Forskolin is an extract from a plant native to India that is often used as a weight loss supplement—forskolin extract is reputed to have appetite suppressing effects and may help you burn off excess fat.
Research in animals even suggests that forskolin can amp up your body’s energy production at the cellular level.
Looking to see if forskolin produces these benefits? Our researchers have reviewed and ranked the best forskolin supplements available on the market.
Research
Rankings
Last updated: March 30, 2023
Forskolin supplements considered: 33
Hours of research: 42
Experts reviewed: 5
Scientific papers referenced: 16
1. Dacha Forskolin Max Strength
Dacha makes a very solid forskolin supplement that’s all business. Just a simple vegan-friendly capsule that delivers 250 mg of forskolin per capsule.
No additives, no nonsense. What else can you ask for? The potency and simplicity make it our #1 overall pick.
2. NusaPure Forskolin
NusaPure is a heavy-hitting, high-dose forskolin supplement that delivers 525 mg per capsule of 4:1 forskolin extract.
While this powerful dosage is not for everyone, if you want to make the most of forskolin’s fat shedding properties and don’t mind a somewhat higher risk of side effects, this should be your pick.
3. aSquared Nutrition Forskolin
aSquared Nutrition offers a larger supply of the standard 250 mg / 20% standardized dose. It does have a few binders and stabilizers, but with 180 capsules per bottle instead of the usual 60 from most competitors, it’s going to last a lot longer on your shelf.
If you are taking high doses of forskolin, or you plan to take it for a long time, going with the bulk purchase is a smart call.
4. Nature’s Call Forskolin
Nature’s Craft puts together a pretty solid forskolin supplement that delivers 250 mg of forskolin at a 20% concentration. The dosage is solid, though there are a few additives and binders we’d rather not see in the capsule. That aside, it’s a good option.
5. Vitamin Bounty Forskolin Max Strength
With 250 mg of forskolin root extract per capsule, standardized to 20% concentration, Vitamin Bounty provides a solid dosage of forskolin in a very pure delivery vehicle.
The only ingredient, other than forskolin itself, is vegetable cellulose for the capsule. In the purity and simplicity department, this forskolin supplement is a winner.
6. Nutricost Forskolin
Nutricost does with its forskolin product what it’s known for best: making simple, moderate dosage supplements.
This 250 mg / 20% concentration forskolin supplement has a decent dosage, but nothing flashy in terms of the formulation. The main downside, and the reason it finds itself further down in the rankings, in that it includes a few binders and preservatives that may not be appealing to you.
7. Zenvita Formulas Forskolin Ultra
For those looking for a higher dose of forskolin than the industry standard, Zenvita Formulas has got you covered. It offers 300 mg of forskolin per capsule, and on top of that, some of the forskolin complex that’s included is concentrated to 40% instead of the typical 20%.
Its vegan-friendly capsule also contains a few other stabilizers, but nothing that should pose any problems. In addition to the high dose per capsule, the bottle comes with 50% more capsules than a usual forskolin supplement.
8. Nature’s Way Forskolin
Nature’s Way makes a dual-format forskolin supplement that uses two different versions of forskolin, differentiating it from its competitors a bit.
The main downside is that the two extracts aren’t equal when it comes to concentration, so even though the supplement nominally contains 250 mg per capsule, the effective dosage is lower, because both forms of forskolin are not a 20% concentrate extract.
9. Carlyle Coleus Forskohlii
Carlyle makes a forskolin supplement that is super-potent and comes in a quick-release formula to deliver forskolin as rapidly as possible.
The main con? The dosage is actually too high for most people. For best results, you really only want to top out around 500 mg of forskolin for an optimal combo of benefits and minimal side effects. So, unless you really know you need a mega dosage, opt for something else.
10. Nature’s Branch Ultra Pure Forskolin
Nature’s Branch is another forskolin supplement that overshoots the mark a bit when it comes to dosage.
Because it’s providing forskolin at a 40% extraction concentration instead of the usual 20%, the effective dosage doubles, meaning each capsule delivers the equivalent of 600 mg of forskolin.
That’s a bit too high for most people, which lands it further down in the rankings.
Category winners
Best forskolin overall: Dacha Forskolin Max Strength
Wolfson Berg makes a great forskolin supplement that provides 250 mg of forskolin per dose (125 mg per capsule) in one of the purest formulations on the market. Thanks to the optimal dose and fantastic purity, it’s our best overall recommendation.
Best forskolin for weight loss: Dacha Forskolin Max Strength
With a relentlessly pure formulation, our top overall pick is also our top recommendation for forskolin’s biggest application, which is weight loss. The dose is perfect for maximizing appetite suppression to help with weight loss.
Best forskolin for heart health: aSquared Nutrition Forskolin
Forskolin’s potential for improving heart health is linked both to its promise for weight loss and for its potential for improving your body’s energy production capabilities. For these purposes, aSquared Nutrition Forskolin is a great fit thanks to its super-pure supplement design.
Best forskolin for burning fat fast: NusaPure Forskolin
NusaPure Forskolin has the highest dose per capsule among our top-ranked forskolin supplements, so it’s particularly well-suited for rapid weight loss. The risk of side effects is a bit greater at this dosage, but that’s the price to pay for a more powerful effect.
