If you walk down the nutritional aisle in any grocery store, you are inevitably going to see a dozen weight-loss products advertised to “burn off the fat”. Anyone who has been in the bodybuilding or fitness industry for long knows that all of these claims are bogus. Even the highly expensive aids, sold at GNC and plastered in magazines, don’t do anything other than raise the body’s temperature for 30 minutes in the hopes of burning a few extra calories. The general population is protected from itself, as truly effective weight loss supplements aren’t readily and legally available to them. After all, when they are available, people misuse them and often die as a result.

Ephedrine – particularly when placed in an ECA (ephedrine, caffeine, aspirin) stack is remarkably effective for burning body fat. However, when taking in high volume, ephedrine can cause heart failure. In a few cases, people enjoyed the fat-burning and energy-boosting effects of 25 mg of ephedrine, so they tried taking 100 to 200 mg. Needless to say, heart failure occurred, and the drug was banned. While it’s been making comebacks here and there as courts debate its legality, its availability has suffered. While still available at Walgreens or CVS under the category of bronchial expectorant, supplement companies and stores have hard times keeping it in stock, making it an effective yet inconsistent supplement in a sport where consistency is key.

Rimonabant, or Acomplia, is a new drug which may mimic many of the effects of ephedrine without the legal or medical concerns. Created in France, this drug was designed to help patients quit smoking. And while many of them did stop smoking due to its use, nearly all those studied reported a loss of body fat. This unintended consequence of the drug soon raised eyebrows in the medical and sports nutrition communities as they realized that a small anti-smoking drug might be a goldmine as a weight loss drug. Additionally, Acomplia also stabilized blood sugar and raised HDL cholesterol levels, the desired kind.

Acomplia will be hitting the market soon, and it may be marketed for various purposes. Keep an eye out for it, and pending your doctor’s approval, try it out as a replacement for ephedrine in your weight loss cycle! And if you’re a smoker, even better! What could be better than losing the smoking habit, as well as excess body fat, at the same time?