Pre workout fat burners are a specific type of supplement. They come with a thermogenic component for increased fat burning whilst giving you the benefits you would expect of any pre workout supplement – acutely improved energy and focus, improved muscle pump and blood flow, greater strength and stamina, and so on.
Thermogenesis is a natural process in the body. It involves using energy to create heat. Thermogenic supplements boost this, meaning that you use slightly more energy in the form of calories than you otherwise would be without taking the supplement. A thermogenic pre workout combines this with your usual pre workout.
There are plenty of good quality pre workout fat burners available on today’s market. Some are fantastic. They will help you hit your goals more easily and more efficiently than you would going it without them. Others are less effective, poorly backed up by scientific data, a waste of money or outright ruinous.
We’ve got our favorites, though – a handful of the best pre workout fat burners guaranteed to help you out. Any one of them will see you right but we have listed them in our preferred order, with the best pre-workout fat burners first.
Our 5 Best Pre Workout Fat Burners
Let’s take a look at the top pre workout fat burners that made our shortlist…
BrutalForce Ripped Cutting Stack
BrutalForce are a much-needed addition to the market. When most of us think of natural, legal steroid alternatives, we go straight to Crazy Bulk. However, their monopoly is over. BrutalForce have swept in to compete, to innovate, to give us more choice.
Their Ripped Cutting Stack is wonderful. It is designed to replicate the positive effects of several well-known, unhealthy, dangerous steroids, to a lesser degree, but completely safely. There are no harmful side effects, yet the stack delivers a great many benefits.
In the main, it does exactly what you would expect of a fat burner. It enables for more efficient fat loss, allowing you to make the most of a calorie deficit. It also helps to protect lean muscle mass, meaning minimal loss in hard fought for gains.
BrutalForce’s Ripped Cutting Stack also does what you would want and expect of a pre workout. It gives a bit of an energy boost, though nothing too profound. Rather, it is great for improving endurance. As endurance can lag during a calorie deficit, this is incredibly useful. There is also an anti-inflammatory component to the formula, keeping you safe and allowing you to recover faster.
All the ingredients are entirely safe and natural. The whole stack is made up of four of BrutalForce’s best-known SARMs alternatives. SARMs are similar to steroids in the anabolic effects they elicit, and these natural alternatives do a good job of mimicking them.
It includes their CUTSR9, which is designed to boost fat loss whilst improving stamina and recovery. It also includes Andalean, which also aids fat loss. Andalean also helps to protect and even build lean muscle, and gives you plenty of energy to get you through tough training sessions. Ibutalean is the main anti-inflammatory component, leading to improved recovery and healing. It also works to promote hypertrophy, working in concert with Andalean.
Finally, you get Cardalean, a fat burner and endurance enhancer which also improves vascularity and circulation.
The ingredients for each component are readily available through their website. Each formula contains the kinds of products you would expect to see: guarana, garcinia cambogia, bitter orange, and so on.
Pros:
- All natural ingredients
- No side effects
- Great SARM and steroid alternative
- Perfect for boosting energy and retaining muscle
- Improved recovery and decreased inflammation
Cons:
- Not the cheapest
- The effects mimic steroids, but are far, far less potent
Blackwolf
BlackWolf promise scientifically backed ingredients at clinically effective dosages with their pre workout fat burners. From what I can tell, they deliver on this promise very ably.
This means that you know can rest assured their supplements will contain everything you need them to, with good quality research and data backing them up, at doses that will actually make a difference to your goals.
The pre workout component is decent. I particularly like it as it gives no peak and crash. There is no post training bombing out. There are no jitters; there is no nervousness or central nervous system overload.
You get this lasting energy, both during and after each session, through a combination of ingredients aimed at boosting energy levels and eliciting heightened rates of thermogenesis. Mostly, we are looking at good amounts of l-citrulline, dynamine, creatine and caffeine, all of which contribute something special.
They will all help you to power through your workouts. Alongside a good taurine and l-tyrosine hit, they will also help you to maintain mental clarity with heightened focus. This is key to making the most out of your training and warding off post training brain fog, which we have all suffered through at some point.
