The fat-burner Hydroxycut has been on the market for the past eight years, and until the FDA banned ephedrine, it contained the ephedrine/caffeine combination along with hydroxycitrate (HCA), salicin, L-carnitine, and chromium picolinate.

Today's Hydroxycut is substantially reformulated,and now contains green tea extract and guarana extract to work directly with caffeine, in place of ephedra, as a stimulant that boosts metabolism.

But to help reduce appetite, Hydroxycut now contains glucomannan, a fiber that can absorb liquid up to 200 times its weight to create a feeling of fullness, as well as the herbs garcinia cambogia and gymnema sylvestre.

In this study, participants using three of the ingredients in Hydroxycut lost, on average, 12.54 pounds compared to 3.53 pounds for participants given a placebo.

The study showed that these components can "can serve as an effective and safe weight-loss formula that can facilitate a reduction in excess body weight and body mass index, while promoting healthy blood lipid levels," according to the researchers.

So is this a weight-loss product you might want to try? Well, the stimulants seem likely to raise your heart rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure, so Hydroxycut could be risky for people with arrhythmias and high blood pressure. But if you are otherwise in good health, you might want to ask your doctor about a supplement that has ingredients that show some weight-loss promise.

Hydroxycut comes in several variants including a caffeine-free version, Hydroxycut Caffeine-Free, which features the appetite suppressants but not the stimulants, Hydroxycut Carb Control, for those on low carbohydrate diets, Hydroxycut 24, (the pills with the stimulants by day, those without the stimulants for night).