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Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

Hi all,
Bodybuilding was a big part of my life . But unfortunately two years ago I had an injury in my wrist (de quervain’s tenosynovitis) which made me have to take a rest from weight lifting specially that I’m a dentist and I got scared from not being able to work. This injury took couple months to heal then I got some life problems which made it hard for me to go back to the gym.

I turned fat and lost all the muscle mass I gained . but I decided to go back into weightlifting and trying to get fit. My goal will be start with cutting for couple months to get rid of the fat that accumulated from being a lazy a** . I bought some supplements today (whey protein. Casein protein, BCAA, Creatine monohydrate, Glutamine, and multivitamin ) which costed me around 400$, I’m from Kuwait the supplements here are really expensive.

My question is should I take everything now or should I save some of the supplements for later ( after a month or when I finish cutting) also if you can refresh my memory with the timing/dosing of the supplements I mentioned .
Best regards,
Ali

2

I’m not an expert on this, but my thoughts at this point would be to eat clean, lose weight, and exercise. I’d worry more about getting slim (or at least not fat) while getting your muscles used to working out than maximizing hypertrophy at all costs.

Maybe just stick with protein powders now to help you get enough protein to not lose muscle (and probably gain some) while you otherwise lose weight.

–Me

3

The supplementation initiative is great, however, at this point it is definitely the last thing you want to be concerned about. It is still important, but if you are truly concerned about your success, you need to dial in all the other steps, prior to optimizing the last step(it’s called supplementation for a reason).

The creatine is definitely something you should incorporate ASAP, as well as a protein shakes, as needed (one shake before training(With water) and one shake after training(with milk) is my usual routine).

The BCAAs are so situational, that right now, if you take them, it’s a waste of your money. BCAAs are nothing else but protein with decreased amount of of calories.

Multivitamins, for the most part, are a joke and not necessary. I take them, however, I don’t necessarily encourage other people to spend money on it. Anything you can find in a multi-vitamin, should be provided by your diet, not a pill. I take them because even though I believe they aren’t beneficial, they manage to give me a nice placebo effect.

The I would really focus on, is 1) a nice training routine(including 1-2 HIIT sessions per week if body-fat is an issue) 2) well balanced, healthy diet(with lots of fruits and veggies) 3) 7-8 hours of sleep each night.

I’m not sure if this was what you were looking for but yeah, good luck.

edit: i would replace the multi-vitamins once you run out with either Vitamin d3 (minimum 1000ui daily) or Vitamin C. Probably both instead of multi-vitamins.

edit2: Omega-3 fish oil would be another alternative over the multi-vitamin. omega-3s are insanely beneficial, especially when weight-lifting.

4

Good post Claudan.
OP, Train. Eat. Sleep. Once those things are in order, worry about supps. 'Course if you were into bodybuilding before you probably know this… still, sometimes it helps to hear what you already know. How does your diet and training look?

5

[quote]kravi wrote:
Maybe just stick with protein powders now to help you get enough protein to not lose muscle (and probably gain some) while you otherwise lose weight.
[/quote]

sketchy answer :smiley:

6

Hi Ali
Congratulations for getting back into it!

If I were you, I would probably start out with the multivitamin and maybe the branched-chain amino acids. Once you start to hit a little bit of a plateau, I would recommend adding another supplement and see how it works.

As far as timing goes, it can depend on the product. Try checking the label. That can also help you figure out the right dosage. But taking supplements first thing in the morning, or right before your workout or right after might be a good place to start.

Best of luck!

7

[quote]SethCoyne wrote:
As far as timing goes, it can depend on the product. Try checking the label. That can also help you figure out the right dosage. But taking supplements first thing in the morning, or right before your workout or right after might be a good place to start.
Best of luck![/quote]

Actually, it depends on the supplement. Vitamins, for example, need lipids(fat) to be transported throughout your system, so the recommendation here is to take your vitamin pills with some type of meal that contains fat.

8

WTF

Are you serious?

