Ubervita’s W700 capsules are really popular on Amazon… but this product has been implicated in some serious fake review allegations. Does the product really work?
The Ubervita W700 fat burner caught our attention long ago because it’s been tearing up the sales charts on Amazon — last time we checked, it’s #3 overall in the “fat burner” category, #5 for “appetite suppressants” and the #9 overall nutritional supplement on the site as we write this.
Scam Alert: Allegations of Fake Reviews?!
It’s also got over 10,000 customer reviews (many of which are allegedly fake reviews, which we’ll get into later), and is holding steady with a 4-star rating even after all that traffic.
After analyzing the ingredient profile — at least, to what extent we could, since it’s a terribly proprietary blend — we simply don’t understand what all the fuss is about, and have a lot of warnings to issue to the end-users. It’s headlined by caffeine, of course, and beyond that it’s a smattering of actual effective ingredients and popular Dr. Oz stuff that doesn’t have good science backing it.
An Impossible-to-Analyze Label… with Cheap Ingredients
It’s impossible to tell how effective the product is, because there’s no dosage information for individual ingredients whatsoever. Even knowing how much caffeine there is would help tremendously, but we don’t even get that much from Ubervita.
In short, Ubervita W700 is a testament to how a company can make serious amounts of cash through proper (ie scammy/scummy) Amazon Marketing. And while it’s not necessarily bad, there’s definitely a whole lot of better fat burners out there.
To analyze this, let’s do a quick look-over of the ingredients to tease out what we can. Put simply, from what we’re seeing here, it’s hard to square them up with all of the rave reviews and advertising claims. Something is clearly amiss here, and we urge you to do your homework before buying this.
Ingredients
The Ubervita W700 Ingredients: WTF is this awful proprietary blend?!
All of the ingredients are in a measly 468mg proprietary blend, which is on the light side even for a prop blend (many capsules can hold up to around 700-750mg of powder inside). They’re presented here in the order they are on the label.
Note the differences between pills and powder
It’s important to note that the labels for the capsules (which we’re reviewing here) and the W700 powder are very different. The powder contains less ingredients and they are in a different label order; the asking price for the powder is also significantly higher.
We’re talking about the pills here.
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Caffeine
A close-up of the W700 Ingredients. What a disappointment.
The world’s most popular energy stimulant is virtually mandatory in any fat burning blend, both to motivate you and to act in a general cocktail of thermogenic ingredients. The key question here is how much of that rather limited 468mg is the caffeine taking up? One 8oz cup of coffee is about 90mg, but these products are commonly dosed at anywhere from 150mg to 250mg per serving.
If the dosage is toward the higher end of that spectrum, then effectively this product is half caffeine pill! And if the dosage is toward the low end, since this is the first ingredient on the label, that means the dosing of the other ingredients aren’t anywhere near clinically effective levels. Either way, it’s not really a good start seeing this first and in a proprietary blend, even though we of course love caffeine.
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Schizandra
Presumably this is schisandra chinesis, an adaptogen that is starting to appear here and there in supplements. This in spite of an almost total lack of study by Western science — it seems to be included on the basis of anecdotes from traditional Chinese medicine and old Soviet Union tests from decades ago that are not available outside of the Russian government.
It may be a stimulant and physical enhancer, but we have no way of being sure that it works right now. The best evidence available is that it may improve nitric oxide production, but only in athletes engaged in heavy exercise.[1,2]
Overall, this is probably here for its “feel good” effects that users often report. It’s typically lower down in a profile, though, so maybe this is what makes Ubervita W700 different.
Schizandra was notably first found in the original Jack3d pre workout supplement, and is still sometimes found online here at PricePlow.
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L-Arginine
L-Arginine in a fat burner? Red flags EVERYWHERE!
L-arginine is an awful choice for a fat burner, as it’s known more as a nitric oxide enhancer for improving muscle pump. And in the realm of pump enhancers, it actually isn’t even one of the more well-regarded ones – and far higher doses than what could possibly be in here would be needed.
There’s one study that showed a small reduction in fat mass that we’re aware of, but it was in an older and obese population and used 6.4 grams per day – something not even remotely close to being possible in W700.[3]
Besides seeing the ridiculously small proprietary blend, this is your first red flag that something is seriously wrong with this product. But it’s definitely not our last:
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Beta Alanine
As Donald Trump would say, beta alanine is fantastic and amazing. It’s a proven muscular endurance enhancer and fatigue fighter. With this caveat — successful studies have tended to use at least 3.2 grams! Obviously, you can’t possibly getting even 1/10 of that dose here… and it still has no direct link to fat burning[4]
Amazon is literally embarrassing themselves by allowing this product to stay on their website.
