I’ve gotten a ton of requests for a Modere M3 Body System review, so here we are. Its taken me a while, but you guys were right – this is definitely one for the Diet Review files!
Modere is a company based in Utah that sells more than weight loss supplements, but today we’re focusing just on what you guys want me to tell you about, which is the M3 Body System.
Here we go!
The Modere M3 Body System is the company’s weight loss program. It involves three products (and an up sell to the Trim product, more on that later), and a lifestyle-based approach to losing weight.
Meaning, the program and weight loss are meant to be sustainable for the long-term, not just a crazy fad diet. Okay, I’m liking the sound of that.
Modere does sell a meal replacement shake and a ‘carb blocker’, but these aren’t included in M3.
M3 is based on the Mediterranean diet, and the good thing about this program is that it doesn’t (like the Mediterranean diet) cut out any major food groups. You can have grains, you can have dairy, you can have legumes.
Progressive concept…especially for a diet program. I rarely see this in the diets I review. There’s usually handfuls of supplements, shakes, restriction, you name it.
The Modere website has some good nutrition-based resources like a shopping list, tons of Mediterranean-style recipes, and articles about food and health that are actually pretty reasonable. The whole thing is very pretty to look at and easy to read.
The only actual Modere ‘eating plan’ I could find was one from Australia, and it was actually pretty solid, although it was the ‘Phase One Detox’ plan. I’m not sure if this same plan exists in North America, because I definitely couldn’t locate it.
Also, the word ‘detox’ infuriates me, so I was really hoping with my fingers crossed that the North American M3 didn’t use such vernacular. Anyhow.
What is the Modere M3 Body System plan?
You take three supplements daily and make three lifestyle changes, for three months. That’s the ‘Modere pledge’. The plan has a money-back guarantee if you lose no weight, and suggests that the expected weight loss on M3 is 1-2 pounds a week. Seems reasonable.
The lifestyle changes that you can choose from are: avoid sugary drinks; avoid refined flour, white rice, and sugar; cut fried foods; drink 5 12-ounce glasses of water; walk 7500 steps daily.
All of these are fine. I’d recommend you eventually do all of them, but starting with three is a good first step. And in terms of sugar – the Modere plan allows fruit (WOW), so I’m assuming the ‘avoid sugar’ refers to added sugar. Okay.
Modere stipulates that to lose weight with M3, you must change your diet and lifestyle along with taking the supplements. Unlike other diet programs that promise all the benefits with none of the work, there’s no free rides with M3!
Modere supplements.
Remember that just because an ingredient has been tested on rats, this doesn’t equate to the same performance in human trials.
It seems like you can’t really have a commercial diet plan without a supplement or twenty to go with it. $igh.
Unlike a lot of other diet plans (I’ve reviewed a ton of them, take your pick), M3 has only three required supplements – Burn, Sustain, and Sync. There’s no ‘cleanse’ supplement. There is one called Trim, which I’ll look at as well.
After you do the three-month program, you ditch the Burn and Sustain supplements, and take Sync with an (expensive – like $70 a bottle) antioxidant supplement, Vital.
Here are the three supplements that go with the Modere M3 Body System:
Modere Burn:
Slim down with this patent-pending formula with ingredients shown to boost your metabolism and target stubborn fat.
This supplement, as the name suggests, is supposed to be thermogenic. Meaning, it’s supposed to make your metabolic rate rise enough to burn more calories at rest. The ingredients include green coffee bean, chromium, cordyceps – a Chinese mushroom, and fucoxanthin among others – basically a bunch of herbal stimulants, none of which has been proven to cause a significant and lasting effect on metabolism or weight.
Sure, if you take enough stimulants you’ll get a buzz. But does this cause weight loss? Not according to research it doesn’t. It seems like a thermogenic ‘fat burner’ is de rigeur for every single diet program out there. I’m getting sort of tired of it! Fat burners don’t work. Period.
Also, there is nothing in the world that you can take that ‘targets’ fat. What’s up with this claim, anyhow? No magical fat-zappers exist.
Fucoxanthin, which burn contains, has a preliminary study behind it that suggests it may increase metabolism and reduce fat mass, probably as a result of the metabolic boost.
