One thing you should always be skeptical about when it comes to weight loss supplements, is the claim that they’ve found something new or discovered a secret method for weight loss. The Alpilean Ice Hack claims that having too low an inner body temperature is the cause of obesity, and fat loss can be achieved by increasing your inner body temperature. It says here: “In fact for every drop in inner body temperature, your metabolism slows 13% or more!
” They then cite three articles to back these claims. But the weird thing is that I can’t select these links to follow their sources. They made it so I can’t even select the text!
But don’t worry, I typed out the exact addresses to see what articles they could have possibly cited to back their claims. Let’s review Alpilean Ice Hack, to see if it’s actually effective for weight loss, see if it’s worth your money and if we can replicate it with a cheaper alternative, and give it an overall rating. Their first claim is that “one common factor in overweight women and men, is low inner body temperature.
And the one thing common in skinny people is normal inner body temperature. ” Let’s take a look at the first article they say is from 2022 they use to support this claim. It’s an article that observed that the average body temperature of people in the United States over 100 years ago was about half a Celcius higher compared to today.
What? The study says absolutely nothing about obese individuals having a low body temperature, or that skinny people have normal “inner body temperatures”. Furthermore, this study was not from 2022, and instead was a study in 2020.
So what the study actually talks about was that this observed decrease in body temperature over time was believed to be due to a few reasons, the most probable one was that the improvement of modern medicine had decreased the rate of infectious and chronic diseases in the population. Less infectious diseases means less inflammation in the body, and thus lower overall body temperatures in the population. The study lists two other smaller factors, one being that all the people in general have slower metabolisms, leading to lower body temperatures, and the other being that modern improved heating and cooling systems in homes resulted in less need for our bodies to expend energy to cool or warm itself, thus resulting in lower resting metabolic rates.
The article says nothing about the difference between the body temperatures of obese or non-obese people. Let’s see their second claim. They say that “inner body temperature plays a role in how your body metabolizes fat”, referring to their earlier claim that lower body temperatures are found in obese individuals.
The second article they cite found that there was a positive association between body temperature and some obesity-related markers. This study actually shows the exact opposite of what Alpilean is trying to claim! The study says that a higher body temperature was associated with higher obesity markers, like higher BMI, higher hip-to-waist ratio, or higher blood sugar levels.
The Alpilean Ice Hack is suggesting higher body temperatures help you to lose weight, and now this study suggests that higher body temperatures is correlated with higher obesity-related measurements. So hilariously enough, whoever threw this study in, clearly didn’t even read the study, because it actually disproves their point. One final thing I’ll say about this is that even if the Alpilean Ice Hack claimed the opposite was true, this would still be a faulty study.
This study only shows a correlation, not a causation. A correlation is an observation that X seems to be correlated with Y. But that doesn’t mean X caused Y.
A causation is the proof that X causes Y. So it’s not the high body temperature that is causing obesity, rather, the study suggests that certain metabolic and physiological pathways are to blame for the higher temperatures in obese populations. Things like having a high resting metabolic rate due to having to carry around a heavier frame, or having more fat cells which secrete more leptin, a hormone that has effects on appetite but may also have thermogenic effects.
These are reasons why higher temperatures may be correlated with obese individuals, not why higher temperatures are causing obesity. Remember the difference between correlations and causations. They are not the same thing and it’s a common strategy to try to mislead people by muddling them together.
For example, I could say that increased ice cream intake is correlated to drowning deaths. But this is a correlation, not a causation. That’s because eating ice cream and people swimming are usually done during the summer months together, and it’s actually the increase in swimming that is causing more drownings, not the ice cream.
So although ice cream and drownings are positively correlated, it’s not a causation, because ice cream isn’t causing the drownings. But by muddling the two together, I could misinterpret a study that found that ice cream intake and drowning to be positively correlated, and make the incorrect assumption that the two are somehow linked. Finally, let’s take a look at the last claim.
It says “for every drop in inner body temperature, your metabolism slows 13% or more! ” First of all, every drop of how much are you talking about? Celsius?
Fahrenheit? Centimeters? But let’s look at the study.
So this article is a review. Reviews don't actually test anything, they just kind of put a bunch of information together to suggest a hypothesis. The review suggests that increasing body temperature may lead to increased metabolic rates, and that each degree C rise in temperature is associated with a 10-13% increase in oxygen consumption, which is not exactly the same as metabolism by the way, although they’re related.
They suggest that everyone has different levels of metabolism, and that lower body temperature may be one of many factors that can contribute to a slower metabolism. It doesn’t really say how much it can contribute, but based on the article it looks to be a pretty weak contributor. That’s fine and all, except for the fact that Alpilean is using this premise to say that low body temperatures is the cause of obesity, and raising it could help with weight loss.
Nowhere in the study do they suggest that low body temperature is causing obesity, nor do they say anywhere that increasing it to normal levels will help with weight loss. The study only suggests that raising it might increase metabolism. Not affect your weight.
So while the specific premise behind Alpilean Ice Hack is completely false, you might be wondering if your core body temperature can actually have an effect on weight loss? Based on the research, the answer is highly unlikely. While studies have found that obesity can potentially affect your core body temperature, the idea that your core body temperature can somehow affect your obesity is not true.
