CLA for weight loss

[foliedouce]

I know the PH collective all agree that to lose weight you need less calories in than you use, however has anyone used CLA pills to complement that approach (with exercise as well)?

I've lost the 'easy' weight (1 stone) but want to lose another 2 which would take me back to a weight I haven't been for 15 years. Tough ask but doable I reckon.

My Personal Trainer has recommended CLA, just wondered if anyone had any real world experience

Cheers

[chris watton]

I have been using CLA capsules twice per day for around 9 months. I have to be honest and say I am not sure if they are the reason for my weight loss. I have dieted (changed eating habits on a permanent basis) and have exercised from between 3-6 times per week for an hour and a half at a time for over 10 months.

I have stuck with all the supplements I started using when starting this new regime (CLA, cod liver oil, Turmeric, Milk Thistle, multi-vits, Brewer’s yeast, Ginseng and kelp), so it's difficult to know just how much they have helped. All I know is that I haven't been ill once since I started!

I think that, for me at least, the massive weight loss was achieved by eating less and choosing better foods and doing regular exercise. I don't think there are any easy ways around this.

CLA may have helped, but if it has, I think it has been minimal at best. But everyone is different - what may work for some may not work for others...

[Flibble]

Some research here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21990002

Basically, there's no evidence it makes any difference at all. Not worth wasting your money on.

[foliedouce]

Thanks for the comments, I know the research is mixed, which is the case for most supplements, hence asking for real world experience.

Interestingly that study seems contradictory to me.

"A meta-analysis revealed a statistically significant difference in weight loss favouring CLA over placebo (mean difference: -0.70 kg; 95% confidence interval: -1.09, -0.32)"

"Our meta-analysis also revealed a small significant difference in fat loss favouring CLA over placebo (MD: -1.33 kg; 95% CI: -1.79, -0.86; I (2) = 54%)"

Note the above says a "small significant difference" - is it small or significant, how can it be both?

Yet despite the study showing that CLA has an impact on weight loss, the conclusion is:-

"The evidence from RCTs does not convincingly show that CLA intake generates any clinically relevant effects on body composition on the long term."

Baffled!

[Flibble]

Significance relates to statistics; if something is significant it means the data is unlikely (the confidence interval tells you how unlikely) to be caused by random variation and is actually an observed effect. The size of the difference is independent of that, so something can be small and significant if it just enough to cross the threshold of significance, or large if it is further over.

As for the conclusion, the studies showed such a small difference in weight loss (less than 1 kg) that it was deemed not worth bothering with in a clinical setting; bear in mind these studies were all at least 6 months long. Paying through the nose for CLA to achieve a weight loss of 0.7 kg over 6 months seems somewhat pointless to me.

[DUMBO100]

I use PHD Diet Whey which has CLA in it and I've shifted a couple of stone.