Doctor Reviews: Hydroxycut Hardcore

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Hydroxycut is one of the most popular weight loss supplements in North America. In the past, it has also been directly linked to multiple cases of acute liver injury, including one fatality, and as a result, their formulation has gone through some changes over the years in an attempt to stop these cases.

Unfortunately this has not stopped the problem, and Hydroxycut is still causing serious side effects to this day.

But how effective is Hydroxycut for weight loss? And how do you know if it’s safe for you to use? Let’s take a look at Hydroxycut Hardcore to see if it’s worth your money, see if we can replicate it with a cheaper and safer alternative, and give it an overall rating.

Ingredients of Hydroxycut Hardcore

Let’s take a look at the ingredients. Here are the doses per capsule. The recommended dosing is 2 capsules, 2 times a day, so that’s a total of 4 per day.

This is one of the more “advanced” versions of Hydroxycut. In Canada, the formulation is a little different, and the recommended dosing is 3 capsules, 2 times a day, so a total of 6 per day.

Hydroxycut Hardcore (USA) vs Hydroxycut Hardcore (Canada)

The overall key differences in the ingredients are that the American version has L-theanine, yohimbine, and green coffee bean extract, while the Canadian version has Coleus forskohlii, some additional fatty acids, and a few additional amino acids.

We’re going to focus on the American version, but I’ll make side notes to cover the Canadian version as well.

Now you may notice that the doses for some of the ingredients are missing. This is because they’re hidden behind what is called a “proprietary blend”.

Proprietary blends allow supplement companies to avoid listing the exact amount of each ingredient within the blend. They can list an effective ingredient, but only have trace amounts of it and you wouldn’t be able to tell since the dose isn’t listed.

Some supplements will even use these blends to hide very low doses within their ingredient lists. If they’re hiding the actual dose from you, it’s much more difficult to determine whether you’re getting an effective dose.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the Canadian version of ingredients real quick. Although we don’t know the exact doses of some of the unlisted ingredients, we can figure out an approximate dose. How can we figure this out? Simple, with math.

The Canadian version of Hydroxycut Hardcore gives us a total weight of everything combined. So according to the ingredient list, it’s providing 2214 mg of supplement when you take 6 pills. We can simply subtract all the ingredients with known doses to find out how much is remaining. So that’s 2214 mg minus 500 mg of Coleus forskohlii, minus 400 mg of caffeine, and so on.

That leaves us with a combined dose of 8 mg for the remaining 5 unknown ingredients. That’s about 1.6 mg per ingredient, for 6 pills.

That’s an average of 0.27 mg per pill. It’s pretty safe to say that these ingredients with unknown doses are not contributing much at all to the supplement at such miniscule amounts.

Now let’s jump into the analysis. Whenever supplements add ingredients into their product, there are three very common issues with many of these ingredients:

1. The doses they use are often way too small to be effective
2. The types of extract they use are ineffective and don’t contain much of the active compounds
3. The ingredient itself has not reliably shown any beneficial effect in humans.

When we analyze all these ingredients, we’re going to see which of these issues they have.

Caffeine

The vast majority of Hydroxycut’s supplements rely mostly on caffeine for their effects. Hydroxycut Hardcore leans heavily into this.

Caffeine’s effects on weight loss are mainly as an exercise aid to help people to increase the intensity and duration of their exercise.

The American version of Hydroxycut Hardcore provides at least 530 mg of caffeine a day with their max dose, and probably more due to the undeclared caffeine content in the green coffee beans. This is the equivalent of about 9 shots of espresso. That is a ginormous dose.

The FDA recommends that healthy adults shouldn’t be consuming more than 400 milligrams of caffeine per day. It’s just not very safe.

The Canadian version provides slightly less at 400 mg of caffeine, which is about 6-7 shots of espresso, but it’s important to note that having more caffeine in a supplement is not necessarily a good thing for weight loss, and can be harmful for some people.

