By now, virtually everyone in the world has heard about the weight loss supplement called Trim Spa. You may be wondering, is this the real thing? Does it really work? Anna Nicole lost 60 or 70 pounds by taking this supplement, but is it just an overhyped weight loss pill, or is it something that actually works? In this review I'll give you the straight-up answers about Trim Spa, and tell you what I think about the ingredients and the product.
First off, given all of the hype and promotion surrounding Trim Spa, you may be surprised to learn that this is, in fact, a well designed weight loss supplement that can support real progress for people trying to lose weight. So even though I don't appreciate all of the marketing surrounding this supplement, a closer look at the ingredients convinces me that this is, in fact, a very effective nutritional supplement for people working to lose excess body fat. Why is that? Let's take a look at the ingredients it contains, and find out what makes Trim Spa so good.
(By the way, as always, I receive no funds whatsoever from the maker of Trim Spa. This is not a paid review, nor some sort of infomercial. It's merely my own opinion on the weight loss potential of this product.)
We'll start with the most prominent ingredients first. The first ingredient in Trim Spa is glucomannan -- a revolutionary fiber, derived from the konjac plant. It's actually ground-up, dried konjac root. Now what's unique about glucomannan is that it has the highest viscosity of any known natural fiber, and when you consume glucomannan, it absorbs hundreds of times its own weight in water, forming a gelatinous mass in your stomach and digestive tract.
This accomplishes a couple of very important things in terms of weight loss; in fact, I think it's the best ingredient in Trim Spa. For starters, glucomannan takes up physical space in your stomach. That alone makes you feel more full, which turns off the hunger signals in your brain, effectively making Trim Spa an appetite suppressant. It means you'll eat less at a meal if you take Trim Spa before the meal, and if you take several tablets of Trim Spa, you will have even more glucomannan in your stomach, meaning you have even less space remaining for foods that would add calories to your diet. And that's another point about glucomannan -- it has no calories whatsoever. It's just a fiber. It's just something that takes up space, like swallowing a giant water sponge.
Here's another interesting fact about glucomannan: because it is a highly viscous fiber, it mixes with the other foods you've eaten and effectively lowers their glycemic index. Hopefully, you already know what the glycemic index is, but in case you don't, here's a summary:
The glycemic index is a measure of how quickly foods impact your blood sugar levels. So a food with a high glycemic index, such as white bread or sugar, would raise your blood sugar very quickly. Foods with a low glycemic index -- things like oat bran or quinoa -- have a weaker effect on your blood sugar. In order to lose weight and be healthy, you want to eat foods that have a low glycemic index, because eating foods with a high glycemic index causes the production of excess insulin which results in fat creation and storage in your body. It also means you'll get hungry later as your blood sugar crashes following the spike. But when you consume low glycemic index foods, you create more stable blood sugar levels. You don't get the hunger spikes, nor the mood swings associated with wild swings in blood sugar levels.
What glucomannan has to do with all of this is quite fascinating. By combining this glucomannan fiber with whatever foods you've already eaten, you are effectively lowering the glycemic index of those foods, because the glucomannan fiber slows the absorption of carbohydrates from those foods. It's sort of like taking a tablespoon of sugar and mixing it with oat bran and then eating it. The oat bran interferes with the absorption of the sugars, making it harder for your body to get to those sugars. So, in effect, taking Trim Spa quite literally reduces the glycemic index of the high-carbohydrate foods you might be consuming, and that will give you more stable blood sugar levels, which will not only improve your mood and help protect your pancreas, but will also inhibit the storage of body fat that would normally occur after consuming those foods.
By the way, this doesn't mean you can take Trim Spa and then go out and eat all of the ice cream, candy bars, cookies, and Krispy Kreme donuts you want. Trim Spa isn't so powerful that you can just go crazy on eating high sugar foods, but it does offer a protective effect, and thus I would recommend it strongly if you're ever going to eat a meal containing desserts or refined carbohydrates. That includes all breads, cereals, and anything made with white flour or refined sugars. That especially includes soft drinks, which are sweetened with a highly refined added sugar known as high-fructose corn syrup. So, glucomannan is a useful ingredient, and it's the number one ingredient in Trim Spa.
The next ingredient is cocoa extract, and cocoa extract is a smart ingredient in the Trim Spa recipe (the people who formulated this certainly know what they're doing). Cocoa extract makes you feel good by boosting serotonin levels in your brain. It's one of the reasons people have late night chocolate cravings -- when they eat that chocolate, they actually feel better through biochemistry. Chocolate, by the way, is a medicinal herb from the rain forest. It has anti-cancer properties, believe it or not, and even though Trim Spa isn't really an anti-cancer nutritional supplement, there's no question that the small amount of cocoa in the product does enhance your immune system function and offer some protective effect against cancer, although it is probably a small effect.
