Will it help you turn up the heat on your workouts, or are you going to get your fingers burned?
Thermogenic supplements get a bad rap sometimes. You’ve probably heard stories from people that bought this pill or that shake which was meant to help them have more energy or lose weight – and guess what? It didn’t work.
It’s more than likely that every time you’ve heard a story like that, it was coming from someone that does little to no exercise.
That’s because thermogenic supplements are not magic. Like all supplements, they can only enhance what is already happening in your body.
If all that’s happening is that you’re sitting around all day waiting for muscles to appear on your arms or fat to melt away from your belly, you’re going to end up disappointed.
But if your exercise and nutrition game is already tight, the right thermogenic can provide an extra boost to your results. Today we’re going to look at Thermonade™ – a powdered thermogenic from Stance Supplements.
About Thermonade™
Thermonade™ is a powdered pre-workout and thermogenic designed to give you more energy and boost your metabolism during a workout so you burn more fat.
There are some mouth-watering flavors on offer – Strawberry Lemonade and Cucumber Watermelon but does Thermonade™ deliver on the results it promises?
Stance Supplements claim that Thermonade™ will “oxidize the spark of motivation in your mind, burn away excuses in your heart and erupt confidence incinerating all doubt”.
Wow! Short of literally catching on fire, there’s not much more that a thermogenic could promise. Let’s take a look at the formula in detail and see whether Thermonade™ is the real deal, or a load of hot air.
Thermonade™ – Supplement Facts
Thermonade contains a range of B vitamins but the bulk of the formula is a proprietary blend called Thermonade™ Complex.
If you’re a regular reader here you’ll know we’re not big fans of proprietary blends, but we’ll go through the ingredients one by one and break it down as much as possible for you.
Directions for Use
Mix one scoop with 8-12 oz of water and take 30 minutes before exercise or training.
Clarinol™ CLA 3g
Conjugated Linoleic Acid, or CLA, is a natural fatty acid that we get through our diet from meat and dairy products. It’s also present in some plant-based foods and vegan-friendly alternative supplements are available.
CLA is thought to work by stopping fat from entering your cells, so rather than burning more fat, you’re replacing what you have burned off with less.
The end result is still the same though – less fat on your body.
But does it work? That’s a question that the scientific and medical communities are still working on. One recent review of the evidence suggested that we can’t be sure whether CLA has any benefits, but there is a study that shows nearly 10% loss in fat among the subjects.
More up to date studies suggest that CLA is only really effective for overweight individuals and not any more effective at reducing fat than a simple calorie deficit. Not the best start, but let’s see what the rest of the blend offers…
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L-Taurine
You’ve probably come across taurine in pre-workouts and energy drinks before because its main function is to increase energy levels. It’s particularly effective alongside caffeine as it reduces the risk caffeine poses to your heart.
It can also reduce damage to your cells during intensive exercise and help you sustain a high workout intensity for longer periods.
Early animal studies have also linked taurine to fat loss, which makes taurine a potential triple threat and one of the most effective ingredients for helping you crush your workouts and strip away fat.
Caffeine Anhydrous
Thanks to coffee, caffeine is the most popular psychoactive drug on the planet. It’s a powerful energy booster that blocks adenosine receptors in your brain, stopping you from feeling tired.
The effect of this is that your perceived rate of exhaustion (how tired you think you are during exercise) is reduced and you can exercise harder and for longer.
One of the lesser known benefits of caffeine is that it can help you lose weight by stimulating your cells to break down fat.
This makes it a perfect addition to the Thermonade™ formula as when combined with taurine, you’re likely to see results quickly if you’re putting in the hours in the gym or out on the track.
Unlike CLA, the fat burning effects of coffee are supported by science, and it works better if you’re already on the lean side.
One study showed that caffeine increased the rate of fat burn by 29% in lean women vs a still respectable 10% in obese women.
Pomegranate Juice Extract
The humble pomegranate is one of the most effective foods when it comes to improving exercise performance. It contains high amounts of nitrates, which improve blood flow and allow you to maintain a high level of intensity in your workout.
