The tagline for Beyond Raw LIT is “Built by Science. Driven by Obsession. Elevated Through Innovation.”
That’s all fine, but we want to know what results you can expect before we start our Beyond Raw LIT review. A little digging provides the info we’re looking for…
Beyond Raw LIT claims to help you:
- “Get lit and train with focus, power and pumps
- Use “real science” to get “real results”
- “Supercharge gym performance”
So nothing new then. However, we’re still keen to see whether this product could be one of the few to offer results AND actually deliver.
About The Company
Beyond Raw is a store brand name used by GNC, the well-known supplement company. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the American company sells everything from vitamins and herbs, to sports nutrition and diet supplements.
Founded in 1935 as small health food store, GNC is now a recognized brand all over the world.
But while it used to be the go-to store for bodybuilders and athletes, it’s suffered amid competition from more modern fitness brands, particularly those online.
In 2015, GNC came under fire for poor testing and quality control standards, although the company did agree to improve its processes. In April 2018, it announced the closure of 200 US stores.
The Ingredients and How They Work
Beyond Raw LIT claims to contain “proven ingredients” at “proven doses” – and for the most part, this is true. Despite this, we can still see one or two ingredients we’d rather avoid.
See for yourself:
CarnoSyn® Beta-Alanine
CarnoSyn® is a patented form of Beta-Alanine. Research shows this amino acid can reduce fatigue and has a small positive influence on muscular endurance. Even still, we don’t advise taking Beta-Alanine for three reasons…
First, it can cause itching and tingling sensations – a condition known as paresthesia – in many users. You may feel these symptoms on the back of your hands, legs or feet – some lifters even suffer from paresthesia over their whole bodies.
Second, Beta-Alanine does much the same job as Creatine: Helping you perform better during high-intensity workouts. The key difference is Creatine doesn’t give you the itching sensations that mean Beta-Alanine can bring a premature end to your workout.
And unlike Beta-Alanine, Creatine also boosts testosterone to give you more energy and help you pack on muscle.
Creatine Monohydrate
Creatine is one of the best-researched – and most effective – ingredients out there. And along with Citrulline Malate, it’s one of two pre-workout ingredients we wouldn’t want to do without.
While our bodies naturally produce Creatine, taking this organic acid in a supp offers you a number of benefits in the gym.
It helps you increase lean muscle and power output – in fact, it benefits every part of your body. Creatine also reduces fatigue, and allows your muscles to recover quicker after an intense workout.
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Caffeine Anhydrous
Caffeine is our favorite stimulant. As you probably know, millions of people use Caffeine to help them focus – but it also helps you hone in on your goals during exercise.
In fact, research shows Caffeine boosts aerobic running capacity, power output, reaction time and training volume.
But we have a couple of concerns about the use of the stimulant in Beyond Raw LIT…
One, this pre-workout contains 250mg of Caffeine in one scoop. While not crammed with as much Caffeine as some pre-workouts, we – and many lifters we talk to – find more than 200mg of Caffeine in one hit gives us jitters.
And two, Beyond Raw LIT doesn’t use any L-Theanine, which would help you relax without making you drowsy. The blend of Caffeine and L-Theanine gives you all the benefits of Caffeine, just without the crash.
This pairing is so effective that it’s gained the nickname “Smart Caffeine.” It’s disappointing not to find this awesome blend in Beyond Raw LIT.
elevATP® (Ancient Peat and Apple Extract)
elevATP® is a patented blend of Ancient Peat and Apple Extract.
One 2015 study (published by NRC Research Press) suggests this blend “may enhance resistance training-induced skeletal muscle hypertrophy without affecting fat mass or blood chemistry in healthy males.
Although no-one can say for sure how elevATP® is supposed to work, it’s thought to increase your body’s ability to produce mitochondrial ATP.
Lack of impartial research casts doubt
However, close inspection reveals the corresponding author to be an employee of MusclePharm – a huge company with a vested interest in promoting the efficacy of different ingredients in the world of fitness.
So while elevATP® could be a good ingredient, impartial research needs to confirm this before we can endorse it’s use in any supplement.
