CritiCalorie's Top Diet Pill Pick
Do we ever rate a diet pill positively?. Yes (rarely). Why aren't we recommending Thermodrenix? We're looking for clinically-researched ingredients, at the right (that means clinical) dosage. There are a few diet pills that have chosen this better route, and our favorite is Apidexin. You can read our review or go to the official site.
Thermodrenix Review
Short of sounding like a billboard, Thermodrenix has me very, very excited.
I was actually contacted by the owner of Blackstone Health Sciences quite a while back and he had the gall (confidence?) to send me their formulation before they even went to market. He wanted my feedback.
That may not sound so crazy, except for the fact that it’s never happened. Normally, diet pill companies only contact me to ask me to take my review down (or at least soften it) — which I won’t do. And here BHS contacts me because they’re certain I’ll like what they’ve come up with.
The short of it is that I do. A lot.
***Thermodrenix Review Update***
Because of the recent concern and newly found evidence that the ingredient Hydroxycitric Acid (HCA) may be linked to certain health concerns dealing with the liver, we are no longer recommending Thermodrenix as a diet pill. PatenTrim contains Super CitriMax, whose active component is HCA. The FDA, in a recent warning about Hydroxycut-branded products, said: “The agency has not yet determined which ingredients, dosages, or other health-related factors may be associated with risks related to these Hydroxycut products.”
While FDA hasn’t specifically identified HCA as the culprit, some believe that it may be responsible for the health problems. One can never be too cautious. As such, all products containing HCA are no longer recommended on this website.
For more information on the FDA’s warning against Hydroxycut and possible dangers to the liver due to HCA, see the Hydroxycut Review.
Thermodrenix Ingredients
Super CitriMax (1,400 mg) – Super CitriMax’s active component is Hydroxycitric Acid, or HCA. Super CitriMax is actually a standardized level of HCA (which comes from the South Asian fruit Gardinia Cambogia). The nice thing about Super Citrimax is that it has a stimulating effect a la caffeine or green tea, without causing jitters. A few studies supporting Super Citrimax’s efficacy:
- Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2007;16(1):25-9. Especially effective when combined with Gymnema sylvestre — you’ll see why that’s important in a moment.
- Diabetes Obes Metab. 2004 May;6(3):171-80. The study was published again here, adding more legitimacy to the study.
Green Tea 50% EGCG (1,000 mg) – Green tea is probably our favorite diet pill ingredient. It effectively ingreases the metabolism’s burn rate (which means you’ll be burning more calories and losing weight), has a whole slew of other healthy benefits, and is backed by more research than any other diet pill ingredient available today.
Also, please notice that 600 mg of Thermodrenix’s green tea is decaffeinated. The other 400 mg of green tea is caffeinated. Thermodrenix is specifically geared toward people that can handle a fairly high dose of caffeine.
Probably most notable, Thermodrenix includes 1,000 mg of green tea at 50% EGCG (think of EGCG as its potency). To give you a comparison, most other diet pills we’ve reviewed have anywhere from 50 mg to 150 mg. The minimum dosage required (based on piles of research) for effectiveness is north of 300 mg. Thermodrenix has effectively tripled that. I could go on, but the point’s probably been made.
ForsLean – 10% Forskohlin (250 mg) – ForsLean is a patented (see the patent here) ingredient that’s been clinically proven to aid in fat lipolysis (burning fat) and retaining muscle mass. While you may not initially think this is such a big deal, it is a big deal! When you’re dieting and calories are being burned left and right, it’s important that you don’t lose muscle mass. Not only for health reasons, but also because you’ll look better as a result.
Also, muscle mass requires more calories to maintain. So a more muscular individual will, all else equal, have a higher caloric burn rate, resulting in lower bodyfat.
Some literature supporting Forskohlin as it relates to burning fat cells:
- Horm. metabol. Res. 19 (1987), pp. 358-360
- J. Pharmacology and Experim. Therapeutics 238 (1986), pp. 659-664
- J. Pharmacology and Experim. Therapeutics 244 (1988), pp. 852-858.
Gymnema Sylvestre – 25% gymnemic acids (200 mg) – Gymnema is used to help control blood sugar levels. Anciently, people in India would chew a few leaves of Gymnema and it would suppress the taste of sugar (which some use to fight sugar cravings).
Studies conducted in India as early as 1930 showed that the leaves of Gymnema sylvestre cause hypoglycemia in experimental animals. This state of hypoglycemia is explained on the assumption that the drug indirectly stimulates insulin secretion of the pancreas, since it has no direct effect on carbohydrate metabolism.1
We regret we don’t have citations for those studies done in the 1930s. However, one study from 2005 validated the insulin secretion caused by Gymnema sylvestre: H Asare-Anane, GC Huang, SA Amiel, PM Jones & SJ Persaud (2005) Poster Presentations – Stimulation of insulin secretion by an aqueous extract of Gymnema sylvestre: role of intracellular calcium. Endocrine Abstracts, Volume 10 DP1.
