Review: The Zoned Nootropic Stack and Energy Pill

Zoned is a nootropic stack promoted as a natural alternative to energy drinks and Adderall that can give you extreme focus and energy. It is sold by Zoned LLC and has a positive reputation among reviewers on Amazon, with a 3.7 star rating.

According to the manufacturer, their supplement has been reviewed as “a safer and more potent focus optimizer and mental health supplement than amphetamine derivatives found in ADD, ADHD and study pill drugs.” It is commonly used by individuals when studying for a big exam or when they need to concentrate intensely at school or work.

But before you run out and buy this product, you should know that there have been reports of negative side effects and some people have said it has no effect on them at all. Is the Zoned Stack any good and should you be spending your money on this product? Read our review below:

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What is Zoned?

Do you ever wish that you could just pop a pill and get in the zone to be more productive? That is what the Zoned stack promises: it will give you the energy, concentration and positive mood you need to seize the day without the afternoon crash that often accompanies stimulants.

This promise is borne out in dozens of reviews and experience logs online with many reviewers saying that Zoned gave them a significant energy “buzz”.

While it can help you “get zoned up”, we should point out that it is much more of a stimulant energy pill compared to other nootropics like Alpha Brain from Onnit Labs.

We think of this more as a mental performance enhancer as opposed to a pure nootropic designed to improve your memory and learning capacity. This is not necessarily a negative; but if you are looking for a cognitive enhancer, you might want to stack something else with Zoned like one of the Racetams or Noopept.

The distinctive feature of Zoned is that it uses a very simple formula, consisting of only 5 ingredients. The Zoned proprietary blend contains: Sulbutiamine, Choline, Caffeine, Schzandrol-A and Hordenine.

Unfortunately, the do not disclose the exact amounts for each ingredient so it is hard to make any determinations about which components are producing most of the benefits. But we do know that there is a total of 755 mg of active ingredient in Zoned. Let’s take a closer look at the 5 ingredients:

Zoned Stack Ingredients

Sulbutiamine: The most powerful nootropic in the Zoned stack, this is a super-charged analog of Vitamin B1, designed to both energized and boost your mood.

It is known to interact with Dopamine receptors in the brain while also enhancing energy metabolism in your neurons. Taking Sulbutiamine results in heightened alertness and better mental clarity.

Choline: Your brain needs Choline in order to maintain its cell membranes and produce the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. This neurotransmitter is critical for the formation and encoding of memory as well as ability to direct focus.

Choline is perhaps the most common ingredient in nootropic stacks, however, the efficacy of this compound is hindered because it is significantly broken down by the gut and does not have high penetration of the blood-brain barrier.

For this reason, it is considered better to use Alpha GPC or Citicoline as your source of Choline.

Caffeine: Although not technically a nootropic, caffeine is famous for its psychoactive properties and promotes concentration and vigilance.

The Zoned product description says that their stack is designed to give you energy without a “severe caffeine dependency” so it would be interesting to know how much caffeine is included in this product.

Schizandrol-A: This is the active compound found naturally in Schisandra Chinensis berries. Using Schizandrol-A is observed to increase dopamine levels in the central nervous system, leading to better mood and focus.

Hordenine: Another naturally sourced ingredient, Hordenine occurs in barley grass and bitter orange extract. It is an MAO Inhibitor which can increase levels of phenylethylamine, dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain.

Reviews of Hordenine say that it can boost motivation and energy, especially in conjunction with other nootropics.

Review

So does Zoned really work? The people at Zoned LLC were kind enough to send nootriment.com a bottle of the Zoned stack and I had the opportunity to demo it for a week.

The very first day I took it was a perfect test case scenario to show off what Zoned can do. After waking up feeling sleep deprived and low on mental energy, I took a single Zoned pill which represents the recommended dosage size.

Within 30 minutes, I felt the effects of my lack of sleep the night before disappear. I was clear-headed, in a much better mood and felt more alert.

The next day, I increased the dosage to two pills. This is the dose recommended for individuals who weight more than 200 LB or who have a high tolerance for stimulants.

At this dose, I felt my focus kicked into another gear. I wrote in my notes that all I wanted to do was attack my work and I had the feeling of my fingers working faster than my brain when typing on my laptop.

There was no hesitation in my work and my productivity flowed intensely for about 4 hours. I was pleased by this result, but later did feel what I would characterize as a mild energy crash.

Negative Effects

I repeated the same dosage on the following day and again saw heightened ability to focus as well as increased mental stamina. However, in the evening I noticed a downturn in my mood that seemed to appear without any cause. I felt myself getting frustrated, lacking motivation and generally feeling down.

The next day, I opted for a one pill dosage to see if that would mitigate this effect, and unfortunately the same negative experienced after the initial benefits of the pill wore off. I began experiencing fatigue and what I would call “low” thoughts.

I took a break from the Zoned stack for a few days and found my mood returned to normal. However, after trying Zoned again, I one more found that in the evening it left me feeling down, akin to mild depression. The same result was repeated on a further subsequent trial.

Given the personalized nature of how nootropics can affect you, it is difficult to say whether this was an individualized response or something that is more common.

Some users do report “low feelings” or an energy crash after taking supplements like Hordenine and Sulbutiamine, so it is possible that these ingredients are the culprits. I have used Sulbutiamine on a regular basis without this effect.

My best guess is that this the combination of Hordenine and Schizandrol-A is responsible for this effect since both stimulate Dopamine receptors.

Unfortunately, the Dopamine receptors are highly subject to down-regulation and tolerance build-up so it is generally a good idea to cycle any supplements that influence this neurotransmitter.

Despite my negative experience, user reviews of Zoned on Amazon have been largely positive with 8 out of 15 reviewers giving it a 5-star rating. The remaining 7 reviews were mixed ranging from 4 stars to 1 star.

One user wrote “I have noticed upon taking my first pill that I have an increase in focus and my mood skyrocketed.” Another commented, “This product works great. I didn’t notice my memory improve, but it helps focus and keeps me awake, so all is good.”

At the other end of the scale, a user said, “I feel like this gave me a little energy boost but in terms of focus and concentration the product is supposedly good for …. I wasn’t at all impressed.”

Conclusion

If you are looking for a supplement to help you get energize for a long day of studying, then the Zoned Stack might work very well for you. It produces a noticeable increase in mental energy and offers a mild stimulant “buzz” while being much safer than amphetamines like those found in Adderall.

This effect is especially noticeable when taking two capsules at a time or on mornings where you may wake up feeling sleep-deprived or low on energy. However, there are instances of side effects and continuous use may lead to build-up of tolerance or negative influences on your mood.

For this reason, we would recommend using Zoned on an occasional basis for those days when you really need to focus intensely and “get in the zone”.

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