TeenBodybuilding.com - Derek Charlebois - Derek's Supplement Review!

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During my latest bulking/cutting cycle, I tried the following products. For those of you that know me, you know that before I try anything, I RESEARCH IT. Here is my unbiased opinion on the following products...

By: Derek Charlebois

Xtreme Formulations' ICE - Learn More...

This product is by far one of my favorite supplements. When preparing for my contest, I took 1 scoop pre-workout (with my normal pre-workout shake) and 4 scoops with 20 grams of dextrose during my workout. During the first week, I didn't notice much, but after the initial week I did. Before using ICE during my workout, I was having a hard time doing cardio after leg day because my legs were so sore, as where other muscle groups as well.

After one week on ICE, my soreness was gone. I was able to do my cardio sessions without battling through soreness. I also found that I had more energy during my workouts. I love this product and will continue to use it.

SAN's V12

Another one of my new favorite supplements. This products claims to give you great pumps, more energy, and will not cause you to hold water like other creatine products. I'm here to tell you that these claims are true! V12 is the best creatine product I have ever used. I felt great in the gym.

The pumps were better, I looked more vascular, and did I mention V12 tastes awesome. It has a very sweet, sugary taste, but it has no sugar. Since I was dieting, I looked forward to my daily V12 treat. I used V12 right up to the day of my contest, and it didn't make me hold any excess water.

SAN's TIGHT - Learn More...

One of the newest fat burners out is San's TIGHT. What makes TIGHT any different than other fat burners? TIGHT is an ephedra free fat burner. An ephedra free fat burner is not a new concept, but in the past, they have shown little benefit as compared to their ephedra counterparts. There has been some recent buzz surrounding TIGHT. Because of this, I decided to check it out.

The Research

Before I use any supplement, I always research it. TIGHT is no exception. First, let's examine the ingredients:

S.A.N. Tight

Serving Size: 1 capsule
Servings Per Container: 60

Amount Per Serving:

Caffeine Anhydrous 200mg
Synephrine HCl 99.9% 20mg
Forslean? 95% 20 mg
Synthetic Guggulsterones Z&E 99.9% 20mg
Yohimbine HCl 99.9% 5mg
Vinpocetine 99.9% 5mg
Bioperine? 96.9% 5mg

Other Ingredients:
Gelatine, Glyerine

The first thing that stood out to me was the percentages, which tells the HPLC tested purity. SAN says they use only pharmaceutical grade synthetic ingredients. I was surprised to see this because most fat burners of this type use herbal extracts or derivatives.

Another thing that pushed me to examine TIGHT were the test results of its guggulsterones content. SAN claims that each capsule of TIGHT contains 20 mg of guggulsterones. Test results show that they exceeded this; there were 25.1 mg in each capsule.

(Results can be seen here: http://www.labelclaimstesting.com/page.php?pageID=16) So far the product looked good, but what about its formula? Do the ingredients actually do anything?

Caffeine Anhydrous
Caffeine is widely known as a stimulant. It can be found in coffee, tea, soft drinks, chocolate, and other foods and drinks. Caffeine is known to give you a little boost of energy. It does this by binding to adenosine receptors in the body. This can lead to heightened awareness and, as stated, energy. Caffeine also stimulates lipolysis during exercise. Despite these effects being well known, I decided to do a little research of caffeine.

Caffeine Research

"These results suggest that the caffeine ingestion enhanced endurance performance resulting from spare stored glycogen with increasing lipolysis from adipose tissues and fat oxidation during exercise both in rats and in athletes."

Applegate E. Effective nutritional ergogenic aids. [Review] [57 refs] [Journal Article. Review. Review, Tutorial] International Journal of Sport Nutrition. 9(2):229-39, 1999 Jun.

"Caffeine dosing before exercise delays fatigue and may enhance performance of high-intensity exercise."

Synephrine HCL
Synephrine is a known appetite suppressant. This can help out a lot when dieting. There are times when I could eat everything in sight. Synephrine is believed to have effects similar to ephedrine (Increased metabolism, increased energy, etc.) Unlike ephedrine, synephrine does not appear to effect the central nervous system.

