The Irvingia Weight Loss Challenge – Reports From the Field

I build things for a living. And when you build things, you need ideas so you know what to build, and how to go about building it.

I remember a long time ago, a boss of mine and myself were trying to come up with a solution to a particular problem and my boss had an idea and explained it to me.

It sounded good, and I said: “Sounds good – now what might possibly be wrong with this idea?”

He looked at me and laughed: “Why would I want to find anything wrong with my idea? It’s mine.”

I bring this up because I’ve always been suspect of ideas – any ideas – without them being tested.

In my early career I’ve had the opportunity to see my untested ideas come to life more time than I care to remember – and be a disaster.

When you build things, ideas are the fuel. You need a lot of them. They are a commodity – and they need to be tested – empirically, and carefully.

You also can’t assume ANY idea, from any source, no matter what the authority, is a given.

I’ve questioned many an assumption that was the bedrock of some idea, only to see that idea was a paper tiger.

One example is the ‘A calorie is a calorie is a calorie myth’ – much of the medical profession believes in this, but in my personal estimation, they are wrong.

When I researched this topic, I found so much guesswork in measuring calories in food and calories burned, as well as the fact that your absorbtion of calories must vary due to a number of factors, that I concluded personally counting calories was probably pointless.

Most people wouldn’t have got so far as to learn of Wilbur Olin Atwater when going on a diet – but I do. 

This can make me very irritating – people usually don’t like their assumptions questioned. 

So when I read of Irvingia, I was intrigued – and tried to figure out a way that I could somehow, to the best of my ability, ascertain if this stuff really worked – without taking as gospel every word of the Life Extension article.

Believe nothing you read and half of what you see. I heard that once, and that is my gospel.

So I did my best attempt at research, and based on what I read, and the credibility that Life Extension has in my estimation, I thought I would give it a try. Honestly, if this supplement was introduced by any other organization, I wouldn’t have tried it. 

So here I am trying this stuff – and so are at least a half-dozen of you folks out there. A lot of you have offered to post your experiences with the stuff, and I am honored.

Think of it this way: the research has been done in the lab and in medical settings. What we are doing here, together, is the first ‘real-world’ test of Irvingia. 

Irvingia ‘looks good on paper’ as they might say, but Irvinga as a means to a signifigant weight loss can only occur one person at a time, living in the real world.

We are putting it to the test. 

A bunch of folks have already sent their experiences, and they are scattered across a number of posts, making them hard to find.

To try and make it easy to find these posts, I’ve set up a page – Irvingia Field Reports. Please post any experiences about Irvinga there.

To anyone who is as adventuous as I am and had decided for themselves to try this stuff and post their experiences – welcome onboard.

Let’s see what we find.