As much as we love the ingredient in legit doses, any time you see it in a fat burner – especially so low down – you need to really wonder what the company is doing.
Similar to the L-arginine, why even include it? Name recognition?
Total waste of space, time, and money here.
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Guarana Seed Extract
This is a fairly new caffeine-providing stimulant that does seem to pack quite an energy punch, but it’s also likely very lightly dosed being this far down the label.[5]
Typically, we see guarana whose extracts are 22% caffeine, which would probably just add a negligible difference here.
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Uva Ursi
Given that the only proven medical use of “bear grapes” so far is for urinary tract infection, this is likely intended as a diuretic for water weight loss.[6] This could be one of the ingredients that users are enjoying, if it’s dosed properly and allowing you to safely shed a bit of water weight.
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Capsicum
Conan basically sums up our thoughts on Dr. Oz right here…
Capsaicin is a solid thermogenic, but it takes either fairly large doses, or a high Scoville Heat Unit rating to be effective. What are we getting here? With nothing more than the word “capsicum” on the label, we have no idea.[7]
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Garcinia Cambogia, Raspberry Ketones and Green Coffee Bean
We’re lumping all of these together because they’re effectively the same thing — an ingredient that was promoted on Dr. Oz on the basis of shaky science, and has never since been shown to be effective. Even if there does turn out to be an effective dose, what’s here is very likely just a dusting to get them on the label.
Of all of these ingredients, garcinia may have the best chance of supporting dieters, since it may work as an appetite suppression. But once again, you need a lot more in research to get that effect, so this is simply marketing.
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Tribulus
Presumably this is tribulus terrestris, a promising libido-boosting herb… it’s dead last on the ingredient list, though, so it’s likely a dusting. Why is it here? Possibly because if there is enough to boost libido, it might feel good.
So … How is this rated “Good”? (It’s probably not)
The Ubervita W700 powder label… at least this looks almost effective!
There’s just no way the numbers on this product shake out to anything so revolutionary that it should be outselling almost every other fat burner on Amazon. It’s either half caffeine pill and virtual dustings of every other ingredient … or the dose of caffeine is relatively low, but most of the other ingredients still can’t possibly be dosed at known effective levels.
At best, the schisandra is providing a little bit of an “adaptogenic” mood boost. That’s fine, but it has literally nothing to do with weight loss.
So why is this so popular? We’ve got a few theories.
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It’s a glorified caffeine / schizandra pill
It’s mostly caffeine, and people are enjoying the stim rush. The added energy is also getting them into the gym more regularly, which is what is doing any actual fat loss work.
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Maybe there’s a diuretic effect
The uva ursi is working well as a diuretic, and people are raving on the basis of temporary water weight loss.
…or, most likely…
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These positive reviews are nearly all FAKE!
If you really want to know what’s going on here, just read this analysis on SupplementReviews.com. It’s mind-blowing how fake these reviews seem to be.
Even before SR put out that report, other online investigations indicate that Ubervita may be indirectly paying for positive reviews by offering buyers more of the product for free in return for them.
SR.com tore the fake reviews of this apart. Why has Amazon not done anything about it?!
An Ubervita employee has responded, however, saying that they send a free bottle when offered even if the review is negative. Still, as any first-year journalism student should be able to tell you, any offer of free product tends to skew analysis in a more favorable direction.
Amazon needs to investigate this
Amazon is literally embarrassing themselves by allowing this product to stay on their website.
Given that they’ve recently sued fake review services, maybe they should consider cleaning up their own site in the process. And it would start with the products with the most allegedly fake reviews – this one right here.
If Amazon wants to be a player in this industry (which they have shown that they do), they need to investigate this turd and take appropriate action.
And for you consumers, you really need to think twice before buying it.
At the end of the day…
The best thing we can say about it at this point is that it’s cheap to experiment with at only $20 a bottle, but you could probably just get a $5 bottle of caffeine pills and some bulk schisandra and feel it for yourself. But we just can’t see it doing anything but giving you the same caffeine rush a coffee with a double espresso shot would … or some even cheaper caffeine pills.
Instead, check out our best fat burner buyer’s guide, where we walk you through a series of questions and find something that’s suited towards your needs, whatever they may be!
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