Over the last couple years, we’ve reviewed a few products from Mike Chang. You may know him as the guy who does the SixPack Shortcuts workouts and Abs After 40. That’s him, and along with his workouts, he also promotes a line of supplements to support your hard work. Not to long ago, one of my readers asked me to look into Leptin Shred, one of his weight loss supplements. I did, and this is what I found.

Benefits of Leptin Shred

Leptin Shred promises to boost your metabolism, and melt away belly fat so you can reveal those six pack abs fast. In addition to the specific targeting of leptin product, Leptin Shred also provides all the benefits you typically expect from a weight loss supplement. It burns fat, boosts metabolism, and suppresses your appetite, all while turning your body into the perfect environment for losing weight.

Leptin Shred Ingredients

The main focus of Leptin Shred is booting your body’s production. According to WebMD,  leptin is a protein made in fat cells that circulates through the bloodstream and tells the brain that the body’s thermostat is set correctly and that enough energy is stored in fat cells to support normal metabolic process. When you diet, you produce less leptin, signaling your metabolism to slow down, effectively telling your body to go into “starvation mode”.

In addition to not having enough leptin, it’s also possible to have increased leptin resistance. This is often the case with people who are overweight. When this is the case, the metabolism doesn’t respond to the signals sent by the leptin, and they keep eating, thinking they need more food for more energy.

Three ingredients in Leptin Shred are said to affect leptin in your body:

• African Mango Extract may improve the way leptin receptors work by reducing the activity of certain proteins that break down and damage leptin receptors. Essentially, it helps prevent leptin resistance.
• Olive Leaf Extract may stimulate leptin production, sending a feeling of fullness to the brain, reducing the amount of food you eat.
• White Willow Bark boosts the effect of the other leptin stimulating ingredients.

Other ingredients also support the fat burning efforts of Leptin Shred:

• Fucoxanthin may induce fat loss by reducing the growth of fat cells. It’s one of a few ingredients that can induce fat loss without being a stimulant.
• Synephrine HCL is a stimulant that increases metabolism and helps promote fat burning, while keeping you focused.
• Yohimbe Bark Extract increases adrenaline and stops fat cell growth. It’s also a stimulant.
• Piperine isn’t itself a fat burner. It helps make the other ingredients easier for the body to absorb.

Leptin Shred Side Effects

Supplements that contain stimulants like Yohimbe and Synephrine can cause side effects related to their stimulant characteristics. These include headache, dizziness, rapid heartbeat, and effects on blood pressure. These effects are multiplied when two or more stimulants are used together in the same supplement, which is the case with Leptin Shred. Yohimbe in particular has been known to cause a dangerous drop in blood pressure in some people.

Sure enough, if you check out the Leptin Shred reviews over at Amazon.com, of all the many negative reviews (and there are lots), several of them refer to side effects as the problem. I haven’t seen anything severe so far, but here are some examples:

Where to Buy

SixPack Shortcuts sells Leptin Shred online through several of their websites, and you can order it at Amazon.com too. A single bottle should last a month, and costs $67 at SixPack Shortcuts. At the time of this writing, Amazon.com is currently out of stock, so I’m not sure how much you can save by buying that way.

I should mention that buying Leptin Shred through Mike Chang’s websites is a little confusing and potentially very expensive. They act like you’re entering a sweepstakes or something where the prize is the opportunity to buy some Leptin Shred. Once you do get through, it turns out that buying a one month supply isn’t even really possible. You buy one bottle at first, but doing so automatically signs you up for monthly shipments that you have to pay for until you cancel. This set up is explained in the fine print, and you’re given no other indication that something like this is what you’re getting into.

It’s just like the free trials we always warn you about, but in this case of Leptin Shred, there isn’t even a free trial, just the automatic monthly shipping.

Leptin Shred Reviews

Because Leptin Shred is or was available on Amazon.com, that gives users an opportunity to leave Amazon reviews. Of the 14 reviews we found, 43% of them are 1-star reviews. This doesn’t bode well for how well this stuff works.

Here are a few examples of what people are saying:

• Malachi says: “Leptin Shred did not have any impact on my body that i was expecting to have. This product is a disappointment and was a total waste of $67.00. I have been using this product twice a day for a month with nothing to show for it.”
• Andrew says: “Complete waste of money, bs product- save your money. Money back guarantee is bs too- they make you pay to ship back empty container, very sad- all scam.”
• Jake says: “I took the pills as required for 30 days and felt very little difference.”

Mike Chang Complaints

As you know, Leptin Shred is part of Mike Chang’s fitness and lifestyle lineup of products and services. Mike’s built a large following based on his workouts (starting with Six Pack Shortcuts and expanding from there). It didn’t take long for him to branch out into supplements, and why not? He’s got a captive audience who trusts him.

Well, it’s not clear how much longer his audience will continue to trust him. He’s definitely an internet presence, but everywhere you look lately, there are complaints about his products, his services, and most of all, his billing practices. This is mainly because of the monthly autopay deal they make you sign up for.

I looked a a few bodybuilding/fitness forums as well as Reddit, and people are definitely starting to talk about how Mike Chang is just a scammer who’s figure out a way to make a huge profit locking people into monthly billing for something they only expected to buy once. It’s the same scam as the “free trial” scam we talk about all the time. The only difference is Leptin Shred and all of his other products don’t even start off as free.

Here. Take a look at the following section of a Mike Change thread on Reddit Fitness:

If you head over to the Better Business Bureau  you’ll see there are lots of complaints about the billing and customer service issues. In the end, it seems like they resolve the complaints, which is why they’re able to maintain a “B” rating, which is what they currently have.

Take a look at this actual complaints we found. It’s a good example encompassing a lot of what’s wrong with the company. The terms are not made clear, and when a customer tries to rectify the situation, they find it difficult to impossible. You shouldn’t have to resort to contacting the Better Business Bureau in order to get a refund for a product that claims to be covered by a money back guarantee:

Leptin Shred Pros and Cons

Advantages of Leptin Shred

• It contains several ingredients that should help you burn fat.

Disadvantages of Leptin Shred

• Some of the ingredients could cause side effects.
• Its pretty expensive, especially if you take more than 2 pills a day.
• There are several negative Leptin Shred reviews posted on Amazon.com by customers who’ve used it to no effect.
• The Better Business Bureau shows lots of complaints from customers, primarily about billing and customer service issues.

Conclusion

Iffy ingredients, bad reviews, sketchy online reputation, deceptive billing.  All these factors add up to a pretty negative perception of Leptin Shred. If most of the people who use it find that it doesn’t work, chances are it won’t work for you either.

Because these kind of products can be pricey and there are so many available, I would say that in general it is only worth shelling out some money on something that is actively getting positive reviews from real users.

This not only points you towards what kind of effects you are likely to have from trying the product out for yourself, but it also saves you from wasting time and money.

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Author: Rob Miller

Rob Miller founded SupplementCritique.com over 7 years ago, and has been the chief editor ever since. He has a diploma in Advanced Dietary Supplements Advisor, and worked at GNC for 3 years. He KNOWS supplements, both inside and out. Rob currently resides in Jupiter, FL, with his wife of 4 years.  Learn more about him in his Bio here. Follow him on Twitter , Facebook, LinkedIn, or find him on Google +. View all posts by Rob Miller