Meticore is a dietary supplement which claims to cause weight loss by increasing core body temperature.
In this article we’ll review every ingredient in Meticore based on medical research to give our take on whether the supplement is likely to be effective for weight loss. We’ll also highlight some questionable marketing practices the company engages in, and explain why we don't recommend buying Meticore on Amazon.
Ingredient Review
There are several weight loss supplements selling a product called "Meticore" and it's unclear if there is one official manufacturer. The ingredient list shown above is the only Meticore ingredient list we could access from any of the retailers. Many of the Meticore websites and Amazon listings failed to publish an ingredient list.
We do not consider Vitamin B12 to be an effective weight loss ingredient. While Vitamin B12 deficiencies are associated with obesity in medical research, we haven’t seen a single study suggesting that its supplementation directly causes weight loss, so we will consider this to be an ineffective ingredient.
As we discussed in our Plexus Slim review of another weight loss supplement, we consider the mineral chromium to be ineffective for weight loss, and we believe it's significantly underdosed in this formulation regardless. A 2010 clinical trial on chromium for weight loss found it ineffective even at a dose of 1000 micrograms (mcg), which is 28x the dosage in Meticore.
The rest of this supplement is a proprietary (prop) blend called the "Meticore Formula Blend." We disagree with the use of prop blends and recommend that consumers avoid supplements listing ingredients in this manner.
Listing the ingredients as a prop blend allows companies to list only the total dose but not the individual dose of the ingredients contained in the blend, making it harder for consumers and researchers to determine if each ingredient is effectively dosed.
Turmeric may be effective as a weight loss supplement, but is almost certainly underdosed in this product because a medical review of curcumin (the active chemical compound in turmeric) and weight loss analyzed studies which nearly all contained dosages at or over 500 milligrams (mg), which is double the dose of every ingredient in Meticore combined.
African mango seed may be effective for weight loss, but we consider it underdosed in Meticore. We identified two studies on African mango seed for weight loss that yielded favorable outcomes, but the doses were 350 mg and 150 mg, respectively. Since the average dosage of each ingredient in Meticore's prop blend is only 42 mg we will consider this ingredient ineffective.
It’s also important to note that both studies above used an extract of African mango seed, which is more potent than the raw African mango seed in Meticore.
Ginger is another good ingredient choice that we find to be underdosed in this formulation. A medical review of 14 clinical trials on ginger supplementation for weight loss found it to be effective, but the lowest dose used in any of the trials was 200 mg and most trials used closer to 1,000 mg. Since the average ingredient dose in Meticore's prop blend is 42 mg, we will consider this ingredient underdosed and ineffective.
Moringa leaf is the fourth-listed prop blend ingredient in Meticore, and again the brand uses the raw botanical ingredient rather than a more potent extract version. Moringa leaf extract has been shown in two animal studies (1, 2) to have anti-obesity effects, but we can't identify any medical research suggesting that raw moringa leaf (what's in Meticore) is effective for weight loss.
Citrus bioflavonoids were found to be effective for weight loss in one animal study, but the animals consumed diets with two separate bioflavonoids at 0.3% and 3% of their diet by weight. This is many times higher than the relative dose of bioflavonoids a human would get from Meticore, and so we will again consider this ingredient underdosed and ineffective.
Fucoxanthin is an ingredient derived from brown algae. We can only locate one human study on its weight loss effect. While the study did show an anti-obesity effect, 300 mg of pomegranate seed oil was also used so the effect can’t be ascribed to fucoxanthin alone.
This Meticore formulation is free of any harmful inactive ingredients like artificial color, flavoring or titanium dioxide which is a good thing.
Overall we find this to be an underwhelming formulation, and we don't believe it will be effective for weight loss. While many of the ingredients have some medical research backing for weight loss, we cannot identify one single ingredient that we consider effectively dosed.
Questionable Health Claims
At the time of initially writing this article, Meticore’s site had several health claims that we strongly disagreed with. The website claimed that Meticore was “safer than your daily multivitamin” without any medical citation.
Multivitamins have been studied extensively and are conclusively safe for long-term use. We don’t recommend their use, but we found this statement to be highly questionable given that Meticore has never been studied in a legitimate clinical trial published in a medical journal.
The website also claimed that “doctors researching these natural ingredients recommend you take Meticore for at least 90 days to 180 days to ensure you reach your desired weight”.
There was no reference to which doctors were making these claims, and this claim may be misleading to consumers.
It appears that Meticore has since updated the language on their website, possibly due to our comments. The first statement has been removed, and the second statement has been changed to a more standard marketing claim that we take no issue with:
"For optimal results, consumers should take the pills regularly for at least 90-180 days."
There are still health claims we disagree with on the Meticore site, such as the uncited claim that low body temperature is the root cause of slow metabolism. We have not seen any medical evidence of this.
Questionable Marketing Practices
Meticore’s website highlights logos from various medical institutions right under their product pictures, which indirectly suggests that these institutions recommend their supplement. We very strongly disagree with this marketing practice, and it may confuse consumers.
The logos of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), International Journal of Obesity, American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA), and the Journal of Applied Physiology are shown.
It’s unclear why these associations were selected, but it’s likely because some of the ingredients used in Meticore were referenced by these associations. That does not infer a recommendation of Meticore by any of these associations.
If a supplement company uses Vitamin C in their formulations, it doesn't mean they can claim that the Council for Responsible Nutrition backs their product just because that organization has studied Vitamin C.
We believe that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) should look into this practice for potential false advertising.
Our Clean Weight Loss Picks
There are food-based nutrients which have been shown in medical studies to be effective for weight loss.
Dietary fiber was shown in a medical review published in The Journal of Nutrition to cause 16 pounds of weight loss in 6 months when combined with moderate caloric restriction (750 calories per day below baseline).
Supergut Fiber Mix is our top fiber supplement, because it contains three different types of fiber powder, and retails for only $1.75 per serving at a subscription rate.
MCT oil was shown in a meta-study to cause more than one pound of weight loss over 10 weeks. This equates to potential annualized weight loss of 6 pounds per year with less than one tablespoon's worth of MCT oil per day.
Bulletproof MCT Oil is our top MCT oil product, because the only ingredient is MCT oil derived from coconuts. and it currently costs only $15.50 for over a month's worth of product.
Ginger intake "significantly decreased body weight" according to a 2019 meta-study on ginger and weight loss that analyzed data from 14 clinical trials.
Pique La Ginger is our top ginger product, because it's an organic tea in convenient crystallized form, and all that's needed is to pour the powder into a glass and add hot water.
All three of the products mentioned in this section are entirely free of additive ingredients that we consider to be unhealthy or unsafe.
Avoid Meticore on Amazon
For consumers intent on purchasing Meticore, we would recommend purchasing directly from the manufacturer's website (which we don't want to link here because we do not support their business) as opposed to purchasing on Amazon.
As referenced in the intro to this article, there are many different Meticore products available on Amazon, and none of the ones we examined published an ingredient list. It's highly unsafe to purchase a dietary supplement without an ingredient list.
What appears to be the official Meticore manufacturer website has the ingredient list we shared above, and which we analyzed in this review.
Purchasing from the official manufacturer will allow consumers to know what ingredients are in the product they're buying.
