Clearing Up Some Triac Misconceptions (Part 2)

The Use of Triac While On a Diet

We all could use a little help while on diet, especially when the rate of fat loss slows down. Is Triac our ultimate answer? If yes, how to use it? When? I will not keep you wondering: No, Triac is not the ultimate weapon against fat. On the other hand, it can help you if you know when to use it and how to cycle it.

The fat loss machinery revealed

We all take for granted the fact that when we eat less, we inevitably lose body fat. What is less obvious is the exact way that a caloric deficit translates into a reduction in fat. Even more puzzling is how our the body resists this loss. Here are some of the factors involved:

1. When we fast, our insulin level drops. Insulin prevents fat loss, so a reduction of its level will have a permissive effect on fat loss. Unfortunately, when less insulin is available, the sensitivity of the adipose tissue to this hormone increases. This is a first adaptation which will result, after a short while, in slower fat loss despite the maintenance of the caloric restriction. You will have to eat even less in order to starve more insulin from the adipose tissue to continue to shed fat. You can figure out that eventually we are going to lose this tug-of-war. The only solution is to drop the carb intake to the bare minimum in order to artificially shrink insulin level. But even dietary proteins are able to induce a release of insulin. We see here a first order limiting mechanism of fat loss.
2. Fortunately, as we eat less, the level of the lipolytic hormones (epinephrine, norepinephrine, GH) increases. Those hormones will synergize to mobilize and burn fat. This elevation does not concern all the lipolytic hormones. For example, after a while the thyroid hormone and leptin levels can only go down, not up during a diet. Eventually, even the GH, epinephrine and norepinephrine levels will go down rendering fat loss incredibly slow and painful.
3. On top of those biochemical pathways, there are some more mechanical factors involved in fat loss. The biggest fat cells are more prone than the small ones to lose their triglycerides making initial fat loss easy. But once those hypertrophied adipocytes return to a more normal size by disposing of their excess of fat, they will become more resistant to further triglyceride depletion.

All this to say that, at first fat loss is very easy. Your muscles become more defined despite the fact that you are hardly dieting. You are just have to be careful about what goes through your mouth. Then, one day, it is the turn of your muscle mass to shrink while your fat reserves look as if they were suddenly inviolable.

Those very simple observations help us address the first Triac issue: Should I use it at the very beginning of my diet? The obvious answer is no; wait till the going gets tougher. You should try to get rid of as much fat loss as possible from a simple cleaning up of your dietary intake (i.e: get rid of the superfluous fats and sugars and trade those calories for proteins). When this is not sufficient, start to slowly reduce your food intake. When you feel things are not going very well anymore, add some aerobic activities. This is going to renew the levels of the lipolytic hormones, especially the catecholamines that are beginning to decline.

Do not go overboard with aerobics though. Instead, introduce an aspirin-free ephedrine/caffeine supplement before training. This is going to boost both catecholamine and thyroid hormone levels. One common but major mistake among dieters is to use both ephedrine (or Clenbuterol) + thyroid extracts (here Triac) together. Ephedrine or Clenbuterol will increase thyroid output. It would be overkill to add some more extra thyroids at this specific moment where thyroid shortage is not yet a troublesome problem. Of course, I assume that you are not in a hurry. We are all impatient to lose fat, but please allow yourself more than two weeks to do so.

Eventually, the fat loss activity of ephedrine will wane. You then face one alternative: increase your dosage (which is not trouble-free) or try to play with another, now crucial, component of fat loss: Triac. Thyroid output is likely to go down despite the stimulating action of ephedrine as you remain on a restrictive diet. The major problem at this point is the reduction in both insulin and IGF-1 levels, which are very important for the maintenance of a normal thyroid activity. Let’s assume you decided to drop the ephedrine (see below for explanation as to why not to stack ephedrine with Triac). As you rapidly decrease the ephedrine intake, start the Triac with a procedure similar to that I described in Part 1 (i.e: start low, see what happens and how you react to it and increase your dosage slowly).

What to expect from Triac?

Your weight loss should resume thanks to Triac. However there is a problem here: whenever insulin level is low, thyroid hormones are very catabolic for our muscle mass. Thyroid hormones are always very catabolic as they are able to directly activate the proteolytic pathways. This action is normally counteracted by insulin and IGF-1. Because your insulin and IGF levels are low when you are dieting, the catabolic pathways are free for activation. In fact, scientists believe that the reason thyroid hormone levels go down when you are on a diet is to protect the body from atrophy, especially in muscles. It is therefore a specific protective mechanism that we are going to artificially deactivate, with all the problems inherent to this unnatural maneuver. Again, if you are not ready to pay the price for it (trade some muscle for some extra fat loss) stay away from Triac.

