Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, completed a study that involved a compound that is closely related to capsaicin, which is what contributes to a pepper’s heat. In this research from UCLA they used dihydrocapsiate or DCT, which they chose to determine if this compound could aid people in their quest to lose weight. The theory is that ingesting this compound would cause the body to heat up, which could then help burn fat and calories more easily. Luckily participants in the study did not have to love spicy food, as the DCT compound doesn’t have the heat that a Jalapeno has due to capsaicin. Despite the lack of heat, it still has the same effect on people when ingested, which is why UCLA used it for this particular study.
The UCLA research study started out with a group of 51 men and women, but ended up with only 33 due to dropouts which made it a small sample size. Everyone in the study was in the obese category, and given a liquid meal replacement diet which gave them about 800 calories each day. One group was given a placebo and the other was given a DCT dose of 3 or 9 milligrams, and no group knew which dose they were taking. The result from the UCLA study showed that it helped burn about 100 – 200 calories depending on the gender and weight of the person. Since you cannot get DCT, the best way to see if this works is adding a little bit of spicy food to your diet to help burn those extra calories.
Tags: ucla
