THE TRUTH ABOUT “SHREDZ” SUPPLEMENTS: A NO B.S REVIEW
There’s no question that the makers behind the hugely popular “Shredz” supplement line know a thing or two about marketing… but do their actual products live up to the hype?
You’ll find plenty of Shredz reviews if you run a search online, but most of them are either put out by affiliates who earn commissions by selling to you through their referral link, or by those who only give vague anecdotal opinions without any real science or evidence to back it up.
In this post, I’ll be giving you a no B.S, science-based overview of the main products in the Shredz supplement line by assessing the ingredients used, dosages and price.
I’m not affiliated with any supplement companies and my only goal here is to provide you with honest, accurate information so that you can make the smartest and most cost-effective decisions for your fitness program.
Let’s jump into it…
Complete Shredz Supplement Review
Shredz Whey Protein
Although the use of a protein powder certainly isn’t mandatory as part of your muscle building or fat loss diet, it can be a useful way to hit your daily protein needs in a more convenient and streamlined way.
Shredz Whey Protein provides a basic mix of whey protein concentrate, milk protein isolate and whey protein isolate and delivers a pretty standard nutritional breakdown of 23 grams of protein per 30 gram scoop, 3 grams of carbs and 1 gram of fat.
Based on the label it doesn’t appear to be amino spiked (a commonly used cost-cutting technique where cheap amino acid fillers are added into the powder to artificially raise the protein count) so that’s also a good sign.
All in all there’s no issue with the product itself, however, the main drawback here is simply the price.
If you’re using protein powder as part of your diet on a consistent basis, there’s no real reason to buy it in small 2 pound tubs like this since the cost per serving ends up being quite a bit higher in comparison to buying it in larger sizes.
Shredz offers 30 servings of their whey protein for $40 with no other available size/price options, and this works out to $1.33 per serving.
If you were to instead purchase, for example, a 5 pound tub of the highly popular Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey (this is the one I personally use), you’d be getting a product of equal quality but would only pay 78 cents per serving.
To put that in perspective, if you were using 2 scoops of whey protein per day as part of your diet, you’d save over $400 per year just from this one choice alone.
A couple of other good options include Dymatize Elite Whey (87 cents per serving) or Cellucor Cor-Performance Whey (96 cents per serving).
Again, there’s nothing wrong with Shredz Whey Protein itself in terms of quality or efficacy, but given that it’s only available in 2 pound tubs for $40 apiece, it’s not going to be your best option in terms of overall value per serving.
Shredz Testosterone Booster
Natural testosterone boosters may sound good in theory, but there’s simply no research-backed evidence out there to support the idea that these products are capable of raising testosterone to a high enough degree to measurably improve body composition.
Testosterone levels need to be raised by a very large percentage in order to produce any significant increases in muscle size or strength, and there are currently no studies available to show that any over-the-counter supplements are capable of achieving this.
Aside from that, Shredz “Alpha Testosterone” is also based off of a proprietary blend which prevents you from knowing what’s actually in the product in the first place.
As you can see below, all you’re given is a list of ingredients along with the total amount for all of them combined, but you’re not given the individual dosage per ingredient.
The use of proprietary blends is a very common cost-cutting technique that supplement companies typically use as a way of intentionally under-dosing their products to drive down production costs.
I’m not definitively saying that Shredz is using a proprietary blend here for that purpose, but that’s what they’re generally used for in the majority of cases in the supplement industry.
A proprietary blend makes the label look appealing because of the comprehensive list of recognizable ingredients that are included, but it allows the company to only sprinkle in a small amount of some or all of them without having to explicitly list the individual amounts.
They understand that the average consumer is simply responding to the marketing behind the product and won’t know the difference, so it’s a very easy way to increase profits.
The bottom line here is that natural testosterone boosters aren’t going to do anything to directly improve your overall rate of muscle growth or fat loss (they may provide a small increase in libido, but that’s about it), and proprietary blends are best avoided anyway.
Shredz Creatine
Next up in our Shredz supplement review is their Creatine product, which is a combination of magnesium creatine chelate along with a proprietary blend consisting of beta alanine, vanadyl sulfate and l-arginine.
First off, as I’ve mentioned countless times before, there is no research out there to demonstrate that any form of creatine provides additional benefits in comparison to basic creatine monohydrate.
The reason why supplement companies heavily market these so-called “new and improved” versions of creatine is because they sound a lot more exciting than basic monohydrate does and it allows them to jack up the price considerably as a result.
Creatine monohydrate is the most researched sports supplement in the world with an extremely high absorption rate in humans, and it will fully saturate the muscles within 2-3 weeks of use with no adverse side effects in otherwise healthy individuals.
There’s really nothing more you can ask for beyond that when it comes to proper creatine supplementation.
It’s not that the form of creatine Shredz is using here is necessarily “bad”, but there’s no reason to pay multiple times the cost for it when you can obtain all the benefits you need just by using regular monohydrate for a few pennies per serving.
