Posted By Paul on Nov 15, 2012 | 3 comments

Nutrabolics Super Fats is a unique fat burner that consists of a special blend of three fats…

1. Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA): a non-essential fatty acid present in meat, cheese, and dairy products (it’s only present in low concentrations, so supplementation is necessary to obtain the benefits CLA offers).

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 (the optimal dose seems to be about 3.2 grams daily — see Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 May;85(5):1203-11). There is also some evidence that indicates higher doses of CLA can increase lean body mass. This contributes to an elevated metabolism, which is a good thing for weight loss! (J Nutr. 2007 May;137(5):1188-93.)

Recently, researchers from The Netherlands and Norway tested 105 overweight adults with either 3.2 grams of CLA daily or a placebo. Those on CLA had a 5.6% drop in body fat over the course of the study (6 months).

2. Sesame Oil Extract: the active compound of this oil, called sesamin, “apparently” increases the oxidation of fatty acids in the liver and muscle tissue (which should result in increased fat burning), as well as reducing the levels of enzymes which contribute to the storage of fat.

The big problem is that the vast majority of sesamin research was performed not on humans, but on rats. The bottom line is that there is very little clinical data verifying sesamin’s effects on humans — and as you know, results are not always consistent between animals and humans.

3. Pine Nut Extract: if you do some research, no doubt you’ll come across the results of a study demonstrating the appetite-suppressing effects of a commercial version of pine nut oil (PinnoThin®). 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 reduced food intake.

And voila… weight loss, right?

Well, not quite… they never actually got to the “weight loss” part. Our scientific and technical advisor Elissa summed it up best when she reported…

“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.”

And that’s with 2g of the stuff – more than is probably included in this formula.

Bottom line on SuperFats?

Well, CLA is a winner in this product. The only downfall is we can’t be sure if there’s enough present in a dose to elicit a positive response — all three fats are labeled as part of a 2500 mg “Designer SuperFats Complex.” I suspect with the dosage this high, there certainly should be… and that’s a good thing.

Of the other two fats, I find pine nut oil interesting, although I’d like to see a study demonstrating that it actually helps with weight loss before recommending it.

Sesathin may or may not be beneficial. However, when you consider that Nutrabolics’ SuperFats is only slightly more expensive than a plain CLA supplement, it’s probably worth the extra few bucks to get the benefits of CLA plus the additional “possible” benefits of these two other oils.