PRODUCT ANALYSIS

Company: Kinetica

Product Name: Lean Gainer

Product category: Lean Weight Gainer

Continuing my product analyses for the Kinetica sports-supplement range, I now focus on Kinetica Lean Gainer – the Company’s offering to the lean muscle mass weight gainer category. But before I go any further, perhaps it’s best to talk briefly about what the point of a 'gainer' supplement is, why it should be taken, and most importantly – what you should look for in an ideal lean weight gaining supplement.

In my opinion, weight-gaining supplements are perhaps the most miss-understood and subsequently miss-used sports-supplements on the market today. This is due to a general lack of awareness about how such a product functions, and more crucially, what the consumer is expected to do in order to receive the benefits of taking it.

In the most simplistic explanation, in order to increase your body mass (including both muscle and fat mass), you need to consume more calories than you consume. When you throw resistance training into the equation, you now need to eat even more calories to provide your body with the building blocks it needs to repair, maintain and obviously increase it’s muscle mass (body-building, get it?). The more muscle you gain, the more calories are required to sustain your muscle mass. This is why it is important to regular check your nutritional intake compared to your body stats in order to make sure you are not providing too little or too much for your body’s needs.

However, more importantly than just the number of calories you intake is the quality of the calories you consume – the MacDonald’s super size diet will definitely make you pack on the pounds, but do little for gains in lean quality muscle mass. In a perfect world, this would mean eating 5-6 times a day with freshly prepared, balanced meals with all the macro-nutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fats) in the correct proportions. In the 21^st century working environment, however, that often does not prove feasible (and more concerning these days – financially viable).

So it is convenience that is the principle use of weigh-gaining products. MRF (Meal Replacement Formulas) allow you to provide your body with the quality calories it requires, including a broad spectrum of vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids and BCAAs (Branch Chain Amino Acids).

But as I have stressed time and again in my blogs, there are no ‘magic bullet’ supplements, whatever your training requirements are. In order to benefit from the effects of a lean weight gaining supplement, you must first create the need for the supplement – and this is where possessing the knowledge and performing proven muscle-gaining resistance training techniques are far more important than any supplement you can buy.

Burning out you muscles to failure every session with a lot of reps and sets at low weights will not produce the proper demand for your body to make serious gains in lean muscle mass (muscular hypertrophy). Keeping your reps low to 3-5 is ideal. Deliberately not training to failure on every work-out is crucial. Cycling your loads to different percentages of your 1 or 10 rep maximums (i.e. 50%, 75%, 100%) encourages growth and allows your body to adapt. And sticking to basic power-lifting exercises that demand the utilisation and co-ordination of many muscle groups working together (Bench press, Dead-Lift, Squat) is guaranteed to pack on quality, lean muscle mass – with the proper technique applied, of course.

So when it comes to weight gainers, the product with the most calories, carbs, protein, and fats is the desirable choice. With lean weight gainers, we now judge a product on the quality and purity of its ingredients. This may include factors such as:

• Whey protein isolate over whey protein concentrate

• Fewer carbs from sugars and more from quality fast and slow releasing sources

• Lower saturated fat levels, but instead choosing fats such as MCT’s (Medium Chain Triglycerides) that are less likely to be stored and more likely to be converted for energy

• The addition of Glutamine to aid recovery and repair from intense training

• The protein : carbohydrate ratio, with the higher ratio being the most desirable.

• A full spectrum of vitamins and minerals and a good amount of BCAAs (leucine, Isoleucine, Valine) – see my review on recovery to learn more about these amino acids.

• The inclusion of Creatine is a good component of a lean weight gainer. However, as most people would choose to use a creatine supplement in addition to a weight gainer, this is not essential. Also, the amount of creatine typically included in most supplements is not a sufficient amount to experience the maximum benefits.

