CLA (Bauer Nutrition) Review: Supplement that Burns Fat AND Builds Muscle?

CLA seems to be getting all the hype nowadays in the fitness and bodybuilding industry. If you’ve never heard of CLA before, it stands for conjugated linoleic acid and it’s known by many as the ultimate dream supplement because many say that it helps you burn fat, while retaining your muscle mass! Say WHHAAAA!??? Yup. That means if you’re into bodybuilding, fitness modeling, or just want to look freakin’ sexy, this might be a product that you might want to look into.

I personally, was really looking forward to conducting my CLA review! I’m not a bodybuilder or fitness model by any stretch of your imagination, but one of the reasons I like to workout is to look good! Ideally, just like many young guys, I want to have big muscles (relative to my height/weight, of course) but have a small percentage of body fat, so that I can look shredded. Anything that can help me accomplish that look is worth looking into, in my opinion!

What exactly is CLA and what are the benefits?

Conjugated linoleic acid is exactly what its name implies. It’s a family of linoleic acids, which are a type of omega-6 fatty acid. It is also an essential fatty acid which means the body cannot synthesize it on its own, so it must be consumed from food. CLA is found in beef and various dairy products. It’s not only linked to fat loss and an increase in lean muscle retention, but has also been linked to aiding in cancer prevention, increasing immunity, and preventing hardening of the arteries.

According to a 2004 article on WebMD, there was a CLA study conducted by Jean-Michel Gaullier, PhD, from the Scandinavian Clinical Research Group, which showed significant fat loss in an overweight test group. The study involved 149 overweight women and 31 overweight men, which was categorized by BMI. The study took place for 12 months and the subjects were divided up into 3 groups. One group was instructed to take CLA in the form of pills. Another group was told to take CLA in the form of syrup. The third group were given placebo pills. The group of test subjects had no changes in diet or exercise.

At the end of the year, the placebo group had experienced no weight loss or change in body fat. Both CLA test groups showed improvement in muscle mass and had lost an average of 4 pounds. The group that took CLA pills experienced a 7% loss in body fat and the group that took the CLA syrup had a WHOPPING 9% loss in body fats!! The study also implied that the change in body fat seemed to be more significant for those that had higher body mass index (in other words, the bigger you are, the more CLA seems to help).

There have also been a multitude of other studies which have demonstrated a variety of promising health benefits that CLA offers. They say that there is still quite a bit of research that must be done to fully understand CLA and how/why it works. We also have to keep in mind that a lot of these studies were conducted on mice, so just like any scientific experiment, we can only speculate about how effective certain results would have on humans.

Okay…so CLA sounds AWESOME…but ANY NEGATIVE SIDE EFFECTS!?

Good news…… there are no known significant side effects to taking CLA! Woohooooooo! It’s considered safe and meets the safe standards set by the United States Food and Drug Administration. With that being said, there were still some interesting observations that were gathered from Gaullier’s study.

The study showed that both groups that took CLA had higher levels of lipoprotein, leptin, and white blood cell counts. The group that took CLA pills also had slightly higher “bad” cholesterol levels and the group that took the CLA syrup had slightly lower “good” cholesterol.

I personally find these observations fairly interesting, but it’s not really too surprising. As you may or may not know, too much of any substance can be harmful. If your levels of lipoprotein, leptin,or white blood cells are too high, it can lead to some health complications; however, the study concluded that the chemical changes observed were not strong enough to be considered significant.

The higher levels of “bad” cholesterol and lower levels of “good” cholesterol also make sense as well. Since CLA is a fat, and fat contributes to our cholesterol levels, it shouldn’t be too surprising that there was a difference observed. Since the difference noted was very minimal, it certainly makes me feel good about my CLA supplements!

My Personal Experience with the Bauer Nutrition brand of CLA

Like with the majority of my supplement reviews, I like to personally try out the supplements. Some supplements I like taking over a longer period than others. As I stated earlier, I personally, was super EXCITED to try out CLA because of its potential capability of burning fat, while retaining lean muscle. I got my hungry, little hands on the Bauer Nutrition version of CLA. I, personally, really like the Bauer Nutrition brand for a variety of reasons that I’ll get into later.

This was the first time that I actually tried a CLA product, so I was quite surprised when I first opened the bottle. It comes in a pretty plain, white bottle with red and black lettering on the label. The actual capsules, from a distance, are black/dark-looking in color. When you hold them up close, they look slightly red in color. Since CLA is a fatty acid, I was expecting all the capsules to look bright yellow in color, similar to the omega-3 fish oil I take. To my knowledge, some CLA products appear dark in color while others appear yellow. The exact reasoning for this…. I’m actually not too sure. Haha, you might have to do your own research on that one! Also, if you like the smell of fish, CLA has a very fish-like scent, similar to omega-3 fish oil supplements.

