Relacore is a fairly mysterious company, their website gives no information about where they are based, who the founders are, or anything really. A little digging into the company has unearthed that they have been around since 2000, but as the website has no evidence to back this up even this fact may not be true.
If you’re wondering, no this is not a good sign! Good supplement companies make every effort to be as transparent as possible, bad ones try and avoid sharing any details. According to LIvestrong.com the company was sent a warning letter from the FDA regarding some of their claims [1]. Again, not a great sign.
But enough about the company, let’s take a look at the supplement itself. Relacore fat burner is the main product in their range, it claims to be “America’s #1 Selling Belly Fat Pill” and is supposed to reduce stress, improve your mood, increase energy, fight fatigue, and reduce anxiety. It is also supposed to help improve any diet that you might be on.
This seems to be quite a random collection of benefits for a fat burner to have. Improving mood, increasing energy, and fighting fatigue will probably be provided by the caffeine content alone, but reducing stress and reducing anxiety are not usually mentioned in fat-burners.
In this review we will take a brief look at the ingredients and then assess whether Relacore fat burner is as effective as it claims. The product is split into three parts, a vitamin & mineral section, Relacore Fat Burner, and Relacortin Plus. We’ll take a look at the latter two sections, as the vitamin & mineral section is fairly standard (vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, zinc etc).
Relacore Fat Burner
There are 8 ingredients that make up the Relacore Fat Burner, but sadly they have made it into a proprietary blend – meaning we have no idea how much of each ingredient is present. This usually means that the company doesn’t want you to know how little of each ingredient is in their product, not a good sign.
Citrus Fruits Extract
The first ingredient on the list is the most difficult to work out, the most likely explanation is that they are using D-Limonene which is a molecule found in lemons and other citrus fruits. One study did find that D-Limonene may have some uses as an appetite suppressant [2], but other than that there doesn’t seem to be any fat-loss benefits that arise from it.
Coffee Bean Extract
Basically just caffeine, but without any details about how much coffee bean extract is present in the proprietary blend we cannot decide how effective this is. Obviously caffeine is fantastic for fat loss, provided that the person using it is not a habitual user.
Guarana Extract
There is limited evidence that Guarana can help with weight loss, though it is always in combination with another ingredient (usually Ma Huang) so it is difficult to say whether Guarana alone can lead to weight loss. A 2001 study found that a Ma Huang-Guarana mixture effectively led to short term fat loss [3].
Cola (Seed) Extract
Apparently, Cola Nuts (or seeds) are used in Western African countries in hospitality ceremonies (whatever they are). They contain caffeine and are therefore able to increase fat loss. There is nothing particularly special about the Cola seed though, so why you would add it to a proprietary blend that already contains caffeine is a mystery.
Green Tea Extract
Green tea extract is essentially green tea, there’s nothing special about it. If you do not use caffeine habitually then it may be effective at burning fat and increasing your metabolism [4]. But when taken with all of the caffeine already present, it’s unlikely to be effective.
Kelp Powder
Relatively unknown supplement ingredient that is rarely used, may improve metabolism but there doesn’t seem to be any scientific evidence for this.
Fennel Seeds
As with kelp powder, there doesn’t seem to be much scientific evidence for fennel seeds being effective, but there are a whole host of alleged benefits from herbal remedy websites saying that fennel seeds are anti-inflammatory, and improves cognition. In truth this is probably a useless addition.
Alpha Lipoic Acid
An antioxidant that may also lower blood glucose levels, no effect on fat loss though.
Relacortin Plus
While the Relacore Fat burner contains a large amount of rubbish ingredients, there are at least a couple of useful ones (basically the caffeine products and nothing else). The Relacortin Plus is completely filled with herbal ingredients that are basically aimed at reducing anxiety and lowering stress. Rather than go through every single ingredient, we’ll just review the product as a whole.
As with Relacore Fat Burner, the ingredients are all placed into a proprietary blend so it is impossible to find out the doses of each ingredient. But supposing that they are correct, this pill should be able to help lower anxiety and improve mood. Passionflower, Magnolia Bark, and Chinese Skullcap can all help lower anxiety, whilst Asian Ginseng has been shown to increase mental function.
The Bottom Line
As a fat loss product Relacore Fat Burner is pretty poor, even if the proprietary blend used correct doses for each ingredient (which is highly unlikely) it would still be poor. There is nothing here that can compete with just taking a couple caffeine pills or a black coffee!
As an anti-anxiety pill Relacore is a little more promising, but let’s not kid ourselves. Nobody is spending $47.96 to lower their anxiety! Checking your bank balance afterwards would be enough to send your anxiety levels back through the roof anyway.
This is a weak product with a poor reputation and absolutely no transparency whatsoever. Avoid at all costs.
References
[1] Smith, Natalie. “Health Dangers Associated With Relacore Diet Pills”. LIVESTRONG.COM. N.p., 2015. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.
[2] Brudnak, M. 2002. Weight-loss drugs and supplements: are there safer alternatives? Medical Hypothesis 58(1): 28-33
[3] Boozer, C., Nasser, J., Heymsfield, S., Wang, V., Chen, G., Solomon, J. 2001. An herbal supplement containing Ma Huang-Guarana for weight loss: a randomized, double-blind trial. International Journal of Obesity 25(3): 316-24
[4] Dulloo, A., Duret, C., Rohrer, D., Girardier, L., Mensi, N., Fathi, M., Chantre, P., Vandermander, J. (1999) Efficacy of a green tea extract rich in catechin polyphenols and caffeine in increasing 24-h energy expenditure and fat oxidation in humans. American Society for Clinical Nutrition 70(6): 1040-1045
Matt Smith is a fitness and nutrition writer with 7 years experience as a personal trainer, and a degree in Sports Science from London Metropolitan University. He has written for many fitness websites, and runs his own blog and podcast at beernbiceps.com
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