Do Not Take Supplements For Fitness & Fat Loss.
My take on supplements and why you really don’t need them. Hear me out, read on to find out what I mean.
What Supplements Are We Talking About?
Supplements are exactly what it sounds like. They supplement something you’re already doing. In this case, the ‘something’, is eating.
Supplements come in different forms. You’ve got protein powders, branched-chain amino acids, vitamins, minerals, tropical berry juices, and even banned supplements like pro-hormones.
There are many many more that I won’t list here such as the magical raspberry ketones that make you burn fat. They all share one common thing, they are a waste of money. Most of them are unnecessary and some are even downright harmful.
Why Supplements Are Overhyped And Not Worth The Money
Supplements are a massive business. So I may get flack for giving them negative press but just like any other type of product, there’s a target audience. Usually that is teenage boys or the average overweight individual.
When I was 18 I remember walking into GNC for some protein powder and somehow got talked into buying some cool-looking bottle of androgenone, whatever the hell that is. It had all the shiny labels and said something like 258% more muscle growth due to a special ingredient proven by something-or-other university. I was young and had no idea it was a massive lie just to sell a product.
Supplements have an insane markup. This is because of marketing. They use pro bodybuilders, shiny images and advertising to make it seem like the ‘one missing ingredient’ or the ‘next best thing’.
What’s worse is that it isn’t even regulated by the FDA so you really have no idea what you’re getting, if anything at all. There’s been independent studies showing that some brands of protein powders actually contain much less protein than stated.
Proprietary Blends And Unknown Ingredients
A proprietary blend is otherwise known as a ‘secret combination of ingredients’. It is usually a way for companies to cut corners. For example, if they claim a specific ingredient is in there, they don’t have to tell you how much.
For example, a serving of caffeine is usually 10–200 milligrams. If a company puts this into their proprietary blend, there could be as little or as much as they see fit. You have no idea how much there is because they didn’t list it.
Caffeine may be a silly example because it’s a cheap ingredient but the same goes for everything else. It’s best to avoid pricey supplements with proprietary blends because you don’t know what you’re getting. There could be something in there you actually might want to avoid.
Dangerous Supplements
Back in the early 2000s, there were deaths from ephedrine abuse. There was a time when ephedrine HCL and ephedra was being sold over the counter as fat loss aids. If you haven’t heard of them then just google it.
Some people had the brilliant idea where if one pill of ephedra helped fat loss, then more must be better right? This then went on to cause heart complications and some people got heart attacks and died from it.
Another example is pro-hormones. I remember way back when I was a teenager, I stumbled upon a bottle of 4-AD (4-Androstenediol) and it immediately peaked my curiosity. I did some research and even knew some people who took it. I was extremely jealous at the time but I was always afraid of taking that stuff. Needless to say they were banned not too long after and what ensued was a barrage of negative side effects, long term effects and complaints about how this could ever have been in sold in a shop. If you take these things, you’re just gambling with your health for little gain in the short term.
How To Use Supplements Appropriately
The only exception I would say to supplement usage is if your doctor recommends it or if you suspect you may have a deficiency of a particular vitamin or mineral. For example, you struggle to eat enough foods with vitamin B, then go ahead and supplement. That is the point of them. If you live in an area with not a lot of sun, go ahead and supplement with vitamin D, that will be good for you.
In general, though, all vitamins and micronutrients can be found in whole foods as part of a varied diet, which you should be intaking as part of a healthy lifestyle anyway.
The One Exception
Having said all of the above, it is clear that I’m not a big fan of supplements, however, there is one that you may want to look at and that is creatine. There is actually a great deal of empirical research done looking at its effects and it has been proven that creatine can be beneficial for strength, more so than placebo (not taking anything).
If you’re not competitive, however, the same goes for other supplements I mentioned, save your money. You may lift more but at the end of the day, once you stop taking creatine, you revert back to how you were. Rather, aim to increase your strength over time with or without creatine and you’ll do extremely well.
Final Word On Supplements
My final take on supplements is that they are not necessary, not in the slightest and they will not make you lose more weight than what can be achieved through diet and exercise. An extra capsule of raspberry ketones every day is not going to make even the slightest difference in your weight or look over a fat loss phase so don’t bother. Save your money.
Supplements don’t fix the fundamentals. Don’t miss the forest for the trees in other words. Many supplements may claim to make your training or diet more effective and help you burn more fat but that is just marketing. They are selling you a pipe dream. If your diet and training are not in order, no amount of supplementation will give you any advantage. You’ll just be wasting your money.
