This product review kind of pains me to do, it is not exactly an unfavorable one to write, but neither is it going to be favorable for a few reasons that I will get into.

Pictured above is part of a very exciting email I received last month on May 21. Old School Labs, a supplement company I am very familiar with approached me about a collaboration and partnership with their brand. I know from personal use, and from several of my friends who are also into weight training, these folks put out great products. I was stoked to say the least they contacted me without any solicitation on my part. It was thrilling to receive this email as there are many great names behind this product line. Old School Labs ambassadors include some of the greats from the Golden Era of bodybuilding such as Tom Platz, Samir Bannout, Ric Drasin, Mario Da Silva, and John Hanson.

I was super stoked this quality brand supplement company had reached out to me. After all, I am pretty much an unknown entity, except for this humongous health and fitness website I have built up over a little more than two years now. While my name might not be well known, my work and that of my lovely co-author Brenda Sue has now reached people in over 100 countries around the world. We have helped a great deal of people through our writings and have also helped a great deal of people privately without having ever charged a single one even a penny. We have helped people of all walks of life, and have never cared a wit about who or what they might be.

We discriminate against no one!

My mission from day one has been to help people, and some of the people who need our help the most, also do not have an expendable source of extra capital. This website is first and foremost a “labor of love”, and it always will be going forward. Although it would be nice to one day have proper backing to carry us to even greater heights. But this can only happen if I never lose creative control over my website. I will die a broke man before I ever let another entity take control of my work and turn it into something even remotely similar to Weight Watchers and a few others. We will always provide you with well researched information, coupled with our own personal experiences, and will never compromise our integrity by telling you sweet and easy lies over uncomfortable truths.

We cannot help you if we sugar coat anything.

We cannot help you if we allow you to believe that we have bought into any type of excuses you might have.

The Review

Old School Labs have a variety of great supplements in their product line. Being as Brenda Sue and I have been exploring an avenue into quality health and fitness supplements to sell ourselves, there are a lot of pitfalls to consider while going into this endeavor. Partnering with a great company would be a great win for us. I do have full respect for Old School Labs business model, they have been doing their part in cleaning bunk products out of the supplement market.

With a mission statement like this, I would be happy if I could get involved in selling their products in order to off set the cost of running my website. A little bit of personal profit would be the proverbial “icing on the cake”. My desire in doing this is solely to always be able to keep the rest our content free to everyone who follows, and or subscribes to David’s Way to Health and Fitness.

However…

The product they sent for me to do a first review on was their Vintage Muscle Preserving Fat Burner. I have sworn I would never sell fat burner products for any reason as I do not believe in them. I believe more harm can come from most fat burners than any type of good. My mission is to help people with proper nutrition with only a few supplements at best to provide elements they might need for better health. Fat burners are an easy way to fat loss, if they truly work. But, that is taking the easy way out and does not bring health and fitness to anyone. Losing body fat and then keeping it off is not easy, this endeavor must be worked at for it to truly bring benefit to your health and well being. If you can simply just take a pill to lose fat, you are not likely to care a wit about improving your nutrition to keep healthy. Too many people falsely believe that being at a low weight in itself is healthy, when the reality is, low weight means nothing if you are still what we refer to as “skinny fat”. Skinny fat is where your body does not actually look too bad, it is not lumpy from fat deposits, but it is still soft and has little to no definition. Skinny fat is no better than obesity, especially since this condition often brings about a false sense of security when it comes to good health.

With considerable trepidation, I opened the bottle of Vintage Burn when it arrived and began using it as advised. One capsule twice a day for the first few days, and then two capsules twice a day for the remaining product.

I began this test at 180.2 pounds and ended it at 180.2 pounds.

I am 57 years old and still have loose skin on my belly and chest from losing close to 80 pounds a few years back. The loose skin can mask how lean my body is from the front, but not much anywhere else.

Just this week, I had blood labs done as I do twice a year to monitor my health. All my lab readings were excellent except one of my liver enzymes had become slightly elevated.

Was it the Vintage Burn that raised this enzyme?

I cannot say it did, yet I can say it was the only deviation to my nutrition and fitness routine.

What they promise:

I did feel better focus during my workouts at first, but felt I built a tolerance to Vintage Burn fairly rapidly. The downside to this would be that many people will either quit using the product, or they will double down on the dosages which could eventually have detrimental effects on their health.

