Hyruliangoat's Labrada Lean Body Fat Burner review! Everybody got time to read dat!

[Hyruliangoat]

Soooooooo this is going to be my review on Labrada’s fat burner known as Lean body Fat burner, got to try this stuff out thanks to Zdub, longtime member of the forums and I am very appreciative for being selected to try it. Got to use it for a month and below will be my thoughts on it! The way this will work is the first half will be going through the ingredients a bit and talking about what they are and what they do from a scientific perspective (while still keeping it pretty simple), many do not take the time to look at the purpose of ingredients but that is ok as I have done the work for you! The second half will then be a normal style review just giving my thoughts on a few specific aspects of the product. To those reading thanks for giving this a look through and hope you like it! So let’s start with the ingredients, and as a side note I will not be covering b5 or caffeine.

PRODUCT INFO

TYROSINE- Tyrosine is an amino acid found in food and synthesized in the body by the conversion of phenylalanine. Tyrosine is used in a lot of pre workouts but also energy drinks, and rightfully so as it produces quite an effect mentally, but is also beneficial to the brain from a health perspective as it is neuroprotective (for instance by controlling hypoxia, or lack of oxygen in the brain and even being possibly helpful for Parkinson’s disease). Tyrosine is a precursor to a lot of different chemicals in the brain known as catecholamine’s, such as dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine (or adrenaline), so in taking Tyrosine, concentrations of dopamine will rise. Supplementation of Tyrosine has numerous benefits but what we care about in relation to the product is 2 things, effects on stress, mood, and depression. So let’s take a look at what the research says on this.

• - Neri et al. (1) tested the effects of supplemental tyrosine on subjects who were sleep deprived (this of course can cause stress) and were given purposely mentally stressful tasks to work on through the night, hoping to see if it would essentially keep them awake and of course productive. The subjects were given memory tests and similar style tests and following supplementation, the subjects reported that they were less fatigued and they had a clear head so to speak. In short, tyrosine supplementation was found useful and the researchers concluded that tyrosine “may prove useful in counteracting performance decrements during episodes of sustained work coupled with sleep loss.”
  
  - Deijen et al (2) also tested Tyrosine’s effect on stress during various activities in 10 military cadet’s (1 female and 1 male) going through boot camp. Subjects were given multiple tests, a Memory Comparison Task (“assesses the speed and quality of short-term memory comparisons”), a Tracking Task (“assesses perceptual-motor skill”), a Continuous Memory Task (basically they had to click a specific which would periodically be displayed in different groups and they also had to remember how many times it showed up) and a Double Task (which involved doing 2 tests at once) and were also asked to complete 2 questionnaires recording their personal thoughts on Depression, Anger, Fatigue, Vigor, tension, and anxiety. Memory and mood was better in the tyrosine group than the placebo group following the tests, which the researchers then concluded “under operational circumstances characterized by psychosocial and physical stress, (tyrosine) reduce the effects of stress and fatigue on cognitive task performance”
  
  - Gelenberg et al (3) actually did 2 studies seeing the effects of tyrosine on depression. His first trial used only one woman of 30 years old to see how tyrosine would affect her depression when given 3 times a day. The result was positive and 2 weeks of tyrosine administration lead to a significant result, but within a week went back to normal when given a placebo for 2 weeks. When given again though, depression improved yet again. Later Gelenberg et al did another trial (4) comparing tyrosine to an actual antidepressant drug known as imipramine hcl. This time though using a large group of 65 severely depressed individuals and there was no statistically significant result at the end of the experiment. In fact one member of the tyrosine group dropped out because his condition worsened and the others saw not much difference in comparison to the placebo.

CARNITINE- Carnitine is another amino acid found in meat and is formed by 2 other amino acids, lysine and methionine. Carnitine plays a role in fat and carb metabolism and also may have some health benefits such as improving insulin sensitivity (which is a spectacular one). Carnitine clinically (5) has a TON of merit in those that are deficient, being possibly useful for those with heart problems, cirrhosis, kidney problems, etc, or helping those who suffer from primary or secondary carnitine deficiency which occurs generally following earlier problems such as someone with kidney problems who is a dialysis patient. On the topic of deficiency and this being a fat burner, Carnitine does NOT seem to do much for helping fat loss unless one is deficient, even in obese people this is still a topic of debate as there is mixed results. The fact that it can improve insulin sensitivity alone makes it worthwhile, but it may also have some benefit to recovery as well. We will briefly look at insulin sensitivity though simply because this actually has a lot of relevance to dieting.

