How to Use CarnoSyn – A Form of Beta-Alanine

If you take a look around the supplement industry, you will find brands using a specific form of beta-alanine called CarnoSyn.
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This is an extremely well-researched version of beta-alanine that is time-released. It currently has 55 studies backing its effectiveness and 28 global patents protecting the technology. The claims on the ingredient are pretty astounding with benefits such as supporting maximal muscle retention, elevating muscle carnosine levels, helping build lean muscle mass, extending endurance, and reducing fatigue.

Sounds great! What’s the problem?

Well, there are a few things that are cause for some concern. For starters, if you look at all the products utilizing CarnoSyn, you would see the dosages are all over the place. High, low… it’s confusing. Then, research completed on CarnoSyn is also all over the place as well when it comes to dosages used. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? And what is the minimum dosage needed to see results?
CarnoSyn seems to need a loading phase before the true benefits begin to show. Similar to how some people use creatine, CarnoSyn needs to be used consistently for a certain number of days to achieve the best results from use. In order to figure out once and for all how the product should be dosed, Natural Alternatives International (NAI) started a “Loading & Dosing Education Initiative.”
The president and COO of NAI (the maker of Carnosyn) said, “We took over as the direct seller of the ingredient in April 2015. We had a distribution partner and it was a good relationship, but we sort of outgrew each other. We were fat and happy, just collecting our royalties, and then we realized that there were a lot of things we didn’t know about how CarnoSyn was being presented in the marketplace. We were surprised to find out that a lot of consumers did not know what the correct dosage is supposed to be.”
Brands seem to walk the fine line of truth when it comes to efficacy. Some brands are unfortunately shady and fairy dust their products in hopes that their consumers don’t know any better and they can get by with under-dosing a product to bring their costs down on the raw materials—ultimately increasing their margins. However, an educated buyer and consumer can quickly cry foul and put the brand and company on the hot seat. NAI decided they wanted to know once and for all exactly how their product (CarnoSyn) needs to be dosed so they can get it out to their partners as well as their consumers.
If you have spent any time in the supplement industry itself or as a consumer, I’m sure you have heard a time or two (or ten) about brands that are going through lawsuits for tainting products, not meeting label claims, protein-spiking, false advertising, etc. It’s good to know that a manufacturer wants to help educate their consumers on their product, especially one that has so many scientific studies and patents backing and protecting it.
Once NAI had all the data they needed, they released a statement on exactly how to use CarnoSyn. The president and COO said, “You have to take a certain amount—3.2 grams a day—and for a certain time, 28 days. Our studies have shown that when you build up that amount of CarnoSyn within your system, about 90 grams, is when you start to see benefits. I have told our manufacturing partners that if you give someone 1 gram a day for however long the consumer might want to take it, I don’t have a study that proves that does anything for you.”
Reading that sounds oddly familiar. Some people follow similar guidelines for creatine (even though a loading phase for creatine isn’t necessary) where they take 10 grams of creatine every day for 7-10 days before backing down to a maintenance dose of 5 grams every day. Like creatine, CarnoSyn needs to be used even on non-training days.
NAI is focusing on educating not only their consumers, but also the brands who put CarnoSyn in their products. They mentioned that, “We’ve had this relationship with these brands for six or seven years now and we are trying to bring them back into focus with what they should be doing. We will be working with the biggest brands to try to use them to drive compliance across the board. I think you will see a lot more products using the 3.2 gram dosage.”
It is refreshing to hear once and for all exactly how to use CarnoSyn beta-alanine for the most benefits. Use this article as a reference point and if you are using a supplement that includes CarnoSyn beta-alanine, make sure the dosage is at 3.2 grams or you might not be getting an efficacious dose to make any difference in your training and recovery.