Sparta Nutrition HydraShred Fat Burner Review

Ben BA(Hons), PGCert

Contents show

Sparta Nutrition HydraShred Fat Burner Review First Look:

It is 05:30 on a Friday morning. I would love to proclaim just like Mike O’Hearn that I am ‘finally’ killing arms in the gym.

Alas, nope, I have just dropped someone off at the nearby airport, the joy of living literally 3 miles away.

So I am a bit tired, I’ve had 3 coffees already and just decided to ram a couple of fired eggs, tin of baked beans, halloumi cheese and toast down my neck.

Don’t worry kids, I didn’t use lard for the eggs, a nice drizzle of olive oil did the trick.

Eitherway, a nice 700kcal way to start the day off. That’s probably being polite too, I imagine I may have scoffed closer to 1000kcal instead.

Fuck it, I was hungry, in fact I still am. I will probably have another breakfast when I get to work too. Fat, greedy shit.

I will be working out later though, probably squeeze some squats in that I missed from last night because I was selling my Nissan pickup truck to a man who was then going to export it to Zimbabwe. Yes, we truly live in a global market that can be done with a click of the ‘buy it now’ button.

The Victorians would have been proud, plus this way, there’s less naval battles raging, fewer countries colonized and quicker cash in the pocket.

While all of this online enterprise is good, it has nothing to do with this fat burner. That we shall agree.

So, I probably need a fat burner, my BMI is 30, which, I have been reliably informed by a number of respectable health agencies such as the UK’s National Health Service that I am considered obese.

CUTS FTS claims this is an insane thermogenic. I hope so, but I do feel quite confident in its stance.

Ingredients

Vanillin – This appears to offer antioxidant benefits, anti-inflammatory benefit and prevent cell death. Also used for food flavoring – all bases covered then!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4664805/

Yerba Mate (Ilex paraguariensis) – Shown to be hypocholesterolemic, hepatoprotective, central nervous system stimulant, diuretic, and to benefit the cardiovascular system.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18034743

Cirsium Oligophyllum – Studies on rats suggest that administration may be beneficial for the systematic suppression of body fat accumulation or the control of fat distribution in obesity.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19421341

Caffeine – This can assist with endurance, tested athletes saw an edge from caffeine in scientific studies. In some trials, the stimulant boosted athletes’ speed. In others, it helped them last longer before they spent all their energy.

Caffeine also raises the metabolism which means you burn more calories. Some studies show that it can curb soreness after exercise, too. This means you could get back to your training sooner and training means more calories burnt. This is present in all 3 of our Top Fat Burners.

Caffeine Anhydrous is the purest form so always look for that.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16076

Juglans Regia Extract – Studies have shown to have anti-diabetic effects in rats.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18800903

Paradoxine (Aframomum Melegueta/Grains of Paradise) – Oral ingestion of GP extract increases energy expenditure.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23308394

Banaba (Lagerstroemia) – Not a great deal of research on this, however, it does seem to inhibit absorption of carbohydrates.

https://examine.com/supplements/banaba-leaf/

2-AMINOISOHEPTANE DMHA Octodrine – This seems to be the industry’s reaction to the widespread banning of DMAA. However, due to its fairly recent emergence on the supplement scene there is very little in terms of human studies or effects.

It is a stimulant which was briefly studies in the 1950’s but seemed them seemed to disappear.

However, in 2015 it re-emerged as a possible therapy for Candida albicans which is a fungal inflection.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4462072/

N-dimethylphenethylamine (Eria Jarensis Extract) – Touted as the next big thing, however, there are no real supporting studies available to support this claim.

The only information about this plant extract is available on websites whereby they have an interest in making it sound great because that would lead to sales.

http://actachemscand.org/pdf/acta_vol_08_p1599-1606.pdf

Garcinia Cambogia – Supposedly helps people lose weight, however, trials have been unsubstantiated or at least unimpressive.

Any tests run where there has been a glimmer of hope have been in stage 1 obese people.

