Are You Beach Body Ready? Not If You Drink This Bullshit!

If you watch reality television then you’ve likely already been visually attacked by a Protein World advert.

It appears to be the current whey protein shake of choice in an era of orange social media celebrities, but today I’m going to see how it stacks up against the top whey protein supplements in the fitness industry as a whole.

Yes, it’s time my detailed Protein World Slender Blend review!

Protein World Slender Blend: The Good Stuff

There’s one very good aspect of Slender Blend; it hits the “sweet spot” for maximizing muscle growth.

That’s because it provides you with 22.9 grams of protein per serving, and studies show that anything in the region of 19-25g falls into the right ballpark to get the job done. (1)

NOTE: It’s not that a higher serving size won’t help you build muscle, of course, but that the returns diminish with larger sizes (see below).

Protein World Slender Blend: The Bad Stuff

Wait.. that’s all the good stuff???

Yes, unfortunately it’s going to be one of those reviews.

I know a lot of you guys seem to enjoy it when I savage a product with science and common sense – I guess it makes a change from the fake “5 star reviews” you see in Google and on social media (#ad) – so you’re in for a fucking treat today!

You see, the problems with Slender Blend start before we even purchase it. The Protein World website is so heavy on filtered images of pretty people yet light on science, and I had to dig pretty deep in order to locate the nutritional information for this product.

That’s a red flag, as it tells me the brand aren’t expecting their target audience to care what’s in the product (more on this later).

Their ulterior motive for making this information hard to find is that they can brush over the fact that the (great) 22.9 grams of protein comes alongside 7.9 grams of carbs and 2 grams of fat in each serving.

Now, these are fairly hefty numbers for a whey protein supplement which is primarily aimed at the weight loss market, giving a 60% protein-per-serving ratio (ideally we want 75% or above) and it means that there’s a sizeable chunk of each scoop devoted to things which are not protein (mostly sugar in this case).

This combination of carbs and fat alongside a plethora of sweeteners and thickeners has clearly been added to sweeten the taste of the product, but with so many other great whey protein supplements already able to tick the “great taste” box without this, Slender Blend struggles to compete.

More disappointment awaits when we delve deeper into the formula itself.

You see, when a product carries such a high price tag (£60 for a 2kg tub) one would assume this is due to the inclusion of one (or several) premium grade ingredients which warrant the extra shelling out.

For instance, a product might swap out standard whey protein concentrate in favour of a top-of-the-line protein blend consisting of several different protein sources (e.g. hydrolised whey protein isolate, egg protein, and casein) in order to give us the absolute most “bang for our buck” in terms of muscle building potential. (2)

Sadly that’s not the case here, because Slender Blend only uses whey protein concentrate; the cheapest and most basic form of whey protein available!

Honestly, when comparing it against industry-leading (and similarly priced) whey protein supplements like this, the Slender Blend formula is beaten worse than a trash can at a dance theatre group.

Finally, we arrive at the coupe de grace; a supposed “fat burning blend” consisting of a handful of ingredients which have long been known to do very little for fat loss.

Adding these ingredients to the product enables the manufacturer to write things like “fat burning” and “fat loss” on the label and in the marketing blurb, which makes the product infinitely more sellable, but they offer very little in terms of real world benefits.

(For example; caffeine has been previously show to increase our daily calorie intake so you’ll often see it touted as a “fat burner”, but what they don’t say is that it only improved results by 0.00005%!)

The supposed “fat burning ingredients” contained within Slender Blend include green tea extract and guarana extract. These are both popular ingredients, but their ability to help us burn body fat is questionable. Green tea extract has only been shown to improve fat loss results when consumed in very high doses (far higher than available here), and even then, the results were so small and depended entirely upon the user being caffeine naive. Meanwhile there are no studies (ever!) which show that guarana can improve fat loss results, so any claims along those lines are likely down to the fact that it contains a very small amount of caffeine. (3, 4, 5, 6)

Of course, regardless of being hidden behind a proprietary blend or not, the fat burning ingredients are barely effective anyway.

For example, green tea extract is often hyped as a fat burner, however it will not make any difference unless consumed in absolutely ridiculous amounts. Even then, the results are tiny and depend on the person being caffeine naive. (3, 4, 5)

The other key ingredient hailed as a fat burner in Slender Blend is guarana extract. But again, there is no research to show it promotes fat loss. Guarana does have caffeine inside it, but you’d need a super-high dose to see any effects at all. (6)

To make matters worse, this “fat burning blend” uses what’s known as a proprietary blend. This means you’ll see the total sum of all the ingredients, but not the individual doses of each one.