The more important effect is that it makes your brain feel good. It enhances your mood, and when you're trying to lose weight, you know how important this can be. Restricting your carbohydrates can make you feel down. So getting some chocolate into your brain, so to speak, is a good way to elevate your mood and give you the motivation you need to continue with your weight loss efforts. It's another excellent ingredient in the Trim Spa recipe.
The next ingredient is green tea extract, and my opinion on this ingredient is mixed. I think green tea is an outstanding herb for weight loss and it is also well documented as an anti-cancer herb. But there is caffeine in the green tea, and thus there's caffeine in the Trim Spa recipe. Caffeine is the only chemical compound I don't like in this formula. I certainly realize caffeine can be a very effective weight loss compound, because it boosts your metabolism. It's a chemical compound that excites the nervous system. But at the same time, it can also deplete the adrenal glands over time, leaving you exhausted. Caffeine can also be highly addictive, meaning that if you take this product on a daily basis, you might come to the point where you need the product just to function normally, in much the same way as people need a daily cup of coffee just to wake up. That is a chemical addiction, and it's not the kind of chemical addiction you want for the long term.
There's not a large amount of caffeine in Trim Spa, however, so it's not comparable to the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee or a can of soda. But the good news on green tea extract is that it's an effective weight loss herb. It does help control appetite: it helps eliminate or inhibit fat storage, and it helps prevent breast cancer and prostate cancer. So it's a smart ingredient to put into the product -- my own preference, though, would be for a decaffeinated version of green tea extract.
The next ingredient at 150 mg per serving is the hoodia gordonii cactus. We've talked about hoodia in some other articles; in fact, I've authored an eight-part feature investigation into hoodia, where I looked at how this plant works to suppress appetite, where it comes from, who's marketing it and where you can find it from trusted sources (because a lot of the hoodia out there on the market is counterfeit). Through the interviews I conducted, I happen to know that the hoodia gordonii in the Trim Spa formula is in fact, genuine. This is the real stuff.
But, as much as hoodia can suppress your appetite, I've only found it to be effective in very large doses or when taken as a tincture. And the amount of hoodia in Trim Spa is relatively low -- it's only 150mg when you take two tablets. In my opinion, that's too low to have any effect at all. I was taking 1200 mg a day and still not seeing very much of an effect from the hoodia powder, and here in Trim Spa you're only getting a fraction of that. In my view, hoodia is listed here more for marketing purposes than as a highly effective appetite suppressant. I think the glucomannan is going to be a far better appetite suppressant than the hoodia gordonii found in this formula.
So, let's move on to the next ingredient, and that is sodium carboxymethylcellulose. This is also present at 100 mg, and it's another form of fiber that takes up space in your stomach, makes you feel full, and helps lower the effective glycemic index of other foods you consume.
The next ingredient we have is glucosamine HCL. This glucosamine works to lower the effective glycemic index of whatever carbohydrates you may have eaten. This ingredient is better known for its positive impact on joint health and in eliminating or reducing joint pain associated with arthritis, but it does in fact have some effect on the blood sugar impact of foods you have eaten.
The next ingredient is citrus naringin, which is a citrus extract occasionally used as an appetite suppressant, but is probably better known as a source of fiber. This acts in combination with the glucomannan and the sodium carboxymethylcellulose to provide a complex fiber that makes you feel full while interfering with the absorption of refined carbohydrates.
Next, we have two ingredients that are present in only small amounts -- these are chromium and vanadium, and these I think are another excellent choice for the Trim Spa recipe. Chromium, in particular, has been shown to greatly enhance insulin sensitivity (which is a good thing). You may recall that a lot of diabetics suffer from insulin resistance, meaning that even though their body is producing insulin, their cells aren't paying attention to it, and they're not accepting blood sugar from the bloodstream, meaning that the blood sugar levels stay elevated, and that's dangerous for diabetics. Chromium, which is a trace mineral, helps increase insulin sensitivity, which effectively moves blood sugar out of your bloodstream and into your body's cells, thereby lowering your blood sugar. Many diabetics are deficient in chromium, and the amount of chromium provided in the Trim Spa product is quite sufficient to help alleviate this problem if you are one of those people suffering from chromium deficiency. Once again, a smart choice for the Trim Spa recipe.
Along with chromium is vanadium. This is another ingredient that increases the transportation of blood sugar from your bloodstream to your body's cells. Vanadium, in many ways, mimics insulin, thus it helps accomplish the function of insulin without requiring extra effort on the part of your pancreas. These two ingredients together, chromium and vanadium, are a smart pair in controlling blood sugar. This, in turn, suppresses blood sugar spikes and the formation of excess body fat following meals, especially meals containing refined carbohydrates.
