Advocare ThermoPlus

We take a look at Advocare ThermoPlus to find out more.

Advocare ThermoPlus Review

Advocare ThermoPlus is a fat burner and appetite suppressant that comes under the company’s Trim Range of supplements. The principle ingredient is sage extract which the advertising claims can affect brain receptors and may help restrict appetite and food intake.

In addition, Advocare ThermoPlus contains Oolong tea extract, which may help increase the speed of the metabolism and promote fat burning. It also contains Guarana extract – a caffeine rich seed extract derived from a South African plant called Paullina Cupana.

This Green tea and Guarana combination can be effective for weight loss and is popular in supplements, however sage extract is much more unusual. Sage is a familiar garden herb and best known as an ingredient for Sage and Onion stuffing in Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners.

Sage is also a well known medicinal herb and has been used throughout history from as far back as Roman times for a range of ailments and conditions, including as a diuretic, an analgesic and for its ability to ward off evil spirits!

There is some clinical evidence that sage (Salvia Officialis) may be effective for the treatment of diabetes. Some research suggests it enhances cognitive ability and with its long history as a medicinal herb it seems that sage may still have relevance in the modern world.

Advocare is a US network marketing company. This means that if you like the supplements and fancy getting involved you can join the company and start up your own business by becoming a distributor.

MLM (multi level marketing) is not for everyone. The idea is that you sell products to friends and family in your own network and actively look to establish your own “downline” of distributors to also sell products. Direct marketing can be a hard road with a high percentage of failure and is rarely as easy as it appears in the advertising. You can find out all about becoming an Advocare distributor on the product website.

If you want to find out more about direct marketing schemes in general take a look at our previous investigation.

Advocare have several ranges designed to address issues such as skincare and athletic performance. Advocare ThermoPlus is part of the Trim Range and can be used with other supplements in this category. There are 15 supplements in total including Shakes and cereal bars so take them all and this could work out to be extremely expensive.

We have covered some of these in previous reviews and although we did not approved them; we thought they had some good points.

Previously covered Advocare supplements include:

• Advocare Slim
• Carb Ease Plus
• Fibo Trim

What Does Advocare ThermoPlus Claim To Do?

According to the advertising:

ThermoPlus is an innovative weight-loss enhancer that contains key botanical extracts to help support efficient metabolism and suppress appetite.

It goes onto explain:

The ingredients in ThermoPlus provide powerful support for stimulating fat oxidation and healthy metabolism when used in conjunction with a healthy diet and exercise.

There are five key features:

• Supports the body’s ability to convert fat into energy
• Promotes a healthy metabolism
• Helps suppress appetite
• Contains oolong tea and sage extracts
• Can be used in conjunction with the Advocare Metabolic Nutrition Systems

The ThermoPlus advertising does not fully explain these claims and does not provide any links to the research into these ingredients.

ThermoPlus works well as a standalone weight-loss product and as an add-on support for a weight management program when used with an Advocare Metabolic Nutrition System.

This point about the Advocare Metabolic System is confusing. The advertising mentions it a few times yet there does not appear to be a designated product range. As far as we can see, the supplements in the Trim range are compatible with each other.

So What Is Advocare ThermoPlus and What Are The Ingredients?

Advocare ThermoPlus is a fat burner/ appetite suppressant. Each serving is equal to one capsule:

• Thiamine (3 mg): Vitamin B1 is essential for health and present in many normal foods including, yeast and cereal grains.
• Niacinamide (20mg): This form of vitamin B3 at high doses is sometimes used for treating diabetes because it helps break down carbs into glucose. The RDA is 30mg for adults, so here in safe OTC quantities.
  Source:http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/924.html
• Sage leaf Extract (300mg):According to Advocare, “components of sage affect brain cell receptors, which have implications for influencing food intake and appetite. There have been eight human trials carried out on sage extract to find out if it improves cogitative ability. It seems to be effective, although with no special relevance to appetite control. A systematic review into sage concluded that, ‘promising beneficial effects are debased by methodological issues, use of different herbal preparations (extracts, essential oil, use of raw material), lack of details on herbal products used’. The conclusion is that although the mental boosting effects of sage are promising this ingredient requires better methodological clinical trials.
  Source:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24836739
• Oolong Tea Extract (200mg): According to Advocare, Oolong tea extract helps stimulate the calorie-burning process while providing appetite control. Although all tea comes from the same plant, this variety of tea s higher in antioxidants than many other tea varieties and unlike green tea is partially fermented. There is no real evidence that oolong tea in supplements provides appetite control but drinking it before meals may have this effect.
• Guarana Extract seed (90mg): This Brazilian fruit extract contains more caffeine than coffee so has the usual caffeine effects of the world’s favourite stimulant. This can perk you up and help weight loss by increasing the speed of the metabolism. Advocare ThermoPlus contains 50mg of caffeine per capsule, which is equal to approximately half a cup of instant coffee.

So What Does All This Mean?

