The morning ritual, reworked
Your morning coffee, plus five actives chosen to support metabolism and energy
You keep the coffee habit, and Leanela adds green coffee, L-carnitine, curcumin, inulin and chromium to it. One 2g stick in 200ml of water, hot or cold: nothing else in your routine has to change.
The product in brief
Leanela comes as sticks of instant coffee, packed 30 to a box, each sachet holding 2g of powder. At one sachet a day, a single box sees you through to the end of the month.
The base is instant coffee, and that is where the aroma and the caffeine come from. Grafted onto it are five actives chosen for their role in metabolism and digestion: green coffee extract, L-carnitine, curcumin, inulin and chromium picolinate. One point worth stating plainly, this is a food supplement and in no sense a medicine: nothing in it removes the need to eat sensibly and to keep moving.
One box lasts thirty days: a stick each morning, with nothing to count.
Every stick holds the exact dose. Nothing to weigh, no measuring spoon, no risk of overdoing it.
This is not a reconstituted flavouring: the base is real instant coffee, with its own taste and its own caffeine.
Hot water or cold, the powder dissolves in about ten seconds. No lumps, and no shaker to dig out.
No added sugar and no sweetener: the cup keeps the clean, slightly strong flavour of coffee.
A stick slips into a pocket, a bag or a desk drawer: you can take it anywhere.
No gluten, no GMO and no ingredient of animal origin: vegetarian and vegan diets can take it on.
It is made in the European Union, on a site subject to the food safety controls in force.
What the morning stick changes
Four benefits, and for each one the mechanism behind it. Here is what that comes down to across an ordinary day.
Chromium contributes to normal macronutrient metabolism, which is to say the way your body handles carbohydrates, fats and proteins once a meal has been eaten. Caffeine adds to that, lifting energy expenditure slightly over the hours that follow. Across a day that is otherwise unchanged, a little more of the calorie intake goes towards expenditure rather than storage.
The eleven o'clock dip nearly always has the same origin: blood sugar dropping quickly after a breakfast loaded with fast sugars. Chromium contributes to the maintenance of normal blood glucose levels, whilst inulin, a soluble fibre, slows gastric emptying and makes fullness last. Day to day: the morning stick holds until lunch, with no detour past the vending machine.
Twenty to thirty minutes after the stick, the caffeine from the coffee and from the green coffee extract comes into play: it helps increase alertness and improves concentration. L-carnitine works on another register, carrying fatty acids to the mitochondria, where they become fuel for the muscles. In practice: a clean start, then enough to reach midday without a slump.
Inulin passes through the stomach without being digested: this prebiotic fibre feeds the bacteria of the colon, which is where its influence on transit and gut comfort comes from. Curcumin, the active pigment of turmeric, has long been used to support the digestion of rich food. Day to day: a lighter feeling after a heavy meal.
How the formula is built
The five actives do not all play the same part. They fall under two levers that answer one another, and it is that pairing which justifies one dose a day.
Here, three ingredients push the body to draw on its stores for energy. Caffeine, supplied by the instant coffee as much as by the green coffee extract, works through thermogenesis: producing heat costs calories. L-carnitine plays the carrier, the one that brings fatty acids to the mitochondria, the only place where they can be burnt.
The second lever acts earlier, at the moment the urge to eat starts. Chromium contributes to the maintenance of normal blood glucose levels and chromium contributes to normal macronutrient metabolism. Then comes inulin, a soluble fibre that stretches out the feeling of fullness and feeds the gut flora. Curcumin, last of all, plays its part in digestive comfort.
Active by active
Six components, six distinct jobs. Not one of them was added to pad out the label.
Without it Leanela would not be a coffee: it forms the body of the powder. Its caffeine supports alertness and helps you stay focused, with an effect noticeable after twenty to thirty minutes. The flavour of the cup comes from it alone: nothing has been artificially flavoured.
Picked green, the bean never goes near the roaster, which leaves its chlorogenic acid intact, a compound that roasting largely destroys. That is what separates Leanela from a shop bought coffee: it supplies caffeine and, alongside it, a molecule absent from an ordinary cup.
The body makes it on its own: it is an amino acid. Its function is that of a shuttle. It moves long chain fatty acids across the wall of the mitochondria, where they turn into energy. Without that crossing, a mobilised fat stays unusable.
The yellow pigment of turmeric, curcumin is also its most studied molecule. It has long been associated with digestive comfort, particularly after a rich meal. It is also what gives the drink its faint golden colour once the stick has dissolved.
A soluble fibre drawn from chicory root. It is not digested: once in the stomach it turns to a gel and slows gastric emptying, before feeding the bacteria of the colon. The benefit runs two ways, with fullness that lasts longer and transit that keeps moving.
Two health claims authorised for use on the GB nutrition and health claims register apply to it, and it is the only ingredient in the formula in that position: chromium contributes to the maintenance of normal blood glucose levels, and chromium contributes to normal macronutrient metabolism. The picolinate form was chosen because the body takes it up well.
Only the main components of the formula are set out here. The box itself carries the full ingredient list, the amounts supplied by the daily dose and the allergen information.
Preparation, step by step
No utensil to fetch, no appliance to switch on. Open a sachet, pour in 200ml of water, hot or cold, stir for about ten seconds, and it is ready to drink.
The weighing was done at the factory, sachet by sachet: no working out at your end, and no temptation to add another spoonful. Single dose packaging has a second merit, that of letting you go away for the weekend with three sachets in a washbag rather than the whole box.