Finally, you will see an improvement to your endurance. Beta alanine, betaine, L-citrulline and AAKG all work together to keep you going no matter how gruelling or how frequent your training sessions are.
They also offer a stimulant free version for those of us who like to put evening shifts in at the gym then go home to sleep straight afterwards. Their Fruit Punch flavour pre workout has no caffeine, but still gives you the gentle, buzz-free energy you need to work out properly. This comes from DMAE and huperzine, which gives you extra clarity and focus.
Blackwolf give you three delicious flavors from which to choose.
Pros:
- Fantastic ingredients list
- All natural
- Improved endurance and focus
- Heightened metabolic function
- Caffeine free version available
- Delicious flavors
Cons:
- Their caffeinated products are very highly dosed, which may be inappropriate for many people
- Mild side effects, including headaches and nausea
PrimeShred
PrimeShred’s pre workout fat burners offer ‘fast, whole body fat burning’.
This is an odd way to phrase it. The only kind of fat burning is whole body. There is no such thing as spot reduction – the idea has been thoroughly debunked.
The main determinants in where your fat loss will occur are gender and genetics, not supplementation or anything like that. If you are predisposed to burn fat around your middle (as women usually are), this is where you will burn it from. If you are predisposed to burn fat around your legs and bum (as men usually are), this is where you will burn it from.
This gripe aside, PrimeShred have made a fantastic product, here. Though it’s an odd way to put it, their pre workout fat burners really will bring about whole body fat burning when used in the presence of a good calorie deficit and active lifestyle.
It accelerates your natural fat-burning process through thermogenesis, making your calorie deficit as effective and efficient as possible. It also switches on specific fat burning-hormones. These should enable you to break down stubborn, stored fat.
So much for fat burning. How about the pre workout side of things?
It should give you a boost to both your energy levels and mental clarity. As with all the products on this list, this is very welcome. We all experience increased fatigue and brain fog on a calorie deficit. Anything that can undo this and get us back in the game is perfect.
You get good doses of green tea extract, l-tyrosine, l-theanine, rhodiola rosea root, caffeine anhydrous, cayenne pepper, DMAE, green coffee, bioperine and vitamin B with each serving. These are all common ingredients in this kind of product. Each brings something good to bear, improving energy levels, giving greater mental clarity, and eliciting greater rates of thermogenesis.
Everything is vegan and vegetarian friendly and it’s a product that we whole heartedly endorse as a high quality pre-workout fat burner.
Pros:
- A fantastic, detailed formula
- Great for increasing thermogenesis
- Improves energy levels and clarity
- Everything is natural
- Few noted side effects
- Vegetable capsules
Cons:
- High caffeine content may not be suitable for everyone
Juiced Upp Thermotone
I want to round out this list with a couple of offerings from Juiced Upp, a fantastic new supplements company. We’ll begin with Thermotone – which, as you might have guessed from the name, warms you up (elicits thermogenesis) to get you toned (lose body fat whilst retaining or even building a little extra muscle.)
It can also improve cholesterol and blood sugar levels and boost your immune system, keeping you healthy as you reach for your goals. Blood sugar is vital on a weight loss program – keeping it stable will stop you from getting hunger pangs and cravings. Immune health often suffers during a calorie deficit on an active lifestyle.
All the ingredients are completely natural, and the formula as a whole should be largely free from any major side effects. The ingredients are of the kind and quality you would expect of a top shelf pre workout fat burner, too.
For example, it contains evodiamine, a compound isolated from Bob’s Red Mill. It is a very effective thermogenic ingredient that also shows tentative promise as a mild appetite suppressant. This is backed up by the inclusion of both green tea, a normal ingredient for this kind of supplement, and cocoa powder, a less commonly seen yet incredibly clever addition.
Green tea speeds up the metabolism and gives you more energy. It is also a rich source of polyphenols, powerful antioxidants that can boost immune health. Cocoa, meanwhile, can help to balance your blood sugar levels, keeping cravings at bay, and lower cholesterol. It’s a fantastically witty, useful ingredient to use in this context.
