Today we’re looking at the latest supplement to take social media by storm; Instant Knockout Fat Burner.
This product claims to be the missing link between your physique right now, and the body you wish you had.
And with its awesome fist-shaped tub (yes!), it’s no surprise it has generated a lot of buzz…
… but that doesn’t mean it’s any good.
Like all supplements with a killer social media ad campaign, it’s easy to get lost in bogus “5 star reviews” which are nothing more than sales pitches disguised as information (Google this product, you’ll see).
But what happens when we REALLY put it to the test?
Today, we will find out.
Because I’m going to break down the Instant Knockout formula piece-by-piece, and deliver a final score. Below, you will get my honest Instant Knockout Fat Burner review, completely unbiased and, at times, f**king harsh, to determine whether it lives up to the hype it gives itself in the adverts you’ll see online.
Instant Knockout – The Good
The product is beautiful.
The people behind it are marketing geniuses.
I mean, if you’re looking for a fat burner, you’re probably looking for something to give you quick results, right?
And what better, than a product which speaks of an instant knockout? Further still, it’s shaped like a fist!
It’s literally ready to punch the f**k out of your belly.
It looks far more attractive than a tub of generic white pills, and Roar Ambition deserve props for their design work.
Inside the tub, Instant Knockout contains 300mg caffeine per serving, which will provide a decent energy kick and could double-up as a pre workout if necessary.
But, as you probably guessed, that’s where the good news ends…
Instant Knockout – The Bad
Not so long ago, I reviewed another beautiful-looking supplement.
It was called 4 Gauge, and it was a pre workout designed by UK manufacturers Roar Ambition.
Despite being distinctly average and making lots of promises it couldn’t deliver on, the main selling point of the product is that it comes in a fantastic tub which looks like shotgun shell casing…
… well, turns out Instant Knockout is developed by the same company. And, unfortunately, it shares most of the same weak points!
On the website, there are so many bogus claims I could have a f**king field day in this review, and I just might do that, but first let’s do a quick round-up of the main bad points in the formula.
The caffeine will certainly provide a nice energy boost, but the actual fat burning properties of caffeine are notoriously small. Heck, once you have adapted to the dosage (2-3 weeks), you’ll lose those small fat burning effects completely, and never experience them again.
Alongside this, we get appearances from all the usual suspects which can be found in most fat burners; green tea extract, chromium, green coffee extract, vitamin B…
Just like 4 Gauge, the design team have clearly spent more time working on the outside of the tub, rather than what’s on the inside.
Instant Knockout Fat Burner – Debunking The Hype
Can you remember Rocky III?
It was truly awesome, as Rocky teamed with Apollo Creed to defeat the dastardly Clubber Lang.
Rocky’s tenacity, combined with Apollo’s super confidence and natural ability to drum up a scene, led to the downfall of the seemingly unbeatable new champ and the rest is history.
The so-called “hype guy” can be a crucial factor sometimes, and in this case it was Apollo’s ability to make Rocky believe in himself again.
However, the key factor in the success here is that Rocky was undeniably talented.
He would rather die than quit.
Especially after he’d endured those epic training montages featuring beach sprints and uncomfortably short cut-off tank tops…
You might be wondering what I’m getting at here, and why the Rocky III reference, but trust me, the story will come full circle.
Because what we have here, in Instant Knockout, is Apollo without Rocky.
(I thank you.)
We have the hype without the heart, and that means we’re getting a lot of big claims which the product simply cannot back up.
Seriously, some of the claims made by Roar Ambition are startlingly incorrect, and I’m going to debunk them now.
SPOT REDUCTION
According to their sales page, Instant Knockout fat burners will:
“Give you the power to erase your most stubborn body fat!
Belly fat, man boobs, thighs, hips, it doesn’t matter.”
Holy cow!
These motherf**kers have solved the riddle of weight loss!
Because these fat burners won’t just burn fat, they’ll burn the bits you want to lose the most. Why hasn’t anyone else previously thought of doing this?
Oh, right… because it’s f**king impossible.
This would be spot reduction, and it’s a myth which has been thoroughly debunked in clinical trials. Your body will lose fat from wherever it wants; we can’t target it by eating a pill, or using the force. (1)
Allow me to correct that claim for them, with something a bit more realistic:
“Spot reduction is a myth. You cannot choose where you lose fat from. Belly fat, man boobs, thighs, hips, it doesn’t matter.”
