30 Day Workout Challenge

My Alli is an over-the-counter drug containing the active ingredient orlistat. After reviewing thestudies done on orlistat, and giving the prescription version of orlistat, (link to Xenical) Xenical, a try, I started using My Alli for 30 days.

My Alli's orlistat supplies used to be Roche Pharmaceuticals, the same company that provides Xenical with their orlistat, but My Alli changed orlistat provider in 2012.

Directions: Take 1 capsule, up to 3 a day, with each meal containing fat.

Take a multivitamin once a day at bedtime.

Claims: Fat blocking

Ease of use: The capsule is average size, made of a coating that gets slick easily and goes down well. It has no smell whatsoever. I had no trouble taking it with either food or water.

FDA: Orlistat is approved for both prescription (Xenical) use in a 120 mg dose and over-the-counter (My Alli) use in a 60 mg dose. It is also available by prescription in Canada and over-the-counter in Australia and the EU.

I don't often talk about diets, because it's a dirty word that has all the wrong meanings associated with it, especially for people who are overweight or obese. To many people a diet is a fad or a crash course to losing weight fast before they go right back to eating how they always did – and thus put the weight back on. What it really should mean is a lifestyle change in our eating patterns. It doesn't even necessarily mean changing what you eat, only how much of it you eat on any given day.

Intuitive eating is something thrown around a lot, especially in the healthy at every size movement. But is it really so simple as 'eat when you're hungry'?

Xenical is a prescription drug containing the active ingredient orlistat. After reviewing the studies done on orlistat, I started using it for 30 days.

Xenical's orlistat is from Roche Pharmaeuticals. (This is in contract to My Alli's orlistat supplier, which is an unnamed Indian pharmaceutical company.)

Directions: Take 1 capsule, up to 3 a day, with each meal containing fat.

Take a multivitamin once a day at bedtime.

Claims: Fat blocking

Ease of use: The capsule is average size, made of a coating that gets slick easily and goes down well. It has no smell whatsoever. I had no trouble taking it with either food or water.

FDA: Orlistat is approved for both prescription (Xenical) use in a 120 mg dose and over-the-counter (My Alli) use in a 60 mg dose. It is also available by prescription in Canada and over-the-counter in Australia and the EU.

Week 4 of P90X is a break from the normal routine you settled into for the first 3 weeks so has to be reviewed by its lonesome. And I have to admit that I had a tough time motivating myself to do this week and did not complete it in a week; it actually took almost 2 weeks. Whoops.

But as I said in my (link) P90X week 1-3 review, I really do not like YogaX. And yet yoga X is done two times in the fourth week along with the even more infinitely boring X Stretch. It was hard to rally myself and get myself motivated to exercise on these days. Yoga X is absolutely killing this program's appeal to me.

In the coming weeks, I'll be trying to find something that I feel is effective for replacing Yoga X. I believe that if I keep trying to do this particular yoga program my slacking and dread of working out on those days will only get worse. I'll discuss what I find for replacement in future articles.

Peripheral Equipment:

Yoga blocks (optional)

Yoga mat (optional, but I recommend it)

Weight loss/aerobics:

Since it's only been two weeks, I am not going to post a picture of my graph. I managed to drop 3 pounds total, the graph is still steadily tracking down but did reach a stall, most likely because I was 'resting' so much by making excuses to not do Yoga.

I actually did use “Wii Fit Plus” for almost 30 days, but I originally wasn't going to talk about it. It's not a real exercise program, right?

Wrong. It is advertised as one and encourages you to use it daily to keep your weight under control. And each time I looked at my weight graph, I saw those first weeks where absolutely nothing was happening, or worse, I was gaining weight in the strangest yo-yo pattern. I finally decided people deserved to know, and a review was needed. I did not do a full 30 days, because it was clearly not working and sticking with it for a few more days would have been pointless.

“Wii Fit” was such a horrendous failure and yet I know when the Wii first came out, “Wii Fit” was a huge seller. It gave people hope that video games could help them lose weight. And while I do think video games can help, I think “Wii Fit” is a poor contender. It's not even suited for someone just getting started and trying to get in the rhythm of exercising. The lack of results of any kind would make anyone in such a position stop trying pretty quickly. Had I been less motivated, I know I would have given up after seeing my weight jump upward despite daily exercise.

