To Supplement or Not to Supplement; That is
the Question
Some fitness adherents are supplement crazy and
spend money like a Vegas drunk with a big roll
trying to impress girls he barely knows. I know
lots of folks who admit to spending hundreds of
bucks each month on the newest, latest dietary
or supplement craze. A subtler shade of this same
affliction is the cutting-edge Elite who also
purchase lots of supplements and spend lots of
disposable income on nutritional supplements of
some type or another, the newer the better for
this crew. Both ends of the fitness feeding chain
are seduced by supplements that promise everything
and deliver very little.
There is something intrinsic and rooted deep
in the human psyche that eternally searches for
a miracle pill, potion, compound, substance or
procedure that will do one of three things: make
you lean, make you muscular and make you look
and feel decades younger than your actual chronologic
age.Apparently there is no finite number of times
you can get burned before you wise up and quit
looking. If a magical pill or potion existed that
delivered the mail on any of these three counts,
believe me, you'd hear all about it all the time.
Since the days of Ponce de' Leon stumbling around
the malaria-ridden Florida everglades looking
for the Fountain of Youth, people have sought
physical shortcuts through chemistry to eliminate
the gut-busting physical effort and fierce disciplined
denial required to self-administer a successful
physical renovation. John Parrillo, my nutritional
Guru, always says that the regimented use of regular
food, the kind you purchase off the shelf in the
grocery store, will get you 80-85% of the "way
there," there being a significant increase in
muscle mass and a dramatically decreased body
fat percentile.
Obtain the twin titan attributes: more muscle/less
body fat, and guess what? You'll look decades
younger than your chronological reality so number
three is a free bonus when you become leaner and
more muscular.Supplement makers and exercise equipment
makers, who proclaim extraordinary results that
defy rational expectations, play to people's eternal
demand for some blasted substance or another to
magically allow the acquisition of a fat-free
muscular body.
Would it not be great to pop a
pill and make it all go away? Unfortunately this
defies reality, and a reality check reveals that
nutritional supplements are vastly overrated.
Supplements are meant to supplement not replace
regular foods. Steer clear of anyone who tells
you how easy the physical transformation process
can be made by the use of their product or system.
Read the small print: most of these miracle products
and systems shown on TV infomercials are all forced
to run legal disclaimers--you'll see it flash
by along the bottom, too speedy to really read--they
all basically say the same thing: "results are
not ordinary and for dramatic results a sensible
calorie-restrictive diet plan and a vigorous exercise
plan need also be followed.
"Put another way, if
you had it together and went on a sensible, calories-restrictive
diet and got your rear end in gear and exercised
intensely, you'd make just as much progress with
or without the miracle product. If you dieted
properly using foods purchased from the local
food mart and start hitting cardio and lifting
with requisite ferocity, the magic beans the witch
sold you are superfluous.
Save your money; get
food selections under control, multiple meals
are a must, meal timing is important, overall
food volume and content need to be squared away.
Nail it down on all levels and you'll get 90%
of the way "there" in eight weeks. No hype, just
plain fact, based on decades of widespread empirical
date gathered in the athletic trenches. We know
what works when it comes to triggering a physical
transformation -- but the price of admission is
high and most folks have neither the inclination
nor pain-tolerance to close the deal.
More confirmation
of the basic truths came while reading Rehan Jalali's
Six Pack Diet Plan. Rehan has a great grasp of
the cold realities imposed by science and biology
and logic, especially where nutritional products
are considered. Results that fitness hucksters
ascribe to their products are biologically, physiologically
and scientifically impossible! With every page
I turned, my science knowledge base was clarified
and mostly reaffirmed by Rehan.
Correctly used
supplements (the right ones taken at the right
time in the right amount) can add 10-15% to the
final finished physical product. Nothing wrong
with that! But let's try and get as close as we
can to the goal before we start spending big bucks
on supplements.
The first order of business is getting control
of the eating schedule. Makes perfect sense to
spread out the day's calories, more feedings per
day lessens the digestive burden. Clean up the
food selections and try and match calories needed
to exercise expenditure. Once you are training
consistently and once you are using a multiple-meal
eating schedule (and making good selections) the
addition of core supplements will be timely and
appropriate and likely blast you through to the
next level.
The most basic nutritional supplement
for all hardcore weight trainers is supplemental
protein in powder form. Purchase a tub for $30
to $40; take the money out of your grocery money
with all the dough you save by not buying ice
cream, pie, frozen pizzas or candy. If you weight
train as hard as you're supposed to, consuming
a protein-rich liquid shake immediately after
an intense session will actually accelerate results
and speed up the recovery process.
Every Purposefully
Primitive weight trainer must have a canister
or tub of protein powder on hand. The price per
serving has plummeted, the potency has skyrocketed
and it makes so much sense to supplement with
amino-rich protein powder -- so easy to prepare
and tasty. Mixing a fine-tasting protein shake
with cold water is easy and within 30-seconds
you are drinking a pre-digested concoction that
delivers 35 to 45 grams of high biologic whey
protein with scant 4-8 carbohydrate grams and
no sugar or fat.
Protein powder is the number
one indispensable single supplement for the serious
and savage weight trainer. On the other hand if
you just loaf through your sporadic training protein
supplementation would be a total waste of money.
Vitamin and mineral tablets are also advisable;
my other core supplement is the "sport nutrition
bar" in all its various guises. I love the portability
of bars in a wrapper.
I can stash them anywhere:
glove compartment, gym bag, desk drawer, file
cabinet, boat, what have you. That way, anytime
I get hungry, at the very least I can grab a bar
and consume a product that, on average, provides
20 grams of protein, 40 grams of carbs, 5 to 15
grams of sugar and 3 to 5 grams of fat. Nice statistics
for a 70 gram bar. With 250 clean calories, a
bar (or two) makes an excellent meal-in-a-pinch.
I buy them by the box.Taste has gotten so much
better over the years!
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