As for beta alanine, while it is a useful compound for improving performance during activities in the 60-240 second range, the proper minimum dosage based on the research is 3.2 grams.
The proprietary blend that Shredz provides here gives you 2.2 grams for beta alanine, l-arginine AND vanadyl sulfate combined, so you can already see that this product is under-dosed by default which backs up what I mentioned previously about why proprietary blends are used in the first place.
All in all, you’re paying $50 a bottle here for over-priced creatine, under-dosed beta alanine, and two additional ingredients that likely won’t do anything in terms of improving training performance or muscle growth.
What you could do instead is simply purchase some basic creatine monohydrate on its own for around 3 cents per gram (Optimum Nutrition Micronized Creatine is a good choice), along with beta alanine on its own for around 6 cents per gram.
That way you’ll pay about $10 a month instead of $50, and you’ll get better results since you’ll be taking both compounds at their proper dose.
Shredz Fat Burner
After that we have Shredz “Fat Burner Max”, which is a thermogenic formula claimed to increase energy levels and “get you ripped and lean”.
Following the same pattern, all of the ingredient dosages are hidden behind a proprietary blend, so you have no clue what you’re actually getting in this product, or more accurately what you’re probably not getting.
The primary ingredient used in Fat Burner Max is African mango seed extract, which was a heavily marketed “weight loss miracle” a few years back but has died down quite a bit since then.
This compound is normally used as an appetite suppressant to be taken before meals, so why it would be used as the main ingredient in a pre-workout thermogenic formula I’m not really sure.
But of course, all you have to do with any fat burner is just throw in a dose of basic caffeine, because that way no matter what else is included in the product or how ineffective and under-dosed it might be as a whole, those taking it will feel that caffeine-induced rush of energy and thus conclude that the product “works”.
The reality is that caffeine is the central driving force behind virtually all the pre-workout formulas, over-hyped fat burners and energy drinks on the market, and while it is an effective compound for improving energy and training performance, it doesn’t mean you need to spend $75 per bottle to obtain its benefits.
A strong cup of coffee will do the trick just the same, or you can purchase caffeine anhydrous in pill form for about 4 cents per serving.
It’s quite honestly impossible to review this fat burner any further since all of the ingredient dosages are hidden, and weighing that off against the incredibly high price tag, I don’t think much more needs to be said here.
(If you’re looking for an effective yet inexpensive ingredient combination to take prior to workouts for increased strength and energy, check out the homemade pre-workout stack that I posted on my YouTube channel a while back.)
Shredz BCAA + Glutamine
BCAA’s and glutamine are two very popular bodybuilding supplements that many lifters swear by, but the truth is that they’re just not necessary for the vast majority of average trainees out there.
As long as you’re consuming a sufficient amount of total dietary protein each day (around 0.8-1 gram per pound of body weight), you’ll already be getting a sufficient amount of BCAA’s and glutamine in order to max out their muscle building benefits.
Most typical high quality protein sources already contain around 15-25% BCAA’s per gram of protein, providing around 4-6 grams in every standard serving you consume throughout the day.
Glutamine clocks in at around 10%, and on top of that, most glutamine consumed orally in isolated supplemental form never even makes it to the bloodstream or muscles in the first place and is instead used up by the intestines for energy.
I’ve done comprehensive posts on each of these supplements in the past outlining all the details behind why I don’t recommend using them, and you can click below for more info if you’re interested:
Are BCAA’s Worth It? (Branched Chain Amino Acids Review)
The Benefits Of Glutamine Supplements Debunked
Shredz ZMA
Last up in this Shredz supplement review is “Rebuild PM”, which is a ZMA product providing zinc, magnesium and vitamin B6, a combination that is generally used to improve sleep quality and enhance overall recovery from training.
I’m not opposed to zinc or magnesium supplementation because hard training lifters often have lower levels of these compounds since they’re depleted from the body through sweat.
However, not all forms of magnesium are created equally in terms of their quality and absorption rate, and the form used in this product is magnesium oxide which is well known to be the lowest grade and least absorbable form available.
This form is commonly used in cheap multivitamins and other low quality supplements as a way of reducing production costs.
There are plenty of other products out there that use the higher quality forms such as magnesium citrate, magnesium gluconate or magnesium diglycinate, and in keeping with the theme here, this Shredz supplement is also hugely over-priced at $45 for 30 servings which is incredibly high for a basic ZMA product.
The Final Word On Shredz Supplements
I think my opinion of Shredz Supplements should be pretty obvious at this point without me having to explicitly state it, so my advice is to just take the information I’ve provided in this Shredz review and make the decision for yourself.
Always keep in mind that supplements will only play a very minor role in any effective muscle building or fat loss program, and the vast majority of your results will simply come down to proper training and nutrition implemented over the long term.
Only a very small handful of supplements out there are worth investing in, and even the ones that do “work” will still only provide modest benefits.
If you want a compete rundown of the exact supplements I do recommend along with preferred brands, dosage instructions and other tips, then you can download my Free Fitness Supplementation Guide for more information.
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