• -(6) Molfino et al tested the effects of carnitine on insulin sensitivity on 16 male and female patients suffering from type 2 diabetes or who were pre diabetic. The subjects were put on a hypocaloric diet (diet to lose weight) of 1200 calories for women and 1400 calories for men for 10 days. Following the test, oral glucose tolerance improved significantly in both groups and improved insulin sensitivity overall and improved insulin resistance as plasma insulin was lowered significantly in both groups. While a diet in itself should improve insulin sensitivity, the fact that the trial was short shows that it is fair to associate the improvement to the carnitine.
  - (7) Ringseis et al wrote a great research review, reviewing the effects of carnitine on insulin/glucose. A picture speaks 1000 words so here is their chart from the study.
  
  
  
  So 5 out of the 6 studies showed positive effects from carnitine on insulin sensitivity particularly during periods of insulin resistance, and on glucose tolerance, which is great. Now for those wondering what the benefit to this is, those who feel that they have trouble “taking in carbs” and what not, improving insulin sensitivity will help for this and is great from an overall health aspect as well. In theory, improving this from a bodybuilder’s standpoint would help bring more glucose to the muscle as opposed to fat, so it is def. something to consider.

NARINGIN/ADVANTRA Z (SYNEPHRINE)To quickly address why I combined the 2 ingredients, rather than talk about studies of them on their own, there was actually a study done where both ingredients were used at the same time, so it is easier to simply cover that. Naringin is found in grapefruit and seems to have its most profound effect as an antioxidant. Naringin also may help lower cholesterol levels in those with elevated cholesterol and it also may help a bit with improving insulin sensitivity. Synephrine is found in a citrus plant as well, and has been studied quite a bit, showing some improvement in exercise capacity and fat loss. The good thing about AdvantraZ though is that it is the “good” synephrine known as P-Synephrine or Parasynephrine, which is what has the benefits listed above, while the other synephrine (synthetic) is Metasynephrine which is a drug. So now to the study that actually examined the use of both compounds.

• - (8) Stohs et al determined the effects of synephrine, naringin, and hesperidin on 5 things. Resting metabolism, blood pressure, resting heart-rate, and self-reported mood/energy levels in 50 healthy human subjects. Each group was given diff amounts of each substance, but the group that received all 3 had the best result, but with no hesperidin (which is the group we care about) an extra 99 calories was burned as shown in the chart below. Also there was little to no effect on blood pressure and heart rate which made the combo’s used deemed to be safe.
  
  

RASPBERRY KETONES- The addition of this ingredient should immediately stir up a response thanks to the great Dr. Oz… After being promoted on his show, it became a hit as a fat burner and is added to just about every product now, with good reason though aside from the honorable mention from Dr. Oz. Rasperry ketones are components of obviously, Red raspberries and is actually used in cosmetic formulas and flavoring. While research for fat loss and related areas are still in its infancy and are done in animal studies, this does not make the ingredient useless or does not deem it worthwhile. This is one of the few supplements that I strongly stand by despite the above issue, you have to remember though, all research starts somewhere and animal research is one of those beginnings. Regardless of whether or not the RK’s truly help with fat loss to a significant degree or not, more than likely their health benefits should translate to humans. Now for some specifics of RK’s effects in the research.

• - (9) Park (2010) sought to test RK’s effect on isolated fat cells in hopes of relating it to obesity. Park found that RK’s increased the secretion of a protein called adiponectin which “has been shown to regulate lipid and glucose metabolism and to play a key role in body weight regulation and homeostasis. “. This simple finding is actually extremely important as “The increase of adiponectin secretion is regarded as a target for drug discovery and therapy of obesity-related metabolic diseases...” This result is consistent with another study (next paragraph) and only strengthens the potential RK’s have.
  
  - (10) Morimoto et al tested the effects of RK’s on rats when given an extremely high fat diet for 6 weeks. The result was great as the high fat group without RK’s gained a lot of weight and gained more visceral fat but the high fat group that was also given RK’s had a dramatic difference in weight gain as it was slowed significantly. The addition of the RK was also able to weight gain of the liver and also was able to lower levels of triglycerides of the rat (this normally would not happen in the context of a high fat diet, the opposite would). The researchers found essentially that RK would block fat gain and could also block fat gain from sugar. All of these results make it extremely possible that it could have a great effect on obesity to treat it.

