Zipslim Reviews

Weight loss supplements have come in many different shapes and forms over the years, but are most traditionally a simple pill to take a couple of times per day. Zipslim seem eager to change that, as we imagine they came up with the idea after someone gave them lemons, and when life gives you lemons…

Seriously it’s an interesting take to make it a lemonade, as some people are very adverse to taking pills in general so it definitely fills a niche role in the market. That aside, does it hold up? Well frankly, no it doesn’t. There are many pitfalls in this industry and it seems Zipslim has fallen into most of them, as well as somehow creating new ones.

You’ll see what we mean when we get into the ingredients breakdown, but if you’re looking for a weight loss brand that you can trust then we recommend you stick to something more traditional. Our personal favourite is Instant Knockout Cut, a fantastically clever blend of natural ingredients designed to make the most of your weight loss journey, and it actually has it’s ingredients correctly dosed.

With that out of the way let’s get into what makes this weight loss lemonade tick.

Ingredients Breakdown

Now there are a lot of different individual ingredients here so we’re going to break things down into three distinct sections as:

Vitamins and Minerals
Herbal ingredients
Other ingredients

Vitamins and Minerals

Vitamin C – 500mg

It would be pretty impressive had they made a lemonade without any Vitamin C, as lemons are one of the best sources for it. For weight loss however, the amount of evidence for vitamin C being beneficial is lacking, and what is notable is mostly in the guise of treating deficiency. This is somewhat typical of vitamins and minerals in modern weight loss supplements but if you’re deficient in vitamin C, you will be very ill. It’s lucky then that vitamin C deficiency is very rare [1], leaving it’s inclusion here to simply be one to support overall health.

It’s not a terrible inclusion as it’s cheap and takes up very little space in the formula, at least that’s what we’d be saying in more typical weight loss products. Here 500mg is basically the exact same amount of literally everything contained in the herbal ingredients section, leaving us wondering why they wouldn’t just include more of the useful stuff instead of vitamin C?

Vitamin D – 25mcg

Otherwise known as the sunshine vitamin, though despite it constantly raining from the sun a whopping 41% of Americans are considered deficient. A consequence of modern comforts, as when we spent all of our time outdoors in made sense to synthesise essential minerals from the sun, but most of us hardly get a chance to see it at all nowadays.

This can have negative repercussions on healthy adults in everything from mood regulation and energy levels, and can unfortunately get in the way of healthy weight management. This can be observed in the many studies done into vitamin d supplementation and weight loss, such as one we found that concluded “Improvement in Vitamin D status in obese subjects resulted in weight and fat mass decrease in conjunction with a weight loss diet” [2].

Vitamin B12 – 12mcg

The B vitamins are 8 (yes it counts up to 12 and yes that’s very confusing) of the most essential micronutrients for your bodies general function, as they’re categorised by the role they play in your metabolism. Vitamin B12 here is involved in everything from the synthesis of energy from food to the building and maintaining of your entire central nervous system [3].

When it comes to weight loss it’s the usual story where treating deficiency has been found to be helpful, but that’s the only time you’ll see a benefit, such as one study that observed an inverse associated between higher vitamin B12 levels and obesity in it’s 9,075 participants [4]. Deficiency is on the rise however as the best dietary sources of B vitamins are animal products such as meat and dairy, meaning that with the rise on plant-based diets has increased the risk of low vitamin B levels among the populace.

Magnesium – 105mg

A highly abundant mineral throughout the body, magnesium is somewhat similar to B vitamins in that it’s function is mainly metabolic, being responsible for everything from protein synthesis to blood glucose control, and even muscle and nerve function [5]. This has led it to be quite extensively studied for it’s potential at combatting the obesity epidemic.

This research has culminated in a scientific consensus that magnesium levels are directly correlated with the risk of obesity, with it’s positive effects once again being observed as a counter to sub-optimal levels in the body. This has been clinically observed, such as a study we found stating “the change in body weight and waist circumference was significant in subgroups of participants with magnesium deficiency, with a significant reduction in BMI [6]

Chromium – 300mcg

This trace mineral has an interesting history, as it used to be very abundant in any organic foods, from animal products to fruit and vegetables. This is because the plants actually absorb Chromium from the soil, but this process takes time. With modern agricultural practices being so much faster (and using less nutrient rich soil) Chromium levels have been on the decline [7].

