Your CLA experiences
 

Hey all,
Well I am going to try out CLA, I have done some research on it and read many posts here and will be starting with breakfast tomorrow. For those who have or are taking this supplement how long before you notice any results and, do you think that the results are because of the CLA or just coincidental to being compliant with the Low Carb life ??

Thanks for your insights !

DAve

I have been using 5000 mg/day for 3 weeks now and the results are:zippo. No loss in inches and 1 lb weight loss. I will finish the bottles I have and that will be it.

You might want to go to the Challenge boards and check out the message boards for CLA CHALLENGE and look at the Friday ones....thats where everyone posts there losses

I finished the bottle I purchased and don't plan to buy more. I didn't experience any inch/weight loss either. Honestly, though, I was sharing my bottle with BF ... and for the first week I was only taking 1000 mg a day, but then increased to 3000 mg day for the next 2-3 weeks. So I took them for about a month which should have been long enough to see some kind of result if I was going to have one. Not wasting my money on that product again.

I have noticed a slight difference in inches. I didn't expcect dramatic results because I was very close to goal when I started taking it 1 month ago. I'm going to give it 2 more months before re evaluating whether to continue.

It seems some have reported side effects such as breaking out, nausea, and some bathroom problems. On the other hand I have experienced no side effects other than increased trips to the bathroom the first day I took it.

Denise

I went through a bottle this last month and I don't think it did nothing for me, but give me zits.

My weight loss came from the Fat Fast, but I still have not lost squat in my ab area.

I didn't notice any difference. I've been taking 3000 mg a day since June 21. Although they do say it takes 4 weeks.

I have been taking 3000 mg a day for almost a month and have experienced neither inches lost nor weight loss.

I'm kinda glad i'm not the only one crying over my vitamin bill. I have been taking 6 tabs a day, religously, which is about 4500- 5000 mgs a day for a month and have had NO results. I exercise five days a week, do everything else right, but zip, zilch, nada. Of course i bought two huge bottles of the stuff.

EDITED:

I should mention that my friend who weighs as much as i do (around 225) has lost several inches, so go figure.

Ya'll who aren't having any luck with CLA can ship the left-overs to me! I have lost about 10 inches total since starting the stuff 4 weeks ago. And have had no side effects. I have lost inches in my thighs where no diet or exercise has ever been able to do before. Also, 4 inches in my stubborn belly ! I take 4000mg a day and it is the only difference in my routine since starting Atkins in Feb.

I too have been taking 4-6 a day for a month or so and can't really say I notice anything different.

I've been taking 4000 a day with no noticable change really. I will finish this bottle but not buy again.

I've been on induction for a month and a half......didn't see much weight loss until I started taking CLA....now I'm 15 pounds lighter.....I started Atkins on June 4, started CLA about 2.5 weeks after that.....I jus t upped my dose to 6000 mg a day...there is some debate on how much one should take. So far it's working for me, however, it does say on the bottle that it should be used in conjunction with diet and EXERCISE!!! I work out 6 days a week as well, so maybe that has something to do with it...

Hello,
I have been taking CLA for 3 weeks and I take 4 a day. I have seen great results. I have lost 4 inches in my abdomen, which I thought would go no place, and several inches on my body frame.
I am loving CLA.

I also have seen no loss with it, when it comes to inches. So as soon as I finish the bottle I am on now, that will be it for me as well. My wife has already dropped it from her routine.

I'm not even bothering to finish the bottle. I took 3000mg for a little over a week and then 4000 for almost 2wks- it actually slowed down things for me! I didn't lose hardly any inches during those weeks when I usually do- and have since started losing good on the inches every week since I stopped taking them 2wks ago. I also seemed to stay the exact same weight for awhile when taking them- started losing great again after I quit them.

Other than that- I noticed nothing from taking them (no side effects/etc). I couldn't even tell I was taking them except for the results mentioned above. There must be something in it that my body doesn't like- safflower oil? Who knows...

After reading all this I think I'm going to stop taking them too. I took them for two weeks, 4000 per day, then ran out and didn't take them for about 4 days. I got some more and have been taking them again since Sat. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but during the time I wasn't taking them I lost and now I haven't lost anything since.