[Hyruliangoat]

THEANINE- Theanine is an amino acid that was originally isolated in the 1940’s from green tea. Now to anyone who thinks “Oh I can just drink tea and get the same effect”, sadly you would have to drink around 3 cups of tea minimum for a miniscule effect, and around a whopping 10 cups to have an actual significant effect, so it may not be the wisest to attempt this! Supplementation of Theanine will increase dopamine and serotonin concentrations in the brain and is said to “enhance health and well-being by influencing factors such as stress levels, improvements in learning, ability, prevention of cancers and vascular diseases, promotion of weight loss and enhancement of immune response.” Theanine also in conjunction with caffeine may produce a better effect mentally and theanine on its own may help with relaxation. To cover specifics, I will let the picture from Vuong et als research review do the talking for health benefits and effects of theanine,



- (11) One thing not mentioned in the picture is how Theanine may be neuroprotective. Theanine was found to inhibit NMDA which is neurotoxic in patients suffering from Alzheimer’s.

ASTAXANTHIN- Astaxanthin is a derivative of carotenoids (vitamin e) and is extremely prevalent in aquatic life such as with fish and shrimp, but it is very prevalent amongst algae and plankton. Astaxanthin is also now being used as a food coloring additive and is being added to various animal feeds to improve its nutritional quality. This compound has numerous benefits ranging from “ potential health-promoting effects in the prevention and treatment of various diseases, such as cancers, chronic inflammatory diseases, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, diabetic nephropathy, cardiovascular diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, liver diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, eye diseases, skin diseases, exercise-induced fatigue, male infertility, and HgCl₂-induced acute renal failure…”. Similair to raspberry ketones, astaxanthin can increase adiponectin and helps also for insulin sensitivity. What we will briefly look at though is its effects mentally and its effect on exercise!

• -(12) Yuan et al reports that Astaxanthin as a neuroprotective agent has an extreme amount of use, ranging from protecting the brain from beta amyloid induced damage (ba is extremely high in Alzheimer’s patients) in Alzheimer’s patients and even reducing oxidative stress induced brain damage in those with Parkinson’s disease. Astaxanthin also incredibly “could reduce ischemia (lack of blood supply) induced free radical damage (toxin), apoptosis (cell death), neurodegeneration, and cerebral infarction (stroke) in brain tissue through the inhibition of oxidative stress, reduction of glutamate release (toxic when not kept under control), and antiapoptosis (prevents cell death)”.
  
  -(12) Yuan et al also reports that Astaxanthin has potential to improve various areas of exercise. In adult volunteers, astaxanthin successfully reduced lactic acid concentrations following running 1200m and could improve use of fat and glucose as energy lessening fatigue. Astaxanthin was also reported to possibly improve muscle recovery by reducing DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) in weight lifters.

PHOSPHOLEAN (NOPE/EGCG)- So phospholean is a combination of 2 compounds, NOPE ( N-oleyl-phosphatidyl-ethanolamine), which is found in soy, and EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate), which comes from green tea. These 2 compounds have been studied extensively as a therapeutic for obesity both in isolation and in conjunction with eachother (taken together seems to be better as bioavailability has been shown to improve), for the most part having positive effects but still some mixed results on other things such as fat loss. NOPE is said to help lessen appetite by inhibiting the effects of a compound known as anandamide, an agonist of both “cannabinoid type 1 receptors” which when activated can stimulate hunger. EGCG is said to cause fat loss by inhibiting various enzymes which break down catecholamines (remember the hormones we discussed earlier, dopamine, adrenaline, etc) thus potentially leading to further fat loss. Now does this hold up in the research? Lets take a look.

• -(13)Mangine et al wanted to test phospholean’s effects on 32 obese individuals, (parameters below) while being told to exercise and also follow a hypocaloric diet (diet to lose weight.) The results though on fat loss were not promising BUT some effects did match up with earlier studies, as the phospholean group had “enhanced compliance to a low caloric diet, total mood score, feelings of fatigue, and confusion, but does not alter body mass or body fat to any greater magnitude than placebo” but the effect also did not last as reported by the individuals throughout the entire duration of the study. Despite this, as stated earlier, their findings did match up with previous studies.
  
  
  -(13) Mangine et al states that NOPE may reduce appetite by slowing down gastric emptying and also intestinal mobility which can also be modulated by exercise, but in conjunction the effect may be further enhanced. EGCG has been reported to enhance mood by reducing anxiety and promoting relaxation, which was found in this study as well. The combination of NOPE and EGCG has also been shown in an earlier study to severely reduce binge eating in comparison to the placebo. While this study may have not had an extremely positive result throughout its entirety, the fact that many effects were at least repeated does show further merit for the supplement.

