Ogbono, Baby!: The Meaning

In my previous post, I set out the data from my ten week trial on LEF's Integra-Lean Irvingia supplements. The undeniable result of the trial was that I lost over 9 pounds during the ten weeks, including a significant amount of belly fat.

The question now is: Why? What is the meaning of this data? Did the supplements cause this fat loss in me? Or are there other factors?

For example, one distinct possibility is that these numbers are the result of a whopping placebo effect. That is, I read an academic article about the supplements before taking them. The article persuaded me that there might be something to them. That's what motivated me to try them in the first place. Did that mental state cause my dramatic changes?

Here are a few thoughts about cause and effect:

• My Wife's Numbers. My wife Cathy also tried the supplements during the same period. But she did not get the same effect. Then again, she wasn't exactly rigorous in taking the supplements (i.e. she'd frequently skip days). So the jury is still out on her.

• My Placebo Blows Up. I actually stopped taking the supplements right around the time I posted the blog Poison as "Food". In fact, the big peak you see in the chart of my Body Fat (week 6) was recorded the day before I posted that blog. Indeed, on the measurements of that week, my blood glucose and blood pressure were high as well. Those lousy numbers, and the awful way I was feeling that I wrote about, made me give up taking the supplements for a few days. I half-suspected they not only weren't helping; they might even be hurting. Anyway, that's a long way to say that whatever placebo effect I had at the start of the trial, that effect had disspiated by this discouraging peak of week 6.

The reason I do believe the supplements were the major cause of my fat loss is not reflected in the dramatic numbers of those three charts. It's in other, "anecdotal"/"self-report" data. This other data includes:

• Exercise Cravings. Around week 7 or 8, I started getting cravings for exercise. I mean, I'd be sitting at my desk, working at my computer, and thoughts of hiking in the hills would jump into my brain -- just like thoughts of sex used to when I was a young man. I hadn't had those "exercise cravings" in years.
• Feeling Full. In the study I read before I started the trial, the subjects had reported a loss of appetite. That is, the subjects would feel full sooner than normal, and stop eating. This is exactly what happened to me in the last couple of weeks of the trial. I'm a person who normally finishes my plate, even if full. But these past couple of weeks, I frequently couldn't finish my plate. For me, that's very wierd.
  
• Wierdly Stable Weight. My weight totally stablized after week 6. Over the past few years, I've weighed myself first thing in the morning, after taking my morning poop. Just checking to see what's going on with my body, you know. Now, over these past few years, my weight would normally fluctuate within a band of 4 pounds. Up and down. In different parts of the year, that band might shift up or down. This winter, before I started the trial, the band was from 185 to 189. But after week 6, the band of variation shrunk to less than 1 pound. That is, first my weight dropped to 183 +- .5, stayed there for a couple of weeks. Then recently, it dropped again, this time to 179 +- .5. e.g. The last three days, my weight was exactly 179.2. That's very strange. My weight was never that stable before.
• In the Face of Eating Poorly. The weight and body fat stability mentioned in the previous bullet flew in the face of eating fairly poorly. Remember, the last four weeks of this trial were the last four weeks of winter. Where we live, there was lots of rain and cold. My wife likes to bake when it's rainy and cold outside. February and early March in our house was an endless series of fresh baked goods -- pies, breads, pretzels, etc. I ate my share and more. In the past, eating "poorly" like this would cause my weight to fluctuate within that 4 pound band. i.e. I'd reach the top of the band and say to myself: "Peter, get off the freaking bread". I'd get off the bread, and my weight would come back down. But over these past four weeks, my weight didn't do anything! That is, I'm surprised my weight didn't go up the last four weeks of the trial -- never mind going straight down like the Dow Jones!

Bottom line for me: This has been a really pleasantly strange 10 weeks for me. I can't think of anything that caused these pleasant changes, other than the supplments. Indeed, I can think of lots of things -- money stress, poor food, no exercise -- that should have caused the opposite effect.

So, on March 27, 2009, count me, Peter Savich, as a True Believer in the Power of Ogbono.

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