Weight loss supps safe for obese?

[JellyJesus]

My brother is sadly extremely over weight. I am deeply concerned for his health and well being.. He is 6'1" and weighs at least 350-375.

Now he lives 6 hours away and I can only motivate and advise via telephone.. I have urged him to get moving not only for me but for him. He has no self confidence and has very slight aspergers so I think he feels it will do no use to get healthy as he has trouble in certain social situations and confidence is difficult for him in the first place..

He has recently started working out, and I couldn't be more excited. He says his BPM had gone down significantly and his overall well being is growing slowly but surely.

I apologize for the lengthy post, but to my point... Being as over weight as he is, and the amount some of stimulants weight loss sups can carry, are they safe for someone of his stature? I hope this isn't a ridiculous question, "are weight loss supplements safe for people who need to loose weight" , but I fear he is so overweight certain chemicals may danger his heart (such as dmaa). I have given him all the advice I can on diet and on weight lifting but I am almost clueless when it comes to supplementation. I have done research but I would love to hear from the community here.

I would like to know what would be best for him to take, and the precautions we should take. I am in this with him till the end; the end being his target weight of 250.

This is my first post, and I'm glad to be apart of this forum, I have lurked for awhile and you all seem to be extremely knowledgable, friendly and great people to learn from. I love my brother very much, and deeply appreciate any help that can be given.

 

[NoAddedHmones]

My brother is sadly extremely over weight. I am deeply concerned for his health and well being.. He is 6'1" and weighs at least 350-375.

Now he lives 6 hours away and I can only motivate and advise via telephone.. I have urged him to get moving not only for me but for him. He has no self confidence and has very slight aspergers so I think he feels it will do no use to get healthy as he has trouble in certain social situations and confidence is difficult for him in the first place..

He has recently started working out, and I couldn't be more excited. He says his BPM had gone down significantly and his overall well being is growing slowly but surely.

I apologize for the lengthy post, but to my point... Being as over weight as he is, and the amount some of stimulants weight loss sups can carry, are they safe for someone of his stature? I hope this isn't a ridiculous question, "are weight loss supplements safe for people who need to loose weight" , but I fear he is so overweight certain chemicals may danger his heart (such as dmaa). I have given him all the advice I can on diet and on weight lifting but I am almost clueless when it comes to supplementation. I have done research but I would love to hear from the community here.

I would like to know what would be best for him to take, and the precautions we should take. I am in this with him till the end; the end being his target weight of 250.

This is my first post, and I'm glad to be apart of this forum, I have lurked for awhile and you all seem to be extremely knowledgable, friendly and great people to learn from. I love my brother very much, and deeply appreciate any help that can be given.

Literally at this stage all he needs to do is get up and do some exercise and not eat like the world is ending and the weight will literally fall off week on week. DW bout supps now.

 

[MMAguy]

Thanks for posting. First of all great job on guiding and inspiring your brother to get into shape. Welcome to the forums.
First of all, he personally needs to WANT it. I've seen lots of people say they want to lose weight but they don't act accordingly.
He needs to want to lose it first of all. Losing weight is 70% diet 30% exercise. Does he have a diet plan ready? HIIT (high intensity interval training) is great for burning fat. He doesn't need supplements. He needs dedication, motivation and discipline along with anybody who wants to cut off the fat your body has decided to hold onto. Keep him motivated and if he wants to lose weight he certainly will. we are here to help. Great job looking out for his health!

 

[JellyJesus]

Literally at this stage all he needs to do is get up and do some exercise and not eat like the world is ending and the weight will literally fall off week on week. DW bout supps now.

Quick and simple answer, thank you for the advise. But the main reason I feel supplements may help is more on the mental side. If he feels they will speed up the process, he may be more motivated. I fear he will loose motivation.

 

[NoAddedHmones]

Quick and simple answer, thank you for the advise. But the main reason I feel supplements may help is more on the mental side. If he feels they will speed up the process, he may be more motivated. I fear he will loose motivation.