PIKATROPIN (Picamilon)- Before I begin, I just want to say that Picamilon is seriously one of my favorite mood altering supplements ever, pre bed it is great, using it throughout the day is great, if you have never tried it solo I highly recommend it and at first I was a bit weary of it being included in the fat burner but I do not think that now after having used it solo at other times besides around bed time. If anything this is def. the best addition for mood in my opinion to the product. Also as much as I would like to go into exact studies, I actually cannot as all of the texts are in Russian… on top of this many of them I could not get full texts of through my school or other means but I can at least still give a brief summary based on what is somewhat available as English abstracts of the texts. Anyways, Picamilon is formed through the combination of niacin and GABA (no you cannot take these 2 separately in hopes of creating picamilon when ingested) (14) and was first synthesized in 1970 in Russia, it was also found to be much stronger than its “relative” GABA, penetrating the blood brain barrier much more than GABA, thus exerting a better effect especially at a lower dose. Picamilon can have a profound effect on mood but it is also great as a possible therapeutic as it enhances blood flow to the brain and is neuroprotective. (15)Picamilon is able to reduce amnesia, and “can be used in treatment of different nervous system diseases, accompanied by emotional instability, sleep, memory and attention disorders. Besides vasodilatative and sedative effects pycamilon possesses also antihypoxic properties, that can be used in therapy and prophylaxis of different hypoxic states.” In other words, Picamilon is awesome.

[Hyruliangoat]

So now here is the actual review of the product itself, this is based on my use of it for the past month. I have been taking supplements for a long time now and I have taken just about everything so I know fairly well how something affects me or doesn’t affect me. For me, I really don’t get fat burner supplements to help “burn fat”, while I do acknowledge that they can help, my biggest concern is getting something that will make me feel good, hopefully suppress my appetite at least a bit, and something that can combat lethargy from dieting that I get sometimes. These “requirements” so to speak workout perfectly because these are 3 things that the product claims to help, so I will be judging it based on that! Regardless, here are my thoughts and thanks to anyone ahead of time for reading it! HERE WE GO!



HYRULIANGOAT’S FINAL REVIEW

ENERGY- “Experience all day energy…” Gonna be honest here, even though I normally try to do non stim for pre workouts, fat burners, whatever, I do like the feel of being cracked out for the workout setting. For everyday life of course I do not like that and I prefer something lighter to get me through the day (assuming I need it or just feel like using it, don’t want that to seem like I am dependent on stims lol.) Taking the stronger stuff I have taken makes it hard to sit still in class or just be normal in whatever setting simply because it wires me up too much. Again, perfect for workout time, but not for regular time! That being said, using this as a pre workout stim (I know it wasn’t necessarily intended but I am going to list my opinion fully!), was just ok. It got the job done of waking me up in the morning for those workouts but in terms of really amping me up, it would not do that. Then again that is expected as it is not high stim by any means and as I said before, isn’t a pre workout or anything. So if you want to replace it for pre workout stims, I would only suggest that if you are ok with it being on the lighter side. This is not to say I did not have good workouts or anything, but again I wouldn’t be running all over the place. Now for a regular setting this is PERFECT. It is just the right amt of energy to give a nice boost and to keep you going for a while, I could take it before class and my hand won’t be shaking, I could take it before going to work, and I wouldn’t be pacing around a room because I couldn’t sit still. Also there was not “thermogenic” effect to where I would be sweating my butt off out of the blue, which for me is good because I HATE products that cause that. Off days especially I really do not want to be wired up, and taking it right after waking gave me a good start for the day and was again the perfect amount for a good feel. For everyday life this was great and this is where I would really say to keep the dosages around. I personally found 2 pills at once good for a stronger kick but 1 and 1 for it to last longer, although milder, the effect would at least carry on further as overall the boost doesn’t last super super long. I personally if funds allow would recommend doing at least 4 pills if you have a higher stim tolerance as I do as I think that would be the sweet spot for dosing. 2 at first, then 1 and 1 or 2 again! So for energy, if you use big doses of stims, or want to be cracked out, you will not like this. If you want something smooth, not too strong, and just the right amount to get you going for everyday life, this fat burner will get it done for you. All in all I felt good from taking it, and the energy it gave was just right, while it was not “all day”, it was still enough to get me through the day.