Forslean - Learn More
Forslean standardized extract from the roots of the Coleus forskohlii plant, the only known plant source of forskolin. This supplement is very indepth. Therefore, instead of me trying to tell you what it does, you would be better of reading one of these articles:

http://www.vitaminretailer.com/SIE/articles/ColeusForskohlii.htm http://www.hsrmagazine.com/articles/071feat3.html http://www.healthproductsbusiness.com/clients/sabinsa_corp.shtm

Forslean Research

"These agents caused concentration-dependent increases in both cAMP accumulation and lipolysis. The maximum responses to forskolin for each variable were greater than the corresponding responses to isoproterenol."

Haye B. Aublin JL. Champion S. Lambert B. Jacquemin C. Chronic and acute effects of forskolin on isolated thyroid cell metabolism. [Journal Article] Molecular & Cellular Endocrinology. 43(1):41-50, 1985 Nov.

Synthetic Guggulsterones Z & E
Guggulsterones, specifically the Z and E versions, stimulate thyroid production. The thyroid gland regulates your metabolism. By increasing thyroid production, you can increase you metabolism. The thyroid hormone T4 is created from the thyroid stimulating hormone. While this hormone does burn some fat, the stronger and more effective thyroid hormone T3 is what we want (This sounds like a bad terminator movie). T3 is created from the conversion of T4 to T3. Guggulsterones have been shown to enhance this conversion.

Guggulsterones Research

"An investigation was made to find out the importance of gugulu (Commiphora mukul) in thyroid function of mice and to reveal the possible involvement of lipid peroxidation (LPO), if any. While no marked change in the concentrations of serum thyroxine (T4) was observed, triiodoth yronine (T3) concentration and T3/T4 ratio were enhanced following the administration of gugulu extract (0.2 g/kg b. wt./d for 15 days). A concomitant decrease in LPO was also noticed in liver, the principal site of T3 generation, suggesting that gugulu induced increase in T3 concentration is LPO mediated."

Tripathi YB. Malhotra OP. Tripathi SN. Thyroid stimulating action of Z-guggulsterone obtained from Commiphora mukul. [Journal Article] Planta Medica. (1):78-80, 1984 Feb.

Yohimbine HCL
Yohimbine Hydrochloride is derived from Yohimbine bark. It is marketed in products as a "sexual enhancer" and weight loss aid. Yomhimbine inhibits alpha-2 receptors— receptors involved with the regulation of lipolysis, the breakdown of fat—, which promotes the use of stored fat for energy.

Yohimbine Research

"Administered prior to exercise, it boosts lipolysis and serum FFA levels both during and following exercise; blockade of adipocyte alpha-2 adrenoreceptors makes at least a modest contribution to this pro-lipolytic activity. These considerations suggest that pre- exercise administration of yohimbine will lower the respiratory quotient during and following exercise, thus promoting fat loss."

Vinpocetine - Learn More
Vinpocetine is an alkaloid obtained from the Crioceras Longiflorus. It has been shown to:

Improve cerebral blood flow
Increases the glucose usage in the brain
Reduces Platelet aggravation
Improves red blood cell deformability
Increase Noradrenaline production
Increase Dopamine production
Increase Serotonin release
Increase Acytylcholine concentration
Basically, Vinpocetine optimizes mental performance.

Bioperine - Learn More
Bioperine is a standardized piperine extract from the Piper nigrum L. (black pepper) and/or Piper longum L. found in India. Bioperine increases the bioavailability of nutrients through increased absorption.

Bioperine Research

"Concomitant administration of piperine 20 mg produced much higher concentrations from 0.25 to 1 h post drug (P < 0.01 at 0.25 and 0.5 h; P < 0.001 at 1 h), the increase in bioavailability was 2000%. The study shows that in the dosages used, piperine enhances the serum concentration, extent of absorption and bioavailability of curcumin in both rats and humans with no adverse effects."