This falls once again into the category of only being effective for weight loss and weight management if your levels are sub-optimal before supplementing. There’s a lot less evidence for this one so we do need more studies, but the studies that have been done show promising results [8] and as such it’s a common ingredient in most of the best weight loss supplements out there.

Potassium – 200mg

Being present in all body tissues is a statement you don’t hear often when discussing different nutrients, but it holds true for Potassium, making it one of the most essential aspects of anyones daily diet. It’s required for normal cell function because of it’s role in maintaining intracellular fluid, and has a strong relationship with sodium for the very same reason [9].

This has caused it to be researched for it’s potential link to obesity, and you’d never guess this but in a twist of fate, adequate daily potassium intake can reduce the risk of obesity [10].

Sarcasm aside it’s another decent inclusion, but so far we’ve only actually discussed the vitamins and minerals and let’s be honest, it’s not a shock that getting adequate nutrition in your diet will help combat health issues such as obesity and reduce your chances to gain weight.

The question is, what else does zipslim provide?

Herbal Ingredients

Now we’re going to get straight into it here as we repeated ourselves a lot in the previous section, so we want to streamline things a bit here by stating right off the bat what’s going on here. See, in this industry there’s no regulation by any authority such as the FDA, meaning that these companies can make many claims about their products that are…. stretching the truth. You might be thinking “but surely we can just look at the ingredients and see this for ourselves” and if everyone was honest about it, then yeah you absolutely could, but there are particular ways you can obfuscate that valuable information.

Introducing the proprietary blend, a technique that uses a loophole in labelling laws to avoid being truthful about their products. Essentially what’s going on here is they can make a claim that their blend is their product and though they have to list the ingredients, they don’t need to list the individual dose, meaning most people will read the label and go “yeah, that has some good stuff in it” and end up duped into purchasing a less valuable product.

It’s not all hopeless, as these companies have to list the ingredients in the order of high doses to low doses, meaning the first ingredients listed are the most plentiful in the formula. This helps give us some idea as to what is properly dosed and what isn’t, but Zipslim has only 530mg for it’s entire blend which contains 8 ingredients. This means that if everything was evenly split there’d be a measly 66mg for each individual ingredient.

With that out of the way let’s see what they’ve actually got and calculate the likelihood that there will be enough of each ingredient.

Ashwagandha extract

Mainly linked to a reduction in stress, Ashwagandha has been observed in clinical trials to being useful for inducing modest weight loss in adults experiencing stress [11].

The study here used 300mg, and with it being at the top of the list there is a slim chance (maybe a zip-slim chance?) that it’s been dosed correctly, rendering every other ingredient included completely neutered, or it’s got something like 100mg and everything else is still completely neutered because there’s simply not even space for this formula whatsoever.

Moving on…

Green Tea Extract

A beloved drink and staple of Asian culture, green tea extract is most commonly referring to an extract of ECGC, a particular type of polyphenol present that has been linked to weight loss and a reduction of BMI [12].

We would like to bring the link between green tea extract and liver toxicity to your attention, but the typical doses showing positive results are around 583mg, such as this8000000 study that stated a significantly greater decrease in body weight in those supplementing green tea extract [13], so it’s unlikely to factor in here at all.

We don’t believe it necessarily needs saying outright so we’ll just remind you that the total amount of this entire blend is 530mg and move things along.

Quercetin

A plant pigment found in foods such as red wine and green tea that has inconclusive evidence for it’s positive effects on weight loss. This can be seen in this analysis of RCT’s for quercetin which concluded “The current evidence suggest quercetin intake did not show a notably favourable effect on weight loss [14].

Milk Thistle Extract

A relative of the daisy that is found in mediterranean countries, milk thistle is a commonly taken dietary supplement that has been found in medical studies to attenuate dietary obesity-induced weight gain, hyperglycemia, inflammation, and may prove beneficial to patients exhibiting symptoms of metabolic syndrome [15].

However positive these are the results from animal testing so we’d need human intervention studies before stating it’s usefulness for certain, so at the moment the clinical results are inconclusive.

Turmeric Extract

This distinctively yellow spice has been used in ancient medicine for centuries all over the world, and though it’s more commonly used for it’s bitter natural flavor, it’s therapeutic effects have not gone unnoticed in modern medical studies.

