Do Fat Burners Expire? (Can You Take Expired Fat Burners?)

Fat burners are one of the most popular and widely used supplements on the market. 

Whilst fat burners aren’t a magic pill, there’s anecdotal evidence that they can help to improve weight loss.

They do this in different ways depending on their ingredients. Often they have high doses of caffeine which can boost the metabolism and encourage your body to burn more calories.

Others contain ingredients like cayenne pepper which through a process of thermogenesis can encourage weight loss.

But, do fat burners expire? And if they can, should you take them once they are out of date?

These are questions we are often asked. As supplements can be expensive you’ll want to make the most of them and be able to use them for as long as you can. 

So knowing when they expire, whether it’s safe to consume them, and if they’ll continue to work after their expiration date is key.

Here, I’ve explained whether or not fat burners expire, if you can take them when they’re out of date, and whether they work once they’ve gone out of date.

Disclaimer – Always follow product guidelines, recommended dosages, and expiration dates. This article is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice. You should only follow supplemental advice if given by a registered/licensed medical professional. 

Do Fat Burners Expire?

Fat burners do expire. Depending on what ingredients they contain, this expiration date can be months to years after the purchase date. Typically, the expiration date will be listed on the side or base of the product’s packaging.

So, as with other supplements, fat burners can expire. 

When talking about supplements, ‘expiration’ means that the product is no longer at its best quality. Essentially, the quality that the manufacturer has stated is no longer guaranteed. 

As a result of this, it can also become dangerous to consume something if it has expired, which I’ll explain further in the next section.

Typically, the expiration date will be listed on the product’s packaging such as on the top or bottom of a bottle or on the side of a box.

Depending on the ingredients the expiration date will vary – some will expire after a few months, others will take years to expire. This is because different ingredients expire at different rates.

As fat burners can contain a variety of different ingredients each product will have its own expiration date.

This date indicates when the product should be used until, as after the expiration date it should no longer be taken.

Can You Take Expired Fat Burners?

In general, you shouldn’t use a fat burner if it’s out of date. This is because the ingredients can go off and potentially become toxic to consume. Taking out of date fat burners can also cause health issues and potentially make you seriously unwell.

To expand on this further, when it comes to taking out of date supplements, there is some debate about whether it’s safe to do so or not.

In general, it’s safe to take expired vitamin supplements as they’re unlikely to cause harm because most expired supplements don’t become toxic.

However, fat burners vary significantly in the ingredients that they contain and they aren’t regulated in the same way that other supplements are. This is a key point to take into consideration as regulation is usually in place to protect public health! 

Therefore, there could be safety concerns in taking fat burners when they have expired. Taking an expired fat burner could cause serious health problems.

This is because the ingredients within the fat burner may have gone off, making them potentially toxic to consume. This is especially the case if it has expired a long-time ago or if they have been improperly stored.

Therefore, it’s safest not to take a fat burner if it has expired as doing so could cause serious health issues.

As well as being past its expiration date, other signs that your fat burner has gone off include a change in smell, a change in texture, or the presence of mold. If you notice your fat burner has gone off, you shouldn’t use it anymore.

Do Expired Fat Burners Work?

After they have expired, the effectiveness of the ingredients within a fat burner can deteriorate. This means that they may longer be as effective as they were. As a result, you may not see the expected results from using them.

As well as potentially causing serious health problems, the other reason not to take out of date supplements is because they may not be effective anymore.

It has been argued that after the expiration date, the effectiveness of the ingredients within supplements can start to deteriorate. This means that these ingredients may no longer be as effective as they once were, and you may not see the same results from using them.

As I mentioned earlier, the expiration date guarantees the effectiveness of a product up until that date. After the expiration date, the effectiveness of those ingredients can change. 

This happens at different rates for different ingredients and will also depend on how they’ve been stored and manufactured.

Again, this is likely to be the case if your supplement expired a long time ago, as ingredients can deteriorate over time.

So, if you want to ensure that your fat burner is effective then it’s best to use one that hasn’t gone out of date yet.