Our Recommendation: Quadralean is no miracle-worker, but it could be worth a try if you’re looking for a non-stimulant product that isn’t outrageously priced.
Here’s the “Quick and Dirty” Low Down on this Product (click each item for more details):
- Quadralean contains 4 primary ingredients: CLA, Garcinia cambogia, raspberry ketones and a blend of carnitine compounds.
- The “Oz Effect” is responsible for the current popularity of Garcinia cambogia.
- Ditto raspberry ketones…
- Quadralean isn’t a revolutionary product, but it’s caffeine-free, not overly expensive and could help a bit if your diet is dialed in.
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RSP’s Quadralean is a popular non stimulant weight loss supplement, and at the time of this writing – February 2015 – is a top selling fat burner at BodyBuilding.com.
That’s no small feat and congratulations to them for the achievement!
Despite this, Quadralean “sports” a relatively simple formula, and claims to support fat loss, lean muscle mass, increased metabolism and appetite control. That’s a pretty impressive array of claims for any product, and it’s especially so for this product, because of its relatively – dare I say it – ordinary formula.
This fat burner – for all its grandiose claims, is an extremely simple product, with ingredients that we’ve seen in OTC diet pills for ages – including a couple which deserved to die but have had new life breathed into them by the now infamous Dr. Oz.
No nothing new cutting edge here, I’m afraid.
So what’s in Quadralean?
Quadralean contains 4 primary ingredients: CLA, Garcinia cambogia, raspberry ketones and a blend of carnitine compounds
One 3-capsule serving contains 1750 mg (2 servings per day are recommended) of the following ingredients…
1) CLA or Conjugated Linoleic Acid (Clarinol 500 mg): CLA is non essential fatty acid and a well-known, fairly well-studied loss aide that can deliver modest results to dieters. As noted in our full review here, there is some evidence that a dose between 0.7 and 4.5 grams daily can help reduce body fat. A full day’s dose of Quadralean provides an amount (1 gram) that’s within the “effective” range, but well below the “optimal” dosage, which is around 3.2 grams/day.
2) Garcinia cambogia: An Indian fruit (the active ingredient of which is something called “hydroxycitric acid” or HCA), that was put out to pasture over 15 years ago when a Journal of American Medical Association study proclaimed…
“Garcinia cambogia failed to produce significant weight loss and fat mass loss beyond that observed with placebo.”
A slightly newer variation of HCA which rolled out in around 2004, called “Super CitriMax” (aka HCA-SX), showed more dramatic results, but…
- The dosage was significant: 2,800 mg daily in 3 divided doses.
- The study also featured a diet and exercise element (2,000 calories per day, 30 minutes of walking, 5 days a week).
- Body composition was not measured, so the amount of actual fat loss (as opposed to body water or even muscle mass) is unknown.
But that’s Super CitriMax… a standardized preparation which is not listed as an ingredient in Quadralean. As for Garcinia cambogia in general, a 2011 meta-analysis concluded:
“The evidence from RCTs suggests that Garcinia extracts/HCA generate weight loss on the short term. However, the magnitude of this effect is small, is no longer statistically significant when only rigorous RCTs are considered, and its clinical relevance seems questionable. Future trials should be more rigorous, longer in duration, and better reported.”
So if Garcinia is a dud—and while there is some anecdotal evidence it seems to suppress the appetite a bit—it certainly appears to be, why is it making a come back?
One word; Oz. As in “Dr.”
The “Oz Effect” is responsible for the current popularity of Garcinia cambogia
Oz called Garcinia in “the newest fastest fat buster” on his show in 2013, and it’s been selling like gangbusters ever since. Of course, Oz has since been called out – on a Senate Subcommittee no less – for perpetuating nonsense and hyping products with no supporting clinical evidence on this show.
Of course, that doesn’t prevent supplement manufacturers from trying to capitalize on Oz’s celebrity… which is, as far as I’m concerned, the only reason why this ingredient is making a resurgence today.
Ditto raspberry ketones…
3) Raspberry Ketones: Another ingredient we have Oz to thank for bringing out of obscurity, raspberry ketones are “a phenolic compound (a class of natural compounds found in plants) derived from red raspberries and commonly used as a fragrance and/or for food flavoring.”
On his show, Oz gave a visually impressive demonstration on how these suckers work for weight loss using balloons, dry ice and rubber gloves.
Cool, right?
Yeah.
Except that, well…
We don’t really know if they work. Like, at all.
All we have is a couple of animal studies and one un-published human study to go on. That’s a start, but in the grand scheme of things, it ain’t much. As of today, the jury is still out on raspberry ketones.
4) QuandraLean Carntine Blend: Carnitine is a quaternary amine, manufactured from two amino acids—lysine and methionine. You can find it naturally in red meat, fish and dairy products.
It’s often included in fat burners because of its role in helping the cells burn fat for fuel, depite the contradictory data showing it actually works.
Additionally, any positive results have been found with multi-gram doses… much higher than found here.
What about the 3 types of carnitine?
Well, this part of the formula falls into the “baffle them with bullshit” category. As in…
“Let’s use tiny amounts of 3 different types of carnitine in order to make our product appear more scientifically advanced, despite the fact there’s no clinically proven advantage for doing so.”
There’s nothing accomplished by the 3 ingredient variation that could not be accomplished by a single one… if anything is actually accomplished at all.
OK, so there we have it.
As you can see, this isn’t exactly a revolutionary product. And, as far as the claims to support fat loss, lean muscle mass, increased metabolism and appetite control… well, an argument could be made for fat loss, and MAYBE appetite control. As far as lean muscle mass and increased metabolism? Yeah… not so much.
So why, therefore, is it so popular on BodyBuilding.com?
Well, it’s hard to say for sure, but I have a couple of ideas…
- Most obviously, the formula helps to some degree.
- The BodyBuilding.com audience is a little different than your average weight loss audience. Many of these people are heavily into fitness, training and bodybuilding and have their diets “dialed” in. Accordingly, they may be more sensitive to slight improvements.
- Social “momentum”: When a product has some positive social proof established, it tends to generate more positive results. We human beings are tribal and like to belong. It’s much easier therefore, to find something nice to say about something when everyone else is doing the same thing, and tougher to stand out and against popular opinion with a contrary position.
So what’s the bottom line?
Although there are better options, Quadralean is caffeine-free, not overly expensive and could help a bit if your diet is dialed in.
It ain’t a thing of miracles, but it’s not outrageously priced. There are better options available, frankly – like buying a full-dose CLA product – but as a non-stimulant option, you could do worse.
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And if you have experience with the product we – and our readers – would love to hear about it!