NO EXERCISE NECESSARY
It’s a smart move to target the biggest possible audience.
But, not content with the fitness niche, Roar Ambition make another absolute howler by suggesting Instant Knockout will get results without any exercise.
I’ll be honest here…
Taking a fat burner without living a healthy lifestyle is kinda like trying to fight Rambo with a Nerf gun.
Save your money.
Roar Ambition should know better than to spread this bulls**t.
DON’T DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH… PLEASE
If a company has a great product, they’ll invite you to get stuck into the research behind it.
After all, it’s the best way to prove it works.
If they have a rubbish product, they’ll hide the formula behind a proprietary blend.
Roar Ambition go somewhere in the middle of the two.
They display the list of ingredients, but then advise us that we don’t need to do any research on them, because they’ve already done it all.
Conveniently, their “research” sees them make some bold claims about how effective some of the ingredients are for burning unwanted body fat. We wouldn’t want the reader to do some looking of their own, and uncover an entirely different story…
Red flag.
THE METABOLISM MYTH
Have you ever heard this?
“It’s not that you’re eating too many calories, bro, it’s that you’ve got a slow metabolism.”
Unfortunately, it is that you’re eating too many calories.
In fact, there isn’t a single study in history showing somebody getting themselves into a calorie deficit and failing to lose weight.
Not one.
But when we start looking at minutia like this, it places us in a grey area where supplement companies can take advantage of us, and present themselves as the silver bullet solution to all of our problems.
They’ll say things like, “by speeding up your metabolism, you will unlock the holy grail of fat loss!”
And again, like many of the other claims made so far, it just doesn’t work that way.
As shown by Kamal Patel here, about 96% of people stay within 200-300 calories of the average metabolism, and resting metabolic rate is not correlated with weight gain anyway. (2, 3)
The page does make one correct claim, though:
“As you cut calories and exercise, your body actually slows your metabolism!”
This is true.
Although it’s perfectly normal part of getting leaner, and doesn’t need to be dramatized. They go on to suggest that you’ve caused this by putting your body into starvation mode (total bulls**t) and “your body will store extra calories as body fat!”
This is supplement industry nonsense at its finest. Calories are all that matters when it comes to weight loss. If you are gaining weight, it’s because you are not in a calorie deficit. (4)
Instant Knockout Fat Burner – Ingredient Breakdown
Hype dismantled, we’ve arrived at the part of my reviews you guys seem to enjoy the most.
Because now I’m going to run through all the key ingredients used in Instant Knockout and explain what they are designed to do, and if you’re getting a proper dose.
Let’s begin with the main player…
300MG CAFFEINE
For a fat burner, this is a fair whack of caffeine.
Caffeine tolerance is subjective to the individual, but 300mg will be enough to provide most people with a kick up the butt. (5)
It’s got stacks of research to document the improvements it can make from increased strength output, to mental focus. I love it.
But its reputation as a “fat burner” is greatly over-hyped. (6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
Any fat loss achieved via caffeine is a direct result of the energy boost it creates, rather than the fat burning properties of the caffeine itself, and that boost depends wholly on the person being caffeine naive.
500MG GREEN TEA EXTRACT
Green tea extract is another mainstay of the fat burner industry.
But while green tea is definitely packed with antioxidants (useful), research does not support its reputation as a fat burner. (11, 12, 13)
In fact, even a tiny fat burning effect from green tea extract would require a huge dose, and results would still depend on the person being caffeine naive.
100MCG CHROMIUM
Chromium is a mineral associated with regulating glucose metabolism and insulin.
It’s been linked with appetite suppression.
When one of my PT clients suffered from a chromium deficiency, she found that getting it in supplement form did indeed help with food cravings.
But the key word is deficiency.
If you have one, you’d need a dose of around 1000mcg per day. That’s 10x the dose found in Instant Knockout.
And if you don’t already have a chromium deficiency, you don’t need to use it at all. Providing the body with more than it needs won’t improve results. (14, 15, 16, 17)
100MG GREEN COFFEE BEAN EXTRACT
Green coffee bean is often linked with improved heart health, and fat loss.
It appears to have a slight effect on both of the above.
… and I mean slight.