9

[quote]Gambit_Lost wrote:
Good post Claudan.
OP, Train. Eat. Sleep. Once those things are in order, worry about supps. 'Course if you were into bodybuilding before you probably know this… still, sometimes it helps to hear what you already know. How does your diet and training look?
[/quote]

I think OP misrepresented himself (intentionally or not) by saying bodybuilding used to be a ‘big part of his life.’ As of 5 years ago, according to old posts, he was a fat guy who lifted weights from time to time. And he hasn’t lifted in the last 2 years. So that leaves 3 years when he may or may not have trained consistently. So it would be safe to assume he doesn’t know all that much about supplementation, in the way a former serious bb’er would.

Gambit’s advice is simple and solid. Diet needs to come first. You need to become not-fat first. Weight training will definitely be a solid tool in this endeavor, and refinement of your weight training will become more important as you shed fat. Supplements should have very little to do with the results you get, so I’m not going to address how you should use them. It won’t matter much. Best of luck!

10

[quote]Derek542 wrote:
WTF

Are you serious?[/quote]

11

Thank you very much for your great advice guys your help is really appreciated. I’m gonna take the protein/multivitamin/Glutamine now and save the other supplements for later. I’m going to do upper body/lower body split for 4 times a week and do couple HIIT twice. What do you guys think, is that too much while cutting? My diet and sleep schedule are already set . Thanks again guys for amazing advice.

BTW when I said bodybuilding was a big part of my life I meant that I liked it a lot and I used to read about it a lot but I never trained constantly for more than 2 and a half years and then the injury stopped me, so I’m not as experienced as you guys are.

12

Honestly, OP, given your question, I kinda figured :wink:

That’s cool though. Get into it now. If you have another injury, ask on these forums and people will help you to be able to train around it. Upper/lower split sounds good. I suggest using a program directly from this site (I do). 4x/week+2 HIIT sessions seems fine. No problems there. Don’t forget that you “Lift for strength and eat for size.” In other words, your most important exercise will be the “table pushaways.”

With that in mind. I strongly recommend you create a diet for yourself and then make a food log (for at least a month). Every time I try to lose weight, I use a food log…it helps to keep you honest with yourself and fix any issues. If you post the diet here, people will help to “fix it” if it needs any tweaks. Here is a great place to start: One Hundred Gram Carb Cure

13

Thanks a lot
My diet:-

Meal 1 : 25g whey protein - 1 cup mixed Barries - 1 teaspoon ground flaxseed - 1 table spoon oat meal - 1 cup fat free milk

Meal 2 : salad with about 300-500g grilled chicken breast or sirloin steak or salmon fillet

Preworkout : 25g whey protein with fat free milk Post: 20g whey protein + 40g simple carbs from fruit juice + 5g Glutamine

Meal 3 : ~200g chicken breast or tuna + salad + 1tablespoon olive oil

Meal 4 : ricotta cheese + almonds + avocado + 25g casein protein +10g Glutamine

I know it’s not perfect but I have a really busy schedule , any help would be appreciated

14

You shouldn’t skip out on the creatine. That is actually the only thing I would consider a supplement. The rest you can easily obtain in your diet, but you would really have to make yourself sick with fish/meat to reach 5g of creatine.

It has a substantial effect.

15

[quote]Claudan wrote:
You shouldn’t skip out on the creatine. That is actually the only thing I would consider a supplement. The rest you can easily obtain in your diet, but you would really have to make yourself sick with fish/meat to reach 5g of creatine.

It has a substantial effect. [/quote]

thank you very much for ur advice. Im gonna take 5g aday with my post workout shake without loading
your help is appreciated

16

[quote]dr.ali wrote:

[quote]Claudan wrote:
You shouldn’t skip out on the creatine. That is actually the only thing I would consider a supplement. The rest you can easily obtain in your diet, but you would really have to make yourself sick with fish/meat to reach 5g of creatine.

It has a substantial effect. [/quote]

thank you very much for ur advice. Im gonna take 5g aday with my post workout shake without loading
your help is appreciated[/quote]

Sounds good! Good luck. Let me know if you have any other questions.