{review} African Mango

I wouldn't ordinarily do a review on a dietary supplement, but with the huge level of hype African Mango has been getting over the past year, I thought I should chime in with my personal opinion. People have gotten very smart about doing a lot of research before diving into dietary supplements, and if you're like me, you're reading this because that's exactly what you are looking for. Personal experience and personal opinion. I couldn't find much of that out there before making my purchase, so here I am now, sharing so you can make your decision with more info than just the two studies that have been quoted everywhere.

First, I think it is important to list my basic stats. I am not overweight. I've always remained well within my BMI range. I have the typical 5-10 pounds that fluctuate yearly, especially after having my twin boys. When I'm really active, those few pounds fall off, when I'm shut in during the winter, they find their way back to me. I eat pretty healthy. I eat a moderately high fiber diet, choose whole grain, eat my fruits and veggies, snack on as much raw food as possible and I take 2 tablespoons of organic cold milled flax a day. I work out 5 days a week.

I wound up finding out about the supplement through the Dr. Oz web page - The Just 10 Challenge. I was looking around for some simple tips to lose a few extra pounds. I'm not in a hurry, but when he recommended giving the supplement a try, I thought - what's to lose? If it works, it works. If it doesn't, I've only lost $20 and it's no big deal.

I did not have a good experience. I decided to start low and slow with 1 dose of 150mg before dinner only, and boy was I glad that's how little I used. I was planning to take it once a day for 8 weeks to start. That night I felt fine. I ate a normal balanced meal. I went to bed hours later like normal.

I woke up at 1:30am running to the bathroom. I was in there every 30 minutes until about 6:30am. When I woke up with my husband and kids at 8:20am, I was feeling week, tired, sick, sore - I was a mess. I spent the rest of the day having bouts of bathroom breaks about 1 hour after every meal and feeling like I had the flu until about 9:00pm that night. I will not be taking that again.

I have read a few reviews where people have had good results, where people have had no results and then there is this review, where I had nothing but a slew of horrible side effects.

My personal opinion is not that it is horrible and to scratch the idea all together. I just wanted to put my experience out there because I have read that it can happen. Some common side effects experienced in the trials were diarrhea, dizziness, tiredness, headache and flu like symptoms. If you want to try it, my absolute best tip, is to try it on a weekend where you have nothing you need to do, just in case. Maybe take 1 trial pill before dinner on a Friday night and you will either wake fine and can continue on your low and slow trial regimen, or you can take Saturday and Sunday to recuperate.

I'm still a big believer that everything we need to lose weight, gain weight, build muscle, etc...is within us.  I never have been a big fan of muscle building supplements, diet shakes, fasts, fad soup diets and all around fad diets like cereal dieting. I've quoted a particular saying from Richard Simmons for over a decade. It was something along the lines of, we get fat eating too much food, we get thin eating less of it. He was basically saying that you get thin eating less real food, not eating diet bars, diet drinks, fad diet soups, etc...I too believe it can be done the old fashioned way - making wise choices and exercising regularly. That's how I've been doing it for 15 years and that is definitely the way I'll continue to do it after this last experience.