Doctor Reviews: Modere Burn

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Modere is a multi-level marketing company that doesn’t really have the greatest reputation. In April 2020, the Federal Trade Commission sent them a warning letter to stop making claims that their products could treat or prevent COVID-19.

They were also told to stop making claims on social media that by joining their multi-level marketing team people could make a lot of money selling their products.

So what are these products? Well, there are a variety of products, but two they claim are related to fat loss and metabolism caught my attention: a supplement they call Modere Burn, and a liquid they call Modere Trim, both of which are really expensive.

But given their history with the FTC and making inaccurate health claims, how effective are they really for fat loss and metabolism?

Let’s take an in-depth look at their oral supplement Modere Burn to see if it’s worth your money, see if we can replicate it with a cheaper alternative, and give it an overall rating.

Ingredients of Modere Burn

Let’s take a look at the ingredients. Here are the doses per capsule. The recommended dosing is three capsules a day.

Modere-burn-review-ingredients — Ingredients of Modere Burn supplement.

Cordyceps

Cordyceps is an Asian herb that’s traditionally used to help support the body, almost like some sort of general vitality tonic.

Herbalists call it an adaptogen, which is something that helps your body adapt to stress and potentially improve exercise capacity.

Today’s product marketers might prefer the term “boosting your metabolism”. Modere Burn is likely using it in hopes to help improve people’s efforts to exercise, and burn more calories to support weight loss.

Unfortunately for this supplement, studies have shown that it does not boost exercise performance beyond placebo. So the research would suggest that cordyceps is actually not useful as an adaptogen for exercise.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is an essential nutrient used throughout our bodies, and while there are no real uses specifically for weight loss, it’s sometimes supplemented by individuals under stress, mostly to help support their immune systems.

Modere Burn may be trying to use this as a general support vitamin, but unless you’re deficient in Vitamin C, which is quite rare in North America, supplementing additional Vitamin C is not going to do anything for your weight or metabolism.

Berberine

Berberine is a chemical that might have some uses as an alternative to metformin, in controlling blood sugar levels.

It also has some potential benefits for cholesterol. Berberine is more beneficial for blood sugar control, rather than weight loss, and those who do lose a little weight on it are often the ones who actually have blood sugar issues like diabetes or PCOS.

Regardless, Modere Burn doesn’t have enough berberine to be useful anyways, as most studies use 1-4 grams per day.

Caffeine and Guarana

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

Guarana extracts are primarily known for their caffeine content, so these two ingredients in Modere Burn combined provide about 181 mg of caffeine, which is approximately 3 shots of espresso, or about 2 cups of coffee.

Now it’s not going to have all the benefits of drinking espresso or coffee, since coffee also contains significant amounts of chlorogenic acid, which have some secondary effects on improving fat burning.

Realistically this secondary effect is quite weak, which is why most research focuses on the effects of caffeine on energy and burning calories through exercise.

Green coffee bean

Now you may notice that Modere Burn actually contains some chlorogenic acid in the form of another ingredient they contain, green coffee bean extract.

This is true, except for the fact that the dose being used is tiny. A single cup of coffee contains anywhere from 20-200 mg of chlorogenic acid.

The 1 mg of green coffee bean extract is not going to do anything.

Fucoxanthin

There’s some interest in using the fucoxanthins found in seaweeds, like Japanese kelp, for a variety of health issues, since fucoxanthins might have some anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and anti-obesity effects.

Unfortunately, the current research on fucoxanthins is mostly limited to lab animals and in research labs, so these effects on humans at the moment are not very well established, and mostly theoretical.

Cocoa, theobromine, and green tea

Cocoa, theobromine, and green tea have been studied for numerous health benefits related to things like cardiovascular disease and cognitive health.

I’m not going to cover all of them here, but from the perspective of this particular supplement, it has also been studied for muscle recovery and as an exercise aid, since they have antioxidant properties, and are believed to be weak stimulants and vasodilators.

Combined together it would theoretically help with improving blood flow to muscles, and Modere Burn is likely including them hoping it will help with exercise performance, again to help burn more calories.

Unfortunately the research on these ingredients for exercise performance is weak at best, and for weight loss is even weaker, although the EGCG in green tea might have some small effects on weight.

