Doctor Reviews: Modere Trim

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Modere is a multi-level marketing company that unfortunately doesn’t 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 individuals joining their multi-level marketing could make a lot of money selling their products.

So what are these products? Well, it appears that many of these products revolve around a patented blend of connective tissue supplements called BioCell Collagen.

Normally, skincare is not really on my radar, but they do sell two products they claim are related to fat loss and metabolism: a liquid they call Modere Trim, and a supplement they call Modere Burn, 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 liquid supplement Modere Trim 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 Trim

Let’s take a look at the ingredients. Here are the doses per tablespoon. The recommended dosing is one tablespoon a day.

Modere-trim-review-ingredients — Ingredients of Modere Trim supplement.

While Modere hides what’s inside the BioCell mixture, BioCell is a proprietary blend used in a number of other generic supplements, and those generics actually list what’s inside the blend. So by adding in their information, we can put together a complete ingredient list, no thanks to Modere.

So let’s analyze what we have. Whenever supplements add any ingredients into their product, there are three very common issues:

The doses they use are way too small to be effective
They aren’t using the active compounds
The ingredient itself has not reliably shown any beneficial effect in humans.

When we analyze these ingredients, let’s see which of these issues they have.

Conjugated linoleic acid

Conjugated Linoleic Acid, also known as CLA, is a fatty acid, which is a conjugated form of another fat called linoleic acid.

Research suggests that CLA potentially has some benefits with decreasing fat mass. There is also some evidence to suggest that taking CLA does appear to help with weight loss.

Now, not everyone is going to benefit from taking CLA, but even for those who did benefit, the amount of weight typically lost from taking CLA is pretty low, with patients losing on average 2-3 pounds over 6 to 12 months. That’s not very impressive.

So while CLA may actually be helpful, you’ll likely need to take it for several months to see some very modest effects on your weight and fat mass.

This is why it’s recommended that if you do decide to take a CLA supplement of any type to help with fat loss, you should find a cost effective supplement, since you’ll likely need to be taking it for a long time if you do benefit from it.

BioCell Collagen

When taking a look at the BioCell’s proprietary blend, none of the three ingredients, collagen, chondroitin, or hyaluronic acid have any evidence for weight loss, and these connective tissue supplements have more to do with supporting joint health rather than weight or fat loss.

It almost looks to me like this BioCell blend was added just to make Modere Trim different from a generic CLA supplement, since it certainly doesn’t do anything for weight loss.

Now the marketing material for the BioCell blend makes a bunch of other health claims based on a few small, unreliable studies.

For example, there is a small study that looked at the BioCell blend for skin aging, which found that taking it reduced lines and wrinkles by 13%.

That’s not very much of an effect to write about, but the bigger problem with the study was that it did not have a comparator group, so these small effects could have been entirely just a placebo effect because the study did not effectively control for a placebo.

This is made worse by the fact that this study was funded by BioCell’s product manufacturer, so you’ve also got a conflict of interest.

At the moment, these three ingredients in BioCell really only have some reliable research for its use in osteoarthritis, and even then, the studies show that it mainly just helps with symptoms, like reducing stiffness, pain, and improving physical functioning, rather than actually improving the health or structure of the joint, like increasing cartilage in the joint or reducing joint narrowing.

The dosing for all three isn’t too bad except for chondroitin, which is typically dosed at around 1000 mg per day, not 95 mg.

Modere Trim side effects and concerns

In terms of safety, I don’t see any blaring issues with any of the ingredients in Modere Trim, only that they’re using a decent dose of CLA.

Some people who take larger doses of CLA experience mild gastrointestinal upsets, things like burping, farting, diarrhea, and nausea. Taking it with food typically helps a bit.

Is Modere Trim effective?

It’s essentially a very expensive CLA supplement. So if Modere Trim is going to help with some fat loss, it’s because it provides a decent daily dose of CLA.

Modere-trim-review-ingredient-analysis — Modere Trim supplement ingredient analysis.

The amount of fat loss you’re realistically going to get from Modere Trim is small, and if you’re considering taking it, you should understand that you’ll likely need to take it for several months for it to have any measurable effect on your weight.

So if you plan to take Modere Trim for a month or two hoping to burn off some fat quickly, it’s not going to work like that, and you might not want to bother with it.

But if you’re willing to take it daily for a solid 6-12 months, at the correct dosages, while you’re implementing a proper weight loss diet and exercise, taking Modere Trim might slightly improve your total weight loss at the end of the year by a few pounds.

In that case, I suggest you look for a much more cost effective CLA supplement than Modere Trim.

Overall review: Modere Trim

Modere-trim-review-overall-summary-rating — Overall Modere Trim review rating.

Reviewing Modere Trim by effectiveness for weight loss, I’m giving it a C. It may help some people a little bit with fat loss, but the actual amount you lose is really quite modest.

Reviewing Modere Trim by cost, I’m giving it a F. Modere is marketing itself as an expensive premium brand, when in actuality, you can get the exact same ingredients separately in generic form for a cost many times less.

Reviewing Modere Trim for safety, I’m giving it a B. Although CLA can sometimes cause mild GI issues, it’s mostly safe to take, and the other ingredients are generally well tolerated.

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

Top alternatives to Modere Trim

If you’re looking to achieve similar effects, but better than those of Modere Trim, I would combine a quality CLA + BioCell collagen.

CLA (generic) – 2 to 7 caps / day
CLA (Tonalin) – 2 to 7 caps / day
Collagen (BioCell) – 1 to 2 caps / day

Learn more about

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