 2005 I quit playing college football and was desperately trying to achieve quick weight loss. I had been an offensive tackle measuring in at 6’3 and 275 pounds. I was no stranger to the weight room and conditioning so I had this part of losing weight quickly under control. The hard part was getting my diet in order because that is ultimately the most important element in achieving quick weight loss. Once my diet was in place I was still not happy with my results so I started to look around for weight loss pills. Like many people I was suckered into the unregulated world of weight loss pills quickly and ended up being suckered into buying some poor products. Not that their aren’t some very good weight loss pills still on the market but the majority are next to worthless if your looking for quick weight loss.

After learning the hard way about weight loss pills I turned to online bodybuilding forums and read about the ECA stack. I had heard of ephedrine diet pills before but this was after they had been regulated by the Food and Drug Administration here in the United States. Ephedrine diet pills had been receiving negative attention in the media so I was hesitant to buy into the hype when I first started reading about the ECA stack. The bodybuilding forums introduced me to ephedrine hcl and helped me understand how this over the counter nasal decongestant was simply a purified form of the ephedra found in many of the well thought of weight loss pills before the FDA ban. I was impressed with how many people were using the ECA stack and achieving quick weight loss with it. Even more impressive was how people were assembling their own ECA stacks by purchasing ephedrine hcl, caffeine, and aspirin online or at convenience/drug stores. My fears of ephedrine diet pills were alleviated after realizing that many of the unfortunate accidents stemming from its use could have been easily avoided by being aware of ones bill of health and educating oneself on how to use the drug in a safe manner.

After determining that I was healthy enough to take the ECA stack and researching proper dosing; I went out to the nearest gas station and actually found ephedrine hcl for sale. After purchasing my first pack of ephedrine tablets I went to the Vitamin Shoppe and purchased 200mg caffeine pills. I didn’t expect it to be so easy to buy the ECA stack. I opted out of using the aspirin after reading that it did little to enhance fat loss. Even though I don’t personally use aspirin, I still refer to it as the ECA stack because it is the most commonly used term to describe an ephedrine based weight loss stack. I have left weight loss pills in the dust and have been using the ECA stack on and off to achieve quick weight loss ever since. I could not be happier with the results I have seen with the ECA stack and now buy my ephedrine tablets from Walgreens without even taking a glance at the weight loss pills they sell! For more information on weight loss strategies visit How To Burn Fat Fast.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

How Ephedrine Should be Taken for Weight Loss

Ephedrine is typically taken two or three times daily depending on you tolerance for the ECA stack. 20-25mg of ephedrine hcl in combination with 200mg of caffeine and aspirin if desired per dose is a typical looking ECA stack. To really see noticeable results it is recommended to combing the ECA stack with a disciplined diet and exercise regimen. If you are just starting out with ephedrine for weight loss you will want to try lower doses in order to test your tolerance. Ephedrine is not a toy and should be treated with respect. Taking too much ephedrine in you ECA stack too early on can result in dangerously high blood pressure. The safest way to take ephedrine for weight loss and as a substitute for diet pills is to take it on a daily basis in regimented way. Use you ECA stack daily at the same times each day. Start out using half the recommended dose of ephedrine hcl and work your way up. One can also halve their ephedrine dosage toward the end of the ECA stack run in order to lessen withdraw. Ephedrine can be combined with many things but caffeine is recommended. Caffeine aids ephedrine in the weight loss process by enhancing the body’s thermogenic response to ephedrine.

Abuse of ephedrine can result in serious side effects so please use caution when choosing the right dosage for your weight loss needs. Refer to the link to WebMD on the side of this page and view their information on ephedrine. Do not take ephedrine hcl with diet pills that contain ephedra already. Weight loss can be achieved by taking ephedrine at moderate doses and taking more than is recommended can hurt your chances of achieving ephedrine weight loss. For a large man in relatively good shape, and tolerance to stimulants, but with weight loss needs taking 25mg of ephedrine hcl with 200mg of caffeine three times a day is plenty.

A Little Bit about Ephedrine versus Ephedra

Ephedra was all the craze earlier this decade. When people think of the fat burning craze they often associate it to the word ephedra. Ephedra and ephedrine hcl contain the same fat burning properties. The difference lies in ephedra being marketed as a weight loss supplement and ephedrine hcl as an over the counter drug. Even though FDA has prohibited the sale of ephedrine based dietary supplements companies can still sell ephedrine hcl as an over the counter drug. A positive outcome of this is that products containing ephedrine now must have “Drug facts” on the box instead of “supplement facts” which will encourage people to take the drug seriously and not treat it as something to be careless about.

Back to the names “ephedra” and “ephedrine”. Ephedra refers to the extract from the raw organic product. It is also referred to as Ma Huang or Chinese Ephedra and has been linked to weight loss for many, many years. This raw extract contains the naturally occurring alkaloids ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, norpseudoephedrine, norephedrine, methylephedrine, and methylpseudoephedrine. Ephedra was marketed as a dietary weight loss supplement for some time and therefore unregulated by the FDA until it was deemed dangerous enough to be taken out of the wild, wild west of dietary supplements. Ephedra has been known to contain elements that could be toxic because of its unrefined nature and lack of regulation. This is why it is wise to stick to well known, reputable brands when purchasing ephedrine weight loss diet pills if you are in a country where ephedra has not been regulated.

Ephedrine hcl is a purified version of ephedra. Ephedrine hcl is generally considered safer for weight loss and is in fact marketed as a bronchiodilation medicine. Ephedrine products, depending on which alkaloids they contain and the purity, can be regulated by the DEA. If an ephedrine product is regulated by the DEA you will need identification to purchase and will be subject to limits on the quantity you can buy. Ephedrine hcl is often combined with guaifenesin for nasal decongestant purposes. Ephedrine hcl contains the same properties as naturally occurring ephedra extract (Ma Huang is the source of most of the ephedrine that is sold over the counter) but has never been marketed as a diet pill and is considered to be safe when sold under the guidelines provided by the FDA for over the counter drugs. As a result ephedrine hcl is available for purchase and is a suitable replacement for ephedra in the ECA stack if the user is responsible and knowledgeable about ephedrine and weight loss.

We recommend that you seek out pure ephedrine hcl if you plan to achieve weight loss with an ECA stack.