Here is a review of Advocare’s Mass Impact, part of their Performance Elite line. The product has the word MASS in it so right away we know this is going to be good.
Quick Look
The product calls itself a multi nutrient amino acid supplement with the key benefits being aiding in muscle building, supporting muscle performance and helps increase physical endurance. Mass Impact contains 3 grams of creatine monohydrate, 2 grams of leucine, 1 gram of glycine and 500 mg of glutamine in the form of Sustamine. The product comes with 50 servings with a retail price of $72.95 (Distributor price: $58.36 / Advisor price: $43.77).
Creatine/Claim
“Mass Impact™ helps maintain ATP levels for cellular energy and to preserve muscle glycogen, which promotes muscle mass, volume and strength.”
The products first ingredient is creatine monohydrate with 3 grams per serving. Recommended doses of creatine can be found anywhere from 2-5 grams with 2 being the bare minimum to maintain average stores and 5 being the most common to keep creatine stores elevated. Creatine is the most studied supplement to date with its effects on power output and muscle endurance (through storing phosphocreatine) are well supported by the scientific consensus. So, their claim is not false with what creatine does but they do leave some important factors out. Creatine needs to be supplemented every day to keep levels elevated (to get the effect). Mass Impact only has 50 servings, so the product will only last under two months which is a short amount of time when you are taking it daily, compare this with 200 servings that can be commonly found in your local Vitamin Shoppe at a lower price as well. It seems that they try to sell you this as a better quality creatine when in fact it is not, creatine monohydrate is creatine monohydrate.
Sustamine/Claim
“Sustamine supplementation results in improved performance and promotes protein synthesis, inhibiting muscle breakdown and reducing muscle tissue damage.”
Sustamine is a trademarked product that is a specific blend of l-glutamine and l-alanyl, Im first going to talk about glutamine and then tackle sustamine. Glutamine is a well known product in the supplement world since not to long ago (and still sometimes today) it was told to be the anabolic messiah. So far there has been no evidence of glutamine supplementation to increase muscle building in healthy individuals, I say healthy since the only benefits of glutamine supplementation have been noticed in severe physical trauma patients(burns or knife wounds) and disease states that are muscle wasting (AIDS). The average persons protein intake will satisfy their glutamine needs and this is especially true to people who are into fitness since most of them over eat protein to begin with. So as to the claim that this product will be “inhibiting muscle breakdown and reducing muscle tissue damage” seems to be a very bold stretch.
Now lets look at Sustamine as a whole, I could not find to much on it and unfortunately only found one study that I could look at the full text (1). The study looked at “fluid regulation, immune, inflammatory, oxidative stress, and recovery was examined in response to exhaustive endurance exercise, during and in the absence of dehydration”, the study size was 10 men and a the conclusion was, “Results demonstrate that AG(Sustamine) supplementation provided a significant ergogenic benefit by increasing time to exhaustion during a mild hydration stress. This ergogenic effect was likely mediated by an enhanced fluid and electrolyte uptake”. So it seems that in this one study that they saw a significant difference in time of exhaustion (I am not sure if it is clinically significant but this is just a overview), the kicker is though that the trial that saw the biggest difference was taking 0.2 g·kg of Sustamine. With the average body weight being 77.4kg this comes out to be around 15.5 grams of sustamine that the study above worked with. This product only has 500mg per serving.
Other Amino Acids/Claims
“Several other amino acids found in Mass Impact™ help optimize fat cell and muscle tissue communication to promote muscle leanness, activating cell signaling pathways for muscle growth.* They also contribute to muscle repair and strength”
So what we have here is 2g of leucine and 1g of glycine, now the above claim is true amino acids help with muscle growth, repair and strength, but we get amino acids from eating protein through our diet, and as I stated above most people who are into fitness eat well over enough protein. Take this into perspective to get the above aminos all you would have to eat is approximately 3.5 ounces of chicken, 3.5 ounces gives you 2.3 grams of leucine and 1.5 grams of glycine. It seems they try to hype the amino acids in Mass Impact to be different or better then what we get through our diets, but that is just false.
Conclusion
This product is a highly overpriced creatine supplement, as I have stated the Sustamine is more then likely to have no affect on the individual taking this (unless you take about half the container) and the miniscule amount of aminos would not have any effect on someone who eats adequate amounts of protein. If your goal is to increase muscle size and or improve performance getting enough whole protein should be your priority over wasting your money on supplements. Now if you are looking for a creatine supplement then I would suggest you to purchase creatine monohydrate by itself, 2.2 pounds of creatine can be purchased for 20 dollars with 200 servings (5g per serving) the cost per serving comes out to be .10 cents. Now compare that to Mass Impacts 1.45 (at 72.95 price) per serving. Save your money and do not buy Mass Impact.
Sources