Caffeine affects different people differently, and the ideal dose of caffeine is highly dependent on the individual. Some people function better with smaller doses, and some people function better with larger doses. But having more caffeine doesn’t necessarily mean more energy, or better exercise.

In fact, too much caffeine in a more sensitive individual is counterproductive to their weight loss and exercise efforts, and just leads to more negative side effects, like anxiety or heart palpitations, which could negatively affect your ability to exercise properly.

So whenever you use caffeine as an exercise aid, you need to find the right dose for you, not the highest dose possible.

L-theanine and L-tyrosine

L-theanine and L-tyrosine are both amino acids that might be helpful with improving cognitive function and focus while under stress, particularly in combination with caffeine.

They’re both common ingredients in workout supplements, and although they aren’t going to help with weight loss or improve your strength, they might make it easier for you to focus during your workouts.

It’s hard to determine what doses Hydroxycut Hardcore is using, but I can say that it definitely doesn’t have enough tyrosine.

Cayenne extract

Cayenne extract is essentially a crude form of capsaicin. Capsaicin might be slightly helpful for weight loss when used as a spice in food, when you can taste it, since the burning sensation might make people eat less and drink more water.

But as a supplement, and especially at the tiny dose found in Hydroxycut Hardcore, it’s totally useless.

Green coffee bean

Green coffee bean extracts and the chlorogenic acid they contain appear to have some minor effects on fat metabolism.

Green coffee bean extracts also contain some unlisted caffeine, so the total amount of caffeine you’re getting in the American version is likely even higher than the listed 530 mg per day, as if that wasn’t high enough.

Realistically speaking, if green coffee bean extract does help someone to lose weight, it’s mostly because of the caffeine content, but the chlorogenic acids may have some smaller secondary effects on fat metabolism.

Regardless, the overall amount of weight typically lost is pretty modest, with people losing on average 2-4 pounds over a few months. That’s not very impressive, unfortunately.

Yohimbine extract

Yohimbine is a herb that’s been traditionally used to enhance sexual and athletic performance. It doesn’t have good evidence that it actually does any of those things, nor does it have good evidence that it will help with weight loss.

Trans-ferulic acid

There are some theoretical uses of trans-ferulic acid as an antioxidant or to help support cognitive function, but at the moment there isn’t any actual evidence that supplementing it in humans can be helpful whatsoever.

Amino acids

L-methionine and L-leucine are amino acids that are sometimes added into supplements that claim to support athletic performance.

There’s no evidence that these particular amino acids are especially helpful for exercise performance beyond other general amino acids.

The same would hold true for the additional L-proline and L-carnosine found in the Canadian version.

Nevertheless, the doses of all of these amino acids found in Hydroxycut Hardcore is way too small to do anything anyways, and their addition is mostly cosmetic.

Fatty acids

The Canadian version also includes some fatty acids like Medium Chain Triglycerides and oleic acid. Some workout supplements add these in to provide a source of energy during workouts.

They can sometimes provide an easy to burn, non-carbohydrate, fuel source, especially for those on keto or low-carb diets.

Essentially MCTs are just an efficient fatty acid fuel source to burn, and Hydroxycut Hardcore is not even providing enough to be helpful during a workout anyways.

Coleus forskohlii

Finally, the Canadian version has Coleus forskohlii, which actually has been researched for obesity, but was found to be no more effective than placebo for weight loss.

So despite being one of the key ingredients in the Canadian version of Hydroxycut Hardcore, studies show that Coleus forskohlii is not effective for weight loss.

Hydroxycut Hardcore side effects and warnings

When looking at safety, Hydroxycut products do not have a very good safety record. Before 2004, Hydroxycut used to contain ephedra, and there were reports of seizures in people taking these products. As a result, thousands of lawsuits were filed against the manufacturer of Hydroxycut, and in 2004, the FDA banned the use of ephedra in supplements.

Hydroxycut then removed ephedra, and reformulated their products. It was then that a number of serious side effects related to liver injury, including at least one fatality, was linked directly to Hydroxycut.