Now, imagine you paid for a movie with your favourite celebrity on the cover only to see he/she is only onscreen for 5 minutes… you’d be fucking raging, right?

That’s essentially what a proprietary blend does.

It’s an old food industry loophole which most reputable manufacturers have walked away from in the last couple of decades in favour of showing customers the actual doses of each ingredient, but Protein World (and several others) continue to use this shady tactic.

So as we can see, the elevated price tag of Slender Blend doesn’t appear to have a direct correlation with the quality of the product, which leaves me with one question…

Who Are Protein World And Why Are They Everywhere?

If you follow Khloe Kardashian, you’ve likely already encountered Protein World before.

The company has been incredibly smart with their marketing. Light years ahead of their competitors, in fact.

By partnering with reality TV stars, they have cornered their niche of the fitness industry and established themselves in just a few short years.

If you’re don’t keep up with the Kardashians, however, you likely know Protein World from the advert shown below.

Back in 2015, this bright yellow billboard was splashed all over London, and is remembered as the ad which started the whole body shaming movement.

Heck, I get it.

As a tanned, skinny blonde glares down with almighty smugness, the slogan “Are You Beach Body Ready?” punches like a blow from Mike Tyson, making women everywhere feel self-conscious about the pressure of summer looming around the corner.

Body shaming is something which has become increasingly worse since then, too, with a growing number of men also feeling pressured to look ‘perfect’.

It was subsequently voted “Worst Ad of the Year”.

But it got even crazier for Protein World…

Their CEO decided the best way to deal with the public backlash was to claim “the only people offended by our advert are feminist terrorists (!!) who are insecure about their own bodies.”

Cue madness!

Actually, cue genius marketing tactics.

The increased publicity this advert created elevated Protein World from run-of-the-mill overpriced supplement company (which it is) to national level supplement brand, and profits rose by £2 million.

All publicity is good publicity, as they say.

This is a marketing style Protein World have fiercely stuck to since then, because it works for them.

Khloe Kardashian is an ambassador for Protein World?

If anything, that should be a f**king deterrent! This is the same Khloe Kardashian who’s TV coach advised her to put butter in coffee to burn more fat…

But for Protein World, it works.

This is not the first time a celebrity has endorsed a product, and it’s actually a much better match than we usually see.

For example, can you remember when Bono advertised credit cards? Gwyneth Paltrow has literally made a second career selling woo. Or, my personal favourite, Hulk Hogan flogging grills.

It looked like he had no idea why he was there.

Getting that pairing of celebrity and product is very hard to do, but it can almost guarantee success if the balance is right.

For example, Arnold Schwarzenegger partnered with MusclePharm in 2015 and released a line of bodybuilding supplements.

They absolutely sucked.

I repeat:

Arnold Schwarzenegger. Bodybuilding supplements. F**king sucked.

Sales were still through the roof, however, (because Ah-nuld) and the line quickly became MulsclePharm’s best sellers.

He was the perfect fit for that product, and they knew it.

My point being, Khloe Kardashian may not be the pinnacle of fitness industry cutting edge information, but she is perfect for Protein World because they are targeting a very specific niche.

They’ve doubled down on this approach, working with scores of annoyingly orange Instagram influencers and contestants on reality TV shows like Geordie Shore and Love Island. to push their products at their legions of followers.

Sure, they might occasionally say nonsense like “I think vegans are cruel for drinking water, because that’s a fish’s house”, or give completely bulls**t dieting advice which lands them in hot water. But for the most part, it works.

Misleading Claims Everywhere

Alongside the bulls**t advice which goes hand-in-hand with essentially hiring social media influencers are your sales team, the Protein World website itself is a minefield of weight loss myths.

Before we get stuck into that, we must look at a considerably larger issue…

Back in 2016, The Sun reported that Slender Blend was found to contain a whopping 17x more carbs than advertised.

Holy f**k! 17 times!

Way to treat customers like a giant bag of d**ks!

Instead of the 2.2g per 100g claimed, it contained 38.5g! Protein was also down from the claimed 70g (per 100g) to just 50g.

To make matters worse for Protein World, the product was tested twice, to the same outcome.

“The declared nutrition information was outside acceptable tolerances of accuracy which is potentially misleading.”

– Jon Griffin, Kent Scientific Services (who carried out the tests).

The repercussions could be serious, with the company now being investigated by Trading Standards, who had this to say:

“The company is committed to complying with legal ingredients, health claims, and labeling standards. Should Protein World fail to do so, we will seriously consider all legal enforcement options.”

– Trading Standards

Sadly, they didn’t learn from this…

In 2018, the Advertising Standards Agency quite literally forced Protein World to remove several misleading weight loss claims from their website and products.