You all can send your leftove CLA to me too!! I was in a stall until I started taking the CLA. Have lost 5 lbs since started taking it and lost two pants sizes. I love it and will be buying more today!! I guess it just works for certain people. I am very happy with it.

I've been taking CLA for over a year. I don't have any quantifiable results to share, but my lower abdomen is flatter than it has ever been, I "jiggle" less, and my skin is positively radiant (and I'm 43 -- long past the normal age for "dewy").

Now, I don't necessarily believe that CLA should get all the credit. I do Pilates, too (which has probably helped with the tummy), and recently quit aspartame, which I think is producing a lot of benefits (including a bit of fat loss and the clearer skin).

The thing to remember about CLA is that it doesn't produce results all by itself. It's a supplement, not a miracle pill. If you're eating cleanly and exercising, it is darn near impossible to know which results to attribute to CLA and which to attribute to the overall healthy lifestyle. But in the final analysis, who really cares? Either way, you're better off.

well put rebecca.....

The thing to remember about CLA is that it doesn't produce results all by itself. It's a supplement, not a miracle pill. If you're eating cleanly and exercising, it is darn near impossible to know which results to attribute to CLA and which to attribute to the overall healthy lifestyle. But in the final analysis, who really cares? Either way, you're better off.


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That's a costly supplement. I'll do without once the bottles are empty.
I almost never ate sugar or honey or any other sweets but the grains did me in. (oats, whole wheat, brown rice, wholeweat pasta)

Well, I agree with you that it's not a miracle pill (no such thing exists- nor ever will) and that it's just a supplement. And I agree that if you are losing great while taking CLA- but also low-carbing, doing Atkins, eating cleanly, etc.- it would be hard to attribute it solely to the CLA. Ofcourse.
However, if you are eating cleanly doing Atkins and losing well before and after taking CLA- but WEREN'T while taking CLA.... to me that's a clear indication that for yourself, ofcourse not everyone, it's not only not helpful but somehow a deterrent to the goal of losing weight/inches. It all goes back to how everyone is different. I can't explain why it didn't work well for me and figured I had nothing to lose by taking it. It is just a supplement and I figured it would either help or do nothing- nothing to lose.
But apparently I was wrong, and something about it doesn't work "right" with my body- and I did have something to lose.... the loss of weight/inches stopped while I was taking it and didn't resume until I stopped taking it.

Everyone is different. Just like some people can eat cream cheese, heavy cream, drink diet sodas made with splenda, etc. and not stall- yet I do. Everyone is different... and apparently not everyone is "either way you're better off". I wasn't. :)

I also had no noticable change on CLA. I took it for several weeks and nothing.

Someone just posted mentioning the glycerin in CLA tablets. I didn't even notice that before. I think I may have a problem with glycerin - it's in advantage bars too, so taking the tablets may actually have been stalling me. Who knows?

I started a week ago and cla is working for me. My clothes are fitting better and I cant say its because of clean eating. I added in oatmeal, lc pasta and othe rlc products to make my carbs aroudn 100 on the days I am going to the gym to lift weights. I have lifted before and never gotten stronger and more compact this quickly. Hopefully it will continue. You have to remember that cla isnt going to work for everyone. Each of our bodies is unique and requires differant diet, exercise, supplements etc....

But you still can't be sure it's the CLA that's doing it. Weight loss is almost never consistent -- for the vast majority of us, it happens in fits and starts. You'll lose for awhile, then you'll stall, then you'll start losing again. And you don't know ahead of time when the losses and stalls are going to happen.

The problem is that a lot of people are taking this stuff for only a few weeks -- maybe a bottle or two of it. If they don't lose a gazillion pounds or inches in that time, they figure it's a bust and quit taking it. Well, how can you get any sort of idea what the overall trend will be when you take it and then quit right away? I mean, even without CLA, if someone experiences a stall, we generally tell that person that it isn't even considered a stall unless it lasts a month. So, how are you going to know whether CLA doesn't agree with you or you're simply undergoing a natural "pause" in your weight loss?

