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- Formula #035: Why famous Hollywood trainer Kinobody's testosterone boosting supplement is grade A quackery.
Formula #035: Why famous Hollywood trainer Kinobody's testosterone boosting supplement is grade A quackery.
Your Simmo
May 22, 2023
Welcome back to another edition of the formula.
In today's issue, you'll learn:
Quote of the day
Why Kinobody’s new testosterone booster is grade-A quackery
How to effectively filter for premium, high-quality supplements
Read time: 5 minutes.
Longer than usual, I know but as ever, I try to compensate with more actionable value so I hope this proves to impress.
Let's dive in.
Quote of The Day
Why Kino Body's New Testosterone Boosting Supplement is Grade A Quackery (Which Will Help You Understand Why 99% of Supplements are a Waste of Money)
According to his sales page, Kino Mojo, sold by Greg o’Gallagher, is a testosterone booster,
“designed to increase your testosterone levels to where they should be”
It’s a supplement containing 5 all-natural ingredients to help increase total and free testosterone as well as dopamine with the intent to make you feel “awesome”
Who doesn’t want high testosterone right?
His sales page goes on to say,
“Imagine living with more ambition, a higher sex drive, less fat, more muscle and a higher quality of life.”
But is this supplement effective enough to get you there?
Let’s break down each ingredient individually.
Ingredient analysis
Magnesium on Testosterone
Low levels of magnesium can lead to low testosterone.
Supplemental magnesium is definitely able to increase testosterone, which is shown by multiple research papers.
In one study, magnesium supplementation was able to increase testosterone in sedentary, beginner, and advanced athletes and it potentiates the testosterone boost induced by exercise.
What seems evident from the research is that magnesium increases testosterone in 6 main ways including:
Lowering gut inflammation and preventing leaky gut
Improving energy production
Improving insulin sensitivity
Reducing stress hormone cortisol
Increasing thyroid hormone production
Regulating the metabolism of vitamin D
But, whilst magnesium is a fantastic testosterone and overall health enhancer.
The version Greg used (magnesium biglycinate) may not be for everyone.
Why?
Anything with “ate” in it makes it alkaline based which can screw digestion
Some studies show bigyclinate is poorly absorbed (less than 20%)
Glycinate itself can be stimulating for some people as it can mess with the glutamate system
Elite alternative:
Magnesium Chloride oral and topical applications.
Zinc on Testosterone
Zinc is one of the most important minerals used for testosterone optimization.
This is because it can have a powerful effect on boosting testosterone.
However, studies I researched suggested it will only increase testosterone if you’re deficient in zinc.
Low zinc in the body leads to:
Low testosterone
High estrogen
Very low testosterone-to-estrogen ratio
Low DHT (another powerful male hormone)
A low meat (low zinc) diet can tank your testosterone.
An interesting study was done where they put 22 men on a zinc-deficient diet for 24 weeks to see what would happen to their testosterone.
Their diet before the experimental diet was roughly 12.5mg, which is just above the recommended daily allowance (RDA).
The zinc content of the experimental zinc-deficient diet was 4.2-5.6mg. 2-3 times less of what they usually consumed.
The low-zinc foods were from a semipurified diet based on texturized soy products with added vitamins and minerals, except zinc. It amazes me that anyone ate that for 20 weeks!
As a result, their testosterone dropped from 1150ng/dl to 305nd/dl after 20 weeks. That’s roughly a 400% drop.
Supplementing zinc can double your testosterone
The same researchers did another study where that supplemented men between the ages of 50 and 80 with 30mg zinc gluconate daily for 6 months.
Before the supplemental protocol, their average daily dietary zinc intake was a measly 69% of the RDA. Since the RDA for zinc is 11mg, that would mean they were consuming only 7.6mg of zinc daily.
Over the 6 months, their testosterone doubled from 240ng/dl to 460ng/dl, putting them in the normal range.
Supplement zinc, right? Simples.
No.
What pitfalls are there with this approach?
If you’re eating a heavy meat and seafood based diet, you’ll already be getting plenty of Zinc.
For example:
Oysters contain 7mg of Zinc per Oyster and a steak can range anything from 10-25mg of Zinc, depending on size.
Furthermore, wherever you get high zinc, you also get copper and by supplementing too much Zinc, you run the risk of upsetting the zinc:copper ratio in the body which can cause all sorts of destructive effects.
Kinobody’s Mojo has no copper. Key sign he hasn’t dug deep enough.
Elite alternative?
Eat seafood, meat and organs at least 4x per week.
Tongkat Ali on Testosterone
A self confessed Andrew Huberman testosterone favourite.
Studies have shown that Tongkat Ali can increase testosterone levels in humans (men) in a dose-dependent manner.
