Back Story:
In late September, I was having a conversation with my best friend about Plexus. It seemed like we both knew at least 3 people who sold it, and they all made convincing arguments about its validity, had amazing before and after pictures, and had hundreds of testimonials about it. Because we both had gained a few pounds and were feeling a little lethargic in day-to-day life, Plexus presents itself as a miracle cure and magic bullet.
For those of you who are not super familiar with Plexus, it is a MLM (like Herbalife, ItWorks!, Arbonne, etc.) who markets supplements on the basis of fixing your “gut health” as the key to overall wellness.
Because I actually do believe in the validity of gut health, Plexus seems intriguing to me. I’ve been hearing about it on acquaintance’s Instagram stories for well over 2 years now, but to be completely honest, I’ve never truly looked into the products.
In the conversation with my friend, we both made the conclusion that “hey, maybe if someone we know is selling some of the stuff on promotion, we should both try it and see what happens”.
*insert one week later* and a girl that lived on my dorm my freshman year of college was promoting a discount on Plexus. I messaged her on Instagram and she promptly sent me her recommendations and some literature about the products. I think it’s pretty standard for the Plexus ambassadors to recommend the Plexus Triplex to new buyers as it is their three best selling products, which is what she recommended to me. It is a 30-day supply of BioCleanse, Plexus Slim (affectionately known as “pink drink”), and ProBio.
I expected this stuff to be like $75 but a 30-day supply is roughly $130!!!!
(!!!!!!!)
I don’t know about y’all, but I don’t have the kind of money to be dropping once a month on supplements.
Being the prudent person that I am, I researched some of the ingredients in the products and came to the conclusion that it could be legit, but I also did have some issues with some of the ingredients (more on that later).
So naturally, I immediately googled alternatives to Plexus Triplex.
Unfortunately, I did not find a lot of blog posts anything that seemed legitimate. There were a couple of holistic websites that listed a few valid alternatives (like this one), but the supplements that they recommended as alternatives, did not always contain the ingredients that would actually promote a significant benefit. Plus the posts never actually said if the author tried them and liked them….
….so I decided to find my own alternatives to share with the Internet, in case anyone else was looking for ideas.
I spent all of a Monday and Tuesday night reading about each of the Triplex products, their ingredients, scholarly journal articles on the ingredient’s validity, and other supplements that exist on the market.
My Results:
(9/25/2018) Weight: 138 lbs – Felt bloated and heavy. Felt lethargic and tired consistently. Mood sucks.
(10/18/2018) Weight: 136 lbs – I genuinely feel like I have more energy (could be a placebo effect though). Feel less bloated.
Minor Disclaimer:
I want to remind anyone reading this post that supplements will NEVER replace healthy eating and regular exercise. There is no such thing as a magic pill to burn fat (trust me, if there was, obesity wouldn’t be such an epidemic in this country)!
In the studies that Plexus conducted on their products that showed some weight loss versus the placebo group, all of the participants were on a Mediterranean diet. Aka they were eating healthy, lean meats, vegetables, and whole grains. But also, the placebo group (the one’s not using Plexus, but eating a Mediterranean diet) lost some weight too! If you’re eating pizza, candy bars, and fried foods every day, you are not eating a diet that is good for your digestive health in the first place, and you should probably reconsider your diet choices before looking for a quick fix to your weight or digestive issues.
I work out (~3 times a week) and eat healthy 90% of the time, yet was still feeling lethargic and gaining a couple pounds which is why I looked into this.
I also took my daily prenatal vitamin with all of these supplements.
UPDATE 3/26/2024: I have now posted a update with what supplements I take these days 🙂
The 5 Supplements I Take: A 6 Year Update
The Plexus Triplex & My Alternatives
1. BioCleanse:
1. BioCleanseLet’s be honest. This is like a laxative. I think the purpose is to “cleanse your colon of all the bad stuff” so that good stuff can grow. I’m not sure if there is science to back that up, but for the sake of this “experiment”, we will roll with it.
Magnesium is what is doing all the work in this product– you’ll find some laxatives are high doses of magnesium to relax the smooth muscle of the GI tract to produce a bowel movement.
The tolerable upper intake of magnesium supplements (you can’t really OD on magnesium that you get through your diet), is 350 mg for males and females >9 years of age. Some sources even recommend a max of 280-300 mg for women.
Bio-cleanse recommends 2- 380 mg twice a day, so a total of 1520 mg a day.