Juiced Upp also use gugglesterones, another ingredient you don’t often see on the supplement market. However, it should be used more – it is a fantastic plant steroid that has been proven capable of raising your body’s key thyroid hormones. Your thyroid function is vital to your metabolic health. Keeping it optimized will give you far more energy, a far greater potential to burn fat, and the ability to properly break down protein, fat, and carbohydrates.
Finally, we get a good dose of chromium and potassium with Thermotone. Chromium further helps to balance blood sugar levels. It is also key for lipid metabolism – it helps you to burn through fat. Meanwhile, potassium helps to regulate your body’s metabolism. It is also key to triggering muscle contraction, giving you health and athletic benefits.
It is a solid, clever formula, well put together and is another supplement very worthy of your consideration.
Pros:
- Fantastic ingredients list
- Can help to stabilize blood sugar levels and lower cholesterol
- Should help to burn through fat
- Will help you to maintain athleticism and muscle mass during a calorie deficit
Cons:
- No stimulants besides green tea – it’s more of a fat burner than a pre workout
Juiced Upp Burn Boost
To round off our list of the best pre-workout fat burning supplements there is Burn Boost, our second offering from Juiced Upp. It helps keep your body’s fat-metabolization at optimal levels through a clever mixture of vitamins, minerals, botanicals, and herbal extracts.
In fact, Juiced Upp claim that a single scoop of Burn Boost powder every day will have you burning an extra 200 calories, giving you a monthly deficit of around 6,000 calories. This should lead to a good 21-22 pounds of fat loss per month.
Take this with a pinch of salt. I always hate claims like this. They undermine the golden rule of weight loss – you need a clean diet with a built-in calorie deficit.
They also undermine good practice in weight loss speed. You shouldn’t try to lose more than 1-3 pounds per week. For most people, and definitely those who aren’t above a BMI of 30-35, this should be more like 1-2 pounds. Anything else is either fluid or, worse, muscle mass.
You cannot lose 21-22 pounds of fat per month by taking Burn Boost.
However, if you take it whilst maintaining a calorie deficit and maintaining an active lifestyle, you should hit a few pounds per week easily enough, supercharged by Burn Boost’s fantastic formula. You will also have an easier time finding the energy to hit a good workout.
The energy comes mostly from the stimulants guarana and caffeine, both of which also contribute to health and weight loss.
Burn Boost also contains a rogue’s gallery of ‘Ls’. It delivers l-glutamine, l-isoleucine and l-leucine, all of which have been linked with weight loss and decreased waist circumference, and l-valine, which promotes tissue repair, including muscle. You also get l-theanine, a well-known cognitive enhancer and appetite suppressant, and l-taurine, which will go together with the guarana and caffeine to give you a huge energy boost.
You will also find your appetite diminished by ginkgo biloba, a natural suppressant.
Coenzyme Q10 kicks in here, too, helping you to maintain optimized natural metabolic processes.
These are just a few of the ingredients, but you get the picture. You will burn fat more easily, more efficiently, with more energy and a smaller appetite by taking Burn Boost.
Pros:
- A fantastic, complex formula of all-natural ingredients
- Great for boosting energy and maintaining immune health
- Appetite suppressing
- Good for fat burning
- Aids muscle health and performance
Cons:
- Undermined by its own claims
Do Pre Workout Fat Burners Work?
We have two criteria here by which to judge a good pre workout fat burner.
Firstly, it will need to have a good pre-workout formula. This means it should contain hopefully several ingredients that will give your training a boost. It should give you improved energy, stamina and/or strength, perhaps improved vascularity, and hopefully improved recovery.
Then it needs to be a good fat burner. This means that it needs to contain some kind of thermogenic compounds. These won’t work outside of a calorie deficit. No fat burner can outdo too much intake. However, in the presence of a calorie deficit, a thermogenic ingredient can keep your metabolic rate functioning optimally, allowing you to make the most out of your cut.
In this regard, pre workout fat burners can work very well. They won’t turn you into Superman in the gym. They won’t allow you to shed weight whilst eating whatever you like. However, they will enhance an already decent training and nutrition plan.
How To Choose A Good Pre Workout Fat Burner
Everything boils down to the ingredients lists. A good pre workout fat burner will contain a mixture of thermogenic compounds and ingredients designed to improve your gym performance. We’ve seen most of them in the products featured on our list today.