Fair enough and I can understand that. Just stay well away anything with strong stimulants or hormonal.

 

[JellyJesus]

Thanks for posting. First of all great job on guiding and inspiring your brother to get into shape. Welcome to the forums.
First of all, he personally needs to WANT it. I've seen lots of people say they want to lose weight but they don't act accordingly.
He needs to want to lose it first of all. Losing weight is 70% diet 30% exercise. Does he have a diet plan ready? HIIT (high intensity interval training) is great for burning fat. He doesn't need supplements. He needs dedication, motivation and discipline along with anybody who wants to cut off the fat your body has decided to hold onto. Keep him motivated and if he wants to lose weight he certainly will. we are here to help. Great job looking out for his health!

I am very aware diet is the main source behind successful weight loss, or building muscle mass. He has no actual diet plan that I know of, but I have sent him multiple sources and talked him through the diet process. So hopefully he has done enough research to put together some sort of 'plan'. I think he wants it, but my main fear is exactly what you stated.. I hope he is not falsely making me believe he really wants to loose it. I appreciate warm welcome!

 

[MMAguy]

Quick and simple answer, thank you for the advise. But the main reason I feel supplements may help is more on the mental side. If he feels they will speed up the process, he may be more motivated. I fear he will loose motivation.

Lots of water, healthy diet and some exercise is the ultimate supplement. That's all he needs. Most fat burners are BS anyways.

 

[JellyJesus]

Lots of water, healthy diet and some exercise is the ultimate supplement. That's all he needs. Most fat burners are BS anyways.

That's what I figured... That's what I have difficulty with as well, finding sups that aren't just burning holes in my pocket. Thanks again man.

 

[crowbar46]

Quick and simple answer, thank you for the advise. But the main reason I feel supplements may help is more on the mental side. If he feels they will speed up the process, he may be more motivated. I fear he will loose motivation.

Maybe a placebo is more in order. I agree, he doesn't need "fat burners"--especially stimulant based ones now (or maybe ever). If taking something that he thinks will speed the process keeps him motivated, a cap filled with some inert substance just might do the trick; after all, being very overweight any sensible diet and exercise program will have the pounds coming off.

Crowbar

 

[JellyJesus]

Maybe a placebo is more in order. I agree, he doesn't need "fat burners"--especially stimulant based ones now (or maybe ever). If taking something that he thinks will speed the process keeps him motivated, a cap filled with some inert substance just might do the trick; after all, being very overweight any sensible diet and exercise program will have the pounds coming off.

Crowbar

Haha, as smart as this sounds I honestly don't think I could feed him placebos. The loss of motivation is a fear of mine. At the moment he doesn't seem to be loosing any motivation, but today he did say he's "Only lost 5 pounds in the last three weeks......" Seems he is dissatisfied with his results. Problem is I can't monitor his diet and exercise, and us both being busy I can't just vicariously workout with him ya know? There's only so much I can do, and so much I'm actually being told. I will let him know not to worry about and supplements right now. You all are right, if he wants to loose weight and does what he is suppose to he will.

 

[jaredmus]

I may catch some flack for this but... At that stage start with taking things out like soda and replacing with diet soda, switch some snacks to 100 calorie bars and or 100 calorie popcorn. Replace some things in meals with veggies have him eat lean meats, Semi "bro approach" but slowly. Start with 15 minute walks for a week, than try 20 the following week then 25 and so on

 

[paul56778]

Best to refine diet and use fat burners to help get past a plateau and help when motivation drops in the later stages of your cut, if you are very overweight then a mass amount of weight can be lost just through diet manipulation.

You want to save some tricks, wild cards, for later as progression is made e.g. such as carb cycling, Ketogenic dieting, intermittent fasting, LISS, HIIT, Cardio, fasted Cardio and then fat burners, e.g such as alphamine, norcodrene or a combination with one of them with shift, this is for when you have lost the bulk of the weight to keep things progressing.