Besides, elevATP® is a proprietary blend of Apple Extract and Ancient Peat, which gives you no way to figure out how effective it is without trying it first.
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NeuroFactor™ (Coffea Arabica)
Coffea Arabica is also known as Coffee Fruit Extract. A relatively new ingredient in the world of sports nutrition, Coffee Fruit is thought to raise BDNF levels, which in turn is supposed to boost focus and improve your mood.
As focus and mood have a big impact on the quality of your workout, Coffea Arabica warrants further research. But as it’s an understudied ingredient, we can’t recommend it.
L-Citrulline
L-Citrulline is one of three dietary amino acids (the other two are L-Ornithine and L-Arginine). It’s also one of the best and most important ingredients you’ll find in a pre-workout.
When you ingest the amino acid, your kidneys convert it to L-Arginine which then produces nitric oxide, and allows more key nutrients to travel to your muscles. This not only provides more satisfying muscle pumps, but also allows your muscles to grow bigger, faster.
In-depth research shows L-Citrulline also makes you stronger, which in turn boosts your workout performance even further.
But we’re not that pleased to see L-Citrulline in this supp.
Why? Because L-Citrulline DL-Malate is a superior form of this awesome amino. It simply adds Malic Acid to reduce soreness and help your muscles recover quicker.
The simple addition of Malic Acid would make L-Citrulline so much better that we’re not sure why more products don’t use it.
Nitrosigine® (Arginine Silicate Inositol)
Arginine Silictate Inositol (ASI) shows a lot of promise a pre-workout ingredient – but we still don’t recommend it.
One 2015 study shows that it could boost nitric oxide levels in the body to boost your workout and recovery. However, ASI is another understudied ingredient in the Beyond Raw LIT formula.
As a result, we need to see the results of more research before we can recommends its use in a pre-workout.
In addition, this supp already contains L-Citrulline, so the use of ASI seems both a little pointless and premature.
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Beyond Raw LIT Side Effects
Is Beyond Raw LIT safe? For the most part, yes. It doesn’t contain any ingredients that are likely to cause you any long-term harm, or give you any issues during a drug test.
However, Beta-Alanine may cause itching/tingling on your hands, arms, feet, or possibly over your entire body.
Many lifters and athletes describe the feeling as being like “bugs crawling on [or within] the skin.”
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- L-Citrulline can boost your workout performance
- Contains some promising ingredients
Cons:
- Beta-Alanine can cause itching or tingling that may wreck your workout
- Use of Beta-Alanine may be pointless in a supp with Creatine
- Too much Caffeine may cause jitters
- Limited research on elevATP® appears to be industry funded (unreliable)
- Contains too many promising ingredients and not enough proven ones
- L-Citrulline makes Arginine Silictate Inositol redundant
- The simple addition of Malic Acid would ensure L-Citrulline gives you better results
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Beyond Raw LIT Review Conclusion
Beyond Raw LIT is a half-decent supplement.
It contains key pre-workout ingredients like Caffeine, Creatine and L-Citrulline.
But the use of Beta-Alanine is disappointing. Not only does it do the same job as Creatine (making it redundant), but Beta-Alanine also causes prickling sensations that could call an early halt to your exercise regime.
Meanwhile, elevATP® is a blend of ingredients that appear to be useful. That is, until you realize the available research is written by an employee of a large company which may stand to profit from promoting it.
Promise is not proof
This supplement is full of promising ingredients, but not enough are backed by research. Until more studies confirm the potential of ASI, elevATP®, or Coffee Fruit Extract, we just can’t recommend them.
Our verdict
If you’ve read our reviews before, you’ll know we only approve of ingredients that DO work – we’re not interested in those which MIGHT work.
When you take any supplement, you want to know it’s safe and effective before you hand over your cash to buy it. But without deeper scrutiny, there’s no way of knowing whether these promising ingredients help you get the results you want.
So now you’ve reached end of this Beyond Raw LIT review, here’s our advice…
Ignore Beyond Raw LIT and look for a pre-workout you know you can trust.