Stimulants like caffeine and guarana are always good. These tick both boxes, eliciting thermogenesis whilst also improving performance. Amino acids are always a good shout. Vitamins and minerals will always be useful, though they aren’t a must have. Then there are myriad other performance, metabolism, recovery and health enhancing ingredients. Most manufacturers will list their active ingredients alongside descriptions of what they do.
As long as there are a good few for each purpose – fat burning and performance enhancing – you are likely onto something good.
Always make sure that ingredients are natural and clearly labelled, with the doses clearly shown.
What To Avoid When Buying Pre Workout Fat Burners
There are good supplements and bad ones, healthy and unhealthy ones. Obviously, we’ve only contained safe, high quality products in our list. We’ve weeded out anything you don’t want.
This includes snake oil – products whose ingredients are useless. These will be a waste of money, doing nothing for you. You can tell a product like this by their ingredients list. If something doesn’t list its ingredients, don’t buy it – you have no way of knowing what effective ingredients are included, or the doses involved. Also skip anything that doesn’t contain the usual suspects – ingredients like those included in our list above.
However, there are worse things out there than simple uselessness. Some supplements will be actively dangerous. With this in mind, stay away from anything that contains the following ingredients:
- Dinitrophenol (DNP) is a heavy hitting metabolism booster that can be fatal. It is also highly illegal, so if you come across a product claiming to contain it, report it to the relevant authorities. Do not be tempted to buy.
- Ephedra increases your blood pressure and heart rate as well as helping you to lose weight. Increases to both will put you at risk of chronic conditions such as heart disease and stroke.
- M-synephrine also increases blood pressure and heart rate, though less noticeably than ephedra. It can be safe enough by itself but can be very dangerous when combined with stimulants such as caffeine. It can also cross the blood-brain barrier, so you really don’t want to be putting it in your body. It’s also often sold as p-synephrine or o-synephrine, so be careful of these, too.
Check for health warnings on all supplement containers. Also consult your doctor if you’re unsure about a supplement and/or if you have any underlying health conditions.
FAQs
Are fat burners the same as pre-workouts?
No, they are generally separate products. Fat burners will help to improve fat burning, as the name suggests. Pre workouts are designed to give you an energy and performance boost during training. However, they can be combined. Combining them individually may be a bad idea as each will contain stimulants. However, pre workout fat burners will give you the effects of each with all ingredients dosed appropriately.
Are pre workouts with thermogenics safe?
Yes, pre workout fat burners with thermogenic compounds are completely safe. They are designed to give you many of the benefits of harder drugs with none of the side effects. All the products in this list are safe and entirely natural.
This being said, many pre workouts will contain stimulants like caffeine and guarana. You should therefore adjust your regular caffeine intake appropriately, drinking less tea and coffee throughout the day. If you get any jitters, consider a stimulant-free variety.
If you have any concerns, always talk to your medical provider before taking any supplements.
Can we take fat burners and pre-workouts together?
In theory, you should be able to take separate pre workouts and thermogenic fat burners. However, it’s not advisable. Both will likely contain stimulants like caffeine. Taking each will probably give you far too much. A combined pre workout fat burner will be your best bet. It will be entirely safe and appropriately dosed.
When should I take fat burners?
Fat burners are generally best first thing in the morning, around half an hour before your first meal or workout. However, pre workout fat burners are obviously designed to be taken before training. Again, thirty minutes is a good rule of thumb – take your pre workout supplements half an hour before you want to train.
This being said, all products will differ. Each will have their own guidelines which you should follow.
Overall Top Pick
There is no bad pick on this list. There are hundreds of pre workouts and fat burners out there, if not thousands. It’s easy to combine them or to find products aimed at doing both, as those in our list all do.
We have chosen just a small handful of supplements. They are the best of the best. Each will serve you well.
However, for my money, if it’s my choice, I would go for PrimeShred. Their ingredients list is incredibly strong. Their reputation is fantastic. Everything is entirely natural and vegan (I’m a lifelong vegetarian, so this means a lot to me – I’m sure it will for many other people). I also like a lot of stimulants in my products – the caffeine, green tea and green coffee add a little extra appeal.