Best Fat Burners For Men

We could all do with a little help as we set about losing weight. A weight loss diet can be grueling and often inefficient, impacting our metabolic health, mood, and energy levels, even as we struggle with hunger.

Luckily, there is a type of supplement tailor made to undo many of the negative effects of dieting for weight loss – thermogenic fat burners. The best fat burners for men will have some form of thermogenic support baked in.

They are designed to keep your metabolism functioning optimally, give you a bit of energy, clear your head, and make it easier to eat to a calorie deficit.

As with any part of the supplement market, there are some true champions. There are also some complete time wasters – supplements with no effects (or even sometimes negative effects) that cost the Earth whilst leading only to disappointment.

In a bid to avoid the latter and promote the best of the former, we’ve put together a list of our top fat burners for men that money can buy.

Best Thermogenic Fat Burners For Men

In this guide (more beneath the verdict), I will keep talking about ‘good’ fat burners and what they can do for you. But what does a good fat male burner look like?

The market is, after all, saturated by thousands of different weight-loss pills and supplements for seemingly everything under the sun. Even the market for good quality thermogenic fat burners is quite a crowded place – there are dozens of decent supplements out there.

But, as in every corner of the supplement market, there are a few stand-out heroes, a few male fat burning supplements that stand head and shoulders above the rest.

Below are what I consider to be these heroes – the fat burners I would recommend to anybody wanting an easier, more effective time of it on their weight loss journey – but they also happen to be among the best fat burners for males available.

PhenQ

I’ll start with one of my favorite supplements of all – PhenQ.

PhenQ is made by Wolfson Berg, a supplements company who have been leading their corner of the market for over a decade now. It is an incredible product that promises to give all the benefits promised by any thermogenic fat burner.

Firstly, it will of course increase your metabolic rate by eliciting greater thermogenesis. You will be using up more calories at rest than you otherwise would be.

It should also help with hunger satiation, suppressing your appetite, whilst also improving your focus and mental clarity. Finally, it should boost your mood and energy levels.

In short, it will undo the nasty side effects that you can expect with a calorie deficit, whilst also making the deficit that much more effective.

PhenQ manages this with something of a who’s who of potent ingredients. Everything is natural, high-quality, and well dosed.

Their ingredients list kicks off with the really very special A-Lacey’s Reset. It’s a trademarked formulation tailor made to boost your natural metabolism and the rate at which you burn body fat. It’s also scientifically very well justified with a wealth of high quality data underpinning its effective use.

The formula itself is a mixture of alpha lipoic acid, cysteine, and magnesium. Clinical data show that each of these ingredients can help in lowering levels of body fat and heightening general weight loss. In concert, they have also been shown to mitigate symptoms of fatigue, instead promoting muscle growth (hypertrophy) and recovery. 

You get 25 mg of A-Lacy’s Reset per PhenQ dose.

Next up, PhenQ gives you 80 mcg of chromium picolinate. Chromium picolinate is a trace element central to healthy metabolization and storage of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates.

Daily use has been proven to help overweight subjects to lower their BMI by losing body fat over several months. Its main role seems to be in controlling blood sugar levels. As we’ve already seen, evening out blood sugar levels like this can reduce hunger pangs and satiate overall appetite.

80 mcg is perhaps a little lightweight. Most of the scientific literature on chromium picolinate and its effective use is based on a daily intake of more like 400 micrograms. On its own, therefore, 80 mcg is pretty lean.

Luckily, however, it’s not on its own. Combined with the rest of the ingredients, a light touch of chromium picolinate seems to work very well.

We’ve spoken about caffeine a lot already. We’ll continue to talk about it a fair amount. It’s a central pillar for many thermogenic, energy giving, appetite suppressing supplements.

And you get a very workable amount of particularly good quality caffeine in PhenQ, with a generous 142.4 milligrams of caffeine anhydrous, one of the best caffeine forms going. This is about the amount you would expect from something like a double espresso.

As we have seen, caffeine increases thermogenesis. It is also thought to aid fat oxidation, giving your fat burning potential a bit of a double whammy.

Or triple whammy, if you like, as caffeine is also a mild appetite suppressant.

Of course, the benefits don’t end here. Caffeine is perhaps the best known, most widely used stimulant going. It stimulates your central nervous system and thus gives you plenty of energy. As we will see, calorie deficits are often accompanied by lethargy, sluggishness, and brain fog. All of these can be undone in one stroke with a simple, strong injection of good quality caffeine.

These are all aided by a slew of additional ingredients known for increasing thermogenesis and/or energy levels and/or satiation, including the likes of calcium carbonate, nopal, l-carnitine tartrate, and capsicum. Capsicum in particular is one of the best thermogenic ingredients going, partnering up well with the caffeine content.

Lastly, PhenQ gives you 3 mg of piperine, one of my favorite inclusions into any supplement.

By itself, piperine does little for weight loss. It has some of its own benefits, of course, including some quite potent anti-inflammatory properties, which will aid post-exercise recovery whilst also protecting against infection and chronic illnesses. However, it generally finds its way into top-shelf supplements for its ability to make every other ingredient in any given formula more bioavailable.