BUT! And there’s always a ‘but.’
The study was small and short, so there’s that.
The minimum dosage for effectiveness according to this study is 2.4mg, but because the Burn label doesn’t say how many milligrams of fucoxanthin each dose contains, we have zero clues as to whether or not the amount of fucoxanthin in Burn will even be effective.
I see this a lot with weight loss supplements: in the interest of being secretive with their ‘proprietary blends’, the companies don’t disclose amounts of the ingredients in their supplements.
This makes it impossible to determine if any effective ingredients in the supplements are even going to BE effective. If the dose is too small, they won’t be. And too-large doses can be dangerous.
Booo for proprietary blends.
Also, it’s important to consider that if fucoxanthin was so amazing, we probably would have heard more about it since 2009, when this study was done. It’s just common sense.
Modere Sustain:
A delicious weight loss shake to help you curb appetite, reduce daily calories and give your body the protein it needs to build healthy muscle. Sustain incorporates elements of the Mediterranean lifestyle like vegetable-based proteins and Vitamin D3.
Sustain is essentially a pea protein powder with some MCTs, non-nutritive sweeteners, and starches like maltodextrin and rice flour, added to it. It’s suggested as a morning or afternoon snack. It’s not a meal replacement.
Each serving of Sustain contains 90 calories, 10 grams of protein, 2 grams of fat, and zero sugars. Sustain also contains a whole host of vitamins and minerals, but nothing in megadoses, which is good.
The way Sustain can work to reduce daily calories is that the protein will likely reduce your appetite (as protein does). While I’m not sure why refined starches are added to Sustain, and I do think that 90 calories is a bit small for a snack – I recommend 150-200 calories – there’s nothing objectionable about Sustain. If 90 calories is leaving you hungry between meals, I’d add a piece of fruit to it.
Modere Sync:
Sync optimizes digestion and lessens late night cravings in one delicious, gluten free shake with a unique blend of plant fibers.
Sync is a fiber supplement meant to be taken at night. Based on oat bran, it also contains inulin and fructooligosaccharides, which are prebiotic fibers that are good for your gut.
I’m sort of confused as to why this fiber supplement only contains 3 grams of fiber per serving, but I do like the prebiotics in there so I’m going to overlook the fiber gram deficits of Sync.
After all, the Mediterranean diet is full of other fiber sources like whole grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables. You shouldn’t be short on fiber on this plan even without Sync.
Modere Trim:
Made with clinical-strength Clarinol® CLA from natural safflower, Trim inhibits cellular fat storage, reduces fat cell size and reduces fat cell formation.
Trim is an additional product that you can add on to your M3 program. Clearly it’s popular, as the website indicates that it’s currently sold out.
CLA, or conjugated linoleic acid, is a fatty acid whose fat-burning properties have been investigated, but with lacklustre results all around. examine.com states:
…human studies on CLA are very unreliable and the overall effects seen with CLA are not overly potent as well as sometimes contradicting. CLA is a good research standard to investigated fatty acids and the PPAR system, but its usage as a supplement for personal goals is quite lacklustre.
A pretty poor fat burner, and even more unreliable than it is bad at burning fat. It might make you lose enough fat to compensate for that cookie you had once.
In other words? Nothing to see here, people. Move along.
In Short:
Weight loss on the Modere M3 Body System is likely due to the lifestyle approach: you actually need to make small, realistic changes to your diet. The recipes on the site encourage people to cook for themselves, and the program supports fresh, whole foods with no ‘fad’ diets and no restrictive BS, like most other programs I review.
The weight you lose on M3 is because you’re cutting calories, not because of the unproven supplements.
You’re probably more likely to be successful long-term with this plan than other crazy restrictive diet plans that involve shakes, cutting out foods for no reason, and starvation.
The cost of M3 is $159.00 a month, which is pretty significant. Plus, there’s cost associated with the maintenance plan – for the Sync and the Vital. You could probably forgo both of those and still live a happy and healthy life.
Nothing in the world ‘targets’ fat, except for liposuction and other cosmetic procedures. Stop believing the hype about ‘fat burning’ supplements. If anything like that is ever discovered, the diet industry would cease to exist.