Like the gift that keeps on giving, Modere keeps on coming out with products. I get a lot of questions about Modere, so here you go – this Modere review 2024 includes a Modere 5 day drop review.
What is Modere?
Modere is a multi level marketing company offering everything from skin cream to dishwasher detergent. But where I think Modere really makes its money, is with its nutrition supplements. Without a doubt, if you’ve spent any time at all in a certain corner of social media, you’ve seen people selling Modere trim and Modere Biocell.
Recently, Modere came out with its ‘5 Day Drop,’ a prelude to the Modere Lean Body System.
The company promises that their Modere Lean Body System – which consists of three popular products – will help you ‘achieve a total body transformation.’ The 5 Day Drop, according to the company, will ‘prep your body for a transformation with this 4-piece kit designed to help optimize nutrient intake from the healthy foods and beverages you consume.’
What is this ‘transformation’ they speak of?
Apparently, the ‘innovative technology’ and the combination of the three products will ‘transform your body’ in 6 ways:
- Support fat burning metabolism
- Block fat transport
- Inhibit fat absorption
- Reduce fat cell size
- Reduce fat cell formation
- Improve muscle tone and body composition
So many MLMs use the word ‘transformation’ in their content. ‘Transform your life!’ or, ‘Transform your body!’ Marketing 101: make big promises that elicit an emotional response in potential customers.
Let’s snap back to reality, shall we? When was the last time a product truly transformed your body or your life? It sounds so promising, but is it reality? If something was that transformative, why wouldn’t it be sold everywhere?
The ‘transformation’ promise is a huge red flag. But let’s continue.
As an aside, Modere makes a big deal of how ‘clean’ its products are. What does that even mean, really?
Modere 5 Day Drop Review
Let’s get straight into the 5 Day Drop review, because it’s Modere’s latest offering. The Modere 5 Day Drop pack, which costs $133.96 USD, includes four products:
Modere Revitalize, a mineral and fulvic acid supplement that’s added to water. It supposedly transforms ordinary water with supercharged minerals, promoting optimal health and energy levels.’ Fulvic acid doesn’t do that. There’s no high-quality human research on fulvic acid, so I’m not sure how a company can make claims about it at all.
Modere Axis Phytogreens, a $28.99 USD greens powder with adaptogens that apparently ‘optimizes alkalinity in the body,’ even though that’s impossible to do. Greens powders can have benefits, but in this case, there’s nothing in this product that will help with weight loss.
Modere Digestive Enzymes (they didn’t bother giving this product an inspiring name), which as I wrote here, you probably don’t need.
Modere Probiotic, which again, you probably don’t need. If you do, go to a drugstore and find a similar one for less than $39.99 USD, which is what Modere’s costs.
According to Modere sales reps, the Modere 5 Day Drop allegedly targets 4 types of weight: water weight, digestive bulk, puffiness, and fat. I’d argue that ‘water weight’ and ‘puffiness’ are the same thing, and that ‘digestive bulk’ is just ‘sh*t,’ so that’s actually not weight.
As far as fat loss goes, physiologically you’re not going to impact that much in 5 days, although Modere might tell you that you will, because that will sell product (and it’s hard to distinguish between these 4 (or fewer) types of weight in the first place. I could drop 5 pounds in 5 days, and it could be all water weight, poo, or a combination of both. There’s just not an easy way to measure that.
At the end of the day, the Modere 5 Day Drop is a low calorie diet (the first day has one meal) with handfuls of expensive supplements. It won’t, as reps promise, ‘reset your metabolism’ or positively impact your gut brain axis. That’s ridiculous.
Crash diets were popular in the 70s. Let’s leave them there.The research behind Modere’s Products
Modere has lots of anecdotes and before and after photos to ‘prove’ the efficacy of their products, but as I always say, anecdotes aren’t research, and before and afters can easily be falsified. This happens all the time.
Modere’s salespeople talk a lot on social media about Modere’s product research. Those claims aren’t ever good enough for me; I always look the exact studies up to see what they’re really about.
The research is mostly centred around Modere Liquid Biocell, a line of collagen products with some fantastical claims.
The other products don’t have any research behind them that I’ve found.
What is Modere Biocell?
Biocell is a supplemental hyaluronic acid-collagen liquid. According to Modere, Biocell can help with joint pain, improve skin’s appearance, and support healthy gums, hair, nails, and eyes.
It’s a little crazy that Modere has a blog about Biocell and why it’s important for fat loss, but if you remove ‘collagen’ from each point and sub in ‘any protein,’ the post still rings true. Collagen is actually not a great protein, since it has a limiting amino acid (whey is better).
The best protein for fat loss? The kind you get in FOOD, not supplements. Food satiates and satisfies. Supplements don’t.
What does the research say? There’s a few graphics from a supposed study (not cited) and some before-and-after photos.
None of that equals science. But there is some, if you look hard enough. I actually read the papers while researching my post on collagen (read my 2023 update about collagen supplements here), and needless to say, they’re of poor methodology, and not groundbreaking. They’re also sponsored by Modere. Shocking.
I just think that it’s not a huge ask to not overstate claims or make them at all, if you don’t have adequate evidence to back them up. I think what a lot of MLMs do is that they make claims, hoping that the layperson either doesn’t know how to read research, or doesn’t care.
I also said this in my Tranont Transform review. The practice is disingenuous.
The $275.99 USD Modere Lean Body System, which is Modere’s weight loss program that ‘helps you burn fat,’ works with three products: Trim, Activate, and Burn.
