GNC Total Lean Advanced Premium CLA 3-6-9 Fat Burner Review

Ben BA(Hons), PGCert

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GNC Total Lean Advanced Premium CLA 3-6-9 Fat Burner Review First Look:

It is my girlfriends birthday today.

That meant a croque monsieur from breakfast in bed with a cup of tea…I do treat her well.

So, that meant bread laden with lots of cheese.

Plus, this weekend we are heading away with the car filled to the brim with all types of booze.

Which ever way we look at this, it is going to involve lots of calories.

Which this in mind, plus the fact I am awoken from the pain in my left quad every morning at 05:50 which has left me unable to do any deadlifts I want to ensure I do not pile on too many pounds of flab.

So, alongside some actually fitness when my body is able to participate I like to use a fat burner such as Instant Knockout because it contains a large number of proven ingredients that are able to raise the metabolism and burn off more calories.

This little number from the renowned GNC should be able to offer a good performance considering it is from such a large brand, however, this is not always the case.

Ingredients: The Science

Conjugated Linolenic Acid (CLA) – Initial reports and studies have showed that CLA helped a bunch of women who did no exercise lose 9% body fat.

However, further studies are showing very mixed, if not medicore results that aren’t really setting the world alight, in fact the side effects are having their presence felt moreso outweighing any real benefits.

Any benefits that were found meant that the composition had to be greater than 80%.

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/conjugated-linoleic-acid-cla

Gamma Linolenic Acid – An Omega 6 fatty acid. A number of possible benefits but none really proven and none to do with fat loss.

http://www.umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/supplement/gammalinolenic-acid

Oleic Acid – This appears to have anti-inflammatory properties and found in foods associated with a Mediterranean diet.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23278117

Medium Chain Triglycerides – Can be used to help raise metabolism but the effect is very small, MCT essentially are fatty acids that can be used for energy and they are much easier for your body to absorb – but they ain’t a miracle worker.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11694608

Omega 3 – Supplementation of Omega 3 does not alter endocrine gland responsiveness (the testes are a major endocrine gland), but it does help with inflammation.

http://www.scicompdf.se/eskimo-3/salbe_2008.pdf

Dose:

The advice is to take 2 soft gels twice daily which is 4300mg.

It is better to spread the doses out over the course of the day.

If you get too much of certain ingredients, that what the body doesn’t need at the time will be wasted and you will not feel the benefit.

Therefore, if you have a massive dose of Magnesium for instance yet your body is still processing and utilizing Magnesium from a meal you’ve recently had it will only use what is required.

What the body doesn’t require at the time will let it pass. Thus, a higher chance of waste and less benefits.

It is better to have a continued trickle effect.

This is a solid amount and rather impressive.

Pros:

Now CLA is an ingredient that has a few question marks above its head.

In some tests it has shown to help reduce body fat while not even being accompanied by an exercise regime This sounds perfect for most, myself included.

However, it has not yielded the same, positive results in every study which kind of takes the wind from its sails.

One thing to note though, is that in the tests whereby a positive result was gained, the composition had to be in excess of 80%.

However, we do not know the composition with this.

Then we have Omega 3 which can act as an anti-inflammatory and this is the same for Oleic Acid.

Medium Chain Triglycerides can very slightly increase the metabolism, but only very slightly.

Cons:

CLA is not entirely conclusive in its effectiveness, one this that is known is that every time it has been successful at helping people lose weight there has been a composition of at least 80%.

Unfortunately we are not privy to such information so it could either be worth trying and seeing how the results pan out or just not worth bothering with.

Omega 6 can actually cause diabetes and depression which you can read more about, here.

However, realistically, apart form the minimal increase in metabolism offered by MCT’s and that possibility that CLA may work nothing really does anything for fat loss in particular.

There’s no thermogenic ingredients such as Cayenne or Caffeine which are proven to stimulate an increase metabolic rate and therefore burn more calories.

GNC Total Lean Advanced Premium CLA 3-6-9 Fat Burner Review Review Conclusion:

We need to know the composition of that CLA to know how worthwhile this fat burner potentially is.

If it is over 80% I would say it may be worth gambling on.

However, not knowing that, considering that then only leaves 3 proven ingredients to help with stimulating fat burn and weight loss. Plus it is also $44.99 for a gamble on the CLA alone.

Then we have a number of ingredients that at best help reduce inflammation, but nothing for focused fat loss.

It is also worth remembering that Omega 6 can trigger diabetes and depression!

It does feel like an opportunity has been wasted here, as this needs a number of further ingredients such as B6, Zinc, B12, Caffeine plus Cayenne to make a more compelling case.

Without these proven ingredients, as found in the best fat burners we are gambling on not entirely conclusive performance offered by fatty acids.