P90X is probably the most well-known exercise program on the market due to late night infomercials running for it for what felt like years. It was hard to turn on the TV at night without hearing Tony Horton talking about muscle confusion or a weight loss and muscle building testimonial.

According to the ACE science backs up P90X's effectiveness as a workout program. So after looking into the scientific efficacy of the program, I dove in and started it.

There is a set weekly schedule for P90X. The first 3 weeks are the same so it was easy to get enough in to do a review for each video.

Chest and Back, Plyometrics, Shoulder and Arms, Yoga X, Legs and Back, Kenpo X, Rest

Peripheral Equipment:

Pull-up bar or resistance bands

Resistance bands or free weights

Yoga blocks (optional)

Yoga mat (optional, but I recommend it)

Weight loss/aerobics:

“P90X is not a fast-track weight loss solution like other programs. It's an unprecedented fitness solution designed to give you a stronger, healthier body that will become leaner and perform better over time. It's not designed for weight loss per se. It's designed to increase human performance and improve overall body composition. Trust it.” From Steve Edwards, the Director of Results at Beachbody, in the P90X Extreme Home Fitness Nutritional Planning guide.

I was recently horrified when I had to look up what a tabata was because someone on a fat loss forum told me 'it's the hardest exercise ever so I am burning 800 calories in 4 minutes'. The first link was from Shape so I clicked it. A magazine that is supposed to be helping people lose weight and visualize realistic fitness claimed that a single tabata (4 minutes of exercise) provided more fitness gains than a 60 minute run. In terms of calories, that would be about 700ish calories, perhaps more for an obese person.

At first blush, it actually looked like the person on the weight loss forum was right! And here I am struggling along with P90X at 600ish calories for an entire hour!

Sound too good to be true?

From the second I heard about the BBC doing an autopsy on an obese woman, I have been incredibly excited for it. Morbid curiosity and the desire to know exactly what all the fat I was lugging around for years was doing to my insides.

This US woman, who weighed 'only' 238 Lbs (despite being obese, that is smallfat territory to anyone who is familiar with the Healthy at Any Size movement), and her family graciously donated her body to science so that she could be autopsied on TV. In her death she educated millions about what obesity looks like on the inside, how fat causes the organs to become enlarged and baggy, how fat marbelizes around organs, how fat directly contributes to a poorer quality of life and eventual death.

Orlistat is found in prescription Xenical in 120 mg doses and over-the-counter My Alli in 60 mg doses.

Orlistate has been used in a number of fat control and fat loss studies. Trials which used control groups and used patients with uncomplicated obesity (that is patients who did not have obesity due to untreated medical conditions) showed statistically significant differences between the placebo control group and the orlistat group on who achieved more weight loss. Those using orlistat achieved significantly greater results (5% or greater decrease in body mass on average). It not only resulted in more weight loss, it resulted in a decrease in health complications related to being overweight or obese, such as high blood pressure.

We did a close look at the herbal supplement Forskolin and so now it's time to use LG 365's Forskolin for 30 days and see if it stacks up to its own claims.

Directions: Take one capsule daily with a glass of water. Preferably before a meal.

Claims: Weight loss, 'belly buster', appetite suppressant, increased energy, increased mood, nicer skin

Ease of use: The capsule has only a light odor. It goes down easily with both food and water. I had no issues with it getting caught in my throat.

FDA: No statements made by LG 365 are approved by the FDA.

I cannot see any substantial difference in my weight loss than would be expected from my exercise program. Nor did I feel like I had more energy or an elevated mood. I felt very normal while taking LG 365 Forskolin.

The idea of not body shaming seems nice. Treat people, no matter their weight, in a polite and courteous manner. Every stranger should have equal treatment from other people. It's an extension of the golden rule; don't be a dickhead to others.

The problem is that the 'don't body shame' movement has morphed into an entirely different beast – if it ever even was the beast I thought it was when I first heard about it and thought it was a noble idea. Now it's not just enough to ask people to be polite to someone and not bully them for their weight.

Now it's an offense to ask for weight loss help.

