So I grabbed a bottle of Yohimbine HCL, since it has a good track record in fat burners for helping dump hard to shed fat without the stimulants. Noticed out of random luck (because I don’t check often) that I had an AWESOME blood sugar reading of 83! I’m usually more of the 105-115 range when I wake up. Checked when I got home, 84, checked about 1.5hrs after dinner… 85! This crap is unheard of for me, started googling to see if there was a link, and there was. Not sure how to interpret it though.
This was the Google Abstract
Sooooo, should I read this as I’m constantly producing more insulin (in a bad way) or is it stimulating it in a way that may be allowing me to “act” like I’m insulin sensitive vs being resistant and then over-reacting? I’m not low so I don’t think it’s spiking me, and given that many use it for fat burn I’d (think) that It can’t be putting out enough to cause fat storage, what say you people that are smarter than me? Upside is good blood sugar levels, downside is it might backfire.
I do hope this turns out well for you and will keep an eye on your ongoing experiment… I would love for there to be an herbal remedy that actually works.
PaulL
(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?)
#4
I found two studies on PubMed, one of 20 soccer/football players and one of 20 obese women. Neither looked terribly impressive; since the weight-loss, though noticeable, was not that great and does not appear all that statistically significant, and the studies are underpowered. I’d say the weight-loss effect needs further study.
Yohimbine is used primarily for its sexual effect. It seems to lower inhibitions, as well, leading to increased alcohol use. It seems to prevent SSRI, MAOI, and tricyclic antidepressants from functioning properly. I didn’t look at any of the studies into these effects, however; it is entirely possible that they are equally underpowered, with an equally unimpressive statistical significance.
Here is the abstract of a paper that appeared in Medical Hypotheses in 2002:
What concerns me is the remark about raising insulin.
Right, but that’s not it’s actual purpose. I’ve tried checking a lot after taking them and can’t catch a spike and when I crash I know it. Only thing I’m noticing is good sugar levels, gonna take a little more guinea pigging I guess.
Yup, that’s what I’m thinking. Nothing else I’ve tried has got me down in these numbers, got it to assist in fat burn and the sugar was a nice surprise. I’ve been having pretty good luck lately with hacks that wouldn’t normally be a keto friendly thing but working great. Couple months ago I started taking a carb supplement that doesn’t screw with your sugar/insulin levels (for weight lifting) so I’m getting the upside of post workout carbs, without the obvious bad sides as well as leaving my sugar levels alone. Hopefully this is the second success. Figure since I’ve been plateaued for a while in weight that if I start dropping in the next week or two that’ll be my answer. If it DOES work, then I’d probably keep it up for a couple months then check my A1C to see if it’s backfiring or not.
Each pill is 2.5mg and the dose is 1-2 times daily so I’m gonna take a pill when leaving the house for the gym, and a second when I get back home from work which is usually pretty consistent time wise. The carb thing is 25g post workout which is usually around 0600 or so by the time I take it so between the two of them I’m burning up the glucose strips trying to catch a reaction but so far nothing different than I usually am minus the good fasting numbers.
