So why are you writing about the EC Stack when it is no longer available?

Many people believe you either can’t get ephedrine any more, or you have to pay outrageous amounts to get ephedrine. Which is true in the dietary supplement realm. You could be looking at $60-$70 a bottle for a proprietary EC Stack. But what if you could buy ephedrine and caffeine separately and then just take them together? Well you can! Ephedrine is available in asthma medicine. The most common brand used is Bronkaid, you can buy it from any drug store (CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, etc) for about $10 for 60 tablets. Each pill of Bronkaid provides you with 25mg of ephedrine sulfate which is perfect for 1 dose of the EC Stack. Caffeine, again can be bought from any of these places for about $4 for 30 200mg pills (again perfect dosing). I found caffeine online in bottles of 100 for $5 also 200mg a pill.

Dosing and Cost

Most followers of the EC Stack agree that the proper dosing should be 25mg epherine sulfate (20mg ephedrine hcl) with 200mg caffeine about 3 times a day or every 4 hours. Now lets look at the cost of this supplement:

60 ephedrine pills / 3 times a day = 20 days ~ $10

100 caffeine pills / 3 times a day = 33.333333 days ~ $5

You can see that this stack if fairly cheap, I bet you can’t find an ephedrine free diet supplement for cheaper!

Like I said earlier people have died from taking too much of the stack, so take it at your own risk. One thing that should be monitored is your BP as this can increase while taking these two drugs together.

Generally you want to start dosing gradually until you can achieve the 20/200 dose 3 times a day. Check out the dosing chart on hotnfit.com

Combating Side Effects

One of the most common side effects is an increase in BP, most people will recommend you take omega 3′s to help stabilize this along with EGCG or green tea extract. This will help maintain the proper BP but you still should monitor and stop taking the stack immediately if your BP is getting to high. Another side effect is dehydration, caffeine is a diuretic so it will pull water out of your body, you need to drink a lot of water while taking this stack. I would recommend 6-8 bottles of water a day which is leaning towards a gallon a day. You also want to avoid any extreme cardio that raises your HR, pretty much avoid doing HIIT. You will experience a loss of appetite, which could lead you to feel like vomitting if you eat too much. If you are doing this stack you should be on a solid diet anyway…finally, try to avoid using this stack in the heat, as it is a thermogenic you will need to keep extra hydrated.

Check out the information on hotnfit.com.

Use and Results

This stack has been proven in 24 week long trials to be one of the most effective weight loss supplements when combined with proper exercise and diet. The results vary but you expect some of the best weight loss you have probably ever seen if you have a solid diet and work out routine. Generally people will cycle this stack every 6-8 weeks, by taking 2 weeks off of it. then gradually building back up to the full dosage.

If you are unsure about taking the stack, then don’t. If you body is telling you to stop taking it, then stop! Always listen to your body and follow what is healthiest for you. Dropping some extra pounds is not worth hurting yourself.

When taking this stack it also isn’t really necessary to hit cardio that hard. You can just lift and still see results since you are still increasing your energy usage, your just not shooting your HR through the roof for long periods of time. HIIT and other intense cardio should not be done while on the stack (even sports!) since your HR will be up much higher than normal for extended periods of time which could like to problems like heart palpitations. Be smart and be patient and you will see results.

I hope you enjoyed this article, if you have any questions/comments/concerns feel free to leave a comment!

Some Common Facts

• A pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories
• Cardio burns calories
• There are good and bad calories, more commonly: fat calories, carbohydrate calories (sugar), protein calories
• Every cardio workout needs to be supplemented with a good diet
• Everyone’s metabolism is different and as such requires a different number of calories to perform bodily duties. Some people may have a higher required caloric in take to maintain their size

Now these facts are fairly well known but their are other facts that people don’t know that will help them succeed with their weight loss. First off the 3500 calories in a pound of fat pretty much means that, say in a week, you increase your calories by 3500 you should gain 1lb but it may not be fat. Think of what you eat an what sources are giving you different kinds of calories. So the same can be said for cutting 3500 calories you will lose 1lb again this may not all be fat. It is important to remember that what you put into your body (think the work you put your body through and what you eat) is what you are going to get back. It is also important to realize that weight is just a number what we should be focused on is lowering our Body Fat %. If you are working out in the gym and doing cardio and notice that you are getting thinner and more defined but your weight hasn’t changed then you are lowering your BF%. It generally is not healthy to lose more than 1-2lb/week.

Proper Fat Burning Cardio

There is a lot of arguments about how to maximize fat burning effects from cardio however, may favorite tried and true method is the low intensity approach. First we need to learn how our bodies use our different types of calories. Carbohydrates are burned by our body when we need a lot of energy immediately in order to sustain function. Fat is burned when our body is working but not at full intensity only low intensity things. So when our body is pushed to the limit with high intensity cardio, our bodies switch gears from burning fat to burning carbs, which is not very effective for burning fat. The best way to burn fat is with a low intensity 60-80% of your max heart rate workout as opposed to cardio to increase endurance which is 80+% MHR. Now a very popular argument is that high intensity cardio increase your Vo2 Max which helps increase oxygen, blood flow, and metabolism in turn helping to burn fat especially since you burn more calories/hour. I think that this method has a good background and makes perfect sense however, it takes a lot of time to significantly increase your Vo2 max by enough to make an impact on your metabolism.

Bad Metabolism? So What!

Genetics play a huge role in our metabolism, or how efficiently we burn energy, but this doesn’t mean we are stuck with what we are given by any stretch. It is possible to increase your metabolism without ever doing cardio. Do you want to know the secret? Muscle increase metabolism meaning the more muscle lbs you have the faster you can annihilate fat. What this means is the better shape your are in the naturally more efficient your body is with burning fat. Remember that your Vo2 max also increases your metabolism. Now many people believe that when they are done using the treadmill (or bike if you will) their metabolism returns to normal. This also isn’t true it generally takes 2 hours after your workout for your metabolism to re-lower. So why does our body store fat? For emergencies really if we aren’t giving our bodies food our metabolism decreases and slowly burns off fat. Fat is also used to help your body absorb vitamins and minerals. Remember that our body prefers to burn fat unless we need more energy in which case we will burn carbs. So let’s recap we have learned that the best way to burn fat is:

• Cardio low intensity
• Some high intensity cardio for Vo2 max
• Increase amount of muscle
• Eat healthy calories so that our bodies burn fat stores
• Approach cardio expecting success not failure do not get discouraged patience is a virtue

I hope that you will find this information helpful in your journey to fitness and well being. If you have any questions, comments, corrections feel free to comment.