Look, it doesn't matter a darn to me whether people take CLA or not. I have absolutely no stake in it -- financial, emotional, or otherwise. But I do think there are a lot of people who have very unrealistic expectations -- especially when it comes to weight loss. They expect miracles and end up disappointed. It's the expectations that are faulty -- not the supplement.

Operative word in your first sentence of this quote is the "majority"- that doesn't mean everyone. Sure I could have hit a stall- but in weightloss AND inches after months and months and it just HAPPENED to be exactly when I was taking CLA and stopped the day I stopped taking CLA? Sorry, I don't buy coincidences like that. Just like if I start eating a new LC product and weightloss stops and I stop eating it and start losing weight again. I don't consider that a "coincidence"- a normal pause that just happened to happen when I just happened to have eaten a new product/food. Call me skeptical. LOL

You don't seem to understand that atleast in MY instance, I was not expecting to lose a gazillion inches and when I didn't- then quit. I expected to ATLEAST keep losing close to what I was (although I realize as I get closer to goal that I will slow down). It wasn't that I didn't lose MORE (or a gazillion inches LOL)- it was that weightloss and inch loss completely stopped. And I'm not the majority apparently- I don't have huge weeks long pauses and I don't believe it's a coincidence that both weightloss and inch loss stopped for weeks right when I was taking CLA yet it had nothing to do with the CLA. That's my prerogative whether to believe in that "coincidence" or not- and I don't. So I stopped taking it and things went back to "normal" for ME.
I did not expect a miracle and get disappointed when the miracle didn't happen. I didn't expect anything at all. What I got was a negative experience rather than a neutral or positive one. So I quit it- that doesn't mean I expected a miracle and didn't get it and so I quit. I never said that at all. I would think that if YOU also took it for weeks and noticed a completely stop in weightloss and inch loss that you might also consider not taking it- and then when you did and weightloss/inch loss resumed that you might also feel the way I do about it. I think it's GREAT that it works for others- absolutely! I'm thrilled about that- but for me it didn't work. At all. Even if I'd had NO reaction to it at all- totally neutral change in weightloss/inchloss- it would have met my expectations. But it didn't- it went below that. I don't think atleast expecting no change at all is expecting a "miracle" from this pill.

I know it was from the CLA just like I know my mini-stalls are from diet rite for instance. Because when I drink it- I stall, when I stop drinking it- I stop stalling. Same difference with CLA. I don't believe that's a coincidence- since I am not like the majority and don't have periodic "stalls" (in my mind even 2-3wks staying the same is a stall and that's my choice not to only stand by the 4wks minimum to be called a stall also. I'm not going to continue eating new foods for 4wks before I finally realize it's stalling me- I give it up much quicker than that. My choice- and it works for me).

Someone else just mentioned glycerin in CLA- that's probably why they didn't work for me. I also can't eat other LC items that have glycerin in them... apparently it doesn't work with my body as it does with others. Ohwell- bummer for me, great for others! :)

Do any of you experience headaches from taking CLA?

After reading all these great reports, I really want to take this, but each time I take even one of these (1000 mg) I get a nasty headache within the hour.

If this has happened to anyone and you found any way to fix it, please let me know.

I'm wondering if I just kept taking more if headaches would finally stop.

Okay, first of all, I didn't say you had unrealistic expectations, but it's clear from all the rabid "Hallelujah! CLA!" threads we've had lately, a lot of people did and do. I'm just trying to bring the discussion back to reality.

With reference to the above quote, I did -- and I didn't. I'm still taking it, in fact. Over time, I have found that the positives far outweigh the negatives.

Of course, I also get a fair amount of CLA in its natural form -- from the fat on my grass-fed beef, from cheese made from the milk of grass-fed cows. I'm sure that has something to do with it, too.

Be that as it may, as I said before, it really doesn't matter to me whether people take the stuff or not.

Headaches
 

RVlady, do you take it with food, or by itself?

I don't get headaches, but if I don't eat protein along with it, I get terribly sick to my stomach, with the nastiest burps ever.

Rachel