Basically, your body will be able to absorb and utilize the other ingredients in PhenQ’s formula far more effectively and efficiently because of the piperine.

All the ingredients included in PhenQ are completely natural and vegetarian and vegan friendly. Though it’s a little pricey, there is worldwide free shipping included with each purchase, and you will also be able to find some good multi-buy options available, making it far more economical.

PhenQ Pros

• Good thermogenic and energy boosting effects
• Can potentially inhibit new fat cell creation
• Suppresses hunger to a degree
• Few reported side effects outside of the caffeine content
• Everything is natural and vegan friendly
• Underpinned by high quality research

PhenQ Cons

• High caffeine content may be unsuitable for some
• There are better supplements out there for appetite suppression

Phen24

Phen24 is one of the cleverest fat burners that money can buy. Where its competitors all rely on single formulas to do a lot throughout the day, Phen24 goes for 24-hour coverage using two distinct formulas.

It gives you all the effects that you would expect of a good thermogenic fat burner during the daytime, with added help through the night – it’s also perfectly ideal for men.

The daytime pill is sort of par for the course on this list. It’s a high-quality thermogenic fat burner made from high-quality, potent ingredients. It is there purely to give your metabolism a bit of a jump start, whilst giving you plenty of energy and leveling out your appetite a bit.

To this end, its ingredients list include plenty of stimulants and similar compounds aimed at eliciting greater rates of thermogenesis. These include caffeine and guarana, for both a good energy kick and that thermogenic reaction we are looking for, as well as specific micronutrients such as copper, iodine, and zinc, which are all known for promoting lasting energy levels.

The zinc is particularly important, here. We are looking at fat burners for men. You will struggle to maintain a healthy metabolism without first optimizing your testosterone levels. Zinc is one of the leading ingredients for promoting high natural testosterone output – which in turn is linked to greater weight management.

The night time pills forgo this kind of high-stimulation, high-thermogenic modus operandi.

As well they should – the caffeine involved in this kind of action would completely ruin your sleep. Rather, they seek to keep your metabolism ticking over nicely whilst keeping you from getting hungry and being tempted to snack between dinner and the following breakfast.

It rests largely on glucomannan, or konjac root extract, one of the healthiest forms of fiber available. It swells up to 50x its natural size in the stomach, aiding satiation without adding any extra calories. It also promotes healthy digestion. As fiber is often lacking in a weight loss diet, these benefits cannot be overlooked.

At the same time, the night time pills include added ingredients like chromium, thiamine, plyridoxine HDL, and ascorbic acid, which have all been associated with metabolic health.

Everything is natural and vegan. Each purchase comes with free global shipping, and there is a good range of multi-buy discounts on offer.

Phen24 Pros

• Very clever formula
• Round the clock coverage
• Combines thermogenesis with good appetite suppression
• Will stabilize the metabolism and even out blood sugar levels
• Suitable for vegans

Phen24 Cons

• High caffeine content may be unsuitable for some
• It can be awkward taking two separate supplements

Hunter Burn

There is an odd trend within the supplements industry (though I’m sure far from limited to it) that thermogenic fat burners throw into quite stark relief. Often very, very similar supplements, with the same goals and plenty of overlapping ingredients, are aimed at very different sections of the population.

For instance, you’ll often see a supplement aimed at and aggressively marketed towards either men or women, despite being perfectly suitable for both. Or, for instance, you’ll see a good quality thermogenic fat burner, like our next offering, Hunter Burn, aimed at a very specific type of person, despite it being good for all comers.

It’s marketed at seemingly very high-octane types, adrenaline fueled, testosterone filled, hyper masculine gym warriors. This makes a fair amount of sense – the company who manufacture it are called Roar Ambition, which should tell you a lot.

And it will work incredibly well for this type of person – somebody who wants to make the most of an active lifestyle by crushing it in the gym no matter the depth of their calorie deficit.

But honestly, behind all this hype, we have something that looks remarkably similar to plenty of other options on this list. Behind it all, we simply have a very good thermogenic fat burner – one that is incredibly well suited to men.

It’s actually kind of an odd branding for other reasons, too, which become very evident when you look at the ingredients list. It’s a bit of a premium list, and Roar Ambition charge you a lot because of it, but it’s solid. It’s just kind of lacking anything too high energy. It relies as much on appetite suppression as it does on anything else.

This comes courtesy of glucomannan, that brilliant, water-soluble dietary fiber we saw above. It expands into a gelatin substance when mixed with water in your stomach, inflating to 50x its natural size. You’ll experience greater hunger satiation in conjunction with much improved digestive health.

Hunter Burn also uses white kidney bean extract, which is very intelligent. It can greatly alter the way in which our bodies absorb carbohydrates.

Most people’s excess eating is made up of carbs which the body doesn’t need. It turns them into body fat for storage, giving us reserves to fall back on in leaner times. The only problem is that there generally aren’t lean times in the post-industrial world. However, white kidney bean extract shows promise for being able to reduce the breakdown of complex carbs into simpler ones.

This will lead to lower blood sugar levels and lasting satiation, mixing nicely with the glucomannan to make you feel fuller for longer.

