There’s such a thing as tolerance and getting too high for long term on stimulants like caffeine will naturally make them less effective unless you keep on adding more. That’s a sad news since caffeine happens to be one great fat burner. Luckily, building a fat burner doesn’t have to make use of caffeine. In fact, being stim-free is just as important as using stimulants itself and the folks over at Cellucor made a stim-free, soft-gel supplement called Cellucor CLK.
On top of being stimulant-free, Cellucor CLK also boasts about being a toning and sculpting formula but can they prove it? Let’s find out!
Table of Contents
About Cellucor CLK
Cellucor wants a shot at the stim-free market since people in the fitness world are no longer as jacked up with caffeine than they used to be 10 years ago and they made CLK just for that. They say CLK can help you ace weight loss since it can make you take control of your diet, exercise, and even your supplement cabinet. Are they saying this is the one fat burner to rule them all? Let’s wait and see. Formula notes:
- Quality ingredients: It’s a short stack but the ingredients used are the ones we approve of.
- Softgels: They say softgels release the goods faster than standard capsules do but at a cost.
- Other ingredients: It seems softgels are worse than capsules when it comes to fluff.
Cellucor CLK Supplement Facts |
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Serving Size: Two Tablets Servings Per Container: 20 |
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Ingredients | Amount Per Serving |
CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) | 1.7 g |
Stimulant Free Toning Blend | 1014 mg |
L-Carnitine Tartrate, Razberi-K® Raspberry Ketones, Slimpro® Protein Hydrolysates o Blue Whiting (Micromesistius poutassou) | |
Other Ingredients: Gelatin, Glycerin, Soy Lecithin (Soy), Purified Water, Beeswax, Sorbitol, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Maltodextrin, Arabic Gum, Titanium Dioxide, FD&C Red#3, FD&C Red #40, FD&C Yellow#5, FD&C Blue #1, Protease, NAOH.Allergen Warning: Contains Soy, Fish (Blue Whiting) |
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Directions for use: Take one serving (3 softgels) in the morning and one serving (3 softgels) in the afternoon. DO NOT EXCEED 6 SOFTGELS PER DAY. USE ONLY AS DIRECTED. |
Cellucor CLK works but will get you choked up on too many gels.
We like fact that Cellucor CLK made use of a simple and focused formula designed to ignite the fat burning process in your body and potentially suppress appetite. They made use of high quality stuff and promote a whole-day burn but we think they could’ve used a better serving strategy overall. Let’s break down the ingredients in this formula:
CLA, 1.7 g
CLA is a common addition in fat burners for its ability to spark thermogenesis, balanced appetite hormones, and boosts metabolic rate. It’s also known to be a valuable supplement for getting lean body mass and an ideal body composition. It’s one of the good guys in the fat burning industry and we’re glad to see it in such potent dosage.
Stimulant-Free Toning Blend, 1014 mg
- L-Carnitine Tartrate. This is one of the most wildly sold fat burners that surged to popularity back in early 2000. A lot of other fat burners have since taken its place but the studies about its metabolism boosting capabilities are etched in stone.
- Razberi-K® Raspberry Ketones. This is a premium brand of a fat burning ingredient that just keeps on getting more popular as the years go by. Raspberry ketones promote lipolysis or the breakdown of fat while improving metabolism. This is all good but the caveat, though, is raspberry ketones are not exactly guaranteed to work on its own through oral supplementation. Most studies that report success have either been done on rats or in test tubes.
- Slimpro® Protein Hydrolysates of Blue Whiting. Slimpro is a branded ingredient made of fish peptides improved with BCAAs. The idea behind the product is to provide appetite suppression by means of boosting our digestive hormones. It’s also claimed to help delay hunger for the next meal.
Formula Analysis
We have an eye for simple and focused formulations and Cellucor CLK is definitely both those words.
A heaping dose of CLA greets us with a warm welcome and seeing it have more than half the total dosage per serving pleases us. This is great specially since even some of the most potent fat burners don’t use more than 1,000 mg of CLA which makes Cellucor CLK worth recommending already.
Cellucor CLK touts itself as a stimulant-free supplement and they also made use of a blend name that reminds you it’s stimulant-free just in case you have short-term memory.