Much like Modere’s M3 program, you then get to choose three habits you want to change, out of five options:
- stop eating fried foods
- stop drinking soda
- walk 7500 steps
- drink 5 12oz glasses of water
- eliminate white flour, rice, and sugar
I’m assuming here that you can still consume brown sugar, maple syrup, and all those other non-white-sugar foods that our bodies treat just like white sugar. Alright then.
There’s no specific diet plan that goes along with the Modere Lean Body System. It’s just an ‘eat a healthy diet, take our supplements, download MyFitnessPal, and hope for the best’ sort of situation. Modere has a very basic nutrition plan with number of servings of vegetables, proteins, fruits, carbs, and fats for different calorie levels, and some ‘healthy recipes’ available to users.
So what are these three supplements, anyhow?
Are they really that powerful and innovative that they can do everything that Modere claims they can? Let’s investigate Modere’s trim, burn, and activate.
Modere Trim.
I have to start out by saying that a follower sent me a picture of Modere Trim – the actual product, not just the bottle – and it looks like diarrhea on a spoon. It’s actually a conjugated linoleic acid supplement. CLA is an omega-6 fatty acid that’s found in some foods like grass-fed meat and dairy.
The claims that Modere salespeople are making about Modere Trim on social media are outrageous:
All of these vague ‘I lost weight!’ claims in that top post, along with science-y sounding rhetoric can be tempting for people who want to lose weight easily. But as far as blocking fat absorption and increasing fat metabolism; it’s a physiological impossibility that the ingredients in Trim do such a thing.
Modere claims this about Trim:
“Plant-derived conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA, has been clinically shown to decrease body fat when used as part of a healthy diet and exercise program.. Not only does CLA support fat metabolism, it actually helps block fat transport from the bloodstream into fat cells, inhibiting fat absorption, reducing fat cell size and reducing fat cell formation. The result is a more sculpted, lean body.”
Does CLA really do all of those things? The research says, ‘not really.’
I’ve seen plenty of supplements trying – and failing – to make CLA a thing, but it’s not…at least for humans.
Unfortunately for Modere and the people who are gulping down Trim in the hopes of ‘blocking fat transport,’ the research on CLA is unreliable and highly variable, but mostly unremarkable in terms of fat loss.
Modere also claims that Trim “supports a reduction in fat cells and improves muscle tone.”
The fat cell reduction claim is not a thing, since fat cells can’t be ‘reduced’ in number without liposuction or another cosmetic procedure. Our fat cells can increase in quantity, but they’re with us for life.
The muscle tone claim is also physiologically impossible. How in the world can a supplement affect muscle tone? This is why bodybuilders spend so much time at the gym…instead of taking Trim.
Modere Burn.
I have to roll my eyes when I think of saying once again that thermogenic supplements DO NOT WORK, but here we are. Pretty much every single diet program has their own version of ‘Burn,’ and my response to all of them is the same: if thermogenic supplements worked at all, nobody would be overweight. We’d all just pop a supplement and boom! Weight loss.
Thermogenic supplements don’t work. There is no food or supplement that will raise the metabolic rate high enough, for long enough, to result in an appreciable loss of weight.
Burn’s main ingredients are a type of seaweed called fucoxanthin, and a spice called berberine, also known as barberry. Burn also contains chromium, which has been touted as a ‘craving buster’ and blood sugar reducer for years, and caffeine, for energy.
Human studies on fucoxanthin are scarce – most studies have been done in rodents, cells, and shrimp.
It’s telling that we’ve known about fucoxanthin for a long time – decades, really – and nothing remarkable has come of it.
Also, as is the issue with a lot of these sorts of supplements, we have no idea how much fucoxanthin is actually in Burn. Modere claims that Burn has ‘3x the amount of fucoxanthin than leading brands,’ but what is that number? Modere doesn’t tell us.
Berberine as a supplement has been known to increase insulin sensitivity. But most of the studies on this ingredient have been done on diabetic rats and in lab dishes, not in people.
Modere specifically claims that the combination of berberine and chromium in Burn helps with glucose metabolism and cravings. While chromium has been known to mildly decrease fasting glucose levels in diabetics, it’s understood that it doesn’t affect any other health parameters.
And when Modere makes a claim about berberine and chromium decreasing cravings, they’re overreaching like crazy. There is one study about this, done on women in 2008 that seemed to show a reduction of carb cravings with chromium supplementation. The methodology and outcomes are poor (both the placebo and the chromium groups had reduced cravings!), the study is small, and the women received 1000 micrograms of chromium picolinate a day. A daily dose of Burn contains 240 micrograms of chromium picolinate, which is obviously a lot less.
Modere Activate.
You all know how I feel about cleanses, and Activate is no different. Taken for 3 consecutive days once a month to ‘eliminate toxins and rejuvenate cellular health,’ this aloe-based product is garbage, and I’ll tell you why.
When a company recommends that you take something at night ‘for a gentle cleansing experience,’ you know that you’re in for a laxative effect that’s better experienced in your home instead of at the office. And the ingredients in Activate check all the laxative boxes: aloe, which ‘speeds up intestinal motility,’ psyllium, an insoluble fiber, and pectin, which is a soluble fiber. It also contains dandelion, which can have laxative and diuretic effects.
My question is this: why in the world would you ever need to take Activate? And to the people who are selling it: can you name even ONE toxin that is not eliminated by our bodies’ natural functions? Probably not.
Modere review 2024 in short:
Fantastical, impossible claims don’t add up to solid science.
As I said in my Modere 5 Day Drop review, the program is fistfuls of supplements – most of them things you likely don’t need and the others, things you can buy for less a the drugstore – along with a low-calorie diet. That’s not fat weight you’re dropping, folks.
Save your money.