A meta-analysis of the available body of research surrounding green coffee bean extract was published back in 2011, and researchers concluded that out of 5 human trials conducted so far, only 3 measured weight loss, just 1 was published, and there was a very high chance of bias. (18)
1800MG GLUCOMANNAN
Glucomanan is a soluble fiber.
The inclusion of dietary fiber in any supplement is a great move, because most people don’t eat enough of it, but as a weight loss ingredient it won’t really factor in your results.
A 2014 meta-analysis published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition looked at claims glucomannan could be used as a rapid weight loss aid, and concluded that the evidence was statistically insignificant.
Also, just like above, it suggested that the current studies left a lot to be desired in terms of quality control. (19)
Instant Knockout Fat Burner Review – The Final Verdict
It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for…
I’m about to put Instant Knock Out through my deliberately harsh supplement rating system, to see what kind of score it can achieve!
Sadly, it did not excel.
In general, the fat burner industry is governed by crazy claims and pseudoscience. It is set up to take advantage of people who are at their wit’s end, and will try anything for a solution.
Roar Ambition’s Instant Knockout follows these same trends, delivering plenty of hype but not much substance.
When looking at any fat burner, the wording the company uses to describe the potential results tells you everything…
They’ll say things like “Can improve fat loss when combined with a healthy diet and exercise”.
And that’s really the key to success.
Because, f**k, a bar of chocolate can lead to fat loss when combined with a healthy diet and exercise.
In fact, if you worked on your healthy diet and exercise routine, and totally removed the fat burner pills from the equation, you’d see what was really causing the results.
In closing, Instant Knockout provides you with a fantastic fist tub, and a decent serving of caffeine, but nothing more. If that’s worth £35 per month to you, enjoy.
One star.
References:
- Katch F., et al. Effects of Sit Up Exercise Training On Adipose Cell Size and Adiposity. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. (1984)
- Amatruda J. M., et al. Total and resting energy expenditure in obese women reduced to ideal body weight. J Clin Invest. (1993)
- Weinsier R. L., et al. Metabolic predictors of obesity. Contribution of resting energy expenditure, thermic effect of food, and fuel utilization to four-year weight gain of post-obese and never-obese women. J Clin Invest. (1995)
- Howell S., et al. “Calories in, calories out” and macronutrient intake: the hope, hype, and science of calories. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. (2017)
- Beaven C. M., et al. Dose effect of caffeine on testosterone and cortisol responses to resistance exercise. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. (2008)
- Cook C., et al. Acute caffeine ingestion increases voluntarily chosen resistance training load following limited sleep. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. (2012)
- Del Coso J., et al. Dose response effects of a caffeine-containing energy drink on muscle performance: a repeated measures design. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. (2012)
- Mora-Rodríguez R., et al. Caffeine ingestion reverses the circadian rhythm effects on neuromuscular performance in highly resistance-trained men. PLoS One. (2012)
- Childs E., et al. Subjective, behavioral, and physiological effects of acute caffeine in light, nondependent caffeine users. Psychopharmacology (Berl). (2006)
- Kim T. W., et al. Caffeine increases sweating sensitivity via changes in sudomotor activity during physical loading. J Med Food. (2011)
- Hursel R., et al. The effects of green tea on weight loss and weight maintenance: a meta-analysis. Int J Obes (Lond). (2009)
- Westerterp-Plantenga M.S. Green tea catechins, caffeine and body-weight regulation. Physiol Behav. (2010)
- Diepvens K., et al. Obesity and thermogenesis related to the consumption of caffeine, ephedrine, capsaicin, and green tea. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. (2007)
- Pittler M. H., et al. Chromium picolinate for reducing body weight: meta-analysis of randomized trials. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. (2003)
- Attenburrow M. J., et al. Chromium treatment decreases the sensitivity of 5-HT2A receptors. Psychopharmacology (Berl). (2002)
- Docherty J. P., et al. A double-blind, placebo-controlled, exploratory trial of chromium picolinate in atypical depression: effect on carbohydrate craving. J Psychiatr Pract. (2005)
- Anton S. D., et al. Effects of chromium picolinate on food intake and satiety. Diabetes Technol Ther. (2008)
- Onakpoya I., et al. The use of green coffee extract as a weight loss supplement: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised clinical trials. Gastroenterol Res Pract. (2011)
- Onakpoya I., et al. The efficacy of glucomannan supplementation in overweight and obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. J Am Coll Nutr. (2014)