Downvoted for pettiness.

At least I have citations rather than (erroneous) rephrasings.

You incorrectly (although perhaps sincerely) infer which statements I am 'rephrasing'.

Similarly, when Ferriss mentions "dozens of studies supported the effects" he is clearly referring to the studies that do, in fact, support the effects of caffeine and ephedrine on the metabolism of fat during exercise. He does not claim that "dozens of studies support this proposed mechanism of action".

I definitely agree that Ferris would have been better off citing, for example, this paper from pubmed.

Obesity and thermogenesis related to the consumption of caffeine, ephedrine, capsaicin, and green tea.

Abstract

The global prevalence of obesity has increased considerably in the last decade. Tools for obesity management, including caffeine, ephedrine, capsaicin, and green tea have been proposed as strategies for weight loss and weight maintenance, since they may increase energy expenditure and have been proposed to counteract the decrease in metabolic rate that is present during weight loss. A combination of caffeine and ephedrine has shown to be effective in long-term weight management, likely due to different mechanisms that may operate synergistically, e.g., respectively inhibiting the phosphodiesterase-induced degradation of cAMP and enhancing the sympathetic release of catecholamines. However, adverse effects of ephedrine prevent the feasibility of this approach. Capsaicin has been shown to be effective, yet when it is used clinically it requires a strong compliance to a certain dosage, that has not been shown to be feasible yet. Also positive effects on body-weight management have been shown using green tea mixtures. Green tea, by containing both tea catechins and caffeine, may act through inhibition of catechol O-methyl-transferase, and inhibition of phosphodiesterase. Here, the mechanisms may also operate synergistically. In addition, tea catechins have antiangiogenic properties that may prevent development of overweight and obesity. Furthermore, the sympathetic nervous system is involved in the regulation of lipolysis, and the sympathetic innervation of white adipose tissue may play an important role in the regulation of total body fat in general.

As is the case with most papers that don't involve sacrificing rats for the benefit of science the discussion of mechanism must be taken with a grain of salt. The authors suggest only 'likely' and since I am not personally familiar with these particular scientists I would not go much beyond 'possibly' or 'purportedly' until someone does some serious bloodwork or rat slaughter. It is reasonable to assume that Ferriss would make approximately the same judgement.

I'm not a wikipedia editor but this paper seems worth citing. Whether or not they are right they do work in the Human Biology department in a university and know how to spell correctly.