It isn’t all about appetite satiation, of course. There is a good thermogenic hit to be found in Hunter Burn. This comes from cayenne pepper, which is rich in capsicum. It’s one of the best, most potent ingredients for thermogenic properties that we know of. It may also serve a similar role to something like piperine, increasing the bioavailability of all the other ingredients included in Hunter Burn’s formula. 

The cayenne pepper is backed up by a solid helping of matcha green tea. There are plenty of health benefits to be gained from matcha green tea, stemming in no small part from its antioxidant properties. However, it is also a potent thermogenic ingredient, far and above what you would expect simply from the caffeine content it includes.

It also gives that energy kick that is otherwise absent in Hunter Burn’s formula – green tea delivers an awful lot of caffeine.

Then there is a little tailoring towards those living an active lifestyle. This comes from l-theanine, an amino acid that serves a couple of functions in this formula. Firstly, it has been shown to possibly inhibit fat build up, which is obviously helpful in a weight loss context. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it helps to maintain lean muscle mass that might otherwise be metabolized during a calorie deficit.

Essentially, it will help you to lose fat without too much muscle mass, which is always a fear for any dieter.

Finally, Hunter Burn makes good use of vitamin D3. This will, of course, help out your immune health. However, that’s not why it’s included here. Here, it works to support healthy metabolic function alongside muscular recovery and maintenance. It will help to keep your metabolism working optimally whilst backing up l-theanine in keeping your muscle mass through a cut.

Plenty of people will claim that Hunter Burn contains no stimulants – including the manufacturers, from time to time. This is silly. It hasn’t got added, pure caffeine or guarana, granted. But it includes a lot of matcha. As we have seen, matcha green tea is very high in caffeine.

And that’s a good thing. The caffeine content is lower than usual, making Hunter Burn appropriate for those looking for less stimulation. But it’s still there, giving you a good energy kick and eliciting plenty of thermogenesis.

Everything is natural and vegan. Roar Ambition offer free worldwide shipping and have some decent multi-buy offers available. 

Hunter Burn Pros

• No proprietary blends so all ingredient details are clear and open
• The ingredients list is short but potent
• Fantastic for thermogenesis and appetite suppression
• Lower caffeine content than some others

Hunter Burn Cons

• You need to take six capsules daily
• There is still a caffeine content, making it unsuitable for some

Instant Knockout

If Hunter Burn is aimed at those living full-throttle lifestyles, Instant Knockout really goes for it. It’s full to bursting with stimulants and ingredients aimed to give men a big energy boost, all with high-powered workouts and athleticism in mind. It has everything going for it if you’re looking to hit the active lifestyle side of weight loss.

As above, plenty of supplements are a little erroneously targeted at one group or another. In this case, the group of people is fighters, MMA competitors, boxers, martial artists, and so forth.

Erroneous is perhaps unfair. If you are looking to make a thermogenic supplement aimed at giving your fight training a bit of oomph (or, indeed, making it possible to keep up the rigorous pace associated with fight training during a calorie deficit), then you would probably pack it with everything that’s in Instant Knockout – that being said, it is an ideal fat burner for any active man.

The burst of energy you get from Instant Knockout is potent. It will get you through a fifteen-minute bout on the heavy bag with no problems. It will have you up on your feet, energized and quick, for any amount of sparring practice. In short, it will put you on the right track no matter how sluggish your diet may be making you feel.

So it’s not erroneous, it’s logical.

But it is overly selective. Anybody looking to live an active lifestyle throughout their calorie deficit and weight loss diet will benefit a great deal from using it. Anybody simply looking for a good thermogenic spike will do well on it. It’s a potent, incredibly usable product that really will help out anyone wanting to optimize their weight loss journey.

Instant Knockout very ably manages to do exactly what it promises to do, exactly what you would expect it to do. The formula is specifically formulated with energy and thermogenesis in mind, almost guaranteeing a bolstered metabolism accompanied by plenty of buzz.

A lot of this comes from the quite staggering 350 milligrams of caffeine included in its recipe, some of which comes from completely natural green tea extract. All told, this is the equivalent of around five or six shots of espresso! (So, buyer beware, this isn’t for the faint of heart and may be unsafe for some users).

This is where most of the energy comes from and it’s what gives the formula such a good thermogenic baseline.

This is backed up in no small part by cayenne pepper and black pepper extract.

These will add their own punch to the thermogenic effect whilst also making every other ingredient far more bioavailable. These other ingredients include vitamins D and B, which will combine to exacerbate the thermogenic effect whilst also improving insulin sensitivity and evening out blood sugar.

These latter two benefits will mean greater satiation with far fewer, far shallower hunger pangs. This will make your calorie deficit easier and more manageable even as your metabolism goes into something very much like overdrive.

Instant Knockout capsules are completely natural and suitable for vegans and vegetarians.