Many of the ingredients contained in Advocare ThermoPlus appear to have an effect upon mental ability so it seems that you may feel more alert while taking. However, it is important to note that many of the ingredients require further testing.

Sage for example looks extremely promising but requires more evidence regarding delivery system and dosage. In addition, there does not appear to be a specific relevance to weight loss. We like the fact that this supplement seems safe and not overly strong in stimulants. It seems unlikely to cause too many side effects.

Does Advocare ThermoPlus Have Any Side Effects?

Advocare do not provide any health warnings beyond advising to keep out of reach of children and in case of accidental overdose,

to seek professional assistance or contact a poison control center immediately.

There have been very few reported side effects. Some customers have complained of indigestion and the taste.

I will say if you do not like sage avoid this product….. It has a sage extract in it and I burp it all day when I take this product, horrible taste!!

Another customer reported,

I cannot say this does or does not work due to me not being able to consistently take it. The reason why is because every time I took it, I felt this heaviness in my stomach. Not to sound gross but it made me burp up a taste of herbs. I tried taking it before eating, after eating and it just never went away. I do have a sensitive stomach so I’m sure not all people will have this effect.

A similar experience was mentioned by a reviewer when taking the supplement without food.

If not taken with food it did actually make me feel very sick.

Any Advocare ThermoPlus Reviews From Customers?

Yes, there are customer reviews for Advocare ThermoPlus. There is a range of opinion. Some customers are satisfied.

Works great. Good energy source.

These are great supplements. They help keep me full and seem to help control hunger. Highly recommend. The product came fast and just as ordered!

Love this product. Would order again.

Not everyone is as pleased. There are some negative reviews.

This product did not do one single thing that it claims. Waste of money, time, and effort. Disappointed that it did not work.

Did not do anything for me. Never felt the effects, and did not see results at all. Complete and total waste of money here. Would NOT recommend to anyone. I have 2 friends on this stuff and they swear by it. However, we all workout the same (3-5x/wk) with cardio and weights. They toned up, and I’m left looking flabby. Not worth it for me.

It obviously does not work for everyone.

So Does Advocare ThermoPlus Work?

The precise formula of Advocare ThermoPlus has been clinically tested but as yet, only on rats and the findings require evaluation. It seems that this combination does raise antioxidant levels and in turn, this may lead to increase weight loss. However, there is a long way to go before this is proven in humans.

According to the test,

Overall, the exposed rats were more active, and the results suggest that Sage, Tea and Gurana exposure produces normal serum chemistry coupled with elevated antioxidant capacity in rats fed up to seven times the normal human dose and does not adversely influence any of the vital target organ.

Will this work to cause the same effects in humans? In truth, nobody knows yet because it requires further testing. That said some people have found that Advocare ThermoPlus has helped weight loss. Others have not noticed much difference. It may work but nothing is proven.

Where Can I Buy Advocare ThermoPlus?

You can buy ThermoPlus via the Advocare website. Click on the ‘buy it’ button and you will be taken to a list of independent distributors. Submit your zip code and you will be shown a list of distributor profiles to choose from in your area.

Click on your chosen one and go to the ‘Shop with Me’ link. You will find the page opens automatically on the ThermoPlus page. Just ‘add to cart’ and buy in the usual way.

The seller we looked at offers one bottle of 90 capsules (30 days supply) for $31.95. Obviously if you decide to become a distributor yourself this price is reduced. Advocare distributors receive a 20% reduction. Advocare Advisers –distributors with a solid sales record behind them, receive a 40% discount.

Shipping charges are not specified.

An easier way to buy Advocare ThermoPlus is via Amazon. One 90 capsules bottle (30 days supply) costs $32.90 and includes free shipping to US addresses. If you are in the UK, you can buy Advocare ThermoPlus via Amazon.co.uk. One bottle containing 90 capsules (30 days supply) costs £57.79.

So far, nobody in the UK appears to have bought this supplement.

What About A Guarantee

No money-back guarantee available.

Watchdog Verdict

Advocare ThermoPlus is a reasonable looking supplement that has generated some positive feedback from customers. We like the fact that it seems safe and apart from the ‘burping’ issue experienced by some customers, this supplement seems free from dangerous side effects and stimulants.

There is obviously something to taking sage as a supplement ingredient. This ingredient has been tested on humans and found to improve mental and cognitive ability. The downside is that these results need to be analysed in order to establish dosage and the form of delivery.

The Advocare ThermoPlus formula has been clinically tested too but as yet not on humans so again this needs further evaluation and some human clinical trials.

When it comes down to hard facts about Advocare ThermoPlus, they are hard to see. The Advocare advertising makes a lot of claims about appetite reduction and a boost to the metabolism but none of these are proven.

This formula requires further clinical evidence to prove it one way or another and in our opinion, it is just too early to tell.

We quite like ThermoPlus, despite the fact that Advocare are an MLM company (which often signifies sub standard supplements); this is one of the better companies, and we like their product range too.

Despite this, we do not feel that Advocare ThermoPlus is quite good enough to add to our approved list.