The effect is similar to what you get with beetroot, a proven nitric oxide booster that improves your time to exhaustion during exercise.
Pomegranate has shown it can improve TTE by just over 10% under clinical trial conditions.
Green Coffee Bean Extract
The green coffee bean does a lot more than simply provide an extra dose of caffeine as part of the Thermonade™ formula. That extra bit of caffeine is useful, sure, but the real benefit is that green coffee beans contain high amounts of chlorogenic acid.
Chlorogenic acid has been linked to benefits including weight loss and improved mood.
It also sharpens your cognitive functions, meaning your workouts will be focused and more effective.
Raspberry Ketones
At one time thought to be nothing more than the latest fad, raspberry ketones might actually work better than we first thought. Most of the studies so far have been conducted on animals, but the results are promising.
It’s probably fair to say that no one knows exactly how it works, but the results show that raspberry ketones can help reduce fat, though only as effectively as a calorie deficit.
Still, you get the benefit of maintaining your current diet while losing more fat.
Beta-Phenylethylamine
PEA for short – it’s a neurotransmitter that helps you maintain focus and attention while improving task performance and goal-directed behavior.
Sounds like a dream for athletes, right? Wait, it gets better.
Studies show that PEA produces similar effects to amphetamines, but is nowhere near as dangerous. The effects are far less intense than amphetamines, but can be felt 10 times faster.
Your experience will be likely be a mild surge in energy and focus almost immediately, dependent on dose.
There are concerns about potential side-effects however which we’ll come back to later.
Dandelion Root Extract
Not the most obvious choice for a pre-workout/fat burner, dandelion contains high levels of chlorogenic acid, which we know can support fat loss from looking at the above.
It has been proven to have this effect as a standalone supplement, though the study used animal subjects. Evidence for its effectiveness in humans is sparse, but it’s promising.
We’ll give Stance Supplements credit for including DLE in Thermonade™. The extra chlorogenic acid is more than welcome and should help accelerate your weight loss.
Bee Pollen
We won’t go into exactly what bee pollen is made up of, but we’re not just talking about honey here.
Evidence is lacking a little, but one study has shown some promising results for bee pollen improving protein synthesis and increasing the rate of metabolism.
The result if these effects are consistent for humans? A leaner, meaner you thanks to Thermonade™. But this is still an ingredient that needs much more rigorous study.
Theacrine (TeaCrine®)
TeaCrine® is to Theacrine what Creapure® is to creatine – the market-leading branded version of a very well researched and reliable supplement.
TeaCrine® has been studied in great detail and its claim to be a safe and powerful energy-booster and focus-enhancer is now well-established.
So, what does it do exactly? For starters it can improve time to exhaustion during exercise by as much as 38%. It also produces significant improvements in willingness to exercise, motivation, energy and focus.
Finally it’s been conclusively proven that TeaCrine is safe to take, with no noted side effects. This is a slam dunk for Stance Supplements, though we‘d love to know exactly how much of it Thermonade™ serves up.
B Vitamins
The B vitamin complex is central to your body’s metabolism of fats and carbs as well as helping to process protein. B-12 and B-6 are especially important when it comes to helping you burn fat properly.
There’s not a lot of evidence that over-ingesting B vitamins will provide any benefit to fat loss over and above what maintaining a healthy diet and exercise plan will do, but it’s helpful to get your vit B in from an easy supplement like Thermonade™.
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Thermonade™ Formula Analysis
We’ll focus on the Thermonade™ complex here because the B vitamins don’t affect the formula significantly.
OK, so the fact that Thermonade™ uses a proprietary blend makes it difficult to analyze properly. The only thing we can be sure of is that of the 5.22g of the blend per serving, 3g is made up of CLA.
This sucks a bit, because it’s one of the least effective ingredients in the formula.
But what about the rest? The caffeine, green coffee, taurine and TeaCrine® can synergize well to give you a significant boost in energy, motivation, focus and physical performance.