Instant Knockout Pros

• Makes for a good pre-workout supplement
• Gives a lot of energy
• Delivers a potent thermogenic spike
• May reduce appetite and cravings by stabilizing insulin and blood sugar levels

Instant Knockout Cons

• It really does contain a lot of caffeine – this may be dangerous for some, especially when combined with other caffeine sources

Keto Charge

We’re going a bit left field with this one. Keto Charge is kind of a fat burner, but it relies on a few more factors than simply putting a calorie deficit in place. Specifically, it relies on a user following a ketogenic diet to the letter.

Just as a good men’s fat burner is virtually useless without a calorie deficit and healthy lifestyle in place, so too will Keto Charge be useless without being in ketosis. And, as a good fat burner will nicely complement a calorie deficit and active lifestyle, so too will Keto Charge nicely complement a ketogenic diet. 

Ketosis comes about when your body is starved of carbohydrates.

A ketogenic diet will typically contain fewer than 50 g of carbohydrates per day, which is around a quarter of what most average diets allow.

This forces the body to stop relying on glycogen, your body’s go-to fuel source, as this is made from sugar, or broken down carbs. Instead, your body will begin to use ketones for energy.

Ketones are made from fat, making it a great way of cutting down body fat levels – you will be actively using your excess fat as energy, burning it up.

However, ketosis comes with a few down sides.

Most notably, it’s very difficult.

Most cultures are not oriented towards it, making it quite an active undertaking. Your body also wants carbohydrates. Symptoms of going without include anything from bad breath and nausea all the way up to brain fog and disorientation. This is typically called ‘keto flu’ and is most prevalent in the first couple of weeks of following a keto diet as your body adjusts to using ketones for energy.

Keto Charge is designed to help with this. It aims to get you into a fully ketogenic support quicker and more efficiently whilst also mitigating some of these negative side effects.

Keto Charge is a supplement, a simple pull, that contains a blend of exogenous ketones and glycine amino acids alongside plenty of additional ingredients aiming to help your body’s natural ketone production. In actively supplying you with ketones, it fuels your body, sort of jumpstarting your journey into ketosis.

Then, once in ketosis, your body will very much be primed to burn through fat very efficiently.

Thus, Keto Burn isn’t so much a fat burner in itself. However, it’s one of the best supplements going for getting you into one of the best fat burning states going, making it an incredible tool for anybody looking for an effective way to lose weight.

There are three main ketones included in its formula. These are Magnesium Beta-Hydroxybutyrate, Calcium Beta-Hydroxybutyrate, and Sodium Beta-Hydroxybutyrate.

They are each types of BHB formulation that are useful sources of energy for anybody following a ketogenic diet. You may also see them referred to as BHB salts or, as I do above, exogenous ketones – or ketones delivered from outside the body, an exogenous source.

In addition to fueling your journey into ketosis, BHB salts can mitigate some of the side effects associated with ketosis, as noted above. They can also oppose the side effects of glucose and all bring about anti-inflammation benefits.

Magnesium Beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) is a natural energy source of last resort – namely, when sugars and carbohydrates, or glycogen, are in short supply. Most good quality ketogenic supplements will contain it in some form.

As well as being a good energy source, Magnesium Beta-hydroxybutyrate brings about a few more individual benefits. For instance, regular use has been linked to a considerably lower risk of developing cancer. It is also key in reducing oxidative stress to the heart, meaning an overall improvement to your heart health and cardiovascular function, and a reduced risk of disease in your heart.

Magnesium Beta-Hydroxybutyrate has also been linked with faster weight loss, above and beyond its role in ketosis.

Calcium Beta-Hydroxybutyrate, (aka calcium ketones), is a salt made up of both calcium and beta-hydroxybutyrate (hence its name). It is a combination known specifically to help aid the smooth transition into ketosis at the beginning of a ketogenic diet.

It is particularly good for athletes looking to use ketosis to meet their weight loss goals. Calcium ketones specifically fuel the heart and strengthen muscles, making it crucial for athletic performance. It is also a good energy source for the brain, meaning a lot of the brain fog associated with keto flu will disappear.

Finally, Sodium Beta-Hydroxybutyrate (or sodium ketone salts), is a particularly potent chemical for assisting energy production in the absence of glucose, setting itself in good company with the rest of the ingredients in Keto Charge. It’s another good compound for energy and athletic performance, aiding endurance whilst also supporting muscular function. It is also known for enhancing cognitive function, once more helping to break through that crippling brain fog.

All told, there is nothing too revolutionary about Keto Charge. It is simply a good source of good ingredients that will collectively make anybody’s transition into ketosis far easier, far more pleasant, and ultimately far more fruitful.

Pros

• Brings about ketosis faster
• Includes high quality ketones
• Ketosis has numerous health benefits, including weight management
• Helps you to skip keto-flu

Cons

• Ketosis often comes with side effects
• Can lead to dehydration and constipation, with unknown long-term effects
• Relies on a ketogenic diet, which is a tough ask of anyone

PrimeShred

PrimeShred is another of my favorite fat burners for men. It’s one of the more potent weight loss tools that anyone can find on the market, designed, just like supplements like PhenQ, to boost your fat burning potential whilst giving you everything you need to remain active and happy.

It’s actually designed for physique competitors. Think bodybuilders, bikini models, and the like.