That's right. Wanting to change for our own reasons are no longer acceptable.

I didn't actually ever plan to do a close look at for an exercise program. Mostly because there's really no scientific studies done on specific programs – nor do they usually really need it. Getting up and moving is the goal and unless the program fails to elevate heart rate, as “Wii Fit” did, it's probably an okay exercise program.

But P90X was studied by the American Counsel on Exercise in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin. ACE selected some of the P90X program videos to determine the energy cost and exercise intensity they provided.

Power 90 is a bit old, I know, but after getting myself accustomed to exercising daily, I wanted to move on to something that was still fairly easy but could push me. And “Power 90” offered exactly what I needed to step up from “EA Sports Active.”

I spent 3 weeks doing phase 1-2 before moving on to phase 2-3. So I will be reviewing 4 programs.

Power 90 Sweat phase 1-2 is about 35 minutes long, not including the ab routine.

Power 90 Sculpt phase 1-2 is about 28 minutes long.

Power 90 Sweat phase 3-4 is about 41 minutes long, not including the ab routine.

Power 90 Sculpt phase 3-4 is about 38 minutes long.

Peripheral equipment:

Resistance bands – I am pretty sure when I got Power 90 many years ago it was part of a set that came with the resistance bands, but now I cannot find such a set. Hardly surprising since it's old (VHS was still a thing people were using when I got this!) and has now been updated to P90 and all the offshoots of that. I definitely recommend the Beach Body resistance bands if you don't already have a set though; I've had these for years and they still work great.

Weight loss/Aerobics:

I lost about 6.5 pounds over the 30 days I was doing Power 90. The sweat day aerobics is pretty intense for just starting out without being murderous. 35 minutes is a nice, long length of time to get adjusted to working out for and my heart rate was consistently reaching and staying in my target heart rate zone.

When calorie counting goes awry, when we eat more than we realize, when we don't think about the extra condiments we put on our food, we can pack on the pounds. The British television show, “Secret Eaters” looks at people who can't figure out why they're gaining weight and monitors their eating habits both by having them track their calories on their own, and by watching them with cameras and private investigators.

Coleus forskolii is one of the newest 'wonder drugs' that TV personalities and websites are pushing to help with weight loss. The box claims it will boost metabolism, that it's a powerful fat burner and will increase NRG levels. As with almost all supplements, these statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

The close look at LG 365 Forskolin is going to be short and sweet unlike some supplements which contain everything but the bathroom sink. There are only three ingredients.

The capsule itself is made of vegetable cellulose. These are good capsule options for people who want to keep vegetarian or vegan. A quick test in vinegar confirmed that the capsule will dissolve easily once it hits the stomach. The pH of vinegar is a bit weaker than stomach acids.

Now for the contents of the capsule.

Rice flour is the inactive ingredient filler. It's a gluten free filler; there's nothing good or bad about it.

Forskolin is what you're really paying for here as it's the only other ingredient. It's what's being pushed as a weight loss miracle by TV personalities like Dr. Oz. But is there any science to back up his touting of this 'miracle'? The short answer is no.

After going over and evaluating the usefulness of each of the ingredients in EvolutionSix Fat Loss Formula I took it for 30 days and am ready to evaluate its effectiveness in real world terms.

In case you needed another reason to get motivated to lose weight, a study by the Cambridge Centre for Aging and Neuroscience has discovered that being overweight causes decreased brain function. The study looked at 473 individuals between the ages of 20 and 87 and the full results are published in the journal 'Neurobiology of Aging.'

The study found that overweight individuals had a widespread reduction in white matter compared to their leaner counterparts of the same age. White matter is tissue that connects areas of the brain for information to be communicated between areas. A reduction in white matters means slower and less complete communication across the surface of the brain.

When age was brought into the equation, the brain of a 50 year old overweight person looked similar to the brain of a lean 60 year old person. As we age our brains naturally shrink in size, so the 60 year old's brain was normal, but that means the overweight individual had a decrease in brain function that shouldn't have happened for another 10 years. This was only visible in those who were middle-age and older.

While there were clear differences in the volume of white matter between lean and overweight individuals, there was seemingly no connection between being overweight or obese and an individual’s cognitive abilities, as measured using a standard test similar to an IQ test.

