To Supplement Or Not To Supplement | Eating 101 | Forum

Today’s article comes from guest author Cameron Stache.  If you are paying attention to the free WorldFitnessNetwork forums, you have no doubt gotten familiar with Cameron.  But what you might not know is that Cameron currently works as a Fitness Coach/ Assistant Fitness Manager at the Rush Fitness Complex in Greensboro, NC.  He’s pursuing his Exercise Science degree and plans to use this degree to either work at a large college and be a strength and conditioning coach, or go into ergonomics.

I hear every day the question “What kinds of supplements should I be taking?” or “What supplements are best for this situation?”  And most of the time my answer is “none.”

There is a difference between nutritional supplements and performance supplements.  Given the typical American diet, nutritional supplements are important for just about everyone to consider, and athletes/exercisers need more than the normal amounts of daily nutrients.

But performance supplements are a different matter.  Don’t get me wrong, there are advantages of performance supplements, but not for beginners.  To top it off most of these same people who are seeking a magic pill for performance completely ignore either nutritional supplements or even their nutrition entirely.  So in order to save the loss of breath here are the basics for what a beginner needs.

The Basics:  Nutritional Supplements

For starters, increasing muscle is 80% nutrition, 10% mental (effort), about 8% recovery and maybe 2% supplementation.  For the purpose of this article I am going to classify nutritional supplements under nutrition, due to them being health-based; performance supplements are the “supplement” category.

As far as nutritional supplements there is an absolute need in your body.  Very few people get the nutrition their body needs.  A study was done a while back where a group of 50 nutritionists were asked to use no supplementation and had a 2,000 calorie diet to gain ALL of the needs your body needs.  Not surprisingly, not a single one of them was able to actually accomplish it.  What does this mean for you???

Well first, these nutritional needs were based upon the average NON-exerciser.  Not a single one of the nutritionists was able to feed their needs.  The bad news?  Your needs as an exerciser are going to greatly increase your vitamin and mineral needs.  But, unfortunately it gets worse.  Unless you are severely obese or extremely active you will more than likely be under a 2,000 calorie diet, which means it’s even harder for you to get the basic needs met. This is of course assuming that you are part of the majority of America and are deciding to workout because you want to lose body fat.  Hence, you need a calorie deficit.  Even if you are one of the few who are trying to gain mass, you probably won’t be eating the diversity of foods needed to sustain you.  You will be eating higher protein foods for sure, but that’s not enough for a balanced nutrition plan.

So first thing you will need to be taking in the nutrition side of things will be a multi-vitamin.  And I mean a real one.  Centrum, 1-A-Day, Generic brands aren’t going to cut it. I mean it literally when I say you are better flushing your money down the toilet.  There are two types of vitamins: water-soluble (not stored in body) and fat-soluble (stored in body).  Basically, the fat soluble vitamins are the ones that you can overload on, the water soluble you can’t.  There are other differences, but I am not going to go into detail with that right now.  Your body is going to use very little of the water soluble vitamins that you get from the vitamin (the object) and pee out the rest of it, hence the toilet.

What Types Are Best?

Unfortunately, when it comes to nutrition often the more you pay the better it is.  There is usually a reason it is more expensive in the first place.  You need a vitamin that is taken more than once a day. Most of them instruct you to take it once in the morning and once at night.  You also need a vitamin with a “timed-release,” meaning it doesn’t release into your system all at once.  A decent vitamin for a 30-day supply for an exerciser should range from about 25-35 dollars.  A good place to buy your vitamins would be Dotfit.  These are the same guys that created the NASM fitness certification.  And I’ve met them in person, they do pretty extensive testing on ALL of their products.  For an in store option, GNC multi-packs aren’t a bad option.  They also have multivitamins upwards of 70 dollars, but those are geared more towards athletes.  Most people won’t need something that extreme.  A couple examples of these are the Double X by “Nutrilite” and Intramax.  Personally I take Intramax because I hate taking pills and it is a liquid, and that also means faster delivery.  However, the Double X vitamin is a good choice because it is actually three things: a multi-vitamin, a multi-mineral, and a multi-phytonutrient.  So you are technically getting 3 pills a dose.

Your body also produces free-radicals.  When your body uses the vitamins and nutrients during energy production, it is changed into a free-radical.  Energy needs for an exerciser are higher than a non-exerciser which means your free-radicals are higher as well.  If they aren’t removed they may cause cancer so my second recommended supplement is obvious, an anti-oxidant.  Anti-oxidants help clear out the free radicals. These are a bit cheaper than high-powered multivitamins. You probably can find some anti-oxidant loaded vitamins, but it will take some looking.  They are usually sold separately, otherwise the pill would be quite large.

There are a few others that are beneficial such as: Fish oils, glucosamine (if you have old or bad joints), and if you have low calcium intake, a calcium supplement.  But, none of these are really all that required for someone just starting.  Remember I said SMALL changes.

Darrin and Jason have covered protein already, and I agree almost completely on their views so I really don’t feel the need to cover protein supplements.

Performance Supplements

Getting into shape isn’t about doing everything you can all at once.  It’s about making small gradual changes to help with your lifestyle.  So, jumping out of the gate and going to straight supplements honestly isn’t going to help much.  You see, beginners are going to change a LOT during their first couple months of exercise.  This means you are going to plateau – your progress will slow or halt.  THEN, not before, are you allowed to use performance supplements.

Some legal, safe performance supplements that have been rigorously tested include:

Caffeine –   Caffeine has been used as weight loss supplement for hundreds of years.  It can also add some extra intensity for your workouts.  Caffeine is a stimulant, so it will speed up your metabolism.  Keep in mind caffeine is a drug and does have a large effect on your body.  Be careful about most energy/ weight loss supplements if you are sensitive to caffeine, or have pre-existing heart conditions.  Although the FDA DOES have a legal limit on caffeine, you would be on the floor twitching long before you actually reach the legal limit J.  This being the case, supplement companies can use a LOT of it.  For example, a single Ignition Stick by “Hydroxycut” has the equivalent of 2 ½ cups of coffee’s caffeine in it.  Also, there is a hefty crash from using caffeine, so make sure you eat before and after workouts so you don’t come spiraling down too fast.

Creatine –   Creatine is known as a performance booster, as it is used for that, but personally I would classify it as a nutritional supplement.  You can make your own choice.  Check out Will Brinks’ “The Creatine Report.”  It’s long, about 40 pages and a bit technical, but it goes into far more detail than I ever could about it. For those of you who don’t know, he is the guy who wrote “The Creatine Graveyard.”

Sports Drinks – Honestly, most sports are watered down soft drinks.  There is nothing better than water for your system.  They are almost all high in sugar and salt.  However, if you are still going to use them, look for the ones that are high in vitamins, and low in sugar and salt.  If you need energy, and water won’t cut it, drink some chocolate milk beforehand (from skim milk).  It has all the vitamins and minerals your body needs for energy.  It’s really one of the best energy drinks out on the market today.  And, for example purposes there is also some water I sell to my friends and family called Perfect Water.  It is basically super water.  It is micro-ionized, filtered five times (each a different way) and impregnated with extra oxygen.  Basically, your body absorbs more of it, at a faster rate.  There are other brands out there, but it you are looking for a drink to have while you workout, or to mix with protein all of the “smart” waters are good choices.

If you are interested in the brands Cameron supports, check out  http://cstache.qhealthzone.com .

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