More powders than Johnson & Johnson - Part 1: The beginner's guide to supplements

Supplements. Everyone wants to know about supplements. Whether it's asking me what protein they should buy, asking if I'm 'on' creatine or if there is something they can take to transform them into a shredded beast with a 10 inch cock; I seem to get hundreds of questions ranging from the inane to the insane.

Before your mind goes wandering, we're keeping things strictly legal and over the counter here. I have no practical experience with androgenic anabolics and I'm certainly not going to recommend them to beginners, however I do plan to write a post on my views on AAS in the future.

A large part of what drives people to ask a million and one questions about supplements is the allure of the magic potion, some elixir of life type shit that will bring all the benefits of a diet and exercise plan, without the efforts. Get this one out of your head; supplements should be exactly as the name suggest. They are an optional add on to a good diet and exercise programme, not an alternative path. Secondly, advertising hammers you with the message that you need supplements and makes outlandish claims of what is possible if you take their products. Supplements do work (although not all of them); there wouldn't be a market otherwise, but putting your faith in a powder or pill to double your muscle gains is setting yourself up for disappointment. People built muscle, got strong, lean and all that good stuff before the supplement boom; they didn't need them and nor do you. However, if your training routine and diet are in place, supplements do provide something extra, so read on to find what they can offer you.

Lean, muscular and clueless as to what the fuck N.O. X-plode is.

Protein powders

The most commonly consumed and debated of sports supplements, this comes in many forms including whey (of various sub-classes), casein, egg, soy, pea, hemp. Add to that various weight gainers (one or more of the aforementioned proteins plus a shit load of carb powders) and meal replacements (protein plus carb powders, fat sources and usually some vitamins). That's a fair amount of products, so what do you need to worry about? Not a lot.

You see, people like to complicate the issue with protein. Here's my views:

• Don't bother with weight gainer shakes unless you are looking to get 3000+ calories in a day (you probably aren't). Instead learn to eat more and stop being a whiny little bitch.
• Ditto meal replacements, unless you are a legitimately really, really busy person (students: this isn't you) who has genuinely made the effort to eat more, but is struggling.
• If you're eating low calories (< 1500), you'll probably want to get all your protein from solid sources for satiety's sake, unless you have a very poor appetite.
• Whey (derived from milk) is the classic choice and for good reason; it's a cheap, highly bio-available, quick absorbing protein. Want a convenient way to hit your target protein intake on training days? Bang down a whey shake after training.
• Unless you are a high level athlete, don't worry yourself at all about the sub-categories of whey. Get the basic stuff. The minor differences in speed of absorption for acid or hydrolysed whey versus your basic level stuff is nowhere near significant enough to justify the added expense. Add that to the fact that increased absorption speed of a protein does not necessarily lead to increased muscle protein synthesis in the fed state and you should realise that you're better keeping your money in your pocket.
• Don't worry about getting ultra low carb or low fat powders either (all straight up whey powders are pretty low in both carbs and fats), a gram or two here or there isn't going to make a difference.
• One thing that may be worth a note: those that are lactose intolerant to any degree may want to shell out a little more for a extra-low lactose variety to save themselves bubble gut and the infamous protein farts.
• Casein is the other protein in milk and is the second most popular choice of protein supplement; this is the slow absorbing milk protein, the yin to whey's yang (well, maybe not that different). Point is, casein is absorbed by your body at a slower rate than whey, leading to a longer lived, but lower magnitude of blood amino elevation. What does this mean for you in practice? Casein is a worse choice than whey post-workout, but better if you're using it as a protein source for any other meal. If you're the 'breakfast shake' type and  feeling rich, casein is a good choice here due to the sustained amino levels, but using it is far from necessary.
• As an added note for vegetarians: firstly I disagree with your lifestyle choice. Secondly, I would recommend you get both whey and casein supplements as due to your silly diet, getting sufficient protein without added carbs and fats is difficult, making powders a smart choice.
• For vegans: First for the love of God and your malnourished bodies, eat some damn animal products. Secondly, leave the soy (phytoestrogens are not your friends); get some pea and hemp protein.

Apparently protein shakes existed in ancient Japan.

Creatine

"I heard he can rep 4 plates on squats" "yeah, but... he's on the creatine"

I've actually heard shit like the above being said, re-affirming my long held and regularly vocalized belief that most people are bloody idiots.

Creatine is an effective supplement for sure, its main function is to store phosphate groups as phosphocreatine. Once your cell's 'energy currency', ATP, have blown their load and lost a phosphate to become ADP, phosphocreatine can donate a phosphate group to ADP. This reforms ATP and allows it to go back to being a little fucking powerhouse. It's been proven in multiple double-blind randomised studies that creatine increases power output, which is good news for lifters, casual and hardcore alike. It has also recently been shown to have subtle nootropic (smart drug) like effects, enhancing cognition slightly, which is a nice little bonus.

