Leanbean is a fat burner supplement targeted to women. The brand claims that this product reduces cravings and calorie intake, and also boosts energy and causes weight loss.

But is there medical evidence for women and men requiring different weight loss strategies? Does Leanbean use safe ingredients?

In this article we’ll analyze every ingredient in Leanbean based on medical research to give our take on whether the supplement is likely to cause weight loss, and whether it's safe. We'll also compare Leanbean to another weight loss supplement.

Ingredient Review

Leanbean contains 12 different active ingredients, all of which we’ll review for potential effectiveness for weight loss.

We can’t find any evidence at all that Vitamin B6 supplementation or Vitamin B12 supplementation causes weight loss.

We generally recommend avoiding supplements with random blends of vitamins, because taking vitamins while already having healthy blood levels of those vitamins can push blood levels into unsafe ranges. This is unlikely for water-soluble vitamins like B-vitamins, but we still believe it's illogical to take random doses of vitamins without a documented deficiency.

Chromium is a mineral that may be effective for weight loss, but the amount in Leanbean seems to be significantly underdosed. A medical review of chromium for weight loss published in the Obesity Reviews journal analyzed 11 clinical trials on chromium and weight loss, and found that its supplementation did cause weight loss on average.

The lowest chromium dose used in any of the studies was 137 micrograms (mcg) per day, and many of the studies used a dose at or over 500 mcg. Leanbean contains 11.67 mcg, which is less than 10% of what seems to be the minimally-effective dose.

We haven’t come across any research on human subjects suggesting that potassium is effective for weight loss, but regardless it doesn’t matter much because the dose used in Leanbean is incredibly low.

Leanbean contains 3 milligrams (mg) of potassium. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), one apple contains 260 mg of potassium and one banana contains 450 mg. This means Leanbean provides 0.6% the potassium of one single banana.

Zinc is the final ingredient from the vitamin and mineral blend, at a dose of 3.67 mg. We identified two clinical trials showing zinc may help with weight loss, but the dosages used were 20 mg and 30 mg, respectively. This suggests the amount in Leanbean may be underdosed.

Glucomannan is the next-listed ingredient, and it’s a purified flour from the konjac plant. It’s the main active ingredient in the Lipozene weight loss supplement which we previously reviewed. 

A meta-study on glucomannan supplementation and weight loss analyzed 9 individual trials and found no statistically significant weight loss effect. We consider this to be an ineffective weight loss ingredient.

We could only locate one article suggesting choline is effective for reducing body weight, but subjects were taking a daily dose of 2 grams (g), which is nearly 100x higher than the dose in Leanbean.

Garcinia cambogia extract may also be underdosed in Leanbean. A medical review found that this ingredient was effective for short-term weight loss, but all of the analyzed studies included doses higher than 1 g. The dose in Leanbean is 33.33 mg, or about 3% of what appears to be the minimally-effective dose. We don’t recommend garcinia extract regardless due to toxicity concerns.

The final four ingredients (green coffee bean extract, turmeric, Piperine and acai berry extract) are included at such a low dose that we don't believe it's even worthwhile to analyze each individually.

As an example, Leanbean contains 16.67 mg of turmeric powder. This isn’t even a concentrated extract; just a raw powder which means it's the same type of turmeric found in the spice aisle at a grocery store.

While curcumin, the primary chemical compound in turmeric, may be effective for weight loss based on medical research, the effective curcumin dose was found to be 1,000 mg in the linked meta-study. And curcumin is just one compound in turmeric, while the entire turmeric dose in Leanbean is 17 mg.

One benefit of Leanbean is that the supplement contains no potentially harmful or toxic inactive ingredients like artificial coloring or titanium dioxide which many other supplements do contain.

Overall we consider Leanbean to be very poorly formulated. We cannot identify one single active ingredient in Leanbean which we consider effective for weight loss at the stated dose. The supplement contains a number of ingredients that we recommend consumers avoid, such as garcinia cambogia extract and added vitamins.

Do Men and Women Require Different Weight Loss Strategies?

Much of Leanbean's marketing suggests that men and women require unique weight loss strategies. 

As stated in the intro section, this product is marketed explicitly to women, and the brand's website describes the supplement as a "powerful supplement for women" and "tailored to women."

But we have not come across any convincing medical research suggesting that men and women require different weight loss strategies. Weight loss is a simple thermodynamic process: calories consumed versus calories burned. This does not change based on sex.

While men and women have differing hormone types and levels, that doesn't necessarily mean that they require different weight loss strategies, and we haven't seen any proof of such.

Leanbean links to a Scientific American article on their homepage which found that men suppress food cravings better than women. While this may be true, we're unsure how this relates to Leanbean at all. This research doesn't prove that men and women require different weight loss supplement ingredients.

Our Weight Loss Supplement Recommendations

Rather than taking glucomannan for supplemental dietary fiber, we believe that taking regular supplemental fiber is an effective weight loss strategy.

An extensive medical review published in The Journal of Nutrition found that fiber intake directly predicts weight loss when consumed at a high enough dose. It's zero-calorie plant matter that makes you feel full faster, and consume fewer calories overall.

The fiber supplement we recommend is SuperGut Fiber Mix. It contains a clean and effective formulation: a blend of three different types of unflavored dietary fiber and zero additive ingredients. It can be mixed into liquids or foods. Interested consumers can buy SuperGut fiber at this link.

We recommend using two fiber mixes per day, which provides 16 g of fiber. This is within the effective fiber dosing range associated with the greatest weight loss outcomes in the above-linked study (8-29 additional grams per day).

Medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil is another dietary supplement which has been shown in clinical trials to cause weight loss.

MCT oil is quickly absorbed by the body and increases metabolic rate, which causes fat loss. A meta-study on MCT oil documented average weight loss of 0.51 kilograms (kg), which equates to 1.12 pounds (lbs). The trials lasted 10 weeks on average. This equates to a potential annualized weight loss of 5.84 pounds with MCT oil supplementation.

We recommend Bulletproof MCT Oil as our top MCT oil product, because it has a clean and effective formulation. The only ingredient is MCT oil derived from coconuts, and the product has no questionable additives. Interested consumers can buy Bulletproof MCT Oil at this link.

The effective dose range of MCT oil for weight loss (based on the medical review) is 1.7 g to 10 g per day. Bulletproof's MCT oil provides 14 g in one tablespoon, so around two-thirds of one tablespoon should be a maximally-effective dosage.

Leanbean Vs. PhenQ

Consumers are often curious about whether Leanbean or PhenQ (another weight loss supplement) is likely to be more effective for weight loss.

We published a PhenQ review article where we detailed how we could not identify any effective weight loss ingredients in that supplement. While we would not recommend either supplement, we consider Leanbean to be a healthier choice because it's free of the questionable additive ingredients in PhenQ such as artificial dye and a preservative.

Conclusion 

We don’t recommend Leanbean as we're unable to identify one single active ingredient we would consider likely to be effective for weight loss. This is an unfortunate conclusion in many of our weight loss supplement reviews.

While Leanbean markets specifically to women, we have not come across any medical research suggesting that weight loss strategies should be different based on sex.

We consider dietary fiber and MCT oil to be effective weight loss supplements, and should be especially effective in the context of a healthy diet and exercise regimen.

PhenQ, another weight loss supplement, has a worse formulation in our opinion than Leanbean due to its additive ingredients.