So with all that being said, let’s meet this week’s contestants:

THE CONTESTANTS

METHODOLOGY

I conducted my analysis by targeting two comprehensive categories that would allow the full value and effectiveness of these recovery products to be witnessed:

1. Basic Information – This category would cover the purchasing and usage logistics of the product. Designed to give an idea of value for money and personal preference, this category incorporated the following subdivisions:

• Serving size (g)

• Servings per largest size container

• Largest size container available (kg)

• Explosive Nutrition price (£)

• Price per Kilo (£/kg)

• Price per serving (£)

• Number of available flavours

2. Nutritional Information – This category would provide the basis for comparison on nutritional quality and purity. Essentially, for determining the actual effectiveness of the lean gain product. This category incorporated the following subdivisions, with data being collected where possible:

• Energy (kcal)

• Protein (g)

• Carbohydrates (g)

• Carbs from sugars (g)

• Protein:Carbohydrate ratio

• Fat (g)

• Fat from saturates (g)

• MCTs (g)

• Dietary fibre (g)

• Sodium (g)

• Cholesterol (g)

• Creatine Monohydrate (g)

• Digestive enzymes (g)

• BCAAs (g)

• HMB (g)

• Vitamin profile (g)

Once the above numerical values were correlated, a simple point system was created to simplify the data and provide an overall points score value. With six products being studied, a score of 1-6 was given to each subdivision score, with 1 being the lowest desirable value, and 6 being the most desirable value e.g. the product with the largest number of servings scored 6, the fewest scored 1 etc.

You will notice that in several of the subdivisions for the products concerning nutritional information, there were no numerical values that could be collected. In the absence of competitor information, maximum points were rewarded to those products that disclosed the quantity and quality of its ingredients. This is not to say, however, that they truly were the top rated product in that particular subdivision. However, without comparative information, receiving maximum points was a reward for product transparency.

Also, when it came to awarding points, the products serving size was used instead of a 100g value. After all, it’s what you actually intake at the time of consumption that matters most, not an arbitrary weight of 100g (although this is still an important benchmark to measure against). For each category, an overall "points scored" chart was created to illustrate how the product had scored and faired against its rivals in each of the subdivisions.

Finally, the points from both ‘Basic Information’ and ‘Nutritional Information’ were combined together for each product to facilitate an overall picture on the product’s true effectiveness, and value as a lean mass gainer.

1.0 NUMERICAL ANALYSIS

Fig 1.1 Correlated values for Basic and Nutritional Information

As you can see from Fig 1.1, several of the later subdivisions could not provide meaningful comparative findings due to a lack of disclosed information. In those instances, no graphs were designed to reflect those values.

Fig 2.2 Servings per container

Fig 2.3 Largest Size container available (kg)

Fig 2.3 Maximum points were rewarded to the product with the largest available container size that could be purchased through the Explosive Nutrition website. Again, Kinetica was ranked 3rrd amongst it’s competitors at 3kg. Reflex provided the largest container size at a whopping 5.4kg, and Optimum Nutrition the smallest size container at 2.304kg

Fig 2.4.Maximum points were obviously rewarded to the product that was available to purchase at the lowest price through the Explosive Nutrition website. Here, Kinetica ranked 3^rd amongst its competitors at £45.95. The most expensive was Sci-MX at £59.27. The least expensive price belonged to Optimum Nutrition at £34.95.

Fig 2.4 Explosive Nutrition price (£)

Fig 2.5 Price per kilo (£/kg)

Fig 2.5 Price per kilo is an excellent way to compare the relative value for money of each product. Obviously, the product with the lowest price per kilo received maximum points. In this subdivision, Kinetica placed 2^nd at a price per kilo cost of £15.32. The product with the best value for money was Reflex at £10.18/kg. The product with the lowest value for money was Progain at £16.80/kg.

Fig 2.6. Another great method to compare value for money is the cost per serving. Obviously, the product with the lowest cost per serving received maximum points. Kinetica placed 4^th, at a cost per serving of £2.09. Optimum Nutrition was the most expensive product per serving at £2.50. The lowest price cost per serving belonged to Sci-MX at £1.30

Fig 2.6 Price per serving (£/serving)

Fig 2.7 Number of available flavours

Fig 2.7 Whilst hardly being essential, for those customers that like to know about the variety of flavours for their chosen products, this might help decide the long-term usage of the product. Obviously, the product with the most available flavours that could be purchased through the Explosive Nutrition website received the most points. This honour belongs to Kinetica, BSN and Sci-MX with 3 flavours, the others with 2 available flavours.

