Hoodoba Trial: Three Weeks On A Hoodia Diet Pill!
Considering all the media hype about hoodia — including the feedback and interest generated by visitors to this site (click here for the Hoodia review) I figured it was time to put our intrepid “in the trenches” product tester Amie Gantt to work with an impromptu trial of hoodia.
Of course, Amie’s experience is anecdotal, and does not constitute irrefutable proof of either the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of hoodia. This is not a clinical trial. It is not a double blind, placebo controlled study, nor is it intended to replace one. Instead, it’s one person’s experiences with the most hyped appetite suppressant on the market today!
If Amie’s experience can help you make a more informed dieting decision, fantastic! If not, recognize it for what it is… a single, personal experience.
After some research, I determined that Hoodoba’s Hoodia Pure product looked like the best one for Amie to try. One of the biggest problems with the majority of the hoodia products on the market is that they don’t contain any hoodia. Hoodia is a protected species that takes several years to mature to the point that it can be harvested. As Consumerlab.com (an online company that tests product label claims) said…
“It has been speculated that there is more hoodia being sold today than could possibly be made from all the Hoodia gordonii plants in existence.”
Hoodoba appeared to be the real deal. They had their own facilities, all the appropriate documentation, and several credible recommendations. So that’s the brand Amie used for her study, and the brand I recommend for anyone who wishes to experiment with Hoodia. Now let me step aside, and let Amie tell you of her Hoodia experience…
I’ve seen the same stuff on Hoodia you have: the ‘news stories’ on TV, the articles in fitness magazines, and I get the e-mails to ‘try it free’. But I never really thought much about Hoodia until I read something in a Reader’s Digest magazine on it. So when Paul recommended I give Hoodoba PURE a try and document my experiences with it, I jumped at the opportunity.
I ordered from their website on October 24, 2007. Very easy, no problems ordering at all. Received e-mail confirmation of my order within 10 minutes of placing it. Received the product on October 30, along with two sample vials of their “Potent Hoodia” appetite suppressant liquid, gratis. I was never added to any “recurring billing” program, or had any problems with Hoodoba charging my credit card without my authorization! It was all good!
Note from Paul: Amie ordered from within the United States. Anyone ordering Hoodoba Hoodia outside of the U.S., expect a long wait. I ordered a bottle in the middle of August and didn’t receive it until October 11.
This was not Hoodoba’s fault — it has to do with the way Health Canada regulates Hoodia as a protected species. So it took forever to clear customs. Each time I phoned about my order, I was able to access a pleasant customer service representative within 90 seconds. This person was able to accurately update me about the status of my order — held at customs. Hang in there.
The directions said to use one of two options for taking the pills, and I think there’s a little translation matrix issue there:
Option 1: Take 1-2 vegetarian capsules 30-60 minutes 3 times daily before meals.
Option 2: Take 1-2 vegetarian capsules mid-morning (10:30-11 am), and again mid-afternoon (3-4 pm). If needed, you may also take 1-2 vegetarian capsules before and after dinner to prevent nighttime snacking as it will not interrupt sleep.
It said to “Note: Most people feel the effects of Hoodoba after one day. However, others may need to take it for up to 2 weeks for the hoodia to build up in the body.”
So, I chose Option 2, because I don’t tend to eat regularly timed meals. Yeah, my bad. My starting weight is 163, and today is October 31. I took two today, but I guess there’s not any of it built up in my system yet; I was not deterred from eating Halloween candies (yes, candies, plural) at all.
After One Week on Hoodoba Pure: I always have a little trouble deciding what to eat. It’s worse when I’m either really hungry, or not feeling hungry at all but I know I need to eat. That always seems to make the indecision worse. I’ve just had to pick something and make myself eat it several times this week, because I didn’t feel like eating at all.
And, I’m concerned about that, because I know that starvation is the worst way to try and lose weight. I’ll see what happens next week; haven’t lost any weight at all yet.
And about the pills themselves: it’s like swallowing a plastic tea bag. Not particularly pleasant at all. They are fairly big, and have a strong herbal odor that sneaks up the esophagus. Then there’s the “Tea Bag Burp”. Just the smell turns me off food for awhile after I take them.
Don’t get me wrong, I like tea, just not in a big lump in my throat. I gagged on them for the first few days, then found if I sorted them into my daily vitamin pill boxes the smell was pretty much eliminated by the candy smell of my fiber pills.