Vladimir Badmaev, M.D., Ph.D., Muhammed Majeed, Ph.D. and Edward P. Norkus Ph.D. Piperine, an alkaloid derived from black pepper, increases serum response of beta-carotene during 14-days of oral beta-carotene supplementation. Nutrition Research (1999) 19(3) 381-388

"Supplementation with beta-carotene plus piperine for 14 days produced a 60% greater increase in area under the serum beta- carotene curve (AUC) than was observed during supplementation with beta-carotene plus placebo."

Vladimir Badmaev, M.D., Ph.D., Muhammed Majeed, Ph.D., and Lakshmi Prakash, Ph.D. Piperine derived from black pepper increases the plasma levels of coenzyme Q10 following oral supplementation. J. Nutr. Biochem. (2000) 11: 109-113

"Supplementation of 120 mg of coenzyme Q10 with piperine for 21 days produced a statistically significant (p=0.0348), approximately 30% greater, area under the plasma curve (AUC) than observed during supplementation with coenzyme Q10plus placebo."

Conclusion

There is a good amount of studies supporting the ingredients in TIGHT. This, plus the fact that SAN uses highly potent versions of these ingredients has heighten my interest in the product. Therefore, I was be using it. But, I am not going to just use it and be done with it. For the past 3 weeks, I have been testing my body fat percentage using calipers (9-point test).

I have gotten down to a low body fat percentage. The fat surrounding my waist and love handles is always hardest to get rid of. I am going to track my fat loss, using the calipers and pictures, and compare it to the fat lose experienced when not using TIGHT. My diet will be exactly the same. So be on the look out for the results to my personal test.

My Results

Day One

Took 1 cap TIGHT at 7:30.
Worked out at 8:00. I seemed to be sweating more than usual.
Appetite: Too early to tell
Side Effects: None

Day Two

Sweat: The gym was VERY humid today, so this would not be valid today.
Appetite: Did not have that urge to eat like I usually do. By 7 PM, I am usually dying to eat junk, but not today. Could be all in my head, so we'll wait and see.
Side Effects: None

Day Three

Sweat: Nothing unusual
Appetite: No hunger pangs
Side Effects: None

Day Four

Sweat: I sweated WAY more than usual during my cardio session.
Appetite: I am definitely not as hungry as I usual am
Side Effects: None

Day Five

Sweat: Nothing unusual
Appetite: Suppressed
Side Effects: None

Day Six

Sweat: Nothing unusual
Appetite: Suppressed
Side Effects: None

Day Seven

Sweat: Nothing unusual
Appetite: Suppressed
Side Effects: None

Weeks 2-6

Everything was basically the same as week 1. Nothing new to report.

I feel that TIGHT has helped me consistently lose fat. I dropped 2% bodyfat while using this product in conjunction with diet and exercise. Diet and exercise were the key of course, but I feel this product gives you that extra boost. One thing that makes this product different from an ephedra based product is you don't get that extra energy, well I didn't at least. But I still think it is a good product for the fact that it controlled my appetite. That alone is worth even if it did nothing else.

SAN's Lipidex - Learn More

Lipidex is and EFA combo containing CLA, fish oil, flax seed, and borage oil. I didn't notice anything special from taking this, but one normally doesn't when taken EFAs if they have already been taking them.

SAN's Loaded

Loaded is a nutrient partitioning agent. I did not feel anything extraordinary while using this product, but it is hard to tell whether or not more glucose is being sent to your muscles instead of your fat cells. I was steadily losing weight, but that was expected due to my diet and training. The ingredients in this product are good, but don't expect this to be some magic pill.

SAN's Infusion - Learn More

Infusion is the best tasting protein powder I have ever had! I went through a jug of vanilla carmel shirl and wildberry yogurt. My daily Infusion shake was a treat. When I drank it, I felt like I was cheating on my diet. One thing I like to do is mix a couple scoops with a good amount of crushed ice in a blender. When you blend it, the shake comes out like a ice cone. Again, this is one way to make yourself think you are cheating when you are not.

I am very impressed with SAN's products. They are all high quality and they actually work.

Be Sure To Check Out My Other Reviews Of Products:

Derek's Supplement & Video Reveiw.
More Supplement Reviews...

Later,

dspikehead@hotmail.com