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December 13, 2004

This is part five of our investigative series on hoodia gordonii, a natural appetite suppressant for weight loss. I spent $1,742 and over a hundred hours investigating the hoodia industry, ordering products, and interviewing hoodia product providers. What I've found is that many companies claiming to sell hoodia are actually selling counterfeit products.

But there are also trusted sources. Based on my investigation, there are only four sources of hoodia I currently recommend.

HoodiaSource.com is a commercial grower of hoodia plants. I've interviewed the owner, Steve Wingard, who was quite well informed about hoodia. I'm happy that he finally has the "Letter of Botanical Authenticity" for his product, because his company was lacking that letter when I first spoke with him several months ago. Basically, this is bulk hoodia powder. The last price listed was US$250 / pound. You have to make your own capsules, or you can blend the powder into drinks or meal replacement shakes. I've ordered from Hoodia Source and they delivered as promised.

Jenny Lee Naturals is the only company I know that sells hoodia tincture, which is a concentrated extract of hoodia powder purchased from HoodiaSource.com, above. The tincture sells for $19.95 / bottle, and this is what I now use because it seems to be much faster acting than hoodia powder or capsules. It's not cheap, though, but it does seem to work better. If you're looking for a less expensive option, go with Pure Hoodia, below.

Pure Hoodia sells 400mg capsules of genuine hoodia for $39.95. I've interviewed the owner and tried the product myself. This company is growing quickly and they even have color labels now! Basically, this is your no-frills hoodia. No fillers, no gimmicks. Just hoodia gordonii powder.

Believe it or not, the Trim Spa weight loss supplement product also contains genuine hoodia, although it's only 100mg per serving, which isn't enough to create a strong appetite suppressant effect, in my opinion. You can buy Trim Spa at Walgreens, Wal-Mart, and lots of places online. Trim Spa is the product Anna Nicole used to lose weight, as you may have guessed from the fact that her pictures are splashed all over the official website.

How to use hoodia to actually lose weight

So you've bought a supply of hoodia, and now you want to know how to use it. To cover this, I have to share my own experience in using hoodia for weight loss. First, I've found that what works best for me on a weight loss phase is taking hoodia tincture every morning and afternoon. Easy enough, right?

Throughout the day, I realize that I have to eat in order to stay healthy. I exercise and strength train, too, so I know that if I don't eat at least 2,000 calories a day, my body will start losing muscle mass (which I definitely don't want to happen). So I track my calories to make sure I get at least 2,000 a day. This way, I'm still gradually losing weight, but I'm not shocking my body and losing lean muscle mass, which would lower my resting metabolism and hamper my fat loss efforts.

Personally, I use a Palm handheld computer to track my daily caloric intake. Each time I eat something, I key it in. But I'm not a food Nazi about all this, I don't track every calorie and every minute of the day. I only eat when I'm hungry or after I've exercised. For the rest of the day, I just drink water.

I absolutely, positively do not drink soft drinks or sweetened drinks of any kind. Water is the only drink I take. I don't eat ice cream, and I don't partake in cakes, cookies, sweetened cereals or other foods that are loaded with sugar or fat. This is just common sense, and taking hoodia doesn't give me a license to eat junk foods. So I stick with healthy dietary choices while I'm on hoodia.

Results of using hoodia

You might wonder how well this strategy worked. And here's my bottom line answer on hoodia: it helps, but personally, I still felt hungry. I have to be honest about this. Hoodia did NOT turn off my appetite like a light switch. It reduced it, yes. It helped me lose weight when I combined it with discipline and healthy food choices. But it didn't suppress my appetite like I had hoped.

In fact, there's only one supplement I've ever found that truly turned off my appetite and allowed me to reduce my daily caloric intake without suffering from it. That supplement will be revealed in an upcoming book called "The Food Timing Diet" available at TruthPublishing.com. Sorry, I can't reveal it here because I'm still working on the book, and it takes some explaining to cover this supplement. But it's not a drug, nor an herb. It's something truly revolutionary, and it works better than hoodia, in my opinion.

Hoodia isn't a bad choice, though. It helps with suppressing your appetite, especially if you take it in large quantities. But it wasn't the miracle appetite suppressant I was hoping to find. It just honestly didn't suppress my hunger enough for me to call it a miracle-class supplement.

Your results may be different. I have no doubt that some people are losing weight with the help of hoodia. But at the same time, I can assure you that nobody is losing weight with hoodia if they aren't simultaneously making better food choices and engaging in some form of physical exercise.

With that in mind, here are my tips for getting the most out of hoodia gordonii:

The #1 secret to using hoodia

Each time you reach for food, ask yourself, "What is my level of hunger, if any?"

Use those exact words. "What is my level of hunger, if any?"

And if the answer to yourself is, "None or not very much," then just don't eat. You don't feel hungry, so why bother?

If your answer is, "I feel really hungry" then by all means eat. Your body needs food, after all. You can't starve yourself to improved health.

But the point is that you have to check your level of hunger each time you're about to eat. And never, never, never eat just because it's breakfast time, or lunch time, or dinner time. Don't let the clock control your future, you take charge. Only eat when you're really hungry.

Lastly, drink a lot of water. I know that some people think drinking an 8 oz. glass of water is "a lot of water." Get serious. I think people should drink an 8 oz. glass before every meal. Drink the entire glass of water before you touch a bite of food. Even without hoodia, this is a healthy practice.

Most people simply don't drink enough water to begin with. They're afraid of feeling bloated or having to go to the bathroom too often. Let me share this with you: if you're not going to the bathroom far more frequently than you think you should be, you're probably not drinking enough water.

Don't like the taste of water? Filter it. Refrigerate it. Make it ice water. Add some lemon. Do whatever you have to do, because nothing is more important to your health than drinking water. And, importantly, you won't lose weight if you're dehydrated. So take water with hoodia, and that will help your weight loss results.

In the next part of this investigative series on hoodia gordonii, we'll take a closer look at the clinical evidence supporting hoodia as a natural weight loss supplement.

Source:www.newstarget.com