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/garcinia-cambogia-weight-loss

L-carnitine – Acetyl-L-carnitine helps the body produce energy. It is important for heart and brain function, muscle movement, and many other body processes.

http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/supplement/carnitine-lcarnitine

Men who were supplemented 2g per day showed an increase of Insulin like growth hormone when combined with exercise.

http://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Abstract/2003/08000/The_Effects_of_L_Carnitine_L_Tartrate.5.aspx

Green Tea – well known to have many powerful health benefits. Clinical studies suggest that green tea extract may boost metabolism and help burn fat.

One study found that the combination of green tea and caffeine improved weight loss and maintenance in people who were overweight and moderately obese.

Some researchers think that substances in green tea known as catechins are responsible for the herb’s fat-burning effect. Green tea extract is found in many a good fat burning supplement.

http://news.psu.edu/story/310179/2014/04/02/research/research-suggests-green-tea-exercise-boost-weight-loss-health

Paullinia Cupana (AKA Guarana) – Studies note that 75mg guarana (9mg caffeine) was able to enhance cognitive scores related to memory and reaction time with a subsequent dose-response study noting that 75mg was more effective than higher (150-300mg) and lower (37.5mg) doses.

https://examine.com/supplements/paullinia-cupana/

Green Coffee Bean – Green coffee beans are coffee beans that have not yet been roasted. These coffee beans contain a higher amount of the chemical chlorogenic acid.

For weight loss, chlorogenic acid in green coffee is thought to affect how the body handles blood sugar and metabolism. This is found in our favorite fat burner, Instant Knockout.

https://examine.com/supplements/Green+Coffee+Extract/

Dose:

The advice is to take 4 capsules daily which provides a significant 3710mg. This is amount and similar to what other proven and effective fat burners offer.

However, it is also better spread the doses out evenly through the day to ensure the body gets a trickle of the ingredients rather one massive hit.

Effects & Benefits:

When dosed correctly, Carnitine can increase growth hormone which is great for muscular and strength development. This has the required minimum of 2000mg thankfully.

However, let’s concentrate solely on those ingredients that can help or help towards fat loss because in many cases we get dragged down with a number of ingredients that may be beneficial to our overall health but we’ve bought a fat burner for a reason and it is not to ward off the common cold!

Therefore, at closer inspection we can see that there are 6 ingredients that will benefit in one way or another to weight loss and fat reduction.

4 of which have a solid base of evidence and scientific proof to back the claims, these include:

Caffeine
Green Tea
Green Coffee Bean
Paradoxine

Then we have a further number that seem to offer good initial results from tests but are not entirely conclusive:

Banaba
Cirsium

Negatives:

As we are focusing just on the ingredients that stimulate fat burn, be these solid, well regarded ingredients we see time and time again or even those that are offering potential, it is disappointing to see that there are only 6 of a total 16 ingredients that do so.

That means 10 ingredients are not going to offer any fat burning potential or just have no real proven use at all.

That’s 62.5% of the product that isn’t really doing its job or doing what it is marketed as.

Would you buy a boat whereby 62.5% would dissolve in water? Hell no!

Or a car that would only really function as a car 37.5% of the time, the 62.5% of the time it offered nothing more than a comfortable place to sit while stationary on your driveway.

It is also important to note that quite a few of these ingredients only seem to offer scientific studies based on rats rather than human subjects.

Then we are missing many, proven ingredients often found in the best fat burners such as:

B6
B12
Zinc
Cayenne Pepper

These ingredients would have helped massively because they are all proven to actually stimulate fat burn.

The initial 4 proven ingredients plus these would have produced an effective product.

Sparta Nutrition HydraShred Fat Burner Review Conclusion:

This fat burner is laden with many ingredients, but the problem is almost two thirds of it consists of ingredients that are either not proven from scientific studies or are not particularly relevant at fighting fat.

So we’re not really left with a fat burner at all, well only 37.5% of it is a fat burner and that is not acceptable when there are tried and tested ingredients available on the market to produce a beneficial and effective product.

Sparta Nutrition had a chance and in the most part, has blown it.

Which is a shame, because in some respects a large dose, 4 capsules per day plus a few solid ingredients have the hallmark and basis for something excellent.

Therefore, this doesn’t sit highly on our podium of the best fat burners which you can read about here.