Jacked Factory GDA-XT: Chromium-Powered Carb Driver

Jacked Factory impressed us in 2015, and still impresses us to this day!

We’ve been following Jacked Factory for quite a while now, taking note when they stunned the Amazon market with their Altius Pre Workout six years ago. It may not seem like a huge deal now, but at the time of its launch, there were practically no efficaciously-dosed non-proprietary pre workout supplements, and the few that were there were not naturally colored and sweetened like Altius.

Jacked Factory has become a brand that we look to with consistent labels, branding, and formulas that keep things modern, but don’t shy too far away from tried-and-true classic ingredients known to work with little fanfare needed.

Want to become a Jacked Factory? Then assert your dominance over carbohydrates

Need to drive your carbs to where they belong (in muscle tissue)? Then GDA-XT brings a unique batch of ingredients led by Chromax chromium picolinate!

One of the consistent components of getting jacked is control over carbohydrates: athletes need to use the right amount to make strength, performance, and size gains, but not so much that they chronically stop fat oxidation. But even more important is getting those carbs to where you want them to go — muscle tissue!

The best way to do this, along with your epic workouts, is to remain insulin sensitive – and there are dietary ingredients that promote this state. They’re in a class we call glucose disposal agents, and they help your body shuttle blood sugars to muscle cells rather than fat cells (or worse, in the bloodstream for too long).

Jacked Factory GDA-XT: Optimize Your Carb Utilization

Glucose Disposal Agents are known as GDAs, and Jacked Factory’s GDA is known as GDA-XT.

With tried-and-true ingredients like Chromax chromium picolinate and berberine paired with an incredible support cast amplified by AstraGin, GDA-XT is a glucose disposal agent that can be counted on each and every time you carb up.

The whole analysis is below, but first, sign up for our Jacked Factory news and deal alerts since the brand is always up to something good, and has been since that OG Altius launch:

The following ingredients are in each two capsule serving, and there are 30 total servings in the container. Jacked Factory recommends taking two capsules 10-15 minutes before a high-carb meal, up to twice daily.

Jacked Factory GDA-XT Ingredients

• Chromium (as Chromax Chromium Picolinate) – 300mcg

  

  GDA-XT is ready to take your insulin sensitivity to the next level. Use it 10-15 minutes before a carb-heavy meal, two capsules at a time, maximum twice per day!

  Research and years of market use has shown chromium picolinate to be the most effective form of supplemental chromium,^[1] and the most trusted form of chromium picolinate is none other than Nutrition21’s Chromax. This is an essential trace mineral that has long been known to play a critical role in metabolism, insulin secretion, and blood sugar control.

  Chromax is the “OG GDA”, and in our article titled Chromax Chromium Picolinate: 25+ Years of Insulin Sensitivity Improvement, we recently argued that it has become more effective over the years because our food supply has become more barren of critical minerals like chromium. Ultimately, when we’re chromium deficient, we have serious problems with insulin signaling,^[2] and can worsen our states of insulin resistance, which causes countless health problems.^[3]

  Chromium asserts its effects by stimulating insulin sensitivity at the receptor level, and can help the body get glucose from the bloodstream more effectively^[4] — and when we’re training effectively, this means into the glycogen-hungry muscle tissue!

  Chromium picolinate offers a wide range of health benefits – especially to those who are deficient – ranging from an improvement in insulin sensitivity (as discussed above) to weight management to craving and mood control.^[1,5-11]

  Chromax Chromium Picolinate: Chromium done right

  

  For over 25 years, Chromax chromium picolinate has been improving insulin sensitivity. We argue that it’s only gotten better, as dietary deficiencies have gotten worse over this time period.

  The standard dose is 200mcg, but you can always count on Jacked Factory to go a bit above and beyond. Here we have a yield of 300mcg chromium, which amounts to 857% DV – no chromium deficiency should be found amongst GDA-XT consumers! Compared to other forms of chromium, chromium picolinate is up to 15x more bioavailable,^[12,13] making it our preferred choice when supplementing the mineral.