After Two Weeks on Hoodoba Pure: OK, the Hoodoba does in fact make me feel strangely un-hungry. I found I had to take 3 per day for them to make a difference in my appetite, particularly at night. On that dosage, I would go an entire day and forget to eat until about 6pm.
There wasn’t even the customary “Hey, Go Eat” headache. That’s uh, not actually good. Be careful, because the day I forgot to take them I was in the fridge. All day. Crazy hungry. Despite not eating much at all, I still haven’t had any change in the scale. 164 this evening, but it was at 162 this morning. Harrumph.
After Three Weeks on Hoodoba Pure: Don’t waste the money. I had no significant weight loss on the product. The day it came I weighed 163, today it’s 162. If I had a Boca lasagna for dinner, I could probably make it 164 tomorrow. 5 lb flux isn’t uncommon. I still have a few pills left, and I’ll go ahead and take them.
But I’m not buying another bottle, that’s for sure. I also did try the ‘appetite suppressant liquid’ samples that came free with the order. One word: NASTY. Just don’t go there. Pour in a glass of water to induce immediate gagging. I’d rather take nasty cough syrup.
Although it did affect my appetite, it was pretty darned expensive for how much you have to take. 60 capsules in the bottle, for $60, and you take 3 a day, makes it only a 20-day supply. And if you follow Option 2 to the letter and take 6 a day, it’s only a 10-day supply! Phew!
Not good value there, particularly when you consider that most doctors say safe weight loss is 1-2 lbs. per week, so you’d only lose 3-6 pounds in the 20 days if you did it safely.
Then you’d be out another $60. I really think you’d get bored with the loss being so slow, frustrated trying to remember to take the pills, or run out of money before you lost any significant weight with this product. Or, you’d take so much of it you’d forget to eat at all for two weeks and end up in the hospital.
Honestly, I’d put the money in personal training or a gym membership and sweat for it. My doctor agrees – I talked to her about the product and she recommended eating at least 3-4 smaller meals a day, 5 if you can manage it.
With the Hoodoba, I didn’t want to eat once, much less 3 times. And that is just not healthy, no matter how you look at it. To get enough of the product to last 90 days would cost about $300. You could make 6 appointments with a personal trainer for the same money at most gyms, or buy three pairs of really nice running shoes, or get a home gym off E-Bay.
OK, it’s Paul again… I’m back! Wow… thanks Amie! That was great!
One thing that Amie’s experience really highlights is this…
Even if Hoodia does work (and there’s no evidence to prove it does) not eating is simply not the best way to lose weight.
Makes sense.
When faced with a period of starvation, the body slows its metabolism as to conserve the fuel resources you do have. Basically, the less you eat, the fewer calories you require. That’s very likely why Amie didn’t see anything much in the way of weight loss with the product. Because although the Hoodia seemed to convince her brain that she wasn’t hungry, her body recognized that she was not eating, and slowed the metabolism accordingly.
Of course the opposite is also true — eating often can stimulate your metabolism. That’s why Amie’s doctor recommended eating 5 small meals a day.
Amie’s little experiment does open the door for a whole slew of questions…
- Would a lower dosage of hoodia suppress the appetite slightly, so that people could eat the small meals often enough to boost their collective metabolisms, but not have any desire to overconsume foods?
- Could a higher dosage, taken once daily prior to dinner, reduce late evening “carb snacking” — something very detrimental to the success of any dieter?
- Would there be any benefit to using a potent dosage of hoodia during the various holiday seasons to prevent bingeing?
- Would a longer trial with Hoodia — say 6 to 12 weeks — be more useful in accessing this substance’s real benefit for weight loss?
And of course, a real double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study would answer a lot of additional questions too.
So what can we glean from Amie’s experience?
First, I do want to reiterate that Amie’s experience does not constitute irrefutable proof of either the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of hoodia. It’s one person’s personal experiences, that’s all.
That said, it certainly further validates the need for bona fide clinical studies done on this product. And it’s a wonderful illustration of the fact that not eating does not necessarily equate with dramatic weight loss.
Obviously, if you were able to dramatically reduce your caloric consumption long enough, you would eventually lose weight, but it would not be a healthy venture.
Additionally, you’d end up losing a lot of lean muscle mass — which is critical to maintaining your metabolism (since muscle burns calories at all times, even when you are at rest).
I’d have to say though, my curiosity is piqued. I’ve got my fingers crossed for a real clinical study to shed some light on the real value hoodia offers to dieters. In the meantine, if you really feel you must experiment with hoodia, the Hoodoba brand is probably your best bet.