BioPerine (5 mg) – Don’t balk at the seemingly low amount of BioPerine in Thermodrenix. More isn’t needed. I’ll include a section of our own review regarding BioPerine. The gist of it is that it aids in absorbing nutrients — a critical component that most diet pills don’t look at.
Asian cultures anciently have used long and black pepper for medicinal/health purposes, but obviously actual research is much more welcome. To that end, this was of particular interest from the Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition, Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore, India2:
Many physiological effects of black pepper, its extracts, or its major active principle, piperine, have been reported in recent decades. Dietary piperine, by favorably stimulating the digestive enzymes of pancreas, enhances the digestive capacity and significantly reduces the gastrointestinal food transit time. Piperine has been demonstrated in in vitro studies to protect against oxidative damage by inhibiting or quenching free radicals and reactive oxygen species. Black pepper or piperine treatment has also been evidenced to lower lipid peroxidation in vivo and beneficially influence cellular thiol status, antioxidant molecules and antioxidant enzymes in a number of experimental situations of oxidative stress. The most far-reaching attribute of piperine has been its inhibitory influence on enzymatic drug biotransforming reactions in the liver. It strongly inhibits hepatic and intestinal aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase and UDP-glucuronyl transferase. Piperine has been documented to enhance the bioavailability of a number of therapeutic drugs as well as phytochemicals by this very property. Piperine’s bioavailability enhancing property is also partly attributed to increased absorption as a result of its effect on the ultrastructure of intestinal brush border.
Where is the Thermodrenix Proprietary Blend?
That’s right. That’s one of the things that has me so excited about Thermodrenix. They fully disclose exactly how much of each ingredient is included. Very, very few diet pill companies do this. The main reason behind it is because they don’t include enough of those ingredients to cause any weight loss at all (though companies will say it’s because they don’t want to be copied, that’s a copout excuse).
Blackstone Health Science’s Marketing Approach
This section isn’t directly related to the product but we look at it when reviewing companies to spot anything shady, underhanded, or consumer unfriendly.
No Testimonials and Before & After Photos
We’ve reviewed dozens and dozens of diet pills and not once have we found a site that doesn’t include testimonials in some fashion. BHS doesn’t include them. Their reasoning is that most testimonials are fake (we couldn’t agree more, remember Nuphedrine and Ephedrine P57 using the same Before & After pictures?) and they want customers focused on the ingredients of the diet pill, not on anecdotal (possibly fabricated) stories.
They don’t include any Before & After photos for the same reason. What a breath of fresh air.
Focus on the Ingredients
No AutoShip Program
They don’t do autoship. We like that. We find autoship (at least the deceptive, trick-the-consumer kind we find where companies offer a free 7-day trial and you’re automatically enrolled) to be less-than-consumer friendly 90% of the time.
Thermodrenix Pricing
Thermodrenix is definitely not the least expensive diet pill product you’ll run across. You get significant discounts as you buy more at a time, so that’s good. At $69, Thermodrenix is not the cheapest pill we recommend, but as in all walks of life it seems that you get what you pay for.
A word should be said here about pricing for diet pills. You’ll find some costing as little as $25. The key though isn’t what it costs nearly as much as what you’re getting. With most every diet pill, you’re not getting enough ingredients to make even one iota of difference.
Now – be careful and don’t be duped by some pill that’s purposely SUPER expensive (Zantrex-3, those devious people from Basic Research, comes immediately to mind), where their whole focus is to make you think, because of the price point, that you really are getting something that’s top quality when you’re not.
In either case, look at the ingredients and then decide if the price fits your situation.
Lifetime Moneyback Guarantee
You can’t beat it. We like to see anything more than 60 days, so a lifetime guarantee obviously fits the bill, and then some. You are able to return one used bottle and all other unopened bottles. Best in the industry.
Thermodrenix Review Conclusion
We’re recommending Thermodrenix completely. We love the formulation. We love the fact that every ingredient is clincially backed and they haven’t included a single fad ingredient (such as Hoodia, that piece of garbage). We love the fact that they’ve fully disclosed how much of each ingredient — they haven’t hidden behind a proprietary blend. We’re fans of their marketing and lifetime moneyback guarantee. We’re giving a very enthusiastic thumbs up. Give Thermodrenix a try and let us know how it works out for you. We’re anxious to know.
***Update: Please see the Thermodrenix Review Update at the top of the page for recent information about Thermodrenix.