However, as with plenty of the items on this list, the narrow marketing profile involved in the brand’s self-image is a little constraining. I’ve never been a physique competitor in any way and I’ve benefited immensely from using PrimeShred over the years.

I live an active lifestyle and the ingredients included in PrimeShred’s formula enable me to do what I need to – especially if that includes needing to lose a few extra pounds!

Their list is full of top-shelf stuff, all potent, well thought out, and intelligently combined to give you some of the best results possible. It’s all built on a foundation of high-quality, solid clinical data and academic research, and it’s all designed to keep you competition ready even as you cut the calories.

You get a lot from the formula, with some of the best ingredients for what PrimeShred is designed to do included. These include trusted thermogenic and weight loss ingredients like green coffee, green tea, caffeine, cayenne pepper, DMAE, L-tyrosine, L-theanine, and bioperene, alongside a decent B vitamin complex.

Thus, you’re getting a lot of energy, a lot of thermogenesis, and even a bit of a nootropic element, which is particularly well-thought-out (pun not intended).

We’ve already seen what a lot of these ingredients can do for you. Caffeine is a potent thermogenic fat burner whilst also being number one for giving you a good energy kick. You get it as caffeine anhydrous here, one of the more potent, more bioavailable versions (as we saw with PhenQ). Green tea and green coffee back this up, each bringing their own health and weight loss benefits to the table.

Cayenne pepper, too, is amongst the best thermogenic compounds going, working very well alongside the caffeine contents to keep your metabolism firing on all cylinders. It works well with the bioperine, a form of piperine, or black pepper, to make everything else more bioavailable.

Rhodiola Rosea Root is a great addition to this. It’s been proven able to break down fat cells, perhaps allowing you to get through them more quickly. Studies have shown that it can aid weight loss by quite some margin, in fact.

The vitamin complex is also well thought out. Vitamins B3, B6, and B12 all work to boost metabolic function and create an uptick in slow release, long lasting energy levels. They are great for overcoming the fatigue associated with a calorie restricted diet plan.

It’s the next bit I really love, however. PrimeShred includes a trio of well-known nootropic ingredients that really lift the whole formula head and shoulders above almost all of the competition.

It begins with l-theanine, which can enhance cognitive function and aid alertness, especially in conjunction with caffeine. It may also lead to mild appetite suppression. Then there is l-tyrosine, which helps in improving mental clarity, attentiveness, and attention. Finally, PrimeShred includes dimethylaminoethanol, or DMAE. It boosts acetylcholine levels, a key neurotransmitter linked to attention and alertness.

Given that a calorie restricted diet can often lead to lethargy, fatigue, and brain fog, including a nootropic formula as part of the broader formula is a bit of a masterstroke. Just as it keeps your metabolism firing optimally and gives you plenty of energy, PrimeShred also keeps your brain in the game.

This will help you with willpower and focus as you stay goal-oriented and keep to the lifestyle changes you have made.

Everything included in PrimeShred’s formula is completely natural and vegan, making it suitable for everyone.

PrimeShred Pros

• Scientifically justified, well-dosed formula
• Elicits thermogenesis whilst boosting energy levels
• Delivers a potentially profound nootropic effect

PrimeShred Cons

• It’s on the pricier side of things (though for good reason)
• The caffeine content may be inappropriate for some

Burn Lab Pro

Finally, we have Burn Lab Pro by UK-based manufacturer Opti-Nutra, another very high-quality thermogenic fat burner for men built along the same lines as industry leaders like PhenQ. It’s designed in part to enable a greater chance at losing weight from body fat whilst preserving lean muscle mass.

According to Opti-Nutra, Burn Lab Pro is one of the most innovative supplements of its kind on the market. I’m not so sure about this. As above, it’s built to somewhat of a standard template, no matter how high-quality the ingredients might be.

It uses all-natural, plant-based ingredients all clinically proven to do what any good fat burner should do – increase energy levels, aid satiation, and, most notably, elicit greater rates of thermogenesis.

It is also supposed to improve lean muscle growth and speed up recovery. However, I wouldn’t get too carried away with this last point.

If you’re going into a calorie deficit, which you should be to lose weight in conjunction with a fat burner, it will be very hard to build muscle. Rather, you should be working to maintain the muscle mass you already have whilst dropping body fat.

Which, happily, Burn Lab Pro will help you to do very admirably.

It’s also all caffeine free, making it a solid option for those looking to go light on the stimulants.

The ingredients list will look partially familiar and, to be fair to Opti-Nutra, partially quite new. This isn’t to say it’s innovative – or not more than a supplement like this should be – but it at least represents a clever way of using some more diverse ingredients to get the results we are after.

The formula rests in part on cayenne pepper and black pepper extract, which we’ve seen used extensively through this list. There is good reason for this. As we’ve seen, both are good thermogenic compounds, particularly cayenne pepper, and both aid bioavailability, particularly black pepper extract.

Then there is chromium, another fairly common element found in these kinds of supplements. It’s a trace mineral proven to enhance insulin activity. This in turn should aid satiation and promote weight loss, especially fat loss, more broadly.

