Training hard? What does L-Carnitine + Green Tea actually do — and what doesn’t it do?

Most supplement pages tell you what a product can do. Almost none tell you what it cannot. Here is exactly what Health Canada has authorised this formula to claim, what sits inside the capsule, and where the honest limits are.

Start with the licence, not the label

Every natural health product legally sold in Canada carries a Natural Product Number — an NPN. That number is not decoration. It links to a public record showing what the product is authorised to contain, what it is authorised to be used for, and what warnings must appear on it.

For this formula, the NPN is 80086440. Anyone can look it up. When you do, this is the authorised use, word for word:

“To be used with a program of reduced intake of dietary calories and increased physical activity (if possible) to help in weight management. Workout support/supplement.”

Read the first sentence carefully, because the conditions are part of the claim. The authorisation is not for weight management on its own. It is for weight management alongside reduced calorie intake and increased physical activity. Strip those conditions away and you are no longer describing what the licence says.

Two ingredients, two different jobs

Something worth understanding, because almost nobody explains it: the two claims on this product do not come from the same ingredient.

• The weight-management use comes from the green tea extract. It appears in Health Canada’s Green Tea Extract monograph in exactly the wording quoted above.

• Workout support comes from the L-carnitine. It appears in the L-Carnitine monograph.

That also means each claim carries its own conditions. The weight-management use is tied to the full recommended dose and to the calorie and activity programme it names. Taken at the low end of the dose range, or without the programme, you are outside the terms of the claim.

What is actually in the capsule

The label lists two medicinal ingredients per capsule:

• L-Carnitine — 500 mg, from L-carnitine tartrate.

• Green tea (Camellia sinensis, leaf) — 50 mg of a 2:1 extract, quantity crude equivalent 100 mg.

The non-medicinal ingredients are the vegetarian capsule itself (hypromellose) and magnesium stearate from a vegetable source. That is the entire formula. No proprietary blend, no undisclosed matrix, nothing that requires you to take our word for it.

One thing worth knowing that rarely appears on a supplement page: green tea extract contains caffeine, and the licence record declares caffeine among this product’s potency constituents. If you are sensitive to caffeine, or you are already taking a pre-workout, that is a real consideration rather than a footnote.

The dose is the claim

The authorised dose is one capsule, one to two times per day, with food, for adults 19 years and older. The label also directs that it be taken two to four hours before exercise.

That matters more than most people realise, because with both of these ingredients the permitted claim changes with the daily amount.

Health Canada’s L-Carnitine monograph sets different dose bands for different uses. Workout and athletic support sits in one band. Physical performance and fatigue sit higher. Claims about fat metabolism and fat oxidation sit higher again — in the range of three to four grams of L-carnitine per day.

At 500 mg per capsule and one to two capsules daily, this product is not in that upper range, and its licence does not carry those claims. Which brings us to the part most brands leave out.

What this product does not claim

The following are not on this product’s licence, and we will not tell you otherwise:

• It is not authorised as a fat burner.

• It does not claim to cause weight loss on its own, without dietary change or activity.

• It does not claim to build muscle, improve body composition, or produce visible definition.

• It does not carry a fat metabolism or fat oxidation claim at this dose.

• It does not carry an antioxidant, muscle-recovery or physical-performance claim, although the monographs make some of those available at other doses.

• It is not a substitute for training, for food, or for sleep.

If that reads as underselling, consider the alternative. A supplement page that promises more than its own licence permits is telling you something useful — just not about the product.

Who should speak to a practitioner first

These are the risk statements attached to this product. They are not optional and they are not generic filler:

• Consult a health care practitioner prior to use if you have kidney disease, a seizure disorder or a liver disorder.

• Consult a health care practitioner prior to use if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.

• Consult a health care practitioner prior to use if you have an iron deficiency.

• Consult a health care practitioner before use if you are taking medications.

• Stop use and consult a health care practitioner if you develop symptoms of liver trouble such as yellowing of the skin or eyes, stomach pain, dark urine, sweating, nausea, unusual tiredness or loss of appetite.

• Ask a health care practitioner for use beyond 12 weeks.

• Keep out of reach of children.

Health Canada also records a known adverse reaction associated with this class of ingredient: rare, unpredictable cases of liver injury have been reported in Canada and internationally in association with products containing green tea extract. Rare is not the same as impossible, and you are entitled to know before you buy rather than after.

What a Certificate of Analysis can and cannot tell you

Each production lot has a Certificate of Analysis. It records the tests performed on that batch against a written specification — disintegration time, total plate count, yeast and mould, E. coli, Salmonella, S. aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and heavy metals including arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury.

A COA is a batch quality record. It is not a claims document, and it is not the same thing as a licence. Chemistry data tells you what was measured in a batch; only the licence tells you what a product is permitted to say about itself. Any brand that shows you a COA and then makes a claim the licence does not carry is using one document to distract you from the other.

The label states that the product is made in Canada from domestic and imported ingredients.

References

Health Canada. Licensed Natural Health Products Database (LNHPD), product information for NPN 80086440. Licence status active; revised 18 June 2024.

Health Canada, Natural and Non-prescription Health Products Directorate. L-Carnitine Monograph, 25 July 2025.

Health Canada, Natural and Non-prescription Health Products Directorate. Green Tea Extract Monograph, 25 July 2025.

Biogénique L-Carnitine + Green Tea product label, 60 capsules, NPN 80086440.

Health Canada. Guidance Document: Labelling of Natural Health Products.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

This content is provided for general educational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease and does not replace advice from a qualified health care professional.

Always read and follow the product label. Recommended uses, doses, cautions and warnings vary by product.

Quoted authorised uses, doses and risk statements are reproduced from the Licensed Natural Health Products Database entry for NPN 80086440 and from the product label, and are current as at 14 August 2026.

References to laboratory testing, Certificates of Analysis, specifications and batch results apply only where supported by the applicable documentation. A result from a specific lot should not be interpreted as a test result for every Biogénique product or batch.

Natural Product Numbers indicate that applicable natural health products have been authorised for sale in Canada under their approved conditions of use. Health Canada authorisation should not be represented as an endorsement of Biogénique.