Is Garcinia Cambogia worth it for weight loss?
January 11, 2018 9:42 AM Subscribe
Do you think that it is worth it to take Garcinia Camboia for weight loss? The scientific literature is difficult to navigate, as I suppose is the case with every dietary supplement. Any advice would be most appreciated.
Examine.com indicates that the evidence is not strong for weight reduction in humans; considering the risk of weird metabolic effects associated with rapid weight loss, I’d stay pretty far away from it.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 9:51 AM on January 11, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 9:51 AM on January 11, 2018 [3 favorites]
1.) It's not clear how useful it is, but likely not very. There are also risks to taking it, including liver failure.
2.) You run a very good chance of getting little or none of the active ingredients you are seeking because the supplement industry is a wild west of snake oil.
Actual evidence-based medical authorities on this (with cites in the links)...
Berkeley Wellness Letter (2017):
But there has been little good research in humans on garcinia’s effect on weight. Moreover, HCA has an effect only when people eat meals high in carbs (not fat), and it is short-acting, so it has to be taken about an hour before eating. Even then, the effect may not be significant.
The Natural Standard database (now called Natural Medicines), which reviews evidence about supplements and other alternative and complementary products, concluded that the evidence about garcinia and weight is conflicting and unclear. Similarly, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine (part of the National Institutes of Health) found no convincing evidence that garcinia promotes weight loss.
A meta-analysis of clinical trials, published in the Journal of Obesity in 2011, found that garcinia extract produced only very small changes in weight. But the researchers noted that the studies reviewed were short (none longer than 12 weeks), small, and rife with methodological problems. So it’s unclear whether any weight loss was clinically relevant. Plus the analysis found side effects, including nausea and headaches.
In a 2014 study in Phytotherapy Research, researchers looked at 43 overweight and obese women who took garcinia extract or a placebo daily for two months. There was no significant change in weight, body fat, or waist-to-hip ratio. There was also no change in leptin, a hormone that inhibits hunger.
[...]
Bottom line: Given the potential serious risks and the lack of evidence of benefits, we strongly recommend avoiding garcinia and any diet formulas containing it.
From the Science Based Medicine blog:
With Dr. Oz’s track record, I was not willing to simply accept his word for the wonders of Garcinia. I went to PubMed, where a search for hydroxycitric acid brought up 64 articles. Some were irrelevant, and the relevant ones included a lot of animal studies and a smaller number of human studies with inconsistent results.
Guinea pigs on a high cholesterol diet who were given a different Garcinia species (atriviridis) had a tendency to decrease lipid composition levels and fat deposition in the aorta. HCA caused congenital defects in rats. Another rat study found that it decreased body weight gain and visceral fat accumulation by reducing food intake but had no lasting beneficial effects on hypertriglyceridemia and hyperinsulinemia. Yet another rat study showed that it suppressed body fat accumulation but was toxic to the testes.
To try to make sense of the inconsistent results, Onakpoya et al. did a systematic review of the published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) as of 2011. Their analysis found a small, statistically significant difference in weight loss (1.75 kg vs 0.88 kg, less than 2 pounds). They commented that the studies all had methodological weaknesses, so these results could be due to GIGO (garbage in/garbage out). The two studies with the best methodology found no statistically significant difference from placebo. Adverse events were twice as common with Garcinia (headache, nausea, upper respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms).
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:01 AM on January 11, 2018 [5 favorites]
2.) You run a very good chance of getting little or none of the active ingredients you are seeking because the supplement industry is a wild west of snake oil.
Actual evidence-based medical authorities on this (with cites in the links)...
Berkeley Wellness Letter (2017):
But there has been little good research in humans on garcinia’s effect on weight. Moreover, HCA has an effect only when people eat meals high in carbs (not fat), and it is short-acting, so it has to be taken about an hour before eating. Even then, the effect may not be significant.
The Natural Standard database (now called Natural Medicines), which reviews evidence about supplements and other alternative and complementary products, concluded that the evidence about garcinia and weight is conflicting and unclear. Similarly, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine (part of the National Institutes of Health) found no convincing evidence that garcinia promotes weight loss.
A meta-analysis of clinical trials, published in the Journal of Obesity in 2011, found that garcinia extract produced only very small changes in weight. But the researchers noted that the studies reviewed were short (none longer than 12 weeks), small, and rife with methodological problems. So it’s unclear whether any weight loss was clinically relevant. Plus the analysis found side effects, including nausea and headaches.
In a 2014 study in Phytotherapy Research, researchers looked at 43 overweight and obese women who took garcinia extract or a placebo daily for two months. There was no significant change in weight, body fat, or waist-to-hip ratio. There was also no change in leptin, a hormone that inhibits hunger.
[...]
Bottom line: Given the potential serious risks and the lack of evidence of benefits, we strongly recommend avoiding garcinia and any diet formulas containing it.
From the Science Based Medicine blog:
With Dr. Oz’s track record, I was not willing to simply accept his word for the wonders of Garcinia. I went to PubMed, where a search for hydroxycitric acid brought up 64 articles. Some were irrelevant, and the relevant ones included a lot of animal studies and a smaller number of human studies with inconsistent results.
Guinea pigs on a high cholesterol diet who were given a different Garcinia species (atriviridis) had a tendency to decrease lipid composition levels and fat deposition in the aorta. HCA caused congenital defects in rats. Another rat study found that it decreased body weight gain and visceral fat accumulation by reducing food intake but had no lasting beneficial effects on hypertriglyceridemia and hyperinsulinemia. Yet another rat study showed that it suppressed body fat accumulation but was toxic to the testes.
To try to make sense of the inconsistent results, Onakpoya et al. did a systematic review of the published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) as of 2011. Their analysis found a small, statistically significant difference in weight loss (1.75 kg vs 0.88 kg, less than 2 pounds). They commented that the studies all had methodological weaknesses, so these results could be due to GIGO (garbage in/garbage out). The two studies with the best methodology found no statistically significant difference from placebo. Adverse events were twice as common with Garcinia (headache, nausea, upper respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms).
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:01 AM on January 11, 2018 [5 favorites]
Like all supplements geared towards weight loss (or cleansing) I believe people think (and are encouraged to think) that the supplements are helping them lose weight, or cleanse, when in fact the real cause of weight loss is changed diet/increased exercise. I tried some, to no noticeable effect. What did work was to reduce calories, the hard way.
Save your money.
posted by Crystal Fox at 10:11 AM on January 11, 2018 [3 favorites]
Save your money.
posted by Crystal Fox at 10:11 AM on January 11, 2018 [3 favorites]
I'm ordinarily in a kind of middle space where I think most supplements don't work particularly well or at all and that they largely don't turn out to be worth it... but also that many of them are reasonably inexpensive and it doesn't necessarily hurt to try. The exception I'd give here is that there's some suggestion that it can cause manic episodes in people even who haven't previously been diagnosed as bipolar. There's actually, as far as I can tell, a fairly good chance that it does something--but that this "something" for many people is not going to actually result in weight loss, and that for other people it may result in weight loss but only because it's interacting with an underlying issue that really should not be managed in that particular way.
If you decide to try it, make sure you're doing regular check-ins with both a doctor and one or more loved ones who you see often enough that they'd notice changes in your behavior.
posted by Sequence at 11:31 AM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
If you decide to try it, make sure you're doing regular check-ins with both a doctor and one or more loved ones who you see often enough that they'd notice changes in your behavior.
posted by Sequence at 11:31 AM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by smashface at 9:51 AM on January 11, 2018