It’s presented here as NutriGenesis® GTF Chromium (with the ‘GTF’ standing for Glucose Tolerance Factor), but that’s window dressing to a point. It contains some extra whole-food elements aimed at improving bioavailability and efficiency. But it’s chromium at heart, it deserves its place here, and it will serve you very well.

There is also HMB (or ß-Hydroxy ß-Methyl butyrate, a naturally occurring byproduct of leucine breakdown, to be precise). It’s not uncommon in this kind of product, though it’s far more seldom seen than ingredients like cayenne pepper.

HMB is meant to be something of the hero ingredient here, credited with a great deal of Burn Lab Pro’s efficacy. It is purported to be able to bring about the same fat loss processes as fasting, though this doesn’t rest on the firmest of scientific foundations. To be honest, if you really want the effects of fasting, then fast – go for a 16:8 intermittent fasting (IM) protocol or something similar. HMB may have its place, and will likely help your weight loss, but straight IM may be a better bet.

Finally, you get a good dose of another odd but worthwhile ingredient, coleus forskohlii root extract, presented here as ForsLean®.

Coleus forskohlii is a highly thermogenic ingredient proven to elicit quite drastic weight loss in conjunction with a good calorie deficit. It may also play a key role in regulating metabolic rates, making it a very clever inclusion.

Burn Lab Pro Pros

• Innovative, if not as much as they seem to think
• Good quality ingredients
• Elicits thermogenesis and regulates appetite and metabolism
• No stimulants

Burn Lab Pro Cons

• Fairly light on ingredients
• Lack of stimulants won’t suit all users
• On the pricier side

Verdict

It’s tough picking a top contender from such a good quality list of male oriented fat burners. It’s made harder knowing that there is sort of something for everyone here.

Obviously, if you’re interested in going low-carb, or even full keto, Keto Burn might be a good idea. Though not technically a far burner, it does what all male fat burners should do in supporting a well-crafted diet plan geared towards weight loss.

Or if you’re looking to remain active and you thrive on stimulants, something like Instant Knockout may be a good idea. Or if you want to remain active on a lower stimulant dose, then Hunter Burn or Burn Lab Pro might be the answer.

If midnight snacking and staying on-point between dinner and breakfast is a challenge, Phen24 is sort of made for you. Or if brain fog and lethargy gets to you, you might consider PrimeShred.

However, if we’re talking about finding the best of the best, the best for all men, then it’s got to be PhenQ. It’s kind of a gold standard in the thermogenic fat burning world, and it deserves to be. The quality of ingredients, the data driven approach they take, and the overall cover you get through every aspect of your weight loss diet are simply unbeatable.

On quality alone, I would generally go with PhenQ whenever I had the chance.

Want more information about how to choose or use a male fat burning supplement? Then read on as we have you covered…

How to use fat burners to lose weight

It’s quite simple to use fat burners to lose weight. In fact, we’ve covered it throughout, so none of this should be anything new by now.

You should never, ever, ever buy a supplement and expect it to be a game changer. You should never expect a diet pill to do the work for you – no over the counter, natural supplement will ever elicit weight loss by itself.

This is not what the supplements in this list are for. They are all there to augment. To supplement, in a word. Each one is designed to take on some of the more grueling side effects of running a weight loss diet and mitigate their effects.

This is exactly how you should use them.

Find out how many calories your body uses – your BMR multiplied by your activity levels. This is your body’s thermogenesis baseline. Then subtract five hundred calories from this somehow, generally from a mixture of eating less and doing more. With this deficit in place, pick up a good fat burner. It will optimise your metabolism, replace lost energy, and make it easier to under-eat without suffering from hunger pangs. Many will do more than this, of course, but this is the solid core – this is what we’re looking for.

And this is how they should be used. Not as the answer, but simply as a means for making everything a little more efficient and a little more comfortable.

FAQs

Do Men’s Fat Burning Supplements Work?

Fat burners work well for men and women. However, we need to draw a distinction; we need to highlight what they are actually good for, not what the hype around them suggests. They will not enable weight loss by themselves. This isn’t what they are for. What they will do is mitigate many of the harsh side effects associated with dieting for weight loss.

They will help to optimize your metabolic health when you are running a caloric deficit, not magically melt fat away no matter what you eat. They will make it easier to maintain your calorie deficit by flattening out hunger pangs and sudden cravings. They will give you more energy, clear your head of brain fog, and often improve your athletic potential. In doing all of these, in short, they will give you an easier, more efficient weight loss journey once you’ve already put an appropriate diet and exercise plan into place.

How Do Men’s Fat Burners Work?

Fat burners have a slightly misleading name. They do not work by somehow magically burning through your excess fat reserves. Rather, they target three or four distinct areas of weight loss to make things easier to manage and more efficient when you have an appropriate diet and exercise plan in place.

They will optimize your metabolism using thermogenesis. They will suppress your appetite naturally. They will give you an energy boost, clearing your head of brain fog and giving you the buzz you need to stay active. Some can even inhibit the creation of new fat cells and/or the absorption of some macronutrients.

Are Male Fat Burners Safe?