This included incorrect or unproven statements about the effectiveness of CLA, ketones, and other ingredients.

A total of nine issues were investigated by the ASA, and all of them were upheld.

Misleading claims continue to run rife through the website, though.

Using their products will apparently give you “a firmer bum, a slimmer tum, and leaner thighs”.

Otherwise known as spot reduction, which is impossible. (7)

The hype runs strong throughout Slender Blend’s surrounding product line, most notably ‘Toner’ capsules which, despite hinting at fat loss in the product name, are merely a mixture of creatine monohydrate and a multivitamin blend.

Both ingredients are way under-dosed, but they do seem pleased to tell us it’s gluten free…

Whatever next… gluten free Facebook?

There’s even time for one of my favourite fitness buzzwords to make an appearance; detox.

Yes, it appears the Protein World boffins have developed a capsule which is able to detox your body of nasty toxins and cleanse your soul of the evil powers of rock n’ roll…

… ignoring the fact that no detox product has ever been shown to work. Ever. (8)

We also get silly claims that you can lose up to 4lbs per week as a result of using Slender Blend as a meal replacement shake.

Yes, the good old meal replacement line…

Whenever a supplement manufacturer recommends customers begin replacing actual food with their product, all credibility flies out of the window.

The clue is in the name; a whey protein supplement is there to supplement your food, not replace it.

The reason I dislike meal replacement recommendations is because a) the company just wants you to use more product, and b) they’re about to drop some insanely bad dieting advice on you…

Cue insanely bad dieting advice:

“Replace two meals with Slender Blend shakes!”

With each shake being 150 calories, a moderate sized lunch would see many people drop under the dreaded 1000 calories per day threshold.

No s**t you’re losing weight! You’re f**king starving!

As mentioned earlier, I’ve never been a fan of meal replacement shakes. But if we want to be picky (and you know I do), the well-received Channel 4 program SuperShoppers conducted a trial in 2018 comparing the performance of Protein World Slender Blend against three other meal replacement products.

Despite the fact Slender Blend was (by far) the most expensive product, it came bottom of the study results.

To make matters even more hilarious devastating, this was a blind study; meaning the participants didn’t know which products they were using.

Ouch!

Ultimately, this is all just misleading advertising from a company who have a history of misleading advertising.

Protein World Slender Blend Review – Final Verdict

It’s crunch time…

I’m about to finalize my Protein World Slender Blend review by running it through my supplement rating system.

It’s deliberately harsh, and no supplement has ever received full marks.

But first, I’m gonna tell you a little story…

When I was a kid, I picked up The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Sure, it might be a little dated now, but that book taught me the foundations of lifting weights and laid out the principles of proper nutrition and hard training.

It was a game changer for me.

Nowadays, however, many kids look up to orange social media celebrities who’d be more qualified to teach you about taking a selfie than setting a PR.

And this is the exact niche Protein World aim their products towards.

Forget the forward strides made by the awesome Jessica Ennis-Hill at the London Olympics, teaching women to focus on being strong, not skinny… Protein World appear to represent a throwback to the dark old days, where body shaming is cool and the number of likes you received on your last IG post determines how happy you are inside.

Our youth has it tough.

Its popularity is largely down to its marketing as a status symbol (being able to be part of the ‘in crowd’ on Insta), rather than its quality.

As a whey protein supplement, Slender Blend is severely lacking.

I was originally going to finish my review with the award of 1 star but, given the ongoing nutrition label scandal, it becomes the first supplement to receive zero stars.

See the product here. If you’re looking for a much more solid whey protein supplement, try this one instead.

References:

1. Moore, D. R., et al. Ingested protein dose response of muscle and albumin protein synthesis after resistance exercise in young men. Am J Clin Nutr. (2009)
2. Paul, G. L., et al. The rationale for consuming protein blends in sports nutrition. J Am C Nutr. (2009)
3. Hursel, R., et al. The effects of green tea on weight loss and weight maintenance: a meta-analysis. Int J Obes (Lond). (2009)
4. Westerterp-Plantenga, M.S. Green tea catechins, caffeine and body-weight regulation. Physiol Behav. (2010)
5. 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)
6. Rodrigues, M., et al. Herb-Drug Interaction of Paullinia cupana (Guarana) Seed Extract on the Pharmacokinetics of Amiodarone in Rats. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. (2012)
7. Perry, E. Targeted Fat Loss: Myth or Reality? Yale Scientific. (2001)
8. Blachford, A., et al. The Voice Of Young Science brings you; the detox dossier. (2009)