Let's dispel any myths surrounding creatine and educate you as to its use by a series of questions to which each answer is my favourite word: no. Is creatine a steroid? Is creatine bad for your kidneys/liver? Does creatine cause cramping? Do I have to 'load' creatine? Are fancy variants any better than monohydrate in testing? Does creatine need to be taken with a fast acting carb? Does creatine need to be cycled? Does creatine have to be taken at a certain time e.g. pre-workout? Can I get an amount of creatine comparable to what I would take as a supplement just by eating lots of steak and eggs? Are the benefits proportional to dose?

I think creatine is great. Science also thinks it's great. When science and I agree, anyone that disagrees should be sterilised as they are no use to the human race. Creatine monohydrate has a bunch of positive effects on the body and is cheap as chips; get some, take 5 grams a day, profit. Or don't, it's your body.

Yeah it's impressive, but he's on creatine, so....

Vitamins, minerals and fish oils

I've bundled these all into one section as there isn't too much to say about each and most people are already familiar with what vitamin tablets are and how you take them (as suppositories, right?).

Vitamins and minerals - We'll tackle these first, to save myself typing it a hundred times, from now on, when I say vitamins, I mean minerals as well. Theoretically, vitamin supplements shouldn't be necessary as we all should be eating a wide range of vegetables and meats, checking every necessary box. In practice, this doesn't happen. Even those with fantastic diets have their favoured and unfavoured foods leading to most people not getting enough of certain vitamins. Another factor you may be aware of is that due to  soil depletion, the veg you are eating today likely have lower levels of certain vitamins than those your grandparents were eating.

Sort your act out, modern soil.

The best way to supplement with vitamins would be to analyse your diet, identify what you are deficient in and supplement with only those. Hassle. It's much easier to get a good multi. This can be your dietary 'safety net' plugging up any minor deficiencies in your day to day intake.

There is one vitamin and one mineral I recommend as additional supplements, either on top of a multi, or if you decide against a multi (which many do) as your only extras:

Vitamin D - most people in non-equatorial regions are deficient in vitamin D to some respect. I imagine many of you are, like me, from the UK. The land where God turned down the contrast levels. As your body synthesises vitamin D when your skin is exposed to sunlight, all the grey does us no good in this regard, nor do weekdays trapped in an office/lecture theatre/lab/brothel. Vitamin D has a huge list of benefits, so I won't go into detail, but just look what this beast can do - increase cognition, bone and immune health; reduce risk of diabetes, MS, heart disease and cancer and increase testosterone levels in those that are deficient. Vitamin D is a magic little molecule, it's also cheap to supplement with. A point worth noting is that vitamin D is fat soluble, so for best absorption, take it along with a meal that contains some fat.

The sun and Britain are not good friends

Magnesium - the second most common deficiency in the developed world (after vitamin D). Deficiency can lead to undesired neural excitations which may be factors in conditions such as depression and ADHD; it can also leads to elevating blood pressure and poor insulin sensitivity/blood glucose control. Supplementing is again cheap and easy as popping a tablet; magnesium citrate is a good choice as a balance between cost and absorption.

Fish Oils - The best way to get these into your diet is to eat oily fish - I know, revolutionary thinking - but, sardines, mackerel and wild salmon aren't everyone's thing. If you hate fish, supplementing with fish oils is an easy, cheap way to get docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in your diet. Why do you want these unpronounceable words in your diet? I'm sure you've heard all about 'omega-3' fats being great, but you probably don't know why. Without getting too deep into the science (and probably over my head); these compounds are stored in cell membranes along with 'omega-6' fatty acids and released as needed. A 1:1 ratio between these two classes of fatty acids is near optimal for the body, however most people have way more omega-6 than omega-3 present. Supplementing with fish oil helps bring this ratio back to where you want it to be which brings a host of benefits.

Mackerel: a gormless little nutrition powerhouse

The benefits of supplementing with fish oil are due to both the improved omega 3 : omega 6 ratios and effects of the fish oil compounds themselves, they include: reduced blood pressure, better HDL (good cholesterol) : LDL (bad cholesterol) ratio, reducing trigycerides, decreased risk/symptoms of depression and ADHD, lower risk of artery plaque build up, reduced risk of diabetes, improved memory and at higher doses decreased muscle soreness, increased rates of muscle glycogen re-synthesis and increased bio-energetic flexibility in muscle cells (that is, the ability to switch between using glucose and fat as an energy source).

If you managed to wade through that, you will probably realise fish oil is pretty good stuff. As initially pointed out, eating fish (minimum 3 portions a week) is your best way of getting it in. If you don't each much or any fish, supplementing with 1 g active DHA and EPA per day (that is more than 1 g of oil, you will have to look at the EPA/DHA proportions on your supplement) is a good idea. If you wish to explore the benefits that are listed as occurring at higher doses, you need to take in around 6 g DHA/EPA per day, but this isn't necessary otherwise.

Shout out to Sol Orwell and Kurtis Frank for making a great site for all this stuff.

Part 2 coming soon - discussing pre-workouts, stuff I think is cool, stuff I think sucks and giving you a simple list of what I think you should consider taking, depending on your goals.

The title? Biggie again.