If you followed the gradual dieting approach that I have just described, the catabolic effect of Triac should be minimized because your muscles become more resistant to proteolysis as the diet progresses. This is one of the reasons I advise against using Triac very early during the diet. We should wait in order to benefit from this diet-induced protection. If all goes well, you should be able to diet without any need for Triac for around one month which leaves plenty of time for this built-in protection to develop. So while our muscles are very vulnerable to the wasting action of thyroid hormone at the beginning of the diet, they develop a resistance to it, despite the natural thyroid reduction. That is what we were waiting for. If it means we can get away with a moderate amount of Triac. But be assured that the consequence of messing up with the Triac will be a great catabolic reaction.

One way Triac attacks our muscles is by wasting our muscle energy sources, especially creatine. So as you increase your Triac intake, your creatine intake should be augmented in parallel. In case you are wondering, anabolic steroids are very ineffective at properly counteracting the Triac-induced muscle wasting. As their name implies, anabolics mainly stimulate protein synthesis rate while thyroids mainly stimulate the proteolytic pathways. We are facing two completely different mechanisms. Anabolics merely fix the some of the problems caused by Triac but they are unable to counteract them properly.

Can Clenbuterol or ephedrine stop Triac-induced wasting? What a smart stack it would be, sparing muscles while wasting fat away! After all, animal studies show us that both Clen and ephedrine are anti-catabolic substances. Sorry, but this is not how it works in real life. Stacking Clenbuterol or ephedrine (or worse both) with Triac will certainly enhance the fat loss process but also the muscle shrinkage. That’s right — ephedrine or Clenbuterol can only exacerbate the catabolic properties of Triac. I advise against stacking them because I assume most readers are not on massive amounts of truly anti-catabolic drugs able to counter these harmful actions.

How to use Triac?

As implied above, a reduction of thyroid output is only one of the reasons why dieting effects slowly wane. Therefore, Triac will not solve all the problems inherent in caloric restriction. Thyroid hormones should work in synergy with the other lipolytic hormones in order to exert their magic. When you start Triac because the ephedrine + the low calorie diet are not working anymore, I suggest that you eat more, not less. This won’t help you lose fat faster, but thanks to Triac you can moderately increase your caloric intake and, at that point, get away with it. In fact, you will probably continue to lose some fat.

This is going to give your body a needed rest without running the risk of regaining fat. The extra insulin will help you to attenuate the muscle wasting actions of Triac. Of course, you can continue to diet down normally while on Triac. It all depends on how much of a hurry you are in. But you should take into account the following fact: as you reduce your caloric intake, each cell of your body is going to manufacture proteins that can trap and inactivate thyroid hormone molecules to prevent them from acting. In other words, the sensitivity of your body to the thyroid extracts (including Triac) is inevitably going down because of a lack of calories, carbohydrates, IGF and insulin. Eating a bit more while on Triac will render your body more sensitive to the positive Triac actions, especially those effecting the metabolic rate.

When and how to stop Triac?

Eventually, your body is going to adjust itself to this extra thyroid level. It is going to further cut down on its own thyroid production while decreasing its sensitivity to Triac. You could increase the dosages, but that would cause more muscle wasting and would not necessarily enhance fat loss. On the other hand you could stop the Triac. This is what I advise. You can keep a small extra amount of Triac if it makes you feel better but this is at your own risk.

The issue here is how to stop Triac without getting fat? You should first understand why you are running the risk of packing on fat at that point. Your thyroid output will be very low which will reduce your metabolic rate and the sensitivity of the adipose tissue to the lipolytic hormones. Therefore, you should try to jump start your thyroid gland while boosting your metabolism in order to counter any fat gain and continue to lose fat.

Both gugglesterone and ephedrine are effective supplements that are able to jump start your thyroid gland. Ephedrine will also increase the level of the catecholamines, rendering your adipose tissue more prone to shrinkage on top blocking any potential for an extra gain in fat. So as you cut your Triac intake, increase gugglesterone and ephedrine dosages. A major benefit of Triac over the other thyroid extracts is that even if it is very suppressive in magnitude, its inhibitory action is short lasting once discontinued compared to other thyroid hormones. Your thyroid should respond rapidly. Of course, this assumes that your gland was properly working in the first place.

Hopefully you have understood that while on your diet you should rotate ephedrine and Triac rather than stack them. This is the best way (though not the most rapid) to progress in your diet in order to ease and accelerate your fat loss while minimizing the muscle wasting process.