Pictured above is my weekly weights while on Vintage Burn. While the deviation is not anything to get concerned about, there was some weight gain and bloating that came during the use of this product as you can see in my after picture. There was absolutely nothing different about my dietary habits or daily routines during this month long trial except for the addition of Vintage Burn.

Vintage Burn Ingredients

1. Green tea leaf extract. Like green tea, green tea extract is a great source of antioxidants. These have been credited with a range of health benefits, from promoting heart, liver and brain health to improving your skin and even reducing the risk of cancer.
2. Green coffee bean extract. In 2012, green coffee extract was promoted as a miracle weight loss supplement by American celebrity physician and talk-show host Dr. Oz. Many health experts have since refuted the notion that it has any significant impact on weight. Even so, green coffee extract remains one of the most popular weight loss supplements on the market. Several small studies have treated mice with the extract and found that it reduced total body weight and fat accumulation significantly. However, studies in humans have been far less conclusive.
3. Raspberry ketones. Raspberry ketone is a chemical from red raspberries that is thought to help with obesity. Some research in animals or in test tubes shows that raspberry ketone might increase metabolism, increase the rate at which the body burns fat, and reduce appetite. But there is no reliable scientific evidence that raspberry ketone improves weight loss in humans.
4. Olive leaf extract. Olive tree leaves contain oleuropein, which is a polyphenol that may help prevent weight gain. In a 2016 study, researchers orally administered oleuropein to rats with obesity that were consuming a high-cholesterol diet. After 8 weeks, the rats had a lower body weight, less fat tissue, and an improved metabolic profile. Another study from 2014 found that oleuropein supplementation reduced body weight and weight gain in mice that were consuming a high-fat diet. These findings suggest that olive leaf extract containing oleuropein may have the potential to reduce weight gain and lower the risk of obesity. However, further studies are necessary to confirm this possible health benefit in humans.
5. Caffeine. Caffeine alone won’t help you slim down. It may slightly boost weight-loss efforts or help prevent weight gain, but there’s no solid evidence that caffeine consumption leads to noticeable weight loss.  Be cautious about using caffeine products to help with weight loss. When used in moderation (400 milligrams or less) by healthy adults, caffeine is generally safe. But too much caffeine might cause nervousness, insomnia, nausea, increased blood pressure and other problems.
6. Bacopa leaf extract. Bacopa is generally safe, but some people may experience nausea, stomach cramps, and diarrhea. Pregnant women should avoid this herb, while those on medications should speak with their healthcare provider before taking it. Test-tube and animal studies show that Bacopa may have potent anti-inflammatory properties and suppress pro-inflammatory enzymes and cytokines.
7. Garcinia fruit extract. Its biggest claim to fame is that extract supplements can help speed up weight loss, reduce appetite, and boost exercise endurance. Garcinia cambogia contains a compound called hydroxycitric acid (HCA) that may inhibit an enzyme that helps your body store fat. Theoretically, the fat would instead be burned as calories. Allegedly, garcinia cambogia can increase the levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, a feel-good messenger in your body. This may enhance your mood and reduce stress-related eating. The first rigorous research on the effectiveness of garcinia cambogia was conducted in 1998. The study concluded that it doesn’t perform any better than a placebo when it comes to helping you lose weight.
8. Chrysin. Athletes are interested in chrysin for bodybuilding because laboratory research suggested that chrysin might increase the male hormone called testosterone and improve bodybuilding results. But research in humans hasn’t found any effect on testosterone levels. The amount of chrysin that is absorbed from the intestine may be very small, which would make treatment effects unlikely.
9. Forskohlii root extract. Many studies have investigated the effects of forskolin on fat metabolism. Most of them are test-tube experiments or animal studies, so the result may not be applicable to humans. Put simply, forskolin allegedly stimulates the release of stored fat from fat cells. The same thing happens whenever the body needs to use body fat for energy. On its own, the release of stored fat is not enough to promote weight loss – it needs to be accompanied by a calorie deficit. In other words, for weight loss to happen, energy expenditure (calories out) must exceed energy intake (calories in).

Did I just sabotage myself from what could have been a possible great partnership?

Maybe, maybe not.

Do I care?

How about a resounding NO!

While there may not be anything inherently bad about Vintage Burn, there is also nothing inherently good about it. I believe you might derive a placebo effect only from this product. At the end of the day, the trust in my readers to know that I will only provide them the best of information, and maintaining my credibility and integrity are what is most important to me. No, I cannot recommend this product to you, not even when there is a possible financial benefit to myself.