“We don’t yet know the implications of these changes in brain structure. Clearly, this must be a starting point for us to explore in more depth the effects of weight, diet and exercise on the brain and memory,” Professor Sadaf Farooqi, from the Wellcome Trust–Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science at Cambridge said.  

LEAF is a really lovely metallic leaf-shaped piece of jewelry/technology from Bellabeat. It's like a Fitbit, except more fashionable and designed especially for women. It tracks a woman's health through her activity level, sleep and menstrual cycle.

Is it all complicated though? Syncing stuff and putting in numbers and blahblah, wearing tech is always a pain in the butt. According to Bellabeat, you just wear it. That's all. There are no buttons, no screens. LEAF is customizable and can be worn as a bracelet, necklace or clip. Bracelet and necklace accessories are included with purchase. The Silver LEAF comes with the beige bracelet and the Rose Gold LEAF comes with a brown bracelet.

LEAF works with an app that provides a simple visual snapshot of your daily activity, sleep, periods and meditation. With four tabs telling you everything you need to know about your daily progress, you can compare activities and learn what you need to improve in your life.

• activity and step tracking – You can also add custom activities in the app, because every activity counts.
• breathing and meditation tracking – It's not just about moving, it's about being still and breathing for a while.
• tracking movement during the night – With graphic visualizations in the app, sleep monitoring helps you understand what your body’s going through during the night.
• period tracking feature and fertility calendar – Never get caught by surprise by your period again and whether your trying to have a baby, or really don't want to have one, you can keep track of your likely ovulation schedule as well.

The vegan Tropical Strawberry Shakeology is supposed to replace one meal a day in order to help you lose weight, feel energized and improve digestion.

This is not based on the 'new and improved' formula. The new and improved formula has more calories (170 calories and 30 calories from fat) and new ingredients. But I drank this stuff and wrote this review many years ago so dangit, I want to share my experience!

Unlike the chocolate Shakeology and greenberry Shakeology reviews, I do not think this will be even close to accurate to the new formula, but maybe commentors can chime in if they feel it hasn't actually changed smell, flavor or texture too much. This is just for posterity.

Nutrition:

Serving size: 1.42 ounces of powder

Calories: 160

Calories from fat: 10

Total fat: 1 g

Sodium: 70 mg

Total Carbohydrate: 20 g

Dietary Fiber: 4 g

Sugars: 10 g

Protein: 15 g

Shakeology touts 70+ healthy ingredients, but what are the Shakeology ingredients exactly?

Ingredients: raw sprouted whole grain brown rice protein, sacha inchi, coconut flower nectar, sprouted chia, sprouted flax, pea fiber, quinoa, amaranth, maca root, astragalus root, ashwagandha root, maitake mushroom, cordyceps, reishi mushroom, holy basil, ginkgo, pomegranate, acerola cherry, bilberry, goji berry, camu-camu, acai, blueberry, citrus bioflavonoid, rose hips, green tea, strawberry, apple pectin, banana, pineapple, papaya, yacon root, lactobacillus sporogenes, spirulina, chlorella, spinach, barley grass, kamut grass, oat grass, wheat grass, protease, amylase, cellulase, MSM, lipase, papain, lactase, bromelain, tapioca, konjac gum, beet juice powder, citric acid, natural sweetener, cinnamon powder, Himalayan salt, Stevia and luo han guo fruit

How I mixed it: 1 cup soy milk, 3 ice cubes, 1 packet tropical strawberry Shakeology powder. Blended thoroughly in the blender.

Review: Upon opening the package you’re hit with the smell of chemicals rather than the 70+ healthy Shakeology ingredients the packaging touts. It’s hard to describe exactly what the smell it, but it’s close to a powdered cleaning product, acrid to the senses and not at all appetizing.

After mixing the Shakeology meal up, it smells like nothing but powdered cinnamon.

Despite being low on the Shakeology ingredients list, cinnamon powder is the most overwhelming flavor of this drink. The cinnamon is incredibly overpowering and leaves the throat feeling dry as parchment paper. And on top of the taste of cinnamon is a chemical-powder taste that would not be blotted out no matter how much soy milk I added to the mixture.

