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Muscletech are a big player in the supplement market with a vast range of products to their name. You wouldn’t blame them for just sitting back to watch the sales roll in.
As you’ve probably noticed though, most tech doesn’t stand still. It’s constantly evolving and updating either to boost your performance or their profits. Muscletech is apparently no different. The question is: Is Hydroxycut Super Elite about boosting performance or profit??
To be fair, there is some attempt at innovation here. Hydroxycut Super Elite promises new rapid release capsules, alongside the standard Hydroxycut fare:
Is that something you really need though? Innovation is great, but for every iPhone there was a Billy The Singing Bass, you know?
Thankfully the bit that’s really crucial, the formula, is fully disclosed. No proprietary blends. All ingredients with their individual dosages, which are crucial.
As with most Muscletech products, there’s a lot to like. Useful amounts of caffeine, green coffee bean and yohimbe ensure there’s the spine of a good burner.
But some odd choices and some missing aspects stop it being a really top quality buy.
Satsuma mandarin, for example, brings nothing to the party. Neither does Huperzine A – at least in terms of fat loss and the possibility of side effects.
Combine this with the lack of cornerstone fat burners and any serious help equals disappointment.
At in or around $50 per bottle Muscletech are obviously confident of Hydroxycut Super Elite value.
The problem is, for the reasons we’ve outlined, the formula doesn’t back that up. It is certainly no write-off, but at this high price you only have to save a little harder for a lot better.
The official website has just about every base covered apart from testimonials. The makers are obviously happy for user feedback on retail sites to do the talking. Understandable – it rates strongly on sites like Bodybuilding.com.
These reviews are generally reliable but lack a lot of the detail you should be searching for before buying a product. Pictures of guys who have achieved your end goal are great but hearing from other users still on the journey – giving full names, long written statements, photos and videos? That’s way more worthwhile.
From such a high profile company we can be sure that Hydroxycut Super Elite is produced safely. It is made in line with cGMP regulations and isn’t a scam. There are no proprietary blends so the basis for our trust is there.
However … we’re told about a successful clinical trial using Hydroxycut Super Elite which I struggled to find any details about. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, it just would’ve been nice to see more about it. Or be able to find it.
And there’s a couple of ingredients in there with no apparent purpose.
Muscletech are an extremely successful company with countless supplements to their name. Not that you’d know it from the website of course. It’s frustratingly short on background info.
If you’re prepared to go digging though, you’ll find no major scandals and plenty of high profile names including Arnold Schwarzenegger happy to be associated with the brand name.
(Editor: We love Arnie. You should love Arnie too.)
From what we can see, liquid capsules are more gimmick than ground-breaking. We’ve never heard anyone complain about powder capsules, and for good reason. There isn’t a problem.
In reality it’s not about the method of delivery, it’s about the number of deliveries, i.e. how many servings.
Hydroxycut Super Elite directs 2 servings of 3 capsules half an hour to an hour before your two largest meals.
In our view that’s not ideal because it means the effects of your burner will likely wear out before you do.
It may be because there’s caffeine here and they don’t want to risk it disrupting sleep. Yet we know from other successful supplements it’s possible to dose and space out 3-4 a servings a day without losing usefulness or sleep.
There are a few things you might want to keep an eye out for here.
Firstly any supplement with caffeine can cause problems if you’re sensitive. In the same way that too much coffee or energy drinks will. Racing heart, light headed, headache, nausea, insomnia etc. However as we cover below the dosage here is well under the level where you’d see many users experiencing caffeine related side effects.
Then there’s Yohimbe which, while effective may also trigger a stomach upset or anxiety in some.
Probably most troublesome as the ingredient really doesn’t have to be here is Huperzine A. In the past it has been known to cause cramps, headaches, sickness high blood pressure and diarrhoea to name but a few.
You’ll find a month’s supply of Hydroxycut Super Elite at Bodybuilding.com for $44.99.
B vitamins are pretty useful when it comes to natural fat burning as they all play apart in keeping your metabolism going. B6 and B12 are standouts because they help create muscle and increase energy respectively. B1, B2 and B3 also feature though.
Caffeine again is useful for speeding up your natural metabolism and energy. Energy which is often lost through a reduced calorie diet. It also goes some why to controlling appetite and reducing cravings.
Some people shy away from caffeine in burners because stimulants often get a bad rep. But we can cope with up to 300mg daily. So the 200mg here is pretty good.
Yohimbe is useful in the right dose because it blocks receptors in the brain which limit fat burning. You don’t need very much either, with as little as 5mg seen to be effective. So 8mg isn’t as bad as it sounds.
It’s worth mentioning though that yohimbe can cause side effects and is actually banned in certain countries (including the EU, so there’s often an ‘EU Version’ of the big manufacturers supplements that contain yohimbe). There’s an element of balancing risk and reward.
Key to green coffee bean’s usefulness is something called chlorogenic acid. This breaks down glucose in the liver meaning it’s not available as an energy source. Needing energy from somewhere, your body burns off excess fat stores instead.
So this is one of the stronger choices and 200mg is a solid amount.
This natural compound has no effect on weight loss or energy but may help support good cognition. Focus can be a problem during a diet while your body adjusts to its lower intake, but the evidence isn’t really strong enough to justify this.
Worse it may actually cause side effects, so in an ideal burner we wouldn’t risk it.
You don’t need me to tell you what a satsuma is. You might need me to tell you why it’s here though, which is a shame, because I can’t. There’s nothing linking this fruit to weight loss in the way grapefruit sometimes is.
Aside from anything else there’s only 1mg here which makes it seem even more pointless.
This is essentially your body’s doorman. It makes sure all the active ingredients get into your system and are absorbed fully. Just as effective as any fancy new capsules you may have heard about.
For a supplement that boasts about strong thermogenesis, it could do with a top up. Sure caffeine is helpful and green coffee bean too, but green tea and something like cayenne pepper would help finish that off.
A little bit of help with appetite wouldn’t go amiss either. Again, the caffeine will help but proper appetite control provides that double lock.
Muscletech products never totally disappoint but usually there is room for improvement. That’s the case with Hydroxycut Super Elite.
The name makes it sound like the finished article, but in reality they might want to fine tune it a bit more, maybe stick a Duper after the Super and try again.
If you’re a fan of Muscletech, give it a shot but if you care more about results than brand loyalty there are better options.