First of three ingredients is L-Carnitine, everyone’s favorite metabolism enhancer. While the days of its popularity have come and gone, just adding this in a supplement tells even beginners that your product can burn fat. Being the first ingredient means it gets most of the dosage and that’s great since L-Carnitine needs at least 500 mg to work.
Next up is a premium form of Raspberry Ketones aptly called Razberi-K. While the science behind raspberry ketones have been around for a long time, we still have yet to see one that truly shows it working as a standalone ingredient. What’s worse is most studies revolve around rats or with the use of test tubes.
The only human study we found that shows raspberry ketones as a fat burner – where there was a reported fat loss of 7.8% compared to 2.8% in placebo – was done with raspberry ketones as part of a blend of other fat burners. We quote the study:
“The combination of ingredients with potentially complementary and interactive mechanisms of action may account for the favorable changes observed in many of the clinical endpoints in the METABO group. Razberi-K® contains Raspberry ketone (4-(4-hydroxyphenyl) butan-2-one), which is a naturally occurring phenolic compound in red raspberry (Rubus ideas) that has been shown to enhance norepinephrine-induced lipolysis in adipocytes, prevent high-fat diet-induced body weight gain in mice, and increase adiponectin gene expression and secretion in adipocytes in culture.”
The final ingredient in this blend is a popular appetite suppressant made from fish peptides: SlimPro. While there are studies that highlight SlimPro’s appetite suppressing function, their very own website suggests a dosage of 1.4 g per day! Even if they suggest synergy in this blend, there is just no way SlimPro would work as advertised with possibly less than 1/4 of the recommended dosage.
So the ingredients were more or less properly added. Now we have to wonder if the whole formula is worth swallowing 6 freaking softgels per day. That’s right, that blurb that highlights “60 SOFTGELS” is misleading.
At best, you’ll get 20 servings or barely a month’s worth of CLK. If you follow the directions as is, you’ll be buying an expensive 10-day fat burner and we all know it takes more than 10 days to burn through a shitload of fat.
The number of gels are also concerning considering the number of other ingredients we have here. Imagine swallowing 6 gels with each one having those colorants and flavors. Even if these ingredients passed the FDA’s standards, we can’t imagine what would happen to your system if you ingest that many artificial shit for long term.
Outside the context of the number of gels and other ingredients you have to put up with, Cellucor CLK works decently enough as a multifaceted metabolic enhancer that can make your body a hellish place for fat. We’re still on the fence with the whole appetite suppressant thing but that’s just one small flaw for an otherwise decent formula.
Cellucor CLK Benefits
Cellucor CLK has one of the most direct metabolic boosting formulas out there. While it may not burn fat in such a way that it would make you feel really hot or drenched in sweat, it should augment your body’s fat burning efforts specially when you exercise.
Who Takes It?
The label mentions the words toning and sculpting so it presumably targets bodybuilders specially those who don’t like caffeine or already have stacks that contain caffeine and are trying to mitigate their stimulant intake. We would like to agree with them on this plus add in fitness enthusiasts who are looking to lose weight on the go i.e. the cubicle boys and girls.
Any Side Effects?
No caffeine so no stim-side effects. Users do note an upset stomach after chugging down a serving. Others say the raspberry smell was too overpowering and nauseating.
Cellucor CLK Summary
Pros
- Stim-free. Won’t get you jittery.
- Legit ingredients. Each one is research-backed.
- Focused. Nothing too complex or outlandish.
- Premium. Didn’t use weak forms at all.
Cons
- Expensive. $30-$40 for a 20 (or 10!) day supply?!
- DIY. You can probably build your own for cheaper.
- Fluff. Too many other ingredients.
- 6 capsules per day. That’s too many for most.
Pricing & Buying Info
- 1 bottle (20 servings): $29.99
- Available online and in retail stores
Final Word on Cellucor CLK
Cellucor CLK prides itself for being a great fat burner that doesn’t depend on stimulants to work. We love the formula as well as the ingredients they used. The dosage per ingredient were mostly okay and we get the whole idea behind the formulation.
It’s a decent fat burner all in all but we’re all just hard pressed to see any value for our money when it comes to the number of servings. That price range can get you a lot of topnotch fat burners already and some of them do really well without stimulants. Because of the pricing, we recommend Cellucor CLK on a “trial” basis and not something for long-term.
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