Pyruvate Revisited for Weight Loss
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10 years ago, pyruvate was the hot new weight loss supplement. Pyruvate hit the weight loss scene with quite a punch, mainly due to the fact it was backed by several clinical studies. Next thing you know, the market was awash with pyruvate products. The problem was, no one lost any weight.
Since then, there have been additional studies on Pyruvate; all of them show additional weight loss from taking pyruvate. So the big question is why didn’t pyruvate work for anyone who took it?
Today we revisit this very powerful and very well researched supplement to see if pyruvate merits a second look in your weight loss, fitness and longevity goals.
What is pyruvate?
In simplest terms, pyruvate is the final form of all carbohydrates. When glucose from your blood is pulled into your cells to be converted into energy, it is converted into pyruvate. If we think of glucose as ‘blood sugar’, one analogy would be to think of pyruvate as the kindling for ‘cell sugar’.
What does the research say?
7 of the better known and most often quoted studies on pyruvate for weight loss were conducted by Dr. Ron Stanko, who also holds the patent on pyruvate as a supplement.
What are not generally well known about these weight loss studies are 2 things. The first thing is the size of the dose administered to the subjects. The subjects received 20 to 30 grams of pyruvate per day! To understand how much pyruvate this is figure on about 1/2 cup! The second is the physiological condition of the subjects. All of the subjects in Dr. Stanko’s studies were morbidly obese, bedridden, hospital patients.
Dr. Stanko’s studies showed that pyruvate supplementation yielded additional weight loss of about 3lb over a 6 week period.
While that doesn’t sound like much in the way of weight loss, a key variable to consider is the patient’s state and how pyruvate is believed to work for weight loss. The mechanism by which pyruvate is believed to work for weight loss is to increase your metabolism naturally by increasing the ATP output of the Krebs Cycle. Simply put, you burn more energy, which means you burn more calories and thus experience more weight loss. If this is the case, then the effectiveness and required dosage for weight loss may vary with the activity level of the individual.
So why didn’t pyruvate work as a weight loss supplement?
It was the weight loss results from these studies that spawned all but one of the pyruvate products you see on the market today. Now that you understand the dosage levels behind Dr. Stanko’s research, you don’t have to look long at the pyruvate products on the market to understand why people taking pyruvate never saw much in the way of results – the answer is fairly obvious – the dose! There simply wasn’t enough pyruvate in any of these products to get any noticeable weight loss.
Fortunately, pyruvate is worth revisiting as a weight loss supplement.
Since Dr. Stanko’s original weight loss research, someone finally had the bright idea ask “what would happen if we gave pyruvate to people who were not bedridden, people who maybe exercised every now and then. How much pyruvate would it take for people like this to see some weight loss?”
For our purposes, there are a couple of weight loss studies done in 1999 on pyruvate with healthy individuals who exercise. Of the two, one showed some additional, but not statistically significant weight loss from pyruvate. The other showed that pyruvate produces substantial weight loss. So what was the difference? Again, it was the dose! The study that showed non significant weight loss used a 5 gram dose. The study showing substantial weight loss used a 6 to 8 gram dose. 6 to 8 grams seems to be the dose that produces weight loss for individuals who use pyruvate to supplement exercise.
In summary, what we have with pyruvate research for weight loss are aproximately 10 decent studies. All of them show weight loss from pyruvate. Only one of them shows no statistically significant weight loss, but given that there is a companion study with a higher dose that did show weight loss, we have in total, a non-trivial body of evidence connecting pyruvate to weight loss in high doses.
While 20 to 30 grams was simply an impossible dose to make a commercial weight loss product, the protocol of using pyruvate to supplement exercise with a more realistic dose of 6 to 8 grams finally put a viable, clinically proven, pyruvate weight loss product within range.
So why didn’t the market follow? Why don’t you see a flood of 8-gram pyruvate products on the market? Ignorance and cost is the simple answer. Most people are not aware of the need for high doses of pyruvate and it costs much more to make a viable product.
Can pyruvate work for you?
For the past 2 years, there has been a small but ever growing fan base of users for the only pyruvate weight loss product that seems to work. We introduced it to the world here at LookCut 2 years ago – BioBurn Cardio Supercharge. To this day, it is still the only pyruvate weight loss product you can buy that is in line with the clinical data. It has the right dose, 8 grams, and it’s meant as a cardio adjunct, not as a stand-alone product.
If you are looking for a way to increase your metabolism without stimulants, and you want to make those cardio sessions more fruitful in terms of weight loss, you might want to give pyruvate a second look. BioBurn’s users report incredible stamina, an amazing burn sensation, accelerated weight loss and profuse sweating.
In summary, pyruvate is now fairly well researched for weight loss with individuals who are not bedridden. The clinical research supports pyruvate for weight loss if you do some cardio and take the magic dose of 8 grams. It may be worth a second look for you as well.
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