 

[EasyEJL]

I may catch some flack for this but... At that stage start with taking things out like soda and replacing with diet soda, switch some snacks to 100 calorie bars and or 100 calorie popcorn. Replace some things in meals with veggies have him eat lean meats, Semi "bro approach" but slowly. Start with 15 minute walks for a week, than try 20 the following week then 25 and so on

Yep, this is the best bet. The slow attack. work with him, pick 1 meal of the day and make 1 change to it. Let that settle in for 2-3 weeks and repeat. Replace soda with unsweetened tea at lunch. Then once that is habit, replace the afternoon cookies with fresh fruit, etc. It makes for small changes that are easy for him to make vs trying to make some huge sweeping set all at once.


the trick with supplements is that for it to work as placebo, he has to feel it in some way which usually means stimulants. But its possible some of the nutrient partitioners will help as well

 

[LeanEngineer]

Once he changes his diet even without any exercise or weight lose supp he will see big time results. I think people sometimes forget how the diet can change the body because they think their over weight from not working out but they're really over weight from not eatting right.

 

[paul56778]

Or eating to much and not being aware of the calories and macro-nutrients, for cutting / reducing body fat i find it essential to weight all food consumed to account for it all.

 

[BRUstrong]

Haha, as smart as this sounds I honestly don't think I could feed him placebos. The loss of motivation is a fear of mine. At the moment he doesn't seem to be loosing any motivation, but today he did say he's "Only lost 5 pounds in the last three weeks......" Seems he is dissatisfied with his results. Problem is I can't monitor his diet and exercise, and us both being busy I can't just vicariously workout with him ya know? There's only so much I can do, and so much I'm actually being told. I will let him know not to worry about and supplements right now. You all are right, if he wants to loose weight and does what he is suppose to he will.

Exactly. Even if he starts using a supplement at this stage, it won't combat the negative effects of a crappy diet and lack of training. If he has no motivation to change his lifestyle, supplements will simply become a money pit. Good luck with your efforts, and as others have stated, we're always here to help.

 

[Rob1882]

The problem with many stimulants is going to be blood pressure and when I was 365# mine was rather high I didn't use much of anything at all till I had lost roughly 60-70# and my blood pressure was much lower.

As someone who was there and worse IMO the best possible way to go is to eat as much as possible consistently tracking it while still losing weight, an overall diet higher in protein and a mixture of fat's will and does help with satiety.

Talking long term cut need to consider things long term not short term, so eating the most he/they or anyone possibly can consistently while still losing weight is going to provide the most success. Consider the metabolism adapts to what you are eating and when talking long term weight loss, need to consider lean body mass which the body will want to get rid of more than the body fat; so eating the most you can combined with weight training can help both lose more body fat than lean mass, but also help maintain a higher metabolism.

I limited things that were super dense as some mentioned above like with soda etc ( to just 1 or portion controlled ) but I still eat all the same foods I simply portion control and managed to lose 175# in under 2 full years on eating as much as I can ( while still losing weight ), that helped me both physically and mentally being able to eat what I like as well helping my own relationship with food. By and large I eat all the same foods. I track everything using myfitnesspal and weigh all my foods out.

Simply need to start with a base idea of his/their or anyone's TDEE and start there and slowly reduce till losing weight 1-2# a week is ideal, and if losing more than 2# in a week I increase my calories.

Layne Norton discusses this in depth with his series on Metabolic Adaptations on youtube & his podcasts ( all freely available ) they are listed as Metabolic Damage ( he says in the video it is metabolic adaptations the name is due to others use ).

 

[The_Old_Guy]

TL;DR Version

I was around 300 at one point - one year later I was at 210 (Avatar Pic). You need to figure out what his TDEE will be once you incorporate his training, and have him eat 500-1000kcal less (whatever he can handle without causing him to binge and blow it). Get him 'FatSecret' on his phone/tablet and using stuff he likes to eat, plug in all the meals equaling his deficit kcals. Have him eat the exact same thing for the next year. That's what I did, and since it was stuff I liked, I didn't care that it was the same thing every day. If you have the time and patience, you can vary his meal plan, but to me, it was a PITA. If he doesn't get control of what goes into his mouth every-single-meal, he will fail every time. He can have black coffee before cardio, but I'd never have him take any stimulant, and all the non-stim stuff is BS anyway, IMO. My BP back then was 170/90.