Additionally, studies find that obese individuals do not have a lower core body temperature than non-obese individuals, and other studies find no differences at all between obese and non-obese individuals. So all in all, your overall metabolism may slightly influence your core body temperature, but trying to increase your body temperature through saunas or hot yoga is not going to significantly change your metabolism, certainly not enough to have you lose any fat weight. Although you might lose some water weight due to the sweating, which you’ll gain right back once you rehydrate.
Also taking a supplement isn't going to change your core body temperature, unless it makes you really sick, with a fever, then I suppose it would. But let’s look at the supplement to see if it actually does anything. Unfortunately I could not find a single picture of the actual ingredient list on the back of the bottle, which is already really sketchy, so I’ll just have to go by what’s on their website.
All I can tell is that their daily dose is 1 pill per day. There’s some interest in using the fucoxanthins found in seaweeds, like Golden algae, for a variety of health issues, since fucoxanthins might have some anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and anti-obesity effects. Unfortunately, these effects are mostly theoretical, and have really just been tested in lab animals, and we don’t have much reliable research in humans.
So these effects on humans at the moment are not very well established. Dika nut, also known as the African mango, is actually a small and edible seed like pumpkin seeds, and are very commonly eaten under the name ogbono seeds in other parts of the world. Similar to other nuts and seeds, African mango seeds may have some beneficial properties on metabolism and health.
However, just like other seeds and nuts, they’re best as a part of a weight loss diet, not taken as a supplement in small doses, and I can almost guarantee that the doses in Alpilean Ice Hack are far too low to do anything for metabolism. Drmstick tree leaves, also known as moringa leaves, are really only known for their traditional uses, but currently lack much evidence-based research. Their traditional uses include glucose control and reducing inflammation.
There isn’t really any evidence that they actually help with those things, even then, herbalists typically used 10 to 100 grams per day of these ground up leaves, certainly not something you can fit into a single pill. Bigarade orange, also known as bitter orange, was once marketed as a dietary supplement for weight loss as an appetite suppressant. This is because bitter orange contains compounds similar to epinephrine, which is a stimulant.
Unfortunately, bitter orange supplements were banned in 2004, when the FDA banned the use of any ephedra-like stimulant substances in supplements, since these compounds had been linked to a number of cardiovascular problems. Whether it was unfairly banned or not is another topic of debate, nonetheless, bitter orange supplements nowadays can only contain the citrus bioflavonoids, and can no longer contain any of the epinephrine-like compounds. So it has become no different than any citrus bioflavonoid supplement, which like Vitamin C is alright for general health, but has nothing useful for weight loss or obesity.
Ginger is a traditional herb used for its warming properties, and there is some evidence it can help diabetics with blood sugar control. There is also some weak evidence that it might help reduce weight gain, although there’s no evidence it can be helpful for weight loss. However, studies are using many grams of ginger per day.
Again, there is no way you can fit that much ginger into a single capsule. There is a decent amount of research into turmeric for a variety of medical conditions including some evidence to suggest that turmeric might help with things related to obesity, like inflammation. However, we have no good evidence to suggest that taking turmeric will actually help with weight loss.
Typically the doses for helping with inflammation are quite high, in the gram amounts, and difficult to fit into a single-ingredient pill by itself, let alone in a multi-ingredient supplement. So I’m pretty confident that Alpilean Ice Hack likely doesn’t have enough to be useful anyways. Safety-wise, I’m really not sure what to say.
While the ingredients it lists are likely not going to harm you, or help you at all, I don’t have a complete ingredient list, and finding this information online is extremely difficult. If the supplement is going to be this sketchy about it, I don’t have very good confidence that the supplement is going to ensure that the ingredients it uses are safe or have been tested for hazardous contaminants. Overall, these ingredients create a supplement that is absolutely useless.
The marketing tries to bring a new premise to weight loss by claiming you need to “target your inner temperature”. But it uses a premise that is false, and uses ingredients that aren’t going to do anything for your inner temperature, or weight loss for that matter. Because nothing is useful in Alpilean Ice Hack, it’s hard to compare other alternatives, but if I had to come up with the closest thing based on their ridiculous premise, I would probably say ginger, since it feels kinda warm when you eat ginger, and there is some research into it helping with blood sugar control in diabetics, which could possibly translate to some weight control.
Again, it’s not really going to help you to lose any weight, just potentially reduce weight gain, if you’re diabetic. In that case, you would need to take a ginger powder, or blend the whole ginger into a smoothie for it to have some benefit. Studies typically used around 1-3 grams of ginger a day.
Rating Alpilean Ice Hack by effectiveness for weight loss, I’m giving it a F. I don’t expect it to do much of anything. Even if you have diabetes, the doses it uses are likely so low it probably still wont do anything.
Rating it by cost, I’m giving it an F. It’s pretty expensive for such a useless supplement. Rating it for safety, I’m giving it a B.
Although the ingredients seem mostly safe to take, the lack of information about this particular supplement makes it really sketchy to take. Overall rating, I’m giving an F. I would recommend you stay away from it.
Hi, I’m Dr Brian Yeung. Do you think it’s worth it? Let me know in the comments down below, and if you found this video helpful, please subscribe to the channel and leave me a like!
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