Background on me: 26 years old, been lifting for about 5-6 years. Current weight about 230, with 15% BF. From the ages of 13-17, I was extremely overweight, eventually topping out at 280. I eventually started lifting weights, got a very physically demanding job stocking/unloading trailers at a retail store, and took my first bottle of "Ripped Fuel" with ephedra. After a year I got down to 170. At 170 I felt awesome, but eventually got tired of being the thin guy and started to bulk a little. My weight has fluctuted throught the years, but for the past 2 years I have been comfortable with the 220 range. My problem is ever since I took my first dose of ripped fuel, I feel the need to always take a thermo, no matter what. Almost like a multivitamin, I feel the need to pop them in my mouth like candy. No exaggeration; in the past nine years, the longest I have ever gone without a "fat burner" is probably 2 months. I know this isnt good, but I have this psychological dependence on them, like if I stop taking them I will baloon back up to 280, like when I was 17. Even when I was at a decent weight (215-220, 34in pant size), I took a thermo. When they banned ephedra, I thought this was my opportunity to stop taking them, but instead I just took all the ephedra free crap that came out.

Am I the only one out their with this dependence on the "fat burner"? Its come to the point where I will go in a deep depression without that caffeine/thermogenic feel. Now with the judge throwing out the ban on the original ephedra, im afraid Ill start stocking up.
Just wanna hear some thoughts.
Thanks for reading.

F

You need to get control of this my friend. Spending that long on ephedra is terrible for you. Both ephedra and caffiene are addictive...but of the two caffiene is a lot less damaging physically. Trying to go off caffiene to quickly will cause withdrawals and severe depression. It is best to slowly take yourself off of it a little at a time.

You need to learn to bulk and cut without stims..once you do you'll feel a lot better about yourself, your weight and your ability to keep it off. This is key for you to be stim/thermo free.

If you can't break out of this cycle I strongly suggest some councelling. I think you have more than just a basic addiction of stims going on here. You have to learn how to be at peace with your body.

About 10 years ago, I was addicted to using ephedra. I had to pretty much quit cold turkey and I felt like crap for about 6 months. However, over the past 10 years, supplement research has come a long way. Start taking ALCAR, ALTYR (tyrosine), etc. Try using Neurostim or other "brain boosters". There are so many options that you can use to substitute for the "fix" that you believe you need.

Don't even consider "balooning" back up in weight....rather, use this as incentive to increase cardio and improve your diet so you will look and feel better.

If you can get past the dependency and are cool with that, there is always the option to run quick 2-week cycles of epedra or other Thermos in the future. Even after being hooked on Ephedra for over 3 years, I still run the occasional 2-week cycle of it and feel that my gains are better now.

Hope this helps.

Gumbo