So you put all of this together, you have a rather interesting combination in Trim Spa. You have ingredients that take up space in your stomach, and thereby suppress your appetite. Those same ingredients also interfere with the absorption of refined carbohydrates, effectively lowering the glycemic index of your meal, which protects you from the insulin spiking effects of dietary carbohydrates. You also have a couple of antioxidants and anti-cancer herbs in here, including cocoa and green tea. You have the serotonin-boosting effect of cocoa which helps elevate your mood when you're on a diet. You have the appetite suppressing potential of hoodia gordonii (although I think this ingredient is present in too small of a ratio to be much help). And then finally you have the very beneficial effects of chromium and vanadium, trace minerals that are typically deficient in people who suffer from blood sugar imbalances or diabetes.
Put it all together, and you actually have a very effective weight loss product -- surprisingly effective, in fact, given the amount of hype associated with this product. Typically a product that is so heavily hyped is not very effective, or it's made with cheap filler ingredients, but this is not one of those products.
Trim Spa is actually well thought out. It is a smart weight loss recipe, but like many weight loss supplements, it's only going to be effective if you use it in large enough quantities, and even two tablets only provides a small dosage of these ingredients. The recommended dosage of Trim Spa, according to the bottle, is 1 to 2 tablets, 2 to 3 times a day as needed. If I were using this product as a weight loss supplement, I would probably be using 2 to 3 tablets before every meal, and I eat five times a day. That means I would be taking 10 to 15 of these tablets a day, and frankly, that would probably give me too much caffeine, and that's one reason why I don't use this product myself.
One last note on this: be sure to drink a lot of water when you take these. You should probably be drinking 6 ounces of water for every tablet you consume, because the glucomannan ingredient is going to expand in your stomach, and if you don't drink adequate supplies of water, it could become a medical problem. It could actually clump up in your stomach or small intestine, and it could even block your small intestine. So you must take adequate water with this product. Drinking water is a great idea for your health, anyway, but it is especially important when you are taking a product containing glucomannan or other fibers that expand in your digestive tract.
Where can you find Trim Spa? It's available at almost any drug store or convenience store. The parent website for this is TrimSpa.com. You can also find Trim Spa sold at virtually every vitamin supplement manufacturer on the internet, so it's something that's very easy to find. There are a couple of different Trim Spa formulas available now with varying ingredients, but what I have covered here are the basic ingredients found in every Trim Spa formula.
So, does Trim Spa receive my own personal recommendation as a weight loss supplement? In a qualified way, yes. This is a very effective supplement, and even though it contains too much caffeine, the other ingredients are very effective at controlling weight, reducing blood sugar spikes, inhibiting the storage of body fat, and making you feel full, and that's a big part of the picture of losing weight.
At the same time, I think that no weight loss program is going to be effective if you don't also combine it with physical exercise and smarter food choice. You cannot allow Trim Spa or any nutritional supplement to give you the right to go out and eat junk food all day long and avoid physical exercise, and far too many people view these supplements in that way. You will not lose weight on Trim Spa if you continue to eat junk foods, fried foods, fast foods, and other garbage that packs on the pounds through high caloric density foods.
Also, you will not lose weight on Trim Spa if you don't engage in physical exercise. So, it can really only be effective if you combine it with these other strategies that are proven to work. If you choose to move to healthier food and engage in regular physical exercise, I have no doubt that Trim Spa will accelerate your weight loss efforts. You will reach your goals more quickly with Trim Spa than without, but again, you have to stick to a realistic plan of how you're going to consume fewer calories than you're burning on a daily basis, and I've never seen a plan that works unless it involves regular physical exercise.
The big mistake made by most dieters is that they rely on the supplement to "save them" while they continue on making terrible lifestyle choices (like eating a dozen donuts while watching the Superbowl). Trim Spa will not save you from yourself. But it can be a smart aid to help you make a lasting change for improved health and reduced body fat.
About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate and award-winning journalist with a passion for sharing empowering information to help improve personal and planetary health He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, and he is well known as the creator of popular downloadable preparedness programs on financial collapse, emergency food storage, wilderness survival and home defense skills. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2010, Adams launched TV.NaturalNews.com, a natural health video site featuring videos on holistic health and green living. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also the founder and CEO of a well known email mail merge software developer whose software, 'Email Marketing Director,' currently runs the NaturalNews email subscriptions. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and practices nature photography, Capoeira, martial arts and organic gardening. He's also author a large number of health books offered by Truth Publishing and is the creator of numerous reference website including NaturalPedia.com and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. His websites also include the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the innate healing ability of the human body. Known on the 'net as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission statements and personal health statistics at www.HealthRanger.org
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Tuesday, March 01, 2005
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