In fact, the cinnamon powder was so overwhelming I couldn’t taste any of the other ingredients at all. There was nothing tropical or strawberry about this drink.

The texture was grainy rather than thick like a meal replacement shake ought to be. It was like the powder just wouldn’t absorb into the milk and I tried up to 14 ounces (2 ounces over the recommended) just to see if that would fix the problem. It didn’t.

Personally, I don’t see this being palatable to anyone except the most die-hard that need additional vitamins and minerals in their diet but can’t drink the chocolate or greenberry flavors due to being vegan. It wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever had to drink, but it definitely isn’t something I’d take by choice.

As I stated in my greenberry Shakeology close look at, I only used this in the past, many years ago. That was when this review was originally written. Because the ingredients have not changed dramatically, I think this older taste reaction will hopefully still help people decide if they want to go all-in on the Shakeology program.

How I mixed it: 1 cup soy milk, 3 ice cubes, 1 packet greenberry Shakeology powder. Blended thoroughly in the blender.

Review: When you open the package you’ll notice a slight chemical-powder smell, but not much else. This is pretty low on scent compared to both the chocolate and tropical strawberry Shakeology drinks.

After mixing the drink all I could smell was cinnamon, just like with the tropical strawberry Shakeology, but, unlike the tropical strawberry flavor, the texture of the greenberry Shakeology was very creamy and thick.

If it wasn’t for the overwhelming tastes of cinnamon, this would be my favorite Shakeology drink. Though the drink is green, it has a light, fruity flavor. The cinnamon powder near the bottom of the Shakeology ingredients list nearly overpowers this though and many sips just tasted like a mouth full of cinnamon, just like the tropical strawberry Shakeology.

As I disclosed in the close look at article, I used chocolate Shakeology in the past, when this review was originally written, and I did not use Shakeology for a full 30 days. I actually only used each flavor twice in order to do a taste test. Back in the day, this stuff was way too expensive for me and now it's even more expensive so I am not likely to be able to update these reviews to the new Shakeology recipes anytime soon.

My hope is that, outdated or not, my experience in the past will help you decide if trying Shakeology is something you want to do.

How I mixed it: 1 cup soy milk, 3 ice cubes, 1 packet chocolate Shakeology powder. Blended thoroughly in the blender.

Review: With the package open, the product smells exactly like the chocolatey drink you would hope to get in a meal replacement shake that claims to be chocolate flavored. It doesn’t have a chemical scent to it at all like some other protein powders and meal replacement mixes.

After mixing the chocolate smell is replaced by the smell of cinnamon, though it’s not nearly as overpowering as it is in the tropical strawberry Shakeology.

It’s not as creamy as the packaging advertises, as the taste of cinnamon is too strong to compare it to chocolate milk even when made with soy milk, but it does taste like chocolate. The aftertaste is particularly pleasant with a cinnamon-sweet flavor that’s not overpowering to the senses.

The texture was thick and smooth like a meal replacement shake ought to be.

There was a problem with the mixture settling onto the bottom of the glass when it took over 10 minutes to drink it all. Going for 12 ounces of milk (rather than just 1 cup) lessened this problem significantly, but it was still present and made the last swallow or two a bit uncomfortable.

Greenberry Shakeology is meant to replace one meal a day in order to help you lose weight, feel energized and improve digestion.

As with the chocolate Shakeology ingredient article, I want to make it clear that this is an old article I wrote based on an old Shakeology formula. I did glance over the new ingredients and while they seemed clipped down, they did have most of these ingredients still listed though in abbreviated form sometimes.

While this is not completely accurate to greenberry Shakeology anymore, the facts surrounding these ingredients do not change; let this help you decide if you want to try the new Shakeology formulas or not.

Nutrition:

Serving size: 1.4 ounces of powder

Calories: 140

Calories from fat: 3

Total fat: <0.5g

Cholesterol: 10 mg

Sodium: 95 mg

Total carbohydrate: 19 g

Dietary fiber: 3 g

Sugars: 11 g

Protein: 16 g

Shakeology touts 70+ healthy ingredients, but what are the Shakeology ingredients exactly?