  Again, the benefits are strongest for those who are less healthy or more insulin resistant, but even if healthy, chromium picolinate has been shown to acutely lower blood sugar in healthy individuals,^[14] which is great for all of those lean and ripped Jacked Factory customers who want to up the carbs but not up the blood sugar levels for too long!

  If you want to learn more about the mechanism and science behind Chromax / chromium picolinate, read our article titled Chromium Picolinate: The Ultimate Trace Mineral For Insulin Sensitivity.

• Berberine HCl – 500mg

  Just like Chromax is the original GDA powerhouse, berberine has become a must-try ingredient for carb-lovers to try too! Coming from the berberis family, this ingredient has gone toe-to-toe with popular pharmaceutical drugs (admittedly at higher berberine doses) and come out on top.^[15] Berberine has been repeatedly shown to significantly increase insulin sensitivity and to boost glucose uptake into the cells.^[16-19]

  

  Studies show that Chromax is effective at reducing appetite, which helps promote weight loss. Image courtesy of Nutrition21.

  Berberine works by expressing enhanced AMPK activation. Known as adenosine monophosphate kinase, AMPK is an enzyme that regulates cellular energy, responding to the body’s energy demands and helping it shuttle nutrients into cells.^[20]

  With this mechanism, berberine ultimately has a tremendous number of health benefits:

  • Increased insulin sensitivity — especially in skeletal muscle!
  • Lower insulin resistance
  • Reduced gluconeogenesis in the liver
  • Less intestinal absorption of glucose
  • Gut health improvement
  • Better lipid metabolism regulation^[21]
  • Potential anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects.

  One comment is that the max dose we often see is 1.5g per day, but that’s quite aggressive. 500mg is a solid entry, especially if maxing out at two servings per day.

  Long story short, this ingredient is incredible and is in nearly every best-selling GDA supplement, including GDA-XT. The Chromax / Berberine alone makes this a worthy supplement. There’s more to come, however, but if you want to go down the berberine rabbit hole, read our in-depth article about the Berberine Glucose Disposal Ingredient.

• GS4 Gymnema Sylvestre Leaf Extract (standardized to 25% Gymnemic Acids) – 400mg

  Gymnema sylvestre extract is another herb with potent blood sugar lowering properties.^[22] At 25% strength, this extract provides 100mg of the active constituents, gymnemic acids.

  

  A closer look at GDA-XT

  Several studies have shown gymnema sylvestre to possess anti-hypercholesterolemia, antimicrobial, and hepatoprotective effects, while even suppressing sugar cravings!^[22]

  There are four main mechanisms where gymnemic acids can lower blood sugar levels:

  1. Insulin secretion enhancement
  2. Improved pancreatic islet cell regeneration
  3. Better glucose utilization
  4. Less glucose uptake in the intestine^[22]

  Even more interesting, gymnemic acids can sometimes alter the taste buds’ sensation of sweetness! There are also lipid profile improvements seen as well, namely showing a reduction in triglyceride levels^[23] (which are often correlated with overly high-carb diets).

  GS4 is a trusted and trademarked form of gymnema from Sabinsa.

• Cinnamon Bark Extract 4:1 – 250mg

  Most of us love cinnamon on food, but it’s also great when it comes to health benefits – especially when extracted and dosed strongly enough! Cinnamon contains many biologically active compounds like cinnamic acid, epicatechin (and other catechins), coumarin, eugenol, and others.^[24]

  Studies have shown that cinnamon can reduce fasting blood sugar levels while boosting glucose absorption into tissues.^[24-26] One of the ways this works is via an insulin mimicking mechanism from a polymer inside of cinnamon known as methylhydroxychalcone.^[25,26]

  Because of this, we’ve seen cinnamon improve cholesterol and triglyceride status, lower HbA1C levels, and even drop both fasting and postprandial blood sugar levels.^[26]

  One of the key things is to get a high enough dose, or an extract that’s strong enough (or both). Here, we have both, but we unfortunately don’t know exactly what Jacked Factory has standardized for in GDA-XT. Ultimately, however, this is a great glucose-driving solution and we trust that it’s going to get the job done.

