Guggulesterones Review

Guggulsterone is from the guggul plant (not to be confused with everyone’s favorite search engine, the herbal plant name for it is Commiphora Mukul). A lot of times you’ll see the supplement facts listing it like this:

Guggulsterones Supplement Facts Example

Guggulsterones are made up of two different stereoisomers1, E and Z. That’s all the E and Z mean. You might see it represented like this: “GuggulEZ” (this is what Thincinerator does) or “Guggulsterones EZ” but it’s all the same thing.

You’ll see lots of diet pill companies touting Guggulsterone as something that lowers cholesterol because it acts as an, “atagonist of the farnesoid X receptor” (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guggulsterones) but the following two studies debunk that claim:

  • Guggulipid Ineffective for Lowering Cholesterol. JAMA.2003;290:765-772
  • Guggulipid Use in Hyperlipidemia. Am J Health-Syst Pharm. 2005;62(16):1690-1692.

There are two basic processing methods for guggul, one produces low-potency and the other high-potency. Naturally, every diet pill company including guggulsterones in some form claims that they use the high-potency method. Unfortunately, the only way to verify it is to open a capsule (meaning you already had to purchase it, and it won’t be returnable according to most diet pill company return policies) and see if it’s brown or yellow.

Brown = High Potency | Yellow = Low Potency

The fat burning claims come from the idea that the guggulsterones stimulate the thyroid, which regulates your metabolism. More stimulation to the thyroid should equal a higher metabolism, which means you’re burning more calories.

Is there Research to Support Guggulsterone’s Fat-Burning Abilities?

Unfortunately there isn’t. It has some positive healthy benefits (anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory), but for burning fat? Nope.

Guggulsterones Recommended Dosage

I’ve found in multiple places a recommendation of 30-60mg three times per day. Keep that in mind when examining the supplement facts of a potential diet pill.

  1. a stereoisomer is an isomeric molecule where atomic connectivity is the same, but the location of the atoms is different – just in case you really cared for some reason [↩]