Ingredients: Chlorella, spirulina, Hydrilla, Blue green algae, spinach powder, barley grass, kamut grass, oat grass, wheat grass, acerola powder, camu-camu powder, pomegranate powder, bilberry powder, blueberry powder, goji berry powder, acai powder, maitake powder, citrus bioflavonoid, rose hips powder, maca powder, astragalus powder, ashwagandha powder, cordyceps, reishi powder, schisandra powder, suma powder, ginko powder, banana powder, carrot powder, orange powder, pineapple powder, raspberry powder, strawberry powder, yacon powder, bifodobacterium longum, lactobacillus acidophilus, lactobacillus acidophilus DDS-1, lactobacillus bulgaricus, lactobacillus casei, streptococcus thermophilus, sacha inchi, flax seed, chia seed, apple fiber powder, MSM, pea fiber, quinoa, amylase, papain, cellulase, lactase, lipase, protease, bromelain, amaranth, grape seed extract, green tea extract, natural sweetener blend, xanthan gum, guar gum and cinnamon powder

Chocolate Shakeology is meant to replace one meal a day in order to help you lose weight, feel energized and improve digestion.

Full disclosure, this is an old review that I originally posted years ago on a site that is now defunct; back then it was nearly impossible to get the ingredient list of Shakeology without buying some of it – talk about shady. I didn't want all this information to go to waste despite it being outdated, and a quick look at the ingredient list on Amazon shows that the ingredient list has been chopped, but most of the interesting ingredients – the ones we aren't likely to recognize – are the same. And I am not really seeing anything new on the list that looks like it needs a close look.

Take this with a grain of 'it's really, really old', but the facts of these ingredients don't change; they can still help you decide if the newer Shakeology recipes are right for you.

Nutrition:

Serving size: 1.7 ounces of powder

Calories: 150

Calories from fat: 10

Total fat: 1 g

Cholesterol: 15 mg

Sodium: 100 mg

Total carbohydrate: 17 g

Dietary fiber: 3 g

Sugars: 9 g

Protein: 18 g

Shakeology touts 70+ healthy ingredients, but what are the Shakeology ingredients exactly?

Ingredients: Chlorella, spirulina, Hydrilla, Blue green algae, spinach powder, barley grass, kamut grass, oat grass, wheat grass, acerola powder, camu-camu powder, pomegranate powder, bilberry powder, blueberry powder, goji berry powder, acai powder, maitake powder, citrus bioflavonoid, rose hips powder, maca powder, astragalus powder, ashwagandha powder, cordyceps, reishi powder, schisandra powder, suma powder, ginko powder, banana powder, carrot powder, orange powder, pineapple powder, raspberry powder, strawberry powder, yacon powder, bifidobacterium longum, lactobacillus acidophilus, lactobacillus acidophilus DDS-1, lactobacillus bulgaricus, lactobacillus casei, streptococcus thermophilus, sacha inchi, flax seed, chia seed, apple fiber powder, MSM, pea fiber, quinoa, amylase, papain, cellulase, lactase, lipase, protease, bromelain, amaranth, grape seed extract, green tea extract, natural sweetener blend, cocoa powder, xanthan gum, chocolate powder, guar gum and cinnamon powder

The FDA recently approved a device called AspireAssist, a pump that will drain your stomach through a valve inserted into the abdominal wall. Want to know more about how this will work? Check out this short instructional; it's a cartoon so nothing graphic is shown.

It allows an obese person to empty 30% of the contents of their stomach directly into the toilet thus immediately dumping 30% of the calories they consumed at their last meal before the body has a chance to process it for nutrients. A clinical trial consisted of 111 patients treated with AspireAssist and appropriate lifestyle therapy, and 60 control patients who received only the lifestyle therapy. One year later, patients using AspireAssist lost an average of 12.1% of their total body weight while the control patients only lost 3.6% percent. The AspireAssist is only intended to be used for people “who have failed to achieve and maintain weight loss through non-surgical weight-loss therapy.”

Daily Break is a website that offers news articles, quizzes, recipes and other bits of information every day. I tend to visit daily because you can get points for viewing the articles or taking the quizzes, which you can then turn into gift cards to Amazon, Walmart and other places. Today I logged in to discover a quiz titled, Which Superfood Should you Try?

