More Muscle and Less Fat, Legally
Increase testosterone safely, boost fat burning without stimulants, and increase protein synthesis. Here's how.
Lazy people want a pill that allows them to enjoy the benefits of diet and exercise without having to do any of it. Well, we're not there yet. But there is a legal substance (Buy at Amazon) that comes closer to that goal than anything else. It's derived from the herb, coleus forskohlii.
The active ingredient is called forskolin and it can do a variety of things for the body that you normally can't get without dieting and exercising. It does this primarily by stimulating the production of the enzyme adenylate cyclase, which increases levels of a cellular messenger called cyclic AMP, or cAMP for short.
In turn, elevated levels of cAMP have the following physiological effects:
- Increased thyroid secretion of T4 (increased fat burning).
- Increased testosterone levels (increased muscle, sex drive, fat burning).
- Increased production of protein kinase (which leads to increased levels of hormone-sensitive lipases (HSL), which helps break down triglycerides).
- Increased protein synthesis in skeletal muscles.
- Increased activation of brown adipose tissue (more fat burning, although through a different mechanism).
- Lowered blood pressure (healthier cardiovascular system).
- Inhibited platelet aggregation (less clotting).
- Increased vasodilation (more blood flow).
- Increased bronchodilation (more airflow through the lungs).
Now if you were to take one of those lazy people mentioned above, put them on forskolin for a few weeks, and then give them a physical, they'd show improvement on several medical parameters just by taking a couple of capsules a day. But imagine what could happen if somebody combined exercise with forskolin.
Lots of Studies
The effects above aren't conjecture. Many have been tested and validated through various studies:
- Male subjects in a 12-week trial experienced a 16% increase in total testosterone on average, some much higher. The placebo group saw a decrease.
- Female subjects in an 8-week study lost an average of 9 pounds while experiencing gains in lean body mass (without weight training).
- The total body weight of a mixed group of men and women in a 12-week study decreased from 165 pounds to 162 pounds while experiencing increases in lean body mass (without weight training).
- The forskolin users in a mixed-sex group of 50 test subjects experienced almost a 2% increase in lean body mass and a decrease in body fat from 36 to 34%. The placebo group showed an increase in body fat and some muscle loss.
Dried Leaves vs. Forskolin 1,9 Carbonate
Even though forskolin's been around for several years, most companies producing it don't bother to isolate and purify the main ingredient – forskolin. They just collect the dried leaves of the coleus forskohlii plant, grind them up, and put them in capsules. As lame as that approach is, it sometimes works in certain situations, like maybe they luck out and find a crop particularly rich in forskolin. It's hit or miss.
The right way to manufacture a potent forskolin product is to isolate the active ingredient, then purify it and esterify it (bind it with a carbonate ester). The end product, forskolin 1,9 carbonate, is much more bioavailable, and its efficacy in the body extends from 4 hours to about 12 hours.
That's exactly what Biotest did when producing Carbolin 19 (Buy at Amazon).
Do I Need to Cycle Carbolin 19?
No. Many supplements and drugs initiate a biochemical reaction by binding to receptors – chemical groups of molecules that receive signals from other chemicals or other stimuli to initiate a chemical reaction.
The trouble is that these receptors eventually get desensitized to the original signal. After a while, you need a stronger and stronger dose to initiate the same response until, ultimately, no dose is large enough to get the chemical ball rolling. This is what doctors and scientists mean when they say someone is "insulin resistant."
However, at least as far as fat burning goes, forskolin is what's known as a "post-receptor" agent – it bypasses the beta-receptor and directly stimulates the aforementioned adenylate cyclase.
That means that the fat-burning effects of Carbolin 19 (purified and esterified forskolin), along with some of its other beneficial effects, continue unabated. All you need to do is take two softgels twice per day.
Will Carbolin 19 Work for Women, Too?
Women, unfettered by testicles, obviously won't benefit from the testosterone-enhancing capabilities of forskolin or Carbolin 19 (Buy at Amazon) but they'll still enjoy all the other benefits, like improved thyroid function, increased release of free fatty acids, and increased activation of BAT (brown adipose tissue). And weirdly, forskolin even helps prevent the reoccurrence of painful UTIs.
References
- Godard, MP et al. "Body composition and hormonal adaptations associated with forskolin consumption in overweight and obese males." Obesity Research. 2005 Aug;13(8):1335-43.
- Kamath. "Efficacy and Safety of Forslean in Increasing Lean Body Mass. Department of Ayurvedic Medicine." Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, India, 2005.
- Majeed M et al. "Diterpene forskolin: A possible new compound for reduction of body weight by increasing lean body mass." Nutraceuticals. March/April 2002, pp. 6-7.
- Scarpace PJ et al. "Thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue with age: post-receptor activation by forskolin." Pflugers Arch. 1996 Jan;431(3):388-94.
- Tsuguyoshi, "Clinical report on root extract of Perilla Plant (coleus forskholii) in reducing body fat." Asanto Institute, Tokyo, Japan, 2001.