Got Supplements?
By Jason
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Finding some decent straight talk about supplements is no easy task. There are plenty of companies out there who are willing to say whatever they have to in order to make a sale to you. There are plenty of good supplements out there, but there are plenty of crap supplements too.
And let’s be honest, none of us has the time to go out and try everything on the market to see what works. Fortunately, you don’t have to go out and try everything in order to know the basics of what’s going to work. This article is intended only to point you in the right direction and help you know where to start with supplements.
Do I need supplements?
If you were to ask me if you really need supplements, I’ll tell you that technically the answer is no. You don’t need supplements, and technically you don’t need a ton of muscle or a really low body fat percentage either. What I’m trying to say here is that “need” is a very relative term. It’s relative to your goals.
If your goal is to build a huge amount of muscle, then obviously you’re going to need more nutrient intake than what the average person needs. But a supplement is exactly what the word means: a supplement to your diet and training.
That means that before you even think about getting near supplements, you need to get your diet in place first. Buying newest version of the “Super Gonado Testosterone Jacking Complex” isn’t going to do you very much good if your body isn’t getting the nutrients it needs to build muscle in the first place.
Are you with me here?
So before you run out and blow a bunch of money on the newest supplement craze, think about what you’re eating first. Supplementing your diet won’t do you any good if you don’t have a decent diet to be supplementing in the first place.
That is the first step.
Supplement hierarchy:
Ok, so your diet is great. You are eating plenty of proteins, proper portions of good carbs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes… on and on. You’re eating 5-6 meals a day and you are keeping your “cheat” meals (junk food) to a minimum. Now what?
Now you start at the bottom of the supplement hierarchy and build your base. You should choose your supplements in the following order:
- Foundation supplements
- Supplementing essentials for convenience
- Specific purpose supplements
1. Foundation Supplements: These are the basic things that your body needs to continue functioning and to survive. Foundation supplements are those that should be taking on a consistent basis to meet your body’s most basic needs.
The reason these supplements are so dang important is that you’re never doing to get all the nutrients you need from the processed foods that are being placed in front of you on a daily basis. The American diet in particular just doesn’t get the job done.
The foundation supplements that you eat should include: vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Daily multivitamin.
- Sources of essential fatty acids, particularly the Omega-3’s. Daily supplementation of fish oil or flaxseed oil will go a long way. More on essential fatty acids another day.
2. Supplementing essentials for convenience: There are some items that are already found in your daily diet, but getting enough of them can be tough at times. You might not always be able to get a decent meal every 3 hours or so. Protein shakes and meal replacement powders are not actually replacements for real food, but they can sure help out when you’re stuck without any food.
Some of these supplements include the following:
- Whey protein: This type of protein has the highest bioavailability value of any protein. Protein shakes are great to be taken immediately after a workout when your body needs protein right away. The fact that it comes in a powder means it is absorbed by the body more quickly, which is great after a workout, but this also lowers the thermogenic effect you get with eating your protein.
- Antioxidants: Again, these are found in a variety of foods you are already eating (or at least you should be eating). Many fruits and vegetables are high in anti-oxidants. Without getting too deep into the science of antioxidants, they are helpful because they reduce free radicals in the body which helps reduce inflammation, muscle fiber damage, and they help to aid in muscle recovery.
- Creatine: It’s found in some of the meats you eat, especially red meat, and your body is capable of synthesizing it’s own creatine from some of the foods you eat as well. Supplementing with creatine, however, saturates the muscles with this substance. This helps you lift more during a weight during a workout and experience greater muscle growth. Creatine also draws water into the muscles and increases their volume.
3. Specific purpose supplements: These supplements can be designed to serve a variety of purposes from increasing the body’s output of testosterone, preventing aromitazation (conversion of testosterone to estrogen), burning more fat, increasing blood flow and nutrient transport (such as N.O. products and other vasodilators), etc.
There are so many different types of supplements on the market today that each have a different purpose. Getting into all of these is way beyond the scope of this article. Look, you’ll probably hear about these products, you might read the hype in the bodybuilding magazines, maybe you’ll even spend some good money to try them.
The point here is this: before you decide to go out and spend your savings on these types of supplements, make sure that you have the essentials in place first. Get your diet down and make sure you’re eating good food. Get the vitamins and minerals you need, get your essential fatty acids, plenty of protein, anti-oxidants, and other essentials.
If you don’t have these in place first, there’s really no point in trying all the advanced supplements on the market. That would be like doing leg curls every day when you’re not squatting. What the heck is the point of that? Why pay money for a fancy fat-burning stack if you’re eating 10 Twinkies a day and the basics aren’t in place?
I think you get the point.
Topics: Dieting & Food |
April 28th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Yes Jason, I do get the point
Really nice article. Getting the basics down first is really crucial (just like in everything else).
Personally I don’t eat fish oil supplements, as my skin (face mostly) tend to get really oily and stuff.
But I guess it works for some people.
keep it up
April 28th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Super Gonado Testosterone Jacking Complex is exactly what I’m looking for - where can I buy that?
I do take a multi-vitamin and some extra doses of B12 and B6 (on the recommendation of my doctor who once discovered my levels of those were slightly lower than he wanted to see).
I guess anybody could take mega amounts of vitamins if they just want to see how yellow they can make their urine. Fun at toilet time!
April 29th, 2008 at 1:08 am
Alex- I eat fish several times a week, and do my cooking with olive oil, so I get by without it as well. But if it’s not found in you’re diet, the essential fats are, well… still very essential. Most Americans rarely eat fish though.
Leonard- Super Testomax 3,000, coming to a bodybuilding magazine near you. Seriously though, there are alot of products out there that claim to increase your testosterone, lower estrogen, etc. Of course, they’re all high priced and make amazing promises. Sounds like you’re doing the right thing by giving your body something that you know it really needs before dumping money into other things. Building the base first is always best. Have fun with the extra color
April 29th, 2008 at 9:15 am
I just take good ol Animal Pak (which covers 90%of your needs alone lol), whey, creatine, and fish oils. That about covers it for me. I agree that what it really boils down to is your diet. If you’re not taking in enough food then you’re defeating the purpose.
April 30th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
I read a pretty interesting (and fairly neutral) article in Reader’s Digest recently titled The Vitamin Myth. Overall, however, it gave the thumbs down to most specific supplements AND multivitamins, citing recent university research and medical journal reports. It can be found here: Articleness
That aside, I downed a double dose of ON’s 100% Whey Protein shake powder (providing 48g of protein) after every lifting session for the first few months, but said “screw it” when the tub ran dry. So far as I can tell, it did seem to lessen my recovery time, but that’s about it. It was mostly too much of a hassle, though. Because after that, I was still starving for real food and would often grab something high in natural proteins anyway.
May 1st, 2008 at 3:07 am
Sean- Yep, diet could be compared to the base of the “supplement pyramid” if there were such a thing. I find it kinda funny that people will blow alot of money to buy an expensive supplement when the nutrient intake needed to build muscle isn’t there in the first place.
Witmonger - Interesting article. I’ve read others that cast doubt on the usefulness of multivitamins, but not as much as that article does.
lol on the protein shakes. I prefer a nice solid protein as well most of the time so that I can actually stay full for a while. The powders are absorbed pretty quickly and seem to go through you pretty fast.
May 1st, 2008 at 3:35 am
That’s too bad!
Here in Scandinavia, we generally eat a lot of fish.
Very few places are more than 200 kilometres from the ocean.