The FDA then issued a warning in 2009 and recommended that consumers stop using Hydroxycut.

Later in 2010 the FTC fined the makers of Hydroxycut for $5.5 million for falsely advertising that its supplements could help consumers lose weight.

Hydroxycut then changed their marketing language to comply with the FTC, and reformulated it again, so that the primary active ingredient of their supplements was just caffeine. However, case reports continue to link Hydroxycut to other serious side effects, like heart and gut issues.

The abnormally high dose of caffeine in Hydroxycut likely continues to contribute to the case reports of serious side effects.

So if you’re sensitive to caffeine, have cardiovascular issues, suffer from anxiety disorders, or are taking other stimulant drugs like phentermine, you need to ask your doctor to see if it’s safe to take.

I would also avoid taking it in the evening, or it might cause insomnia, and I would definitely not exceed the maximum dosage of taking 2 pills at one time, or a max total of 4 pills a day, and even then, taking 4 pills in a day might still be too much caffeine for safe use.

It’s also not safe for pregnancy or if you’re breastfeeding.

Is Hydroxycut Hardcore effective?

Taken together, Hydroxycut Hardcore is primarily an exercise aid and stimulant, mainly thanks to all that caffeine.

They’re trying to also add other ingredients that may help you to focus better while exercising, but the doses for many of its ingredients fall far short.

So it may help you to exercise with greater intensity and focus, and if it does, you might burn more calories as a result.

However, if you’re not physically active or exercising seriously, just taking Hydroxycut Hardcore won’t have any benefits.

Overall rating: Hydroxycut Hardcore

Reviewing Hydroxycut Hardcore by effectiveness for weight loss, I’m giving it a C. It basically works as an exercise aid, and taking it without increasing your exercise is not likely going to have much effect on weight whatsoever.

Reviewing Hydroxycut Hardcore by cost, I’m giving it a C. It can be essentially replicated by getting individual ingredients at a cost many times less.

Reviewing Hydroxycut Hardcore for safety, I’m giving it an F. There are direct case studies of people experiencing serious side effects from taking Hydroxycut, including one death. Also, taking over 530 mg of caffeine a day is totally unnecessary and asking for trouble.

Overall review, I’m giving Hydroxycut Hardcore an F. I would recommend you stay away from it.

Top alternatives to Hydroxycut Hardcore

At the core of it all, the American version of Hydroxycut Hardcore is basically just a very high-dose caffeine pill, with some added L-theanine, green coffee bean, and yohimbine.

The Canadian version is also a very high-dose caffeine pill, but with just Coleus forskohlii added instead.

If you’re looking to achieve similar effects, but better than those of Hydroxycut Hardcore, I would combine a quality yohimbine or Coleus forskohlii extract + green coffee extract + L-theanine + caffeine.

• Caffeine anhydrous – 1 cap / day
• Coleus forskohlii – 2 caps / day
• Green coffee (caps) – 1 to 2 caps / day
• L-Theanine – 2 to 4 lozenge / day
• Yohimbine – 1 to 4 caps / day

Learn more about

• Doctor Reviews: Hydroxycut Original / Pro Clinical
• Is Coffee Good For Weight Loss?
• Capsaicin For Weight Loss
• Coconut Oil and MCTs For Weight Loss
• Green Coffee Bean For Weight Loss
• 6 Things To Look For On Supplements
• 5 Things to Know Before Buying Weight Loss Supplements
• Other weight loss supplements

See also

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  Doctor Reviews: Lipozem
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• 
  Doctor Reviews: Youthful Brain
  Youthful Brain is unlikely to improve cognitive performance in healthy individuals, as research shows limited benefits for their ingredients.
• 
  Doctor Reviews: Lemme Curb
  Lemme Curb is basically just a high-dose chromium supplement, which hasn’t been proven to help with weight loss or cravings in healthy people.
• 
  Doctor Reviews: Nello Supercalm
  Nello Supercalm is a drink mix with ingredients that may help manage stress and anxiety, though it might not work for everyone.