8/10

MOOD- “Reduce diet stress and depression” A lot of fat burners like to just be formulated to be strong on the energy side (which of course can help with mood), but do not include ingredients that can actually positively affect your mood for an extra plus side. I usually do not have a problem being in a good mood or anything lol as I am pretty optimistic and I do not like to be a Debbie downer, but sometimes it does help to have a little boost and it is nice to be still put in an even better mood. I would say this is where an effect from the product is most noticeable. It was a good mood boost but it is not going to be happy pills in a sense to where you go from I hate the world to I love life lol. Thanks to the picamillon though it does kind of mellow you out a bit (picamillon is awesome before bed btw, literally love it for that purpose), which that in itself will make you feel pretty good. At 4 pills I think it would be much more profound but 2 should get the job done for most. As I said in my mini review during my log, I would be more agreeable for the most part with customers, even others would tell me, “oh you seem like you are in a good mood today”, and trust me, working at Abercrombie you see all kinds of people, and some of them oo lawd they know how to really rile you up… The downside though similar to the energy was it would not last a super long time, but again that would be much different if it were 4 pills/2 servings. So in a sense you could say that this product may reduce stress and to an extent any negative mood you may have, I would say that it would reduce stress more than anything. But again, the effect was noticeable, it was a good feel, and it got the job done.

8/10

APPETITE SUPPRESSION- “Reduce hunger pangs and eliminate food cravings and binge eating” Ask anyone in real life about me to say one thing about me and I can guarantee you more often than not it would be said that I really like food and talking about it lol. If you are from the south (at least Texas), you will be aware of the fast food restaurant Whataburger and when I was bulking up, I would go to town eating there! Triple meat burger, large fry, large onion ring, 3 piece chicken strips, and a large strawberry shake please! That was my normal meal from there, I would eat that PLUS whatever else I would eat throughout the day! With that said, I love to eat, I am lenient with how I eat (in terms of food choice) and sometimes it’s tough to diet when you have the appetite of a hippo. I currently am dieting on about 3k cals (it goes down as I continue to lose more weight), and I was eating easily 6-8k cals bulking up, so hunger can be a big problem for me if it’s not kept under control, and it really helps if I have something to help keep my appetite under control. This product however, as much as I hate to say it, for me did not accomplish the effect of appetite suppression to a significant degree for me. The 1 pill at a time dosage did not affect me in any way for this, 2 did to an extent but it was not consistent or very strong. 1,3 dimeth or ephedra for instance will pretty much kill my appetite or really keep it down, but with this I would still have bouts of hunger pangs and even when taken during a time of being hungry, sometimes it would help a bit sometimes it wouldn’t. If it did help, it was to the point to where I would basically think ok I can wait for food, I don’t really need it this second, but I am still hungry and have to eat something soon. For someone or with just a less appetite in general I am sure it would help, but in my case it really didn’t do a whole lot :/. I will say this though, that at 4 pills I think it would help noticeably. So in short, sometimes it would help a bit sometimes it wouldn’t, and if it did it was just a mild effect nothing major, and I wouldn’t go to the extent of saying that it ELIMINATED food cravings. Sorry yall =(.

5/10

OVERALL- So now just some closing thoughts here. The common trend you may see is me recommending a second dosage of the fat burner and I will stand by that in the sense that I do believe it would produce the most profound effects, more is not necessarily better but in this case it just might be. But this is just preference, many should find 2 to be reasonable and be plenty, I would just like a bit more oomph you know? Regardless of what the picky side of me says, I was very happy with my usage of the product, I felt good, got good result, and I would easily recommend and use it again. So if you are looking for a good fat burner to try, this def. should be on your list and hopefully you will enjoy it as I did. What would make this fat burner awesome though would be if you added some more raspberry ketones and threw in some green coffee bean extract which hmmmm what do you know? Labrada luckily has made both . So my personal recommendation would be use Labrada’s RKs to give you around 500 mg (or use around 200 mg for health benefits), and just 1 serving of Labrada’s GCB. If you really wanna kick it up a notch, you could add some Primatene or bronkaid as a source of ephedra and it would go GREAT with 4 pills of the Lean body fat burner since the caffeine is right at 200mg and has other ingredients which will ease the kick from having more stimulants. The combination of all of these would make a great combo and even just the first 2 Labrada supplied ingredients would as well. But again, more importantly, I enjoyed my use of product, it treated me well, and it got the job done. Thanks again to Zdub and Labrada for giving me the opportunity to try this out and I look forward to what other products are in the mix!!!

8/10

[neddo]

Not enough Big Macs consumed.

[Hyruliangoat]

oh almost forgot!

Citations

1) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7794222

2) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10230711

3) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6764934

4) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2142699

5) http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.co...-7075-7-30.pdf
6) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20467011
7) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22134503
8) http://www.medsci.org/v08p0295.htm
9) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15862604
10) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?t...%20adiponectin
11) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21735448
12) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21207519
13) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3490828/
14)http://download.springer.com/static/...e3eed&ext=.pdf
15) http://www.lef.org/prod_hp/abstracts/picamilon.html#1