Regardless, the doses Modere Burn uses are far below the effective doses anyways, so even if we give this combination of ingredients the benefit of the doubt and say that they all can help with improving exercise capacity, the doses in Modere Burn are too low to be helpful anyways.

Olive oil

Olive oil is full of polyunsaturated fats, which may be beneficial for cardiovascular and metabolic health.

Unfortunately for olive oil supplements, research studies that find health benefits from taking olive oil were from people using it in their diet, not taking olive oil supplements.

The likely reason why supplements aren’t really helpful is dosage. These people are drizzling olive oil in their food and using significant amounts of it in their cooking every day. Not taking 30 milligrams in pill form.

Ginger, allspice, and cinnamon

If I had to guess what the ginger, allspice, and cinnamon might be trying to do, I’d guess that these spices are likely included for their traditional stimulating properties.

For example, ginger and cinnamon have a sort of warming sensation when eaten or drank as a tea, and traditional herbalists took this to mean that it might help with blood circulation and help to kind of reinvigorate the body.

There’s no good evidence that it actually does this, but cinnamon does have some weak research into potentially helping with blood sugar control.

It doesn’t really matter though since the doses of these three ingredients in Modere Burn are tiny, and far too low to do anything anyways.

Chromium

Chromium seems to have some effects on managing blood sugar, and the research would suggest that supplementing it is mostly useful for those who actually need it.

For example, if you’re an individual who has blood sugar issues, or has insulin resistance problems, like those with pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes, or PCOS, supplementing chromium might be helpful for your condition.

However, if you’re taking it for the sole purpose of losing weight, you should also understand that according to the research the amount of weight you lose on chromium is likely not significant.

Also, if you don’t have any issues with insulin resistance, are perfectly healthy, and eat a varied diet that’s not deficient in chromium, supplementing chromium is likely not doing much for you.

Modere Burn Side effects and concerns

Looking at the safety of Modere Burn, the ingredients of highest concern are the caffeine and berberine.

Modere Burn provides about 2 cups of coffee worth of caffeine, 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.

Berberine can interfere with other medications, by affecting the way your liver metabolizes certain drugs.

So if you’re taking any medication, you should ask your doctor to see if it’s safe for you to take. I would say that this product is also not safe for pregnancy or if you’re breastfeeding.

Is Modere Burn effective?

Taken together, Modere Burn is trying to create a supplement that helps support your efforts to exercise, mostly through the caffeine, but with a few other supporting nutrients that theoretically help with exercise capacity.

Modere-burn-review-ingredient-analysis — Modere Burn supplement ingredient analysis.

Most of its ingredients are way under-dosed, but there might be enough ingredients in there to also slightly help with blood sugar issues.

It appears that the primary way that Modere Burn would work for weight loss, if it did at all, would be mainly as a supplement to improve your energy and capacity for exercise, and burn more calories as a result.

This means that you would need to exercise more frequently, and with greater intensity while on the supplement for it to be useful at all.

Overall review: Modere Burn

Modere-burn-review-overall-summary-rating — Overall Modere Burn review rating.

Reviewing Modere Burn 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 any effects on weight whatsoever.

Reviewing Modere Burn by cost, I’m giving it a D. A monthly cost of over $80 is a little steep, and it can be essentially replicated by getting individual ingredients at a cost many times less.

Reviewing Modere Burn for safety, I’m giving it a C. It’s not safe for everyone to use due to the caffeine content and the berberine can interfere with medication.

Overall review, I’m giving Modere Burn a D. I would not recommend it at all.

Top alternatives to Modere Burn

If you’re looking to achieve similar effects, but better than those of Modere Burn, I would combine a quality cordyceps extract + fucoxanthin extract + berberine + vitamin C + chromium + caffeine.

Berberine (dihydro) – 2 to 4 caps / day
Berberine (generic) – 2 to 3 caps w/ meals
Berberine (Thorne) – 1 to 2 caps w/ meals
Caffeine anhydrous – 1 cap / day
Chromium nicotinate (GTF) – 1 to 5 caps / day
Chromium picolinate – 1 to 5 caps / day
Cordyceps – 6 to 12 caps / day
Fucoxanthin – 1 to 2 caps / day
Vitamin C (caps) – 1 cap / day
Vitamin C (powder) – 1 sachet / day

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