Is Velositol a Scam? - TLDR

SUMMARY: It is our opinion that Velositol is a scam. Velositol is amylopectin and chromium which is supposed to boost muscle protein synthesis. Carbohydrates have already been shown to boost muscle protein synthesis, the problem is the Velositol studies were never designed to assess why adding chromium to a carbohydrate like amylopectin makes it better then just taking a carbohydrate directly. Furthermore, the core muscle protein synthesis study was done with 2 g of Velositol on only 6 grams of protein, a 1 to 3 ratio. Who the hell takes only 6 grams of protein? Even the breakfast bar this is in uses nearly 2x that amount of protein and most of the products using Velositol are at 25g+ of protein which is a nearly a 1 to 13 ratio. The study dosing is so weird as to be irrelevant to how it's actually sold.

If this study was correctly designed, they wouldn't underdose protein and instead use 25g. It should have compared 2 grams of amylopectin + 25g of whey protein isolate to 2 grams of Velositol (amylopectin and chromium) + 25g of whey protein isolate. This study should be in humans and this would actually give us information on why adding chromium to a carbohydrate makes it better. The study, as it was run, was designed to get a positive outcome for marketing claims, not to answer the question whether Velositol actually works. Is the sole reason chromium is added simply to get a patent when you could get all the benefits by just taking a carbohydrate like amylopectin by itself?

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, particularly when you can't feel the benefits, like improving muscle protein synthesis. Some Velositol studies, like their BCAA one on mice, have the companies own employees listed as authors (to their credit, they do disclose this conflict). Science without independence is pointless. It's like when the tobacco companies put out human clinical research showing smoking was healthy for you here. The need for independence is so obvious that Dilbert even did a comic about it here. These studies are just an advertisement by the creators in disguise. 

Velositol seems to be frequently underdosed. Met-Rx is owned by Nestle which had $102 billion in revenue. They cheaped out and used 1 g per 25g of protein in their Metamyosin product, a 1 to 25 ratio compared to the 1 to 3 it was studied at. The premium Dynamic Gainer by GNC has a 2 g serving of Velositol but on their more budget Wheybolic they just...put in 500mg instead to cheap out? These GNC products have Velositol to protein ratios of 1 to 25 and an astounding 1 to 80 respectively. Keep in mind this was studied at 1 to 3 ratio so Wheybolic uses 96% less than what Velositol was studied at in humans. Insane levels of cost cutting. You would probably get more benefit from thoughts and prayers of increased muscle protein synthesis then this fairy dusting. 

Avoid Velositol, just take Whey protein or if you want to improve muscle protein synthesis buy some waxy maze which has amylopectin and is nearly free on a per serving basis. 

What is a TLDR review?

A full ingredient review takes weeks to research and weeks to write up as they are 2000–4000 words in length. We love the research part but don't have a full mastery of the English language and loathe the writing. TLDR means "Too long, didn't read". We are going to try doing the same research and just writing a summary. If an ingredient gets enough views, we will expand this to a full write-up. We hope this allows us to give our opinion on more ingredients and prioritize novel new ingredients that just launched.