In most cases you can’t really OD on magnesium (unless you have kidney issues). Most excess gets excreted through your urine, but I just don’t think it is healthy to be taking a laxative every single day. It can throw your other electrolytes out of whack! I’m also cautious about high doses of magnesium daily because it competes with calcium, which is not great for us ladies who are already predisposed to osteoporosis.
So the main ingredients in BioCleanse are bioflavanoids, magnesium, and vitamin c (as citric acid).
Bioflavonoids are something found in some fruits, but especially in the rind of certain types of citrus. The research I found said it was known to help reduce inflammation and help absorb vitamin C.
My Alternative
-Magnesium 250 mg, once a day [Lower dose than BioCleanse]. You can get 100 soft-gels for pretty inexpensive on Amazon.
–Quercetin BioFlavonoid Complex, 1 capsule a day (90 capsules in a bottle on Amazon)– Quercetin is a type of bioflavonoid known to help reduce inflammation
For around $20, you can get three times more product than you get with BioCleanse. Plus the BioFlavonoid Complex I use has way more bioflavonoids in it than in Plexus.
2. Plexus Slim / “Pink Drink”
So the main ingredients in the pink drink that could have some benefit are green coffee bean extract, Xylooligosaccharide (XOS), and chromium.
To be honest, the only ingredient that I think might have some validity is XOS. Green coffee bean extract always seems to be the ingredient in fat burners that are advertised on TV and to be honest, I’m both skeptical and nervous to put anything in my body that markets itself as fat burning. Apparently chromium may help with blood sugar regularity, but clinical trials haven’t shown any significance, so I choose not to go with it.
Xylooligosaccharide (XOS) does have some serious potential though. It is a prebiotic (versus a probiotic) which essentially means that it is stuff for the bacteria to feed on (read more about why I think prebiotics are important here).
My Alternative:
XOS Prebiotic, 2 capsules before lunch or dinner [60 capsules in a bottlewhich is equal to a 30 day supply]– I normally take my two before lunch!
3. ProBio
ProBio is probiotics + enzymes
I am a believer in the importance of a balanced gut microbiome (aka the bacteria in the gut)– but it is a part of good diet and genetics. There is one study that looked at sets of twins in which one twin was obese and the other was a healthy weight. They transferred the gut bacteria from the twins into mice and then watched the result. The mice that received the “obese” bacteria gained weight, and the mice that received the other bacteria stayed the same weight.
I’m skeptical of the generalization that “yeast overgrowth in the gut” is the cause of the world’s issues like Plexus claims. Scientific literature says that “only a handful of case reports in the literature describe presence of Candida albicans [yeast] in the gut of otherwise healthy subjects who were older adults and presented with gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms (Singh & Mullin, 2017). It is, however, an issue with patients with IBS, chronic ulcers, and autoimmune diseases/those who are immuno-compromised. There is no doubt that yeast overgrowth in the gut causes inflammation and disturbs the gut ability to absorb nutrients in that population, butttt if you are an otherwise healthy person, the science says that you probably don’t have yeast overgrowth. (This is a really good article about yeast overgrowth and that it might not be as big of an issue as Plexus reps claim https://www.self.com/story/candida-overgrowth-problem-too-much-yeast-no-too-little-science)
My Alternative:
365 Daily Probiotic, 1 tablet, twice a day (I take one with breakfast and one with dinner) [100 tablets which should equal a 50 day supply]
(P.S. make sure you refrigerate this probiotic!)
UPDATE (6/11/2019):
Because the 365 probiotic is constantly out of stock, this is the probiotic I’ve been using that I’ve been liking! Garden of Life Primal Defense Probiotic (60 capsules for under $30)
The Math:
–Magnesium 250 mg, once a day
–Quercetin BioFlavonoid Complex, 1 capsule a day
–XOS Prebiotic, 2 capsules before lunch (or dinner)
–365 Daily Probiotic, 1 tablet, twice a day
= ~$40 (And most of these products will last you longer than 30 days)
That’s about 70% less than Plexus
UPDATE: OPTIONAL ADD-ONS:
General Prenatal Vitamin (under $15 for 110 capsules)
So if you have tried Plexus and like it, but not the price tag, maybe give this a try. Or if you’re like me and seem intrigued by Plexus, but not spending $130, give this a try first.
I think I’m going to continue on with it, because I actually do feel lighter and more full of energy 🙂
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