Assuming they’re included in clinically effective dosages, which we can’t say for sure thanks to the proprietary blend.
This effect is supported by the dandelion extract, providing extra chlorogenic acid as well as the raspberry ketones and bee pollen that crank your metabolism up even further.
Pomegranate juice rounds things out with nitrates to help you keep up the intensity right to the end.
If Thermonade™ contained just these ingredients – the ones in the last two paragraphs – we’d probably be raving about it.
Unfortunately, the evidence just isn’t there for CLA, and the PEA might be a step too far in the other direction, pushing Thermonade™ into possibly dangerous territory. More on that shortly.
Thermonade™ Benefits
Thermonade™ offers a good range of benefits, again assuming the relevant ingredients are included in effective dosages.
Energy – the mix of energy-boosting ingredients is awesome, and you’ll probably experience a strong increase in energy before your workout. Dosages allowing.
Motivation – In theory, Thermonade™ has enough ingredients to melt away your excuses and leave you itching to hit the weights harder than ever
Exercise Performance – you’ll likely notice you get tired less quickly and can get more done throughout your workout. Assuming the energy-boosting ingredients are sufficient.
Focus – multiple ingredients support better focus and should help you enjoy distraction-free workouts.
Again – and we can’t stress this enough – the above benefits are dependent on clever dosing. A great many ingredients in Thermonade™ are impressive, but only if included in big enough dosages.
Who Takes It?
If you’re looking for something to help you gain greater motivation, energy and focus for your workouts then you might want to consider Thermonade™.
If you’re not a natural risk-taker though, you might want to read the rest of this review before making your mind up.
Any Potential Side-Effects of Thermonade™?
Possibly. Remember when we said we’d come back to Beta-Phenylethylamine (PEA)? Well, now is the time to do that.
WebMD rates PEA as possibly unsafe when taken orally. The side-effects listed include increased heart rate, anxiety and nervousness. As it’s impossible to know how much of PEA is included in Thermonade™ — too little to be effective or high enough to be a potentially dangerous dosage – it should be a consideration.
Likewise, we don’t know how much caffeine is included here either. A safe daily limit is 400mg: we have no idea if the amount of caffeine in Thermonade™ nears this level. Or if the levels of taurine included – to potentially reduce any caffeine-related side effects (jitters, anxiety, crash) – is enough to work.
This is the problem with proprietary blends and is why they frustrate us so much. Either way, we would recommend limiting or eliminating any other caffeine sources while taking Thermonade™, at least until you assess your tolerance.
Consider consulting a doctor before taking Thermonade™ if you have any known coronary concerns. Or play it safe and avoid stimulant-led products altogether.
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Thermonade™ Summary
If we had to describe Thermonade™ in one word it would be frustrating. The formula offers so much good stuff and the potential benefits almost – almost – outweigh the drawbacks. But not quite.
Pros
- Increases energy
- Improves focus
- Provides motivation
- Sharpens focus
- Tastes delicious
- At $2 per serving, it’s in the upper-middle pricing tier
- Too much volume in the formula sacrificed on unproven ingredients
- PEA poses potential risks to health
- That damn proprietary formula leaves us guessing too much.
Pricing & Where to Buy
Thermonade™ is available from the Stance Supplements website and costs a nickel shy of $60 for 30 servings.
Thermonade™ Review
Stance Supplements could easily rework Thermonade™ into something extremely effective, and very safe too.
In its current form though, there’s a lot of bulk in the formula wasted on CLA which could be better used by increasing the doses of the more effective ingredients. Or simply getting rid of it entirely and reducing the price or offering more servings per container.
Our feeling is that the PEA should go as well. Rather than igniting the spark of motivation, you might end up flying too close to the sun. And we all know how that turns out.
At the very least, getting rid of the proprietary blend – totally unnecessary – and being upfront with dosages will allow people to judge the product for themselves. Unless there’s something to hide, of course.
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