Ephedra is great for weight loss. It swells in your stomach and makes you feel full, it speeds up your heart rate, It has the properties of addrenaline, and once your body starts to build a tolerance it starts to become a thermogenic. And yes it is illegal. Several stupid people decided they could take large doces of it and it would help them perform in their sports better. Since it speeds up your heart rate and they took large doces then they had heartattacks. The ephedrine is sold as a medicine. For congestion or asthma. It is only part of the ephedra not all of it. I will kinda do the same thing but normally there isn't much of it in the medicine. Only enough to help with the symptoms you have not wieght loss. You wont get the same results. There are however other supplement that have the same effect as ephedra that are still legal but they are hard to find. Bitter orange is one of them. Some of the high end weight loss pills have some of the subsatutes in them.