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Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "
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02.11.2010 |
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Forskolin: slimming aid and T-booster all in one
Overweight men who take 500 mg daily of an extract of the tropical plant Coleus forskohlii lose a couple of kilos of fat and gain about the same amount of lean mass, according to a study financed by Sabinsa, the manufacturer of Forslean, which contains the Coleus forskohlii extract. What’s more the supplement boosts testosterone production too.
Forslean consists for 10 percent of the compound forskolin [chemical structure shown here]. Forskolin activates the enzyme adenylyl cyclase in cells. This enzyme converts ATP into cAMP, a signal molecule that transmits signals from activated receptors to the DNA. So forskolin makes the receptors in the testes more sensitive to LH, and the receptors in the fat cells more sensitive to adrenalin.
And this is the rationale behind the experiment that the sports scientists at the University of Kansas published in 2005 in Obesity Research. In the experiment 15 obese men took 250 mg Coleus forskohlii extract twice a day for 12 weeks, and 15 other obese men took a placebo. The researchers wanted to know whether the men in the forskolin group would lose weight. They didn’t, but they did lose fat mass.
The men lost 5 kg fat, and gained 4 kg lean body mass. The subjects didn’t change the amount they ate. The researchers put the body recompositioning effect down to the increased testosterone production.
Whether testosterone was really such a big factor in the changed body composition, we have our doubts. Of course, it’s fantastic if your free testosterone concentration increases by 3 percent, but 3 percent isn’t, errr, exactly what you’d call a huge amount.
When it comes to side effects, the researchers are silent, or they didn’t notice them, or there weren’t any to report. If the latter is the case, then forskolin is a perfect slimming aid. If the researchers weren’t telling fibs at least…
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