Most fat burners use natural, safe ingredients. The supplements in the above list certainly do. There are few adverse side effects associated with them, and no serious side effects associated with them. This being said, plenty of them contain large quantities of stimulants such as caffeine. If you are sensitive to caffeine, you may want to choose a low-stimulant or stimulant-free fat burner. Some other ingredients may lead to changes in digestive health, though these should be very minor.

Do You Need Different Fat Burners for Men and Women?

No, you don’t generally need different fat burners for men and women. In fact, one of my pet peeves is seeing certain fat burners marketed at one or the other, often with pretty much the same kinds of ingredients included. All of the products in our list above will work as effectively for women as for men.

This being said, there are a couple of things to watch out for. As a man, if you are dieting, you may see your testosterone levels be slightly impaired. They may be sub-optimal to begin with (if you’re over thirty, they probably are), which will impede your weight loss efforts. Therefore, taking a fat burner alongside a natural supplement aimed at optimizing testosterone output may be worthwhile – ingredients like zinc and ashwagandha should feature heavily in your supplement regime.

Do Fat Burning Supplements For Men Work by Themselves?

No, fat burners will never work by themselves. They are not designed to. You cannot take anything with natural ingredients that comes over the counter and expect to see weight loss if you don’t change your lifestyle. You need to put a calorie deficit in place to lose weight, which will come from a combination of eating less and doing more.

This is where fat burners help. They make it easier to eat less without suffering the nasty side effects of doing so. They make it easier to remain active. And they keep your metabolism firing optimally by increasing thermogenesis. They are a supplement – they are there to supplement your diet and lifestyle.

Thermogenesis

Fat burners typically work in part by eliciting greater rates of thermogenesis.

We get the word thermogenesis from the Greek words thermos, meaning heat, and genesis, meaning origin or creation. Thus, thermogenesis simply means the creation of heat.

In terms of human biology, this creation of heat is intimately connected to our metabolisms and energy expenditure. All of our bodies’ processes create heat as a by-product through thermodynamic inefficiency. However, thermogenesis more generally concerns the creation of heat in relation to our metabolisms and the heat expended as a response to nutrient intake (eating).

This heat is measured in calories, a term any dieter will be familiar with.

The greater your body’s thermogenic effect, the more calories you’ll be using up. Extra calories, above and beyond what you take in through your diet, will generally be taken from body fat, your body’s fuel reserve. Thus, more thermogenesis can in theory mean more fat burned, which is useful to anybody looking to lose weight.

Types of thermogenesis

There are three types of thermogenesis: diet induced thermogenesis (or DIT), exercise associated thermogenesis (EAT), and non-exercise associated thermogenesis (NEAT).

Diet induced thermogenesis refers to the process of using calories as part of the digestive process – they are spent in digesting, absorbing, and storing nutrients. DIT, or the thermic effect of food, is basically the energy you spend breaking down your food to turn it into fuel. It’s sort of like the old adage that you need to spend money to make money. You need to spend energy to benefit from more energy.

The thermic effect of food’s cumulative effect is quite minor. However, it is still worth considering; it still adds to the sum of your daily caloric expenditure and thus can play a role in your weight loss journey.

In fact, a good estimate for your dietary intake’s thermic effect is about 10% of your total intake. For every 100 calories you eat, you may end up using around 10 calories to fully digest and absorb the constituent nutrients. 

Food’s thermic effect contributes to our metabolic rate, or total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). TDEE is made up of three components. The main one is your basal metabolic rate (BMR), which includes EAT; then there is our diet-induced thermogenesis; finally, there is non-energy exercise activity thermogenesis.

How do you ramp up thermogenesis?

Thermogenesis is far from a fixed rate. It is very variable, in fact. There are four main ways in which we can increase it.

Firstly, we have the most obvious – physical activity or exercise. We all know that we can burn more calories by being more active. Exercise’s thermic effect will add to the sum of your daily caloric need, your TDEE.

Though any form of exercise will have a thermic effect, a higher rate of thermogenesis is generally best enabled by undertaking resistance training. This includes lifting weights, taking part in bodyweight resistance exercise forms like yoga, Pilates, and calisthenics, and even vigorous swimming.

This is because this will both contribute to exercise’s effect whilst also raising your BMR. By taking part in resistance training, you will be building muscle mass. As your BMR is based on muscle mass, this will naturally raise it. However, muscle is particularly metabolically active, so the results will be all the more potent.

In addition, your metabolism will be in a heightened state after resistance training. This is due in large part to a process called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). You may often hear EPOC referred to as the after-burn effect. Essentially, your body uses more oxygen and energy, as calories, to repair muscle mass traumatized during training as part of the recovery process.

EPOC can quite profoundly boost your body’s thermic effect. In general, the heavier the resistance, the greater the EPOC.

Then there are thermogenic foods, which we have already referenced.

Foods higher in protein will generally have a higher thermic effect (TEF). In fact, the TEF for each nutrient breaks down roughly as follows:

Fat = nine calories per gram with a TEF of 0-3%

Carbohydrate = four calories per gram with a TEF of 5-10%

Protein = four calories per gram with a TEF of 10-30%

The more protein you eat relative to the fat and carbohydrates, therefore, the more energy you will burn through digestion, absorption, and storage.