This can be observed in a systematic review of 21 studies. This found that turmeric extract significantly reduced body mass index, weight and waist circumference in the subjects [16]. The average dose in these studies has 500mg per day, so it’s not going to be dosed properly here considering that’s approximately 97% of this entire blend, and remember the further down we go correlates directly to the less total percentage of the formula.

Alpa Lipoic Acid (ALA)

Found in every cell, ALA is an antioxidant made by the body that helps turn glucose into energy. As an antioxidant it’s been suggested to be useful as an anti-inflammatory, and has been found in research to be useful as a weight loss supplement.

We found a systematic review that looks at 10 randomised control trials and concludes that ALA showed small, yet significant short-term weight loss compared to placebo, stating that further research is needed to determine optimal dosing [17].

The doses of the trials included in this systematic review ranged from 300 to 1800.

Ginger Extract

A love it or hate it spice, ginger has long been used in ancient medicine. It’s more typically used in joint health supplements for it’s anti-inflammatory effects, but there have been some studies on it’s potential for weight loss.

A systematic review looks at 14 different studies aiming and concluded “supplementation with ginger significantly decreased body weight, waist to hip ratio, fasting glucose and insulin resistance” [18].

The lowest dosage recording positive results was 200mg.

Rhodiola Extract

With a long history of use in traditional medicine in order to treat stress-induced fatigue, Rhodiola extract has been touted has a potential weight loss supplement but we were unable to find any supporting scientific literature for it. There is some potential benefit in mood regulation and snacking, but that was tangential at best. [19]

Other Ingredients

This mainly contains flavorings and colorings, most of which aren’t very note worthy, but we thought it’d be worth bringing your attention to this section of the label as there’s one particularly perplexing ingredient; organic cane sugar.

Now these are all natural flavors and that’s definitely a plus, but no matter how much your sugar coat it with fancy “organic” prefixes, sugar is still sugar. It’s been dubbed the key cause of obesity in the United States [20], with the average american consuming more than 300% the daily recommended amount [21]. Let’s just remind ourselves that what we’re discussing here is an ingredient in a weight loss product.

We found this to be quite baffling, there are plenty of alternatives and if you want to avoid any artificial flavoring then there are better options, such as coconut sugar which has a low GI score than refined sugar cane.

Verdict

So there’s our breakdown of the ingredients and as we stated in the intro, we’re not very impressed and suggest you find a better alternative. At the end of the day all of the best ingredients that were properly dosed were the vitamins and minerals, so effectively you’ll get the same benefits from a soluble multivitamin. The key active ingredients here just aren’t going to be dosed properly, and they’ve tried to hide that from us which we find quite unethical. It might be legal but what they’re doing is hiding behind a thin veil that to most consumers is concealed, but to anyone who knows what they’re talking about is quite obviously a poorly dosed, failed attempt at novelty.

You’ll find something better almost anywhere you look, but we’d like to bring your attention to one of our favourites in this industry with Instant Knockout Cut. It was developed for athletes who need to lose weight quickly without sacrificing muscle mass, and is massively popular in fighting spots such as MMA and boxing as a result. It isn’t just limited to that demographic though, as it’s formula is one that will benefit anyone who is following a healthy diet and regular exercise regime.

It’s formula is night and day when compared to zipslim, as for a start it’s listed in a transparent and honest way. It’s a confidence in their formula that is great to see, with such ingredients as glucomannan, the best appetite suppressant out there, and has caffeine and cayenne pepper that work synergistically to boost your metabolic rate via thermogenesis, and beyond that it has some specialised ingredients such as L-theanine that increases the efficiency of lipid metabolism as well as having a calming/ anti-anxiety effect, helping to reduce cravings too.

Shop Instant Knockout Deals Here

Zipslim Customer Reviews

Feels strange to say but we were actually unable to find any zipslim reviews besides those by similar blogs as ourselves. There’s not even any curated testimonials on their website, which is quite bizarre. They’ve never been listed on amazon so there’s nothing there, and there’s nothing to be found on trustpilot either.

This feels like a conspiracy, but jokes aside we’ve never encountered anything like this. There’s always at least a reddit post or two but we literally could not find anything at all. This has left us all at a loss for words in the office.