Best high dose forskolin supplement: NusaPure Forskolin
If you know that you need a powerful dosage, NusaPure is the way to go. It delivers 525 mg of standardized forskolin per capsule, with a minimum of extras. If you are aiming to make the most of forskolin’s benefits with a high dosage, it’s the way to go.
Best forskolin for women: Dacha Forskolin Max Strength
Women may be more susceptible to gastrointestinal problems caused by forskolin—that’s why we recommend Dacha Forskolin Max Strength, as it has a dosage that’s as high as you can go without incurring the increased risk of gastrointestinal distress that’s associated with forskolin doses beyond 250 mg per day.
Who should buy forskolin?
Forskolin has a long history in Ayurvedic medicine, but is most prominent today as an herbal treatment for weight loss. For that reason, you should buy forskolin if you fit into one of the following groups:
People looking to cut down on their caloric intake. Forskolin seems to act principally as an appetite suppressant, which means it increases feelings of fullness and decreases your desire to eat more.
People who want to shed fat while maintaining lean body mass. It may also help tilt your body’s metabolic profile towards a healthier balance of cholesterol, and it seems to help decrease body fat while maintaining or even increasing body mass.
If you are looking to decrease your fat mass, or prevent weight gain after successfully completing a diet, forskolin might be worth a shot.
While forskolin does not have nearly as much theoretical and experimental evidence supporting its use as something like green tea extract, many people nevertheless find that forskolin is a valuable addition to their weight loss routine.
How we ranked
Like with other supplements that have a decent amount of research backing them we geared our forskolin rankings so that our best products could be used in supplementation protocols that mimic the best medical trials. Here are the criteria we used:
Forskolin as the primary active ingredient. To formulate our rankings, we focused only on supplements whose primary active ingredient was forskolin.
Even though you can find it alongside other thermogenics and appetite suppressants in products like diet pills and fat burners for women, we wanted to specifically focus on the supplements that best follow the scientific research.
That means no additional active ingredients, so our first step was to eliminate any product that had other biologically active compounds in addition to forskolin.
Potent dosage for boosting weight loss. Next up, we looked at the amount of forskolin in each capsule for all the remaining products. When it comes to forskolin supplementation, dosage is key.
The most effective dosages with the lowest incidence of side effects are in the 250 to 500 mg range, so we required that supplements in our rankings have a flexible dosage level that allows you to span this dosage range. Too high or too low of a dosage meant that a product got eliminated from our rankings.
Strict and simple supplement design. Finally, we examined the overall ingredient design of each of the remaining forskolin supplements. We favored products that used cellulose capsules and minimal, natural binders like rice flour, as opposed to products that were cluttered with silica gel, stearates, and other synthetic binding and stabilizing agents.
Our rankings of the top forskolin products provide you with several options for both conservative and more optimistic doses, while still staying true to what’s been tested for efficacy in the scientific literature.
FAQ
Q: Is forskolin good for weight loss?
A: Forskolin appears to help decrease body fat and preserve muscle mass during weight loss programs, possibly as a result of decreasing appetite.
Animal models have found that forskolin changes levels of certain enzymes in your pancreas, and these changes have been linked to decreases in appetite.
From these findings we might be able to conclude that forskolin would be best used in conjunction with a diet, as it could help you stick to your commitment to eat less at each meal.
Q: What is forskolin used for?
A: Forskolin is used as a way to assist with weight loss and weight loss maintenance, and some scientific evidence suggests that forskolin leads to a decrease in body fat mass and possibly even increases in lean body mass (i.e. muscle) over the course of a weight loss program.
Forskolin may do this by virtue of its ability to act as an appetite suppressant, hence lowering your overall caloric intake in the long term.
Q: How do you use forskolin to lose weight?
A: Studies on forskolin for weight loss have used doses ranging from 250 to 1000 mg of forskolin per day, but the best evidence thus far for optimal efficacy and minimal side effects indicates that a dose of 250 to 500 mg per day, with at least half the dose taken in the morning to capitalize on the potential appetite suppressant effects of forskolin.
Most studies have their participants take forskolin for at least six to eight weeks before they see significant weight loss benefits.
Q: When should you take forskolin?
A: Animal research suggesting that forskolin has an appetite suppressant effect is useful when trying to figure out the best manner to take a forskolin supplement.
If you want to leverage the effects of an appetite suppressant, the best way to do it is to take the supplement in the morning, so your appetite will be suppressed at all of the meals that you eat during the day (plus between meals, of course).
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Recap
Forskolin shows significant promise as a weight loss supplement.
There’s one thing that’s consistent throughout all the forskolin studies, and that’s that it increases cAMP levels. These levels form the trigger for a multitude of cellular activity, and if we can control it, we may have the ability to do amazing things for weight loss.
So, while the list at the beginning of this article may seem far-fetched at first, knowing what you now know about forskolin and cAMP levels, accompanied by the example of scientific research you’ve just seen, maybe it’s not so far-fetched after all.
For BodyNutrition‘s #1 forskolin recommendation, click here.
