Free, to do what I want, any old time.
Not all testosterone is created equal. Up to 60% of what our body makes can be pretty much useless thanks to the protein Sex Hormone Binding Globulin.
Testosterone not effected by SHBG is known as free T and those are the levels you should be interested in. Every good booster aims to increase this, but Free Test XRT by Applied Nutriceuticals has the brass balls to put it in the title.
So we know free T is on the bottle, but is it in the bottle?
It’s a pity that look is made more difficult by proprietary blends. Flashy names on a label with no amounts may make the label seem impressive, but in reality it’s usually just a way of papering over cracks in the formula. Still, let’s take a look anyway and see if Free Test XRT is the exception
There at least appears to be a lot in Free Test XTR, so we’ll pick out a few of the good, the bad and the WTF-ly after the scores…
All in all this formula is pretty disappointing. There’s the occasional high spot, like vitamins K2 and D3 as well as zinc but in the case of the last two Free Test XRT needs a lot more. Velvet bean could be useful but we don’t know the dose, and after that there’s a selection of some pretty underwhelming choices.
Maca may help libido, DHEA is more of a fat burner, Coleus Forskohlii is inconsistent in its effects and Maratime Pine doesn’t bring a lot to the T party at all. A mixed bag and an average score.
Sadly the free in Free Test XRT doesn’t refer to the price. The cheapest we could find was around $40, which generally speaking isn’t bad for a booster.
But if you’re going to be spending money month to month to boost your T, it’s probably best you save cash for a formula where every ingredient is focused on that goal.
Every one of Applied Nutriceuticals products is made at a GMP registered location in North Carolina, so it’s not dangerous. That we can’t give full marks to any product so ready to wrap vital info up in proprietary blends.
It’s not just the amounts there are question marks over either, several of these choices do little to help your T and a couple of the ones that do aren’t as clinically strong as the marketing suggests.
At first glance Free Test XRT seems really strongly reviewed on sites like Bodybuilding.com and Amazon. The problem is, these sites only currently (at time of writing) offer a total of 8 reviews combined. That’s not enough to get a rounded sense of quality. Applied Nutricueticals could have filled in the blanks with a detailed testimonial section, but there isn’t one which is frustrating.
Applied Nutricueticals are a U.S based company who, since first appearing in 2006, have built up a wide selection of supplements to cover most health and fitness basis. We couldn’t find any major customer service scandals, so they’re obviously solid. If we had one complaint (apart from their using proprietary blends) it’s that the website is pretty bare and sales driven, nice to have a bit of background right there without having to go look for it.
Users are told to take one serving of 3 capsules every morning.
3 caps might seem a lot, and it is, but all in one serving means any effects will taper off a few hours after you take Free Test XRT. That leaves you a whole lot of day when nothing is going on.
Far better to split those 3 caps (or better still, make it 4) into separate doses evenly spaced through the day to keep your body properly refuelled.
The jury may be out on the free T potential of this supplement but at least we can be reasonably sure that it’s side effect free.
We only go as far as reasonably as anywhere there’s a proprietary blend and a question mark over dose, they can’t be ruled out completely.
You can find a month’s supply of Free XRT from Bodybuilding.com for $39.99.
There’s plenty of evidence that vitamin D (normally drawn from sunlight) does wonders for raising your T levels. This ingredient is one of the few we’re actually given an amount for and unfortunately, despite being a great choice, it’s a little light.
Vitamin D only stimulates T at levels of about 3000IUs and above and since we’ve only got 1200IUs in Free XTR you see the problem
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21154195
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20050857
A similar story here too Zinc is vital for the building blocks of T like luteinizing hormone, human growth hormone and follicle stimulating hormone.
Low T sufferers frequently also have low levels of zinc so extra is great. But our daily tolerance is about 30-40mg so just 12mg is a bit of a let down.
K2 is a useful vitamin overlooked by most boosters. It’s found in meats and helps maintain plasma levels in the body and our testes’ own supply of T.
It also acts as a support to D3, allowing that to work more effectively by preventing calcification in the arteries and soft tissue.
This is an ingredient which has shown some promise as an anti-estrogen ingredient. Keeping the estrogen down is important because the female hormone has a seesaw relationship with T … when one’s up the other’s down.
The problem here is that in too high doses can cause a drop in libido which is the opposite of what you’re looking for. Thanks to the proprietary blend we can’t be sure how much is here.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2024906/
Here making a cameo appearance from natural fat burners. It has shown some ability to help uses lose weight, but does nothing to boost test. That’s great but given that testosterone lowers body fat by increasing muscle mass, they could get the same results focusing on that.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0011393X00800260
Coleus Forskohlii shows some ability to boost T, but the increase is only slight and wasn’t consistent across the whole subject group. Not really dependable enough to be one of our top choices for a booster.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21254914
This component actually benefits an number of areas including blood flow, cognition and anti-inflammatory properties. No noticable boost to testosterone however, which you would think should be the focus.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14659974
Little to no effect on your testosterone but some studies report an increase in sexual arousal.
Stimulates production of the amino acid L-DOPA, which promotes T. It can also cut cortisol, the stress hormone produced when we’re under pressure. Lowering it not only stops testosterone being blocked but improves your mood. Pity we have no idea how much is in here.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7716783
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16932991
The product is called Free Test but there’s not a lot of ingredients to boost specifically free T. We’d like to see solid amounts of magnesium D-aspartic acid or even nettle root for the beta sitosterol.
For a product that suggests a real focused attention to detail by mentioning free T specifically, Free Test XRT has a surprisingly unfocused formula.
The mystery surrounding amounts and the odd head scratcher of an ingredient choice means there’s a good chance instead of your T being free, you’ll just end up free of any noticable results.
