Lipitrex Fat Burner Review: Does Lipitrex Work?
Lipitrex, the fat burner brought to you by Progressive Health, sports an “exclusive” formulation.According to the product advertising, Lipitrex supports four beneficial actions…
- Appetite Control
- Helps to Minimize the Storage of Fat
- Increases Metabolic Rate
- Enhances Energy Levels
Of course, just about every fat burner on the market today claims to offer similar benefits. The question is, of course…
“Is there really anything to these claims?”
To answer that, we’ll need to take a close look at the Lipitrex formula. What’s in it?
1. Green Tea Extract: a great addition to any fat burner (green tea is reviewed in full here), and a great overall supplement because of its potent antioxidant characteristics. If there’s one beef with Lipitrex, it’s that it doesn’t contain enough green tea.
2. Coleus forskohlii: Many fat burners contain coleus forskohlii as it may have a positive effect on something called cyclic adenosine monophosphate or cAMP. Camp is a “cellular regulator.” In other words, this compound is required to “spark” many intercellular processes. An increased concentration of cAMP can have such “total-body” effects as raised thyroid hormone levels and increased fat burning. Unfortunately, these effects on camp levels and a corresponding positive effect on weight loss has yet to be established in any credible human studies.
3. PinnoThin™ (standardized for Pinolenic acid): if you do some research on Pinnothin — or Korean pine nut oil, no doubt you’ll come across the results of a study illustrating its amazing benefits as a weight loss agent. The study cited found that the polyunsaturated fatty acids in the pine nuts stimulated several appetite suppressing hormones (called cholecystokinin and glucagon-like peptide 1 respectively). This led to a significantly diminished desire to eat among the study participants. This in turn resulted in a dramatically reduced food intake.
If this is true, then perhaps Pinnothin is something to get excited about. However, there is a reason to be skeptical of these results… the study was conducted by Lipid Nutrition, the same company which manufactures Pinnothin. When a company has a vested interest in the sale of a product, one has to question that company’s ability to be completely impartial when it comes to reporting study results. That’s why the gold standard for credible studies involves having the study performed by a impartial third party. That hasn’t happened here. Regardless, I’m intrigued by Pinnothin, and would love to see more clinical data validating its effectiveness.
Our intrepid staff reviewer Elissa sent a brief note the other day to update me that yes, an independent study had finally been performed (and subsequently published) on Korean pine nut oil and its possible effects on satiety and appetite suppression (see Lipids Health Dis. 2008 Feb 28;7(1):6). In Elissa’s own words…
“The results are pretty underwhelming – 2 g of Pinnothin taken 30 min before a buffet lunch reduced food intake by 9% – by weight in grams – and energy intake by 7%. The latter figure averaged to a whopping 50 calories.”
The search for the miracle appetite suppressant continues.
On other issue of note — Lipitrex contains only 1.5 grams per daily serving. The initial “in house” study used 3 grams, and the one just referenced used two. So the Lipitrex dose is a little on the low side.
4. CLA (conjugated linoleic acid): a non-essential fatty acid, there is some decent data indicating that CLA, taken in doses from .7 to 4.5 grams daily, can decrease body fat mass in obese and overweight people. A full daily dose of Lipitrex contains 1.5 grams of CLA — enough to be effective according to studies. However, I myself have found CLA to be most effective when taken in higher doses — 3 grams per day for those individuals under 200 lbs of bodyweight, and 4 grams for those over (the optimal dose seems to be about 3.2 grams daily — see Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 May;85(5):1203-11).
5. Citrus aurantium: standardized for synephrine, ephedra’s milder chemical cousin, it is theorized that this compound may stimulate the metabolism and encourage weight loss. Unfortunately, there really isn’t much evidence to indicate this is the case. Check out the verdict on Citrus aurantium from this PubMed abstract…
“An extensive search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, BIOSIS, and the Cochrane Collaboration Database identified only 1 eligible randomized placebo controlled trial, which followed 20 patients for 6 weeks, demonstrated no statistically significant benefit for weight loss, and provided limited information about the safety of the herb.”
6. Guarana (standardized for caffeine): Caffeine does a fine job of goading the nervous system into action, resulting in additional fat burning through a complex process called lipolysis (encourages fat cells to release fat into the bloodstream for fuel).
It also provides a decent energy boost that spurs performance. For this reason, it is also being added to many fat burners and performance drinks — although many consumers are unaware that guarana is standardized for caffeine.
7. Magnesium and chromium: chromium (reviewed here) offers great benefits as a blood sugar moderator. Magnesium offers numerous benefits, but its greatest are probably its effects on heart health.
What’s the bottom line on Lipitrex?
Although further research is needed to bear out some of Lipitrex’s claims, this is a pretty decent formula. In my opinion however, it’s probably not potent enough in its current form to be as good as it could be. Ramping up the Pinnothin and green tea content and dumping the citrus aurantium would be a good place to start.
Nonetheless, this product does come with a money back guarantee that I believe they do honor (if you know otherwise, please let me know!) so it may be worth trying. Regardless, I’d be intrigued to hear from those of you who have tried this product.