A mixed diet will typically average out in the 5-15% range. A diet higher in proteins and complex carbs can hit the upper end of this, or even exceed it.

Then there is NEAT, our non-energy exercise activity thermogenesis. This is the energy we use going about our day-to-day lives – performing tasks outside of planned physical activity. This includes anything where you are moving – walking, cleaning, fidgeting, and so on. Basically, any time where you are not sedentary.

Finally, and most importantly for the scope of this article, we come to thermogenic supplements, of the kind found in our list below. These are supplements designed specifically with increased rates of thermogenesis in mind. They aim to allow you to burn more calories per day, even at rest, thus making your weight loss journey that much easier and more effective.

There are plenty of common (and some less common) ingredients known to elicit greater rates of hypertrophy. These include things like caffeine, green tea extract, turmeric, cayenne pepper (or capsicum more broadly), and ginger root, to name just a few. A supplement containing generous amounts of these ingredients will generally go a long way towards raising your metabolic rate by increasing thermogenesis.

Do note, however, that the effect is relatively modest. Most estimates put the extra calorie burn elicited from most common thermogenic compounds and supplements at around 50-100 per day. As we will see below, this is nowhere near enough to elicit meaningful weight loss. It is certainly not enough to mitigate the effects of an unhealthy diet and lifestyle.

However, paired with a good calorie deficit and an active lifestyle, thermogenic supplements can work very well. They can make your weight loss efforts a little easier, a little more pleasant, and a little more effective.

How can thermogenic fat burners benefit you?

Fat burners generally work across four main areas. They help you in four distinct areas that are central to losing weight, each working through one or more of the mechanisms above to help you to boost your overall metabolic rate.

The first, as we have seen, is a fat burner’s ability to increase thermogenesis by 50-100 calories. This means a lift to your resting metabolism, more calories chewed through every day, more heat generated, more fat burned.

It’s actually not very effective. As above, 50-100 calories isn’t very much. It’s a useful peak of the iceberg, but it is only the peak. However, over a sustained period, it can make a difference. In addition, it’s quite common for our BMRs to drop in the presence of a calorie deficit (of the kind needed to lose weight). A good thermogenic fat burner can mitigate this drop, allowing your body to burn what it needs to burn in conjunction with positive lifestyle changes.

However, this is quite a small part of a fat burner’s role.

The second role pertains to the calorie deficit itself. You need to maintain a daily deficit of around 500 calories to lose 1 lb per week in body fat (or 0.5 kg). This means eating less. It’s simple, but it’s very hard to do. Hunger will get you. You will struggle with hunger pangs probably several times per day, and they are generally hard to resist. Cravings will get the better of you as your body cries out for simple food with a high caloric yield (think sugar and fried things, everything you should be avoiding on a weight loss diet!)

A good fat burner with have appetite suppressing qualities. Some of their ingredients can lower and even out blood sugar levels, which will stop those massive hunger pangs. Some will contain high quality sources of fiber, like glucomannan, that can fill up your stomach with indigestible, nil calorie bulk. Others will have neurological abilities to suppress your hunger, stopping your brain from signalling to you that you need to eat – caffeine and cayenne pepper each do this.

This is arguably fat burners’ chief ability. The only way to lose weight is through a calorie deficit. The quickest, most effective way to open up a calorie deficit is to eat less than your body needs. If there is anything that can help you to do this more ably, more comfortably, as you go about losing weight, grab it with both hands.

Calories are units of heat. They are also related to energy. In under-consuming calories, as you need to do in order to lose weight, you are in effect under-consuming energy. You will have an energy deficit.

This can lead to all sorts of symptoms. These symptoms in turn can be collected under a few umbrella terms. Lethargy may get to you, as might brain fog, as might a lack of athletic ability, a lack of focus, and a lack of drive.

Good fat burners help to undo all of this, often crudely yet generally very effectively. They will generally contain vitamins and minerals designed to give you energy and clarity. Some even contain nootropic ingredients – so called ‘smart drugs’ that can improve your cognitive ability and overall brain health. Many rely on caffeine and similar products, like guarana. As we have seen, caffeine and its ilk can help with thermogenesis and appetite suppression. Getting a third benefit out of them, rinsing them for their energy giving properties, therefore seems very sensible.

You will have greater energy levels and mental clarity for taking fat burners during your calorie deficit.

This is important as it will enable you to stay active. You can boost the number of calories used during exercise as the fat burners give you that push you need to get to the gym for a hard sweat. This will open up more of a calorie deficit as you use up excess calories.

The fourth benefit is a little hit and miss – the science can be quite undecided on it. It’s that fat burners can also work as fat binders. Ingredients like green tea leaf extract may be able to bind to fat lipids in your digestive system. In turn, this may be able to stop your body from breaking it down. You will therefore not be able to absorb them and turn them to body fat.

As you can see, there is plenty to like about a good fat burner. They can benefit your weight loss journey in several ways, making your calorie deficit easier to manage, more comfortable, less impactful on your wellbeing, and more effective as it is further opened up by increased rates of thermogenesis.