To make it clear: it isn’t illegal to buy, just difficult to get your hands on unless you get it shipped from outside the US.
The EC Stack Basics
When paired together, caffeine and ephedrine has a synergy type of effect. The most popular effects are:- Increased Metabolism – Body becomes more efficient at burning fat.
- Appetite Suppression – Much easier to avoid those binge meals and occasional snacks that can add up to hundreds, if not thousands of extra calories.
- Preserve Lean Mass – Studies show that EC helps the body burn fat stores as energy rather than muscle, which is greatly needed on a cut diet to achieve that lean look.
The EC stack can also be paired with a third ingredient, which is
baby aspirin. For those that want to try it but have a slightly elevated
blood pressure to begin with it’s highly recommended to also throw in
one baby aspirin a day (roughly 80 mg) which is just enough to keep
blood pressure down a bit without effecting anything else.
Dosing Guidelines
Testing: (skip this and go to ‘Starting Dosages’ if you’ve done EC with success in the past.)The first day or two will be test days to see how you react. Take one 200mg caffeine pill and one 8mg ephedrine pill a upon waking up (some brands have 12.5mg ephedrine instead, this is fine to substitute). Not recommending to workout or do cardio for the next 3-5 hours during testing, so plan ahead of time or test on an offday.
You’ll more than likely experience a slightly racing heart and
possibly some dizziness and facial flushing for the first couple times.
If you experience anything more than this or extremely fast heart beats
and/or vomiting/headaches, then repeat once a day until those
side-effects wear off after taking a dose. Do not take more than one
dose a day until the side-effects are manageable or non-existent.
After you get past the initial side-effects, the first week is going to be a little light just to ease into. For seven days straight, your dosages should be:
- Upon waking – 100mg caffeine/8mg ephedrine
- 4-5 hours later – 100mg caffeine/8mg ephedrine
Normal Dosages:
After getting a week of the starting dosage, I start my normal dosing cycle. This can run anywhere from 2-3 months at a time before slowly winding it down and stopping. I’ve never went more than 3 months straight on EC, but most studies I’ve read said that it isn’t necessary to cycle off of, but then again I’ve read a few testimonies that claim side-effects started to come up down the road (6+ months). Honestly, I would think something that alters your heart rate for extended periods of time isn’t the best great idea to keep taking without breaks, so be cautious when taking for long periods of time.
- Upon waking – 200mg caffeine/16mg ephedrine (if you have 12.5mg tablets, I’d stay at that. Experiment with doubling up and going to 25mg if you want, take caution though)
- 4-5 hours later – 200 caffeine/16mg ephedrine
- Optional 3rd dose 4 hours later – 100mg caffeine/8mg ephedrine
Coming Off The EC Stack
If you’re been on the EC stack for 2-3 months, chances are your body has built a dependency on it and quitting cold turkey isn’t a smart idea unless you like headaches and a severe drop in energy levels.To lessen the effects of coming off, I stop the ephedrine completely on day 1 while tapering down the caffeine doses. I usually dose it something like this for the first 3-5 days:
- Upon waking – 0mg ephedrine/200mg caffeine
- 4 hours later – 0mg ephedrine/100mg caffeine
- Optional dose (if you’ve been taking it) – 0mg ephedrine/100mg caffeine
EC is pretty safe with all things considered and can be a lot of help for those wanting that extra edge on cutting the fat, but it isn’t fool-proof and you need to pay attention to the doses you’re taking and not slip up and take something wrong on accident. Not recommended to do any type of HIIT cardio for those that are already sensitive to stimulates. For those that have their diet and workout in check, this will definitely be a ton of help; for those that don’t have either, don’t bother supplementing EC unless you like wasting money.
Credit: http://ceefitness.com/caffeine-and-ephedrine-stack/
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