Editor’s Note: After searching online in June, 2015; it would appear that Metabosyn has been discontinued by the manufacturer. The URL, www.metabosyn.com now redirects to Liponox, a different product.
“No hype, no fake promises… just a product that works.”
That’s the claim made for MetaBosyn, a weight loss product sold exclusively online by Doakes Nutraceuticals, a company which boasts a “D” rating with the Better Business Bureau. (Ooops! Just received an update from Elissa; Doakes has been re-named MuscleCore LLC. Everything else remains the same).
Yeah, we’d never heard of them either.
But the returns address listed on the web site (3165 Millrock Dr. Ste 500, SLC Utah), matches the contact or returns address for a whole series of familiar products; Liporexall, Myonox, Myoswell, Lipofuze, Adiporexin, Phenteripped (which is what Metaboysn used to be called), Liponox, Lipovox… all of which lead us back to Garret Devore Labs / BlackStone Nutrition, a Utah company that holds the coveted top spot on our retailers “rogues gallery”.
They have an “F” rating with the BBB.
And no, “F” does not stand for “Fantastic.”
This, of course, puts the claim, “no hype, no fake promises… just a product that works”, into context.
It means exactly ZERO.
So what’s in MetaBosyn?
Same stuff that was in Phenteripped – this appears to be a re-branded version of the aforementioned product.
Re-branding products is a dirty trick used by supplement manufacturers. All products have a “sales cycle”, where interest grows, spikes, and then finally falls off. If you’re a customer-orientated company, you launch a new product with a better formula when this happens. If you’re not, you just switch labels on the bottle, name the old product something new, and start the sales cycle once again. Customers who were not necessarily thrilled with their experience with the original product can be sold the new one, despite the fact that it is not new at all.
The ingredients – the potency and dosage of which are not revealed – are as follows…
Why is the fact that dosage and potency is not revealed a big deal? Because supplement ingredients are much like drugs in that they need to be present in significant doses in order to elicit an effect. When dose and potency are not revealed, it is impossible to really assess the true value of the product. Label dressing – touting the inclusion of an ingredient to which great benefits are attributed, but at a dose so tiny to have no effect – is another common dirty trick in the supplement world.
1) Green coffee extract: Due to whole-hearted, but largely unwarranted endorsement on the Dr. Oz show, it’s going to be a year or two before we start to see this ingredient falling out of favor. As we discuss in our full review, green coffee extract probably offers some benefits to dieters, but it is not the stuff of weight loss miracles.
2) Chromax: This is a proprietary form of chromium picolinate, produced by Nutrition 21. The Metabosyn write up states…
“The users who took Chromax reduced hunger by about 24% and food intake by about 25%.”
There’s something similar noted on the Nutrition 21 site, although it’s less specific:
“In a study conducted by researchers at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, subjects taking 1000 mcg of chromium as Chromax chromium picolinate saw a reduction in carbohydrate cravings, appetite and caloric intake by as much as 25 percent over an eight-week period.”
The Nutrition 21 summary is more informative – and more honest – than the Metobosyn version. Note the phrases “by as much” and “over an eight-week period.”
The study is here. As I would expect from Pennington, it’s pretty meticulous. And it contains details NOT reported in either summary, such as…
“The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of CrPic on food intake in healthy, overweight, adult women who reported craving carbohydrates.”
Emphasis mine. Thus, they looked at a specific population of overweight women. In addition, the measured calorie reductions occurred only in the laboratory; were not seen in full until the 8 weeks was up; and did NOT result in any meaningful weight loss – just a skosh over a pound.
“Moreover, participants receiving CrPic lost a small amount of weight (0.5 kg) over this 8-week study, which suggests they may have also reduced their food intake outside of the laboratory. However, participants receiving CrPic lost a smaller amount of weight than would be expected based on the difference in food intake (i.e., 210 kcal) between the two groups during their final (week 8) food test day. This suggests that participants receiving CrPic may not have maintained a consistent reduction in energy intake throughout the entire 8-week period.”
So much for that 365 calories.
This is not to say that Chromax – or chromium supplementation in general – is useless for weight loss. But a) there are negative as well as positive studies to consider; and b) there’s exactly nada in any of the positive studies to support claims of rapid, effortless weight loss.
3) Raspberi-K: Like green coffee extract, raspberry ketones have also been prominently featured and recommended on the Dr. Oz, despite the fact there is almost ZERO human-based clinical data to support its use. If you’re interested, the full review on raspberry ketones is here.
4) Lipolide-SC: A patented plant extract (clary sage), standardized for sclareolide. According to supplement retailers sclareolide is a cAMP stimulator (as is forskohlin). cAMP is what is called a “second messenger.” In other words, this compound is required to “spark” many intracellular processes. An increased concentration of cAMP can have such “total-body” effects as raised thyroid hormone levels and increased fat burning. Unfortunately, clary sage’s weight loss effects are entirely hypothetical at this point… no independent, peer-reviewed clinical data exists to support its use.
5) Phenylethylamine (PEA): Phenethylamine is found in a number of foods, chocolate is the best-known source of dietary PEA. PEA was once thought to be the reason people are “chocoholics (due to its mood-elevating properties); but it’s too rapidly metabolized to be very effective. And, because it’s so rapidly metabolized (by an enzyme called monoamine oxidase or MAO) it’s impossible for it to demonstrate the sort of benefits commonly attributed to it by the retailers of weight loss supplements. Additionally, there’s no clinical evidence to support any of its supposed benefits.
I have no idea why this ingredient continues to be featured in weight loss supplements, certainly when it is not included with an MAOI (or monamine oxidase inhibitor) as it is here.
6) Caffeine: No surprise here; caffeine graces the label of most stimulant based weight loss supplements on the planet. Caffeine’s benefit as a mild thermogenic is well documented (see Am J Clin Nutr. 1989 Jan;49(1):44-50, Am J Clin Nutr. 1980 May;33(5):989-97), and some evidence indicates that when combined with green tea (as it may be here) it elicits somewhat greater fat burning effects (see Obes Res. 2005 Jul;13(7):1195-204).
Of course, caffeine also gives most people a much needed “boost” of energy to help them get through their day.
So…
Now that we know what’s in it, what’s the bottom line on MetaBosyn?
Well, the key to assessing the value of any product is to compare the effectiveness and dosage of the ingredients against the price of the product and the reality of the claims made for it. In this case, this product contains very few useful ingredients (caffeine, green coffee extract and chromax) all of whch can be purchased in isolation at full dosage for significantly less money than this product – where the dosage is not revealed.
Given the cost, (an outrageous $69/bottle), its ingredient profile, and the company’s poor record with the BBB, we recommend you give MetaBosyn a wide berth.