• R-Alpha Lipoic Acid – 105mg

  

  Rats given albeit high doses of ALA tend to lose weight and eat less.

  R-Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) is an organic compound that we call the cognitive-boosting antioxidant. It’s been shown to exert great benefits in combating insulin resistance and some of the awful health consequences of being chronically insulin resistant.^[27]

  ALA has potent anti-inflammatory effects and can mimic the action of insulin,^[27] similar to a couple other ingredients in GDA-XT. Once it’s ingested, it’s absorbed and converted into dihydrolipoic acid by a few key enzymes. It then goes on to play a role in several mitochondrial bioenergetic reactions, where the cells generate energy.^[27] Ultimately, this leads to more effective energy production and transfer, and it brings some cognitive benefits along with that.

  It’s important to note that we have all R-ALA here in GDA-XT, which is important given the fact that it’s the more bioavailable form. If we had regular ALA, 50% would not be as usable. A consistent trend here is that Jacked Factory is looking out for their consumers by giving them useful extracts and forms.

  There’s a lot more to this one, which you can learn about in our article titled Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA): The Cognitive-Boosting Antioxidant.

• Banaba Leaf Extract (standardized to 2% corosolic acid) – 75mg

  Finishing off our GDA ingredients, we have 75mg banaba leaf extract. This is a tree found in Southeast Asia whose leaves have long been used for various herbal remedies.^[28] There are several antidiabetic, antioxidant, anti-obesity, and cholesterol lowering properties.^[28]

  

  The side label of GDA-XT

  Banaba’s effects are most often attributed to its corosolic acids,^[28] which we also have disclosed here. There are also other acids alongside though, such as ellagitannins, oleanolic acid, and valoneic acid, and they may further promote its blood sugar lowering properties^[28] – especially since this is more of a “full spectrum” extract.

  Banaba has been well-studied and shows better glucose absorption, insulin sensitivity, and better blood sugar regulation.^[28] Corosolic acid itself even expresses some anti-inflammatory and antiviral effects.^[28]

  Overall, we consider this a great support ingredient, but are more excited about the other ingredients above.

• AstraGin (Astragalus Membranaceus & Panax Notoginseng Root Extract) – 25mg

  Amplifying the blend in GDA-XT is AstraGin from NuLiv Science. This is a patented combination of panax notoginseng and astragalus membranaceus that is added to increase the absorption and bioavailability of other compounds inside.

  We’ve seen AstraGin used in many pre workouts and amino acid supplements, but not as often in GDA type supplements, and that’s crazy because research has shown that it alone can improve intestinal glucose uptake,^[29,30] making it a GDA-friendly ingredient while possibly also enhancing the others!

  There may be a bit less research in terms of some of the specific ingredients in GDA-XT, but clinical trials report AstraGin’s capability in boosting the uptake of several different vitamins, minerals, amino acids, peptides, omega-3 fatty acids, and phytonutrients. Cinnamon and chromium are two key candidates that could be taken up better in GDA-XT.

  To top it off, AstraGin can also support gut health by reducing inflammation and helping with the growth of beneficial bacteria while restoring damaged intestinal walls, so it’s always great to see in a food-minded supplement.

GDA-XT: Carb-Driving Done Right

GDA-XT is a solid formulation that takes some classic ingredients with some new ones, and puts together a formula made for carb-lovers who train. We see too many GDAs that don’t bring the chromium (especially the chromium picolinate), and will continually argue that our processed food supply has been so over-farmed that we’re missing critical nutrients and minerals like it.

Get your glucose support on with GDA-XT

But if we’re training hard, even if we’re eating a lot, we might not be getting the nutrient density we need, and supplements like GDA-XT can help drive those carbs home.

We’ve always been fans of Jacked Factory, and see the similarities between a classic supplement like Altius and a classic ingredient like Chromax. It worked great back then, and it still works great now. The younger competition is merely just taking their time to figure out what Jacked Factory already knew.