Edit: Oh, and get real with him from the start - count on 1-2lbs/week *best case*. So mark the Calendar after doing the math - he has a good year and a half - but it goes quick! Trust me

 

[HIT4ME]

So, I was at around 300 pounds a couple years ago, at 5'8''. It's a struggle and requires a different mindset. For me, the fact was, I just didn't care if I was fat. Everyone thinks it's such a negative state, but it really wasn't for me. I had adapted to it. But then I started to find things that I thought were cool and that I wanted to be able to do. I saw some people doing pull ups and thought, "I should be able to do that". And then I was talking about skiing with someone and realized I hadn't been in years and probably couldn't. And then I saw older people in my family who hadn't taken care of themselves and can no longer get out of a chair on their own. And I decided to get active.

At first, I didn't even worry about dieting, I just started hitting the weights, I had a positive goal to move toward - get stronger. In about a year I lost 45 pounds. Then last year I went on a PSMF and lost 60 pounds more or so. I've rebounded a little and now I'm trying to make a push to get down to 160 which is where I should be.

The advice above is good - but just get him something that he wants to work toward. Maybe he thinks running a marathon would be cool, maybe he wants to get stronger. Once he gets something positive, it will grow.

As for supplements - Evomuse Brite and Epitome may be worth looking into. These are both long term supplements and not your standard fat burners.

 

[paul56778]

So, I was at around 300 pounds a couple years ago, at 5'8''. It's a struggle and requires a different mindset. For me, the fact was, I just didn't care if I was fat. Everyone thinks it's such a negative state, but it really wasn't for me. I had adapted to it. But then I started to find things that I thought were cool and that I wanted to be able to do. I saw some people doing pull ups and thought, "I should be able to do that". And then I was talking about skiing with someone and realized I hadn't been in years and probably couldn't. And then I saw older people in my family who hadn't taken care of themselves and can no longer get out of a chair on their own. And I decided to get active.

At first, I didn't even worry about dieting, I just started hitting the weights, I had a positive goal to move toward - get stronger. In about a year I lost 45 pounds. Then last year I went on a PSMF and lost 60 pounds more or so. I've rebounded a little and now I'm trying to make a push to get down to 160 which is where I should be.

The advice above is good - but just get him something that he wants to work toward. Maybe he thinks running a marathon would be cool, maybe he wants to get stronger. Once he gets something positive, it will grow.

As for supplements - Evomuse Brite and Epitome may be worth looking into. These are both long term supplements and not your standard fat burners.

Great progress on losing all that weight, i also agree that a long term goal is great to keep you on track, it helps you out allot with committing, e.g. my goals for bulking and cutting are usually in prep for shows which helps keep me on track and give me something to look forward to, also regardless of competing i find it great for personal reasons.

 

[cheftepesh1]

If you really want to get him something that will work but not have stims there are many options. Look at options like green tea and L-carnitine. Other options could include T-2 http://mindandmuscle.net/articles/product/t2-fat-burner/ or even lightly stimmed ones. The fact is you cna only do so much and a lot has to do with him.

 

[cubsfan815]

Not sure if it has been mentioned, but you could look into evomuse Brite and Epitome.

Epitome crushed my appetite, and is non stim. Brite turns me into a walking furnace. They can be taken year round basically.

 

[Jiigzz]

Id go with a non stim fat burner or something that makes him "feel warm". As mentioned above, even just moving and being more careful with food intake will have the weight falling off, but a fat burner can help him stay motivated and give him a focus, even if it by itself does nothing.

The idea is that taking a pill in the morning may make him more conscious of his eating and movement decisions throughout the day

What motivates one person from the next can vary greatly - some people simply realise they need to change for themselves, some do it for family, some do it to fit a pair of pants etc. Some people have simply stopped caring or been fat for so long they simply have just become accustomed to it, some feel that being skinny wont get them any more noticed or confident than being fat does so they just give up.

