Has anyone ever taken L-Carnitine to help maintain lean muscle? Its an amino acid that helps convert fat to energy. I know this sounds ridiculous, but I first learned about it at work in the animal hospital because its added to diet dog foods to help them maintain lean muscle, and in controlled studies worked very well. From what I've read, it isn't too plentiful in a veg*n diet, and I was thinking of trying it to help with the whole lean muscle building thing I'm working on.

I've never taken it, but just so you know you're not crazy: I know a lot of my customers do buy it.



Let us know if it works out for you. I'd be curious.

I've never taken it but have read about it. It's also supposed to be good for the heart.

i thought it was probably obtained from animals for supplements?

Ones I've found online say they're vegetarian sourced, and that its a good supplement for veg*ns because its normally found in muscle and organs :P

Yeah, the supplemental kind is actually vegetarian. It's grown in yeast, from what I recall. I've only found it in gelatin capsules though, other than a liquid. The liquid doesn't taste bad at all.

... but the real question is.. does it do anything? good/bad/indifferent?

I have spoken to customers who swear by the stuff, but I haven't used it myself for any length of time. I experimented with my boyfriend because he exercises much more than I do, and I had him do one tablespoon every morning before his run (about 1000 mg). After the bottle was finished, he said that he never noticed a difference in energy levels or in his weight. *shrugs*

But the people who tend to buy it at the store where I work are usually are doing more weight training. If anything, it wouldn't hurt to try it, right?

Rabid, I just noticed that you posted in a thread about thyroid health, and I wanted to mention that there is some research that indicates L carnitine can slow down the production of thyroid hormone. Which can be good for hyperthyroidism, but if you suspect that you might be hypo, then maybe you should skip the supplement.

Some more info:

http://content.nhiondemand.com/dse/c...type=ds&mtyp=4

I know I should go to the doctor, but I never actually have anything wrong, according to the doctor, and I just leave feeling horrible about myself like I'm just totally screwed up and I was imagining anything was wrong in the first place. :\\ And I get reminded that I'm fat and need to lose weight, without any practical suggestion as to how.

I have begun taking 1000 mg of taurine & 500 mg of Carnitine each morning. About two weeks after I began taking these two I was able to wake up much better each morning and felt more alert. I have been a vegetarian for about 30 years and I felt a HUGE difference which leads me to believe I was deficient.

That's very interesting. I don't know about taurine but the body produces its own carnitine with the help of Vitamin C from the precursor trimethyllysine which is a amino acid residue. Are you getting enough protein? You shouldn't be carnitine deficient and if you are that's something to look into. Have you had a full blood work-up? I've read some good things about adding extra carnitine to the diet regarding aging issues. You got me curious. Think I'll try that as well! thanks.

Gaya keep me posted if you try it. It would be interesting to hear if you feel a difference. My Doctor did not know much about it she only said other people had told her that they felt good taking the carnitine and that both are harmless. It took about 2 - 3 weeks to take full affect. Last time I had my blood checked I was fine, or at least as far as conventional doctors can see...

Yea, I'll keep you posted. I'm gonna swing by my local vitamin shop tomorrow and look for them. I've been a veg for quite a while so it will be interesting to see if there is any affect. Also, standard blood work up's at your docs office usually wont test for various nutrients like C, K, iron, etc. I was just curious if you've ever had a nutrient analysis.

Gaya what do you mean by a nutrient analysis?

I've taken liquid carnitine before. I took the recommended dosage and it would give me some energy but the downfall is that it would give me a crash (like caffiene) later in the day when it wore off. I would get so tired and not feel like my normal alert self. I didn't like this at all so I stopped taking it.



I might try it again and take a smaller dosage.



I've heard avocados have carnitine!

I'm lucky because I have acess to equipment to check my blood for various nutrients. For example, last semester I ran tests for Vit C concentrations, inflammation, iron (not the standard hgb test cuz they are for sh*t), vit A, of course a lipid profile, sugar, inuslin, maybe E? and a few others. I can't remember them all. I work in a lab and do nutrient analysis for subjects in clinical trials. You can get yourself tested for nutrient content for several nutrients tho I don't know how well health insurance covers costs. B12 is difficult to test because we haven't come up with a good way to measure it but scientists are working on it. Hopefully one day there will be a all in one dipstick type tests for all our nutrients that will make the process simpler and less expensive.