Each bottle contains 90 capsules and is designed to last for 30 days. Each capsule contains 1000mg of CLA. It’s recommended that you take 1 to 3 capsules per day with a meal. I mixed my routine up a bit. Since I only eat 2 meals per day (lunch and dinner), I would sometimes take 2 capsules with lunch and then 1 capsule with dinner, or 1 capsule with lunch and 2 capsules with dinner, or sometimes 1 capsule with lunch and 1 capsule with dinner, or even just 3 capsules with 1 meal. The different combinations didn’t really make a noticeable difference for me. I didn’t feel any better or any worse when taking 3 capsules versus 1 capsule versus 2 capsules with a meal. I’d suggest just taking 1 with each meal if you eat 3 meals per day, so that it’s easier for you to remember and so that you have a consistent rhythm of intake.

Overall, my experience with CLA was good and pretty much exactly what I was expecting. I took CLA consistently for about 2 weeks straight. No, I did not lose a ton of weight. No, I did not get extremely shredded 6-pack abs. No, I did not turn into a gorgeous fitness model….especially after 2 weeks of testing it out! And….that’s exactly the kind of results I was expecting. CLA is one of the those supplements that, fortunately and unfortunately, causes minimal noticeable disturbances in your body. It’s just one of those supplements that might be working very well in your body, but you just won’t notice it.

There’s a lot of weight loss supplements on the market that have very obvious effects on your body, good and bad. Some weight loss supplements give you significantly more energy. Others dehydrate you and make you feel thirsty. Other supplements on the market make you want to poop! The nice thing about CLA is that it didn’t have any of those effects on my body! That’s a really good thing because it didn’t disturb my day-to-day routine and I could stack it very nicely with the other general supplements I take. It’s also somewhat annoying though because you do have to ingest CLA on blind faith just hoping that it’s actually working in your body. There’s really no true way to see exactly how effective it’s working on your body in the short-term. The best way is to actually just try the product out for an extended period of time and do your best to control any outside variables.

As a safety precaution, you should keep in mind that the product is not intended for people under the age of 16. I believe that the main reason behind that is because your body is still growing and developing through your adolescent years and taking a large amount of CLA might potentially interfere with that. It’s also not recommended if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding. You should also avoid taking more than the recommended dose of 3 capsules per day.

Should you Buy CLA (Bauer Nutrition)?

In my opinion, I think CLA is a great product to look into, especially if you’re someone who’s very much into aesthetics. I believe CLA is really a great product for athletes, fitness models, bodybuilders, and anyone that just wants to look good. Personally, given my long-term fitness and health goals, CLA is likely a product that I’ll consistently buy in the future.

There’s certainly a lot of nutritional brands out there and certainly quite a few that sell CLA. There really aren’t too many sports nutrition companies that don’t CLA nowadays because it’s such a hot product. I can’t really speak too much about the other brands, but I honestly really like the Bauer Nutrition brand. Bauer Nutrition sells a bottle of CLA for $29.95. That’s a pretty reasonable price. Most companies sell a month’s supply of CLA for roughly the same price, so it’s not a supplement that hurts the wallet too much, which I personally love!

One of my favorite aspects about the Bauer Nutrition website is the incredible amount of savings they offer! They literally have some of the best cost savings I’ve seen. If you buy 2 bottles of CLA, you’ll get a third one free, which saves you $29.95. Even better, if you buy 3 bottles of CLA, you’ll get THREE bottles for free which saves you $89.85.

On top of the incredible savings you’ll get when you buy CLA in bulk, you also have the ability to mix and match various products. In other words, if you wanted just 1 bottle of CLA, but wanted to get your hands on a couple of other products, you could still take advantage of the buy 2 get 1 free deal or the buy 3 get 3 free deal. The ability to mix and match is by far one of my favorite benefits of the Bauer Nutrition website. They also offer FREE shipping on ALL orders for numerous countries! If you know me at all, you already know that I LOVE FREE SHIPPING! Woot woot! All products are also backed by a 60-day money back guarantee; ya know, in case you don’t like the products or in case you go broke buying supplements and need the extra money to pay your rent 🙂 …Just kidding….kind of….

In conclusion:

I recommend CLA if you:

Want to burn fat
Want to retain lean muscle mass
Enjoy fat-burning supplements that have little to no side effects (lots of weight loss supplements dehydrate or make you feel bloated, while CLA does not)
Have an interest in fitness modeling or bodybuilding
Prefer taking supplements that have a bit more research behind it
Want a supplement that’s not too expensive

I do not recommend CLA if you:

Are already 100% satisfied with your current supplements / CLA products
Don’t care too much about how your body looks and just want to be healthy
Prefer weight loss supplements which have more noticeable effects (more energy, parched thirst, bloating, etc.)
Are under the age of 16, pregnant, breastfeeding, or have some other serious medical condition
Hate the smell of fish 😉

Hope this review helped! As always, feel free reach out with any questions or concerns!

Supp. It. Up.

-David