One stick, one cup
Open a 2g stick and empty it into a glass or a mug. That is where the day's dose stops: one stick, not two.
200ml, hot or cold
Hot water for a proper coffee, cold water and ice when the weather is warm. Either way, the powder dissolves without resisting.
Stir for ten seconds
A few turns of the spoon, around ten seconds, and nothing visible is left. No lumps, and no shaker to dig out.
Preferably at breakfast
Breakfast remains the best moment. Taking the stick with a meal suits it best, and it keeps the caffeine well away from the evening.
Worth reading before the first stick.
Leanela belongs to the food supplement category: it is not a medicine, and nothing in its formula is meant to treat any condition. A product of this kind is no substitute for a varied, balanced plate, nor for regular exercise. One stick is the ceiling over twenty-four hours, and it should never be exceeded. Caffeine is genuinely present in the recipe: if your body reacts strongly to it, have your cup early rather than in the evening, and count it alongside the other coffees you drink through the day. The product is not recommended for anyone under 18. During pregnancy and whilst breastfeeding, the official limit is 200 milligrammes of caffeine a day from all sources, food and drink combined, the same figure the NHS advises, which rules Leanela out for both periods. A further point, inulin belongs to the fibre family: a diet that has been low in fibre until now can bring some harmless bloating over the first few days, kept in check by drinking plenty of water. Curcumin, for its part, is to be avoided when the bile ducts are obstructed, and it can interfere with the action of an anticoagulant. Any current treatment (an antidiabetic or an anticoagulant in particular), like any long standing condition, means speaking to your GP or pharmacist before starting. Known allergy? Read the detailed composition again. As for storage: box closed, a dry place, no exposure to light, and never within reach of small children.
What genuinely changes
On the slimming shelves, boxes of capsules pile up and end up forgotten after a week or two. Leanela starts from the opposite point: leaning on something you already do.
Over to the customers
Three things come back in almost every account: the taste, the time of day when hunger used to turn up, and getting through to the last stick.
Honestly, I did not think I would keep it up. One stick in the morning instead of the filter coffee, and by the evening I notice I have not been into the biscuit cupboard. That small detail is what made me order a second box.
On taste, it is an honest instant, on the strong side. Nothing like the vanilla and strawberry powders I had tried before.
I have started plenty of these things and never finished one. This time the box sits next to the kettle, so the habit happens on its own first thing. Three weeks now, without my having to think about it.
I travel a fair bit for work. Two or three sachets in the rucksack and the routine carries on at the hotel, since hot water turns up everywhere. No tub to lug about, no measuring spoon to hunt for at the bottom of a case.
What I like is that it does not hit like an espresso on an empty stomach. The energy arrives quietly and it does not drop away halfway through the morning. For someone who does not get on with strong coffee, that is a real comfort.
Since the warmer weather I have been drinking it iced, two cubes and a drop of cold water, and it mixes perfectly well. Another advantage I had not thought of: the box fits in a desk drawer at work. My old powder tubs never fitted anywhere.
The questions that come up most
The base is the same in both cases, instant coffee, and it is the base that carries the flavour as well as the caffeine content. The difference sits in five actives grafted onto it: chlorogenic acid supplied by a green coffee bean extract, L-carnitine, curcumin, inulin and chromium picolinate. Why a green bean rather than a roasted one? Because a trip through the roaster destroys most of the chlorogenic acid.
Empty the contents of one 2g stick into your cup, top it up with around 200ml of hot or cold water, whichever you fancy, then stir for about ten seconds: the powder disappears completely, with no lumps and no shaker. Stick to one a day, ideally at breakfast.
A box holds 30 sticks of 2g, each one sealed in its own sachet. One a day covers the whole month. Single dose packaging means the last stick delivers exactly the same dose and the same aroma as the very first, with no powder packed down at the bottom.
Whatever comes from the caffeine, a notch more alertness and an appetite that settles, is noticeable from the very first doses, twenty to thirty minutes after the cup. The weight side is counted in weeks, and it only shifts if the plate follows and the body moves as well. Leanela supports those two levers, it never replaces them.
Two ingredients supply it: the instant coffee that forms the base, and the green bean extract. The exact figure for a daily dose is printed on the box. Count it into your total for the day, coffees and teas included, and if caffeine unsettles you, drink your cup in the morning rather than after dinner.
The format was designed for a single daily dose, a ceiling that should not be crossed. Running one box into the next is common among users. For use stretching beyond a few months, it is better discussed with someone who knows your history, your GP or your pharmacist.
Yes, several. Caffeine rules the product out for anyone under 18, and for pregnancy and breastfeeding. Curcumin is unsuitable when the bile ducts are obstructed, and it can interfere with the action of an anticoagulant. As for inulin, it is a fibre: in anyone who normally eats little of it, some passing bloating can occur. Any long standing condition, like any current treatment, calls for the go ahead from your GP or your pharmacist first.
No. No added sugar, no sweetener, no colour, and not the faintest laboratory made flavouring. What you taste comes from the coffee in the base: clean, a little strong. Nothing stops you sweetening the cup the way you usually would, bearing in mind that such additions push the calories up.
Thirty doses already weighed out, ten seconds by the clock, and a habit your kitchen already knows. There is nothing else to remember.
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100% plant based formula
Gluten free
GMO free