Meaning, 200mg of Tongkat Ali can increase testosterone by about 25-50ng/dl, whereas 600mg daily can increase testosterone by 120ng/dl on average.
The cool thing about Tongkat Ali is that it can increase testosterone in young, healthy males, with already high testosterone.
According to this clinical trial, 600 mg of Tongkat Ali extract (1.45% eurycomanone; 8.5mg total) increased young (average age 24 years) males’ total testosterone from 802 to 924ng/dl in just 14 days.
Forskolin on Testosterone
Forskolin is another Andrew Huberman testosterone favourite.
It has a natural compound (diterpene) found in the root of the Coleus Forskohlii plant, which is part of the mint family.
Forskolin has been shown to:
Enhances Leydig cell sensitivity to luteinizing hormone (helps stimulate testosterone production in the testes)
Increase total testosterone from 506 to 575ng/dl after 12 weeks (69ng/dl increase)
Increase free testosterone by 16% (from 15.9 to 16.36pg/ml) after 12 weeks
Promote vasodilatory effect, thus it can help with vascularity (for some of you veiny-obsessed gym bros!)
Increase neurotransmitter dopamine (works synergistically with testosterone).
From the research, it’s clear forskolin may have pro-hormone boosting that you may benefit from.
OK, so what are the pitfalls then?
Within Kinobody’s Mojo supplement formula, both Tongkat Ali and Forskolin are herbs that are definitely under-dosed and the active ingredient in both Tongkat Ali and Forskohlii isn’t specified.
This means there is no definite way of knowing how much they actually contain and of what quality and origin they are.
Massive red flag.
Elite Alternative?
Avoid and save yourself the cash. Stick to the fundamentals instead (sleep, diet, movement and sun).
Boron on Total and Free Testosterone
Most testosterone boosters contain boron to boost free testosterone since it can help to lower SHBG.
Studies have shown that the recommended dosage is 10-11mg daily, whereas 3mg is ineffective.
In this supplement, they use 5mg. 5mg is closer to 3mg than 10mg, which makes it underdosed.
Plus, contrary to a lot of the mainstream data on it, I managed to find one study (below) that found boron increased estrogen levels which may counteract any benefit from increased testosterone.
Furthermore, boron glycinate is an inferior, cheap form of boron which suggests he focused on profit margins, not your health.
Boric Acid is a more premium, proven boron type.
In Summary
Although, in theory, the ingredients in Mojo should help to increase total and free testosterone, upon close review, the reality is different.
Ingredients are clearly low quality
Lack of transparency around ingredient origin
Lack of efficacy supporting the potency of some of the ingredients
Dosages are wrong (most would need to be higher than stated to have an effect)
A better case for saving money and eating more meat, organs and seafood instead
Furthermore..
On the sales page, Greg says,
“If you were to shop all ingredients separately you would be paying over $100 per month. But with the Kino Mojo formula you can get it for just $44.95 per bottle and save even more on our monthly subscription program.”
So I was curious and did the product searching and the math to lay it out…
If you were to get the top quality ingredients, the pricing (per serving) would be as follows:
Magnesium: 200mg elemental magnesium = $0.15
Zinc (sucrusomal zinc): 20mg = $0.53
Tongkat Ali: 100mg Tongkat Ali, 10mg eurycomanone = $0.73 per serving
Forskolin: 250mg Forskohlli, 50mg forskolin = $0.30 per serving
Boron: 10mg boron = $0.06 per serving
This brings us to a total of $1.77 per serving, for the right dose with the right extract.
Mojo is $1.67 per serving or $1.33 if you subscribe. Not a big difference.
So the initial price of all the ingredients paid for separately might be more, but the price per serving isn’t much of a difference.
I honestly have to say that I’d rather pay a little more and get vastly superior ingredients (at the right dose of the active ingredients) and as a consequence, better results.
So I personally wouldn’t buy this supplement mainly because it’s underdosed and because the active ingredients aren’t specified.
I’ve used many supplements that didn’t indicate the active ingredients and felt zero effect despite taking 10x of the recommended dose (all at once).
The active ingredient matters and when the product is of good quality, they always specify.
That’s all for this Monday.
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Otherwise, see you again next week - same time, same place.
Your, Simmo.
P.S: 4 personal pictures from my travels last week in London, Windsor, and Jersey as wedding season kicks off here in the UK, below.
P.S.S:
If you are struggling with:
Low energy
Erectile issues
Sleep problems
Insecurity around women
Low self-esteem or confidence
Body-conscious (skinny or overweight)
Odds are, you may have low testosterone.
If you’d like to have an informal, confidential chat about your situation to better understand whether my 6-pillar system may be appropriate for you.
Book a free 30 minute discovery call here.W