What kinds of multi vitamins do everyone take in this forum?? what works the best?
If you use meal replacement powders (e.g. Grow,
Met-Rx etc) than you won’t be short of any vitamins. I don’t use any vitamin supplementation but Vitamin C could be useful – I’m just not doing that currently.
Got half an hour? Actually I’m at the extreme end of the spectrum – I take a handful of vitamins and herbals 3 times a day. They’re all plant based (except the salmon oil and glucosamine) and break down very fast for absorption. Here’s a rundown: Multi-vitamin/multi-mineral, Vit C (1500 mg/day in 3 doses), Vit E, Selenium (parsley), Carotene complex, Omega-3 complex (flax and salmon oils), Garlic, Calcium, Lutien, Coenzyme-Q10, Pycnogenol (including ALA), Glucosamine, Vit B complex, Vit A and Zinc (be careful with Vit A, it can become toxic in high doses over time), Ginseng, Gingko Biloba, and Saw Palmetto. Many people will argue that I don’t need all these, and they’re probably right. But the way I see it, we’re only given one body for life. If we were only allowed to have one car in our lives, how would we treat it? Why should we do any less for our bodies?
Bill, from my understanding and from talking with nutrtional people, I thought that was near impossible to meet vitamin/mineral requirements regardless of caloric deficit or surplus. If in surplus, there would be less benefit of a multi but still helps. Grow! and other MRP’s simply don’t have every vitamin/mineral needed or that could help the body. Is this correct?? Any other people want to reply to this topic?
just so you know brider, you’re body is only able to absorb specific amounts of vitamins/minerals during one dose/sitting. for example, 1,500mg of Vit C is too much and overkill.
Well, my humble opinion is that if you’re consuming MRP’s, and eating a variety of foods, then adding a high dosage multi-vitamin is unnecessary. I take Ultimate Nutrition’s Super Complete Capsules, or EAS’s Multi-Blend, BUT I only take 1 capsule per meal (instead of 2, which would be 6 caps per day). While on the Fat Fast diet, I’m taking the full dosage.
Well, Scott, first there seems to be no or virtually no correlation
between muscle gains and use of vitamins above and beyond what’s in MRP’s and in a reasonable diet of food vs. also using vitamins on top of that. You are just not going to notice better gains from taking the multivitamin on top of everything else, assuming your diet is at all reasonable and you’re having say 2 or 3 MRP’s per day.
Second, does it even make sense that man would have evolved where “near impossible to meet
vitamin/mineral requirements regardless of caloric deficit or
surplus”?
I’d think any species like that would have died out long ago: survival of the fittest and all that.
I take a multi-vitamin once a day and I also take 200iu of vitamin E and a magnesium/zinc combo later in the daw with 400mg magnesium and 15mg zinc. I drink alot of orange juice and V8 splash, so I get plenty of vitamin A and C. I also take 3 tsp of flaxseed oil and 2 scoops of whey protein every day. To tell you the truth I have never noticed any difference at all when taking vitamins, as opposed to none at all. That goes for the flaxseed oil and whey protein as well. The best gains I made were before I started taking vitamins and lived off of a diet of mainly chicken, rice, and wheat bread, but that was pretty early on in my 2 years of lifting weights, so that was probably the real reason.
the GNC Ultra Mega Gold is the kind i use
I take the Centrum Rugrats Chewable with extra Vitamin C. My gains havent been hampered and they taste damn good. I also take ZMA.
In addition to what I get in Grow, I use Member’s Mark supplements (from Sam’s Club). I use a multivitamin, Vitamins C & E and Fish oils. They have some of the highest quality stuff, and it’s inexpensive.
2 ultra mega gold without iron
I take two of the gnc mega mens in the morning w/ breakfast. i also consume 6 scoops of grow a day. this is probably way too much though. i guess vitamins really aren’t that important if you are eating a healthy diet to start with. believe it or not, dave tate actually takes flintstones vitamins. he mentioned this in his seminar i attended last week.
Bill- Get your hands on a 1000 year old soil sample and then compare its mineral content profile to a current soil sample. It’s called mineral depletion- the soil which we currently use to grow food and feed cattle is virtually dead. Cromag-man didn’t have to worry about supplementation; T-man sure as hell better- even if there isn’t a direct correlation between muscle gain and vitamin/mineral supplementation.
I take 2 centrums in the morning every day. I notice that if I forget to take them I feel very lethargic all day long.
A Centrum Performance in the morning after I’ve taken my flax and olive oils (because the Fat Roundtable pointed out that vitamin absorption shoots through the roof when taken with a little fat). At night I take a cheap, crappy, off-brand multi just to add some extra during sleep. I also take 1200 IU of Vitamin E in the day (divided into three 400’s)and 500mg of C in the morning.
To clarify: My vitamin intake is spread through 3 doses per day. The 1500mg Vit C is taken as 3 500mg doses. The multi is specifically geared for taking as 2 daily doses. If our protein intake is to be spread throughout the day, why would our vitamin intake be any different?
FYI, Ian pushes a brand of multis from Usana. There’s an essentials pack with very nice antioxidant formula and a mineral formula. He swears by the stuff and puts all his athletes on it. They’ve got a pretty good line of other products too including a fish oil product and a glucosamine formula. I haven’t tried em so don’t ask, but there it is. Go to his website and I’m sure you’ll find a link somewhere.
I take GNC’s Mega-Men (1 after breakfast and 1 after lunch), 1000 mg of time-released vitamin C with my MRP after I work out, and I take ZMA at night.
The best vitamin, by far, is Flistone Chewables.