Fig 2.8 The first points score analysis reveals that Kinetica performed modestly, ranking joint 3^rd amongst its competitors alongside BSN True Mass, although there was a 9 point difference between Kinetica and the leading product, Sci-MX Lean Grow MRF at 35 points. Maximuscle Progain EXTREME performed the worst in this category, receiving just 17 points, half that of the top-placing product. Still, this pie chart is not to be taken as an illustration of the product’s actual effectiveness as a lean gainer, but just to illustrate the purchasing logistics and value for money that can be demonstrated. Despite its pedigree, Optimum Nutrition was always likely to finish in the bottom half of this category due to its relatively expensive cost and smaller container size.

Fig 2.8 Overall points score for Basic Information

3.0 RESULTS: Nutritional information

Fig 3.1 Calories (kcal)

Fig 3.1 reveals the caloric intake value for both serving size and per 100g. In the instance of a weight gainer, whether it’s lean or not, the product with the most calories received maximum points. In this subdivision, Kinetica placed 3^rd with 543 calories per serving. Optimum Nutrition had the most calories per serving at 650. Sci-MX had the least calories per serving at 407.

Fig 3.2 illustrates the important protein value for both serving size and per 100g. Obviously, the product with the highest protein value received maximum points. In this instance, Kinetica placed 3^rd again with 47.52g of protein per serving. Pro Complex had the greatest protein value at 60g/serving. Progain has the lowest protein value of 41.2 g/serving. It should be noted, that Reflex’s boast of their Instant Mass possessing more protein than any other product is clearly false. Pro Complex Gainer beats Reflex Instant Mass by almost 6g per serving.

Fig 3.2 Protein (g)

Fig 3.3 Carbohydrates (g)

Fig 3.3 illustrates the amount of carbohydrates per 100g and by serving size. In this instance, as a weight gainer, the product with the most carbohydrates received maximum points. Kinetica places 5^th with only 59.54g of carbs per serving compares to Pro Complex’s whopping 84.56g per serving. The product with the fewest carbohydrates was Lean Grow MRF at 49.5g per serving.

Fig 3.4 illustrates the carbohydrates that are derived from sugars per 100g and by serving size. In this instance, regardless of the product’s nature as a weight gainer, the product with the lowest sugar values received maximum points (carbohydrates in the form of sugars provide a short-term source of energy – high glycemic, compared to carbohydrates that are slower digesting and absorbing for sustained energy release – low glycemic). Kinetica has A LOT of sugars at 24.84g per serving, dwarfing all other competitor values. Surprisingly, Progain EXTREME has the fewest sugars at just 2g per serving.

Fig 3.4 Carbohydrates from sugars (g)

Fig 3.5 Protein : Carbohydrate ratio (1:)

Fig 3.5 reveals the important ratio of protein to carbohydrates in each of the tested products. As mentioned in my previous analyses, there is a proven P:C ratio range that offers optimum results for protein synthesis and glycogen replenishment. This ratio can range from anywhere between 1:2 – 1:4, the latter being for more intensive cardiovascular exercise, such as sustained running, rowing, swimming etc. In this instance, the product with the highest protein to carbohydrate ratio receives maximum points. This score belongs to True mass at 1:1.65. The lowest ratio was held by Instant Mass, at 1:1.15. Kinetica ranked 5^th at 1:1.25.

Fig 3.6 illustrates the fat value of the product per 100g and by serving size. Although fats are demanded in a weight gainer, in the instance of a lean gainer, the product with the lowest fat value received maximum points. True Mass had the most fat per serving at a whopping 16g, Lean Grow MRF the lowest at 3.96g. Kinetica placed 5^th with a fat value of 12.69g per serving.

Fig 3.6 Fat (g)

Fig 3.7 Fat from saturates (g)

Fig 3.7 illustrates the fat from saturates level of the products per 100g and by serving size. Obviously, the product with the least amount of saturated fat scored the maximum number of points. It is unfortunate, that while Kinetica uses organic virgin coconut oil in this product, that an MCT quantity was not established. As previously mentioned, MCT’s are a great source of fat that is easily and more readily converted to energy rather than stored as fat. Kinetica has by far the most fats from saturates at 9.99g per serving, compared to Instant Mass’ 1.9g per serving.