The key is talking. What drives them. What gets them fired up. Work from there and focus on their goals and itl happen over time.

Another point, IMO dont make it to complicated. Dont pull out the calculator and start working out macros, micros and everything in between, that is hard work and people will give up on it. If being skinny means counting, measuring, adding, subtracting and so on people simply wont do it. Keep it basic and introduce other things as time passes

 

[JellyJesus]

Man I didn't expect all this help, you guys are seriously awesome. I'll do my best to get him tracking his diet. That's been his problem, I believe depression and anxiety leads to binge eating. I'll get him to get a simple diet tracker and tell him to keep it basic.

I know what you mean about over complication too.. I'm having that trouble myself with muscle gain. But that's another thread haha.

I will look into all the suggestions on the fat burners with appetite suppression, even if he doesn't need them. I feel my efforts doing research for him will also make him feel more obligated to keep moving and regulating his diet. Who knows.

Again y'all are the best. Such thoughtful and thorough responses. I appreciate all the time you guys are taking to help me out.

 

[paul56778]

Id go with a non stim fat burner or something that makes him "feel warm". As mentioned above, even just moving and being more careful with food intake will have the weight falling off, but a fat burner can help him stay motivated and give him a focus, even if it by itself does nothing.

The idea is that taking a pill in the morning may make him more conscious of his eating and movement decisions throughout the day

What motivates one person from the next can vary greatly - some people simply realise they need to change for themselves, some do it for family, some do it to fit a pair of pants etc. Some people have simply stopped caring or been fat for so long they simply have just become accustomed to it, some feel that being skinny wont get them any more noticed or confident than being fat does so they just give up.

The key is talking. What drives them. What gets them fired up. Work from there and focus on their goals and itl happen over time.

Another point, IMO dont make it to complicated. Dont pull out the calculator and start working out macros, micros and everything in between, that is hard work and people will give up on it. If being skinny means counting, measuring, adding, subtracting and so on people simply wont do it. Keep it basic and introduce other things as time passes

Agree, starting out just cleaning up diet can make a huge difference, the weighing and calculating of KCAL's and Macros just takes it a step further and allows you to reach lower levels of bodyfat.

 

[EasyEJL]

Man I didn't expect all this help, you guys are seriously awesome. I'll do my best to get him tracking his diet. That's been his problem, I believe depression and anxiety leads to binge eating. I'll get him to get a simple diet tracker and tell him to keep it basic.

Well, yeah, but then you have to remember the other problem.... He WILL fail and break a diet. We all do, no matter what. Whether it's a night you're up late and see ____ in the fridge and scarf it down, at work someone brings in donuts, etc. If the depression/anxiety leads to binge eating then any break (even if its something that would be just fine if he continues on like a single donut one day) is likely to set him off into a binge. Hence my point of just making small changes to his diet. If you are going to come up with a full diet plan, make sure you start with it very close to his current intake, without changes that will leave him an emotional mess through missing it all. He doesn't need to make the changes all on day 1. The larger the change in the smaller amount of time, the more likely the failure. A small change month one, followed by a small change month 2, 3, 4 etc is a lot easier to get compliance on. And you care about the long term success.

Don't forget to also leave him the 1 cheat meal a week, make it a structured Saturday or Sunday lunch or dinner only, preset which in advance so it's something solid for him to look forward to.

 

[paul56778]

I have suffered from depression and anxiety in the past and it really threw me off and caused a setback resulting in fat gain, it is important to address any problems with the mind to ensure success with dieting.

 

[JellyJesus]

I have suffered from depression and anxiety in the past and it really threw me off and caused a setback resulting in fat gain, it is important to address any problems with the mind to ensure success with dieting.

He would never admit it, but it's quite obvious. I think he is just lonely. Regardless, I'll do my best to keep his spirits up, and continue guide him in the right direction, will all of you guys help of course .