Naturally, my mind immediately leapt to this blog and whether anything suggested would potentially be interesting. I've found some yummy recipes through Daily Break before, found some nice exercise apps and even bought a baby gift for a friend that I saw mentioned on there. I figured this should be fun and I might be able to find something new to try.

Just to be upfront, I really hate these 'superfood' trends. Unless the food actually tastes good on its own then I want to see scientific studies backing up its claims of usefulness. And even if it is super tasty, I don't want to be fed potential lies about how it will increase energy or help with weight loss without scientific studies. Just call it tasty and market good food to me.

I took the quiz and my delivered result was:

As an avid gamer, I also saw the benefit and bought the Wii Fit along with a few exercise games many, many years ago. It's been sitting unused for a while now, but when I decided I wanted to get in shape, I pulled it out, blew off the dust and gave it a shot. To me, this seemed the perfect way to start exercising after years of laziness. It could start me off somewhat easy, motivate me with achievements that my gamer self loves and get me accustomed to having an exercise schedule.

I used “EA Sports Active,” specifically the 6 week challenge, which I completed in a little less than a month.

Why did I complete it so early? Well, there are too many rest days. It requires 3 rest days be scheduled before it will let you start the challenge. Because it uses the same schedule each week (instead of working out a certain number of days then resting), this can end up being really strange and ultimately you'll end up being told to rest on days when you're ready to get to business. The game does not stop you from getting in extra days on rest days thankfully. So I ended up taking only one rest day each week.

Each workout is 25 – 30 minutes long.

Peripheral equipment:

Balance board – “EA Sports Active” is compatible with the Wii Fit balance board. It amps up the difficulty of some exercises, such as kick boxing. However, I do think it lessens the difficulty of others, such as rafting or paddling.

Resistance band – The game came with a resistance band, but it might as well be a rubber band for how thin and weak it is, even for someone who hasn't exercised in years. I highly recommend getting a better resistance band, such as the ones by Beach Body, or getting some small weights and getting used to holding them along with the Wiimote and nunchuk.

Weight loss/Aerobics:

I did not lose much weight while doing the 6 week challenge for “EA Sports Active.” My weight fluctuated within the range that one could expect for normal daily changes. I believe this was because there was simply not enough aerobic workouts sprinkled in with the rest of the exercises. Everyday focused very heavily on lots of squats and seemed to end with some ab work. While there were a few aerobic days that were quite intense, they were few and far between; definitely not enough to help with taking pounds off.

Let's take a look.

Vitamin B6 aids in the synthesis of hemoglobin and enhances oxygen binding to hemoglobin. Toxic doses of dietary supplement Vitamin B6 for extended periods of time can result in neurological issues. As such this should not be taken with any Vitamin B complexes for additional Vitamin B6 supplements.

It won't help you lose weight, but in the levels present in the Fat Loss Formula there will not be any negative side effects – except very potently scented urine and possibly sweat.

Iodine (from kelp) serves an important role in helping regulate the thyroid. Most people struggling to lose weight probably know the importance of the thyroid in managing weight to a certain extent. In developed countries iodine is added to table salt and while this has reduced problems iodine deficiency is still a problem. This may be even more of a problem for people who are dieting as they avoid salt and may not know what foods are high in iodine – or even that they need foods high in it.

This will not help someone lose weight, but getting enough iodine into the diet in important to stave off physical and mental illnesses which can cause weight gain. Iodine toxicity is a problem though, especially in selenium deficient people – which this supplement contains none of.

Chromium(III) picolinate is necessary for glucose to be used properly in the body, however, deficiency is rare. The human body already process glucose properly and if it is not, doctor's intervention is needed, not a non-FDA approved supplement. In addition the EvolutionSix packaging warns not to take this supplement with other supplements due to chromium toxicity concerns. Studies on the toxicity of chromium(III) are variable but seem to point to poor absorption of the substance meaning it's really, really hard to overdose on it.

A poorly studied addition to this supplement that probably offers no benefits your body isn't already accomplishing on its own and may be dangerous to one's health.