Which Supplements & Why?

Nutrition
1

I am looking to increase my performance and overall health. I understand that supplements (if balanced) can provide me with the necessary weapons to train harder, recover quicker and develop lean muscle mass. My question is whats the right balance for someone who is looking to build lean muscle.

In the past I have played around with a few things but without a lot of knowledge. Ive taken MRPs, creatine, HMB, and some diet pills in the past which worked pretty good for me, but again, I did this through word of mouth… tired of just going through the motions, want a good stack.

I am considering taking:
Labrada MRPs - to help provide my body with necessary nutrients and quality protein.
Betagen or homemade betagen - creatine and HMB
Glutamine -
-no diet pills-
maybe a cheap protein powder

Can someone please help me out or direct me somewhere I can get some answers. Again, Im not overweight… I am an experienced lifter but not super experienced with supplements. Looking to continue to build solid lean muslce without bulking up. Please help.

Thanks in advance!!!

Cheers!

2

Meal replacements are not the way to go in my opinion if you’re interested in increasing your general health.

However if you’re bulking, or just strapped for time, they do have their place.

Personally I’m not convinced how effective glutamine is, I would just stick to protein.

Regarding what you said, I would suggest you get some Surge, ZMA, creatine and fishoils (f. ex. Flameout).

That’s a good solid start, sip the Surge during and with creatine after workout, take your fishoils spread out during the day, and ZMA before bed. I’m sure you’d feel a difference in your strength and your general well being.

3

A good mulivitamin and fish oils for overall health… protein powder for muscle building.

4

[quote]steinnes wrote:
Meal replacements are not the way to go in my opinion if you’re interested in increasing your general health.[/quote]

That’s a crazy statement. I use Metabolic Drive Complete daily and it doesn’t do anything to negatively affect my health.

5

[quote]mcroteau105 wrote:
I am looking to increase my performance and overall health. I understand that supplements (if balanced) can provide me with the necessary weapons to train harder, recover quicker and develop lean muscle mass. My question is whats the right balance for someone who is looking to build lean muscle.

In the past I have played around with a few things but without a lot of knowledge. Ive taken MRPs, creatine, HMB, and some diet pills in the past which worked pretty good for me, but again, I did this through word of mouth… tired of just going through the motions, want a good stack.

I am considering taking:
Labrada MRPs - to help provide my body with necessary nutrients and quality protein.
Betagen or homemade betagen - creatine and HMB
Glutamine -
-no diet pills-
maybe a cheap protein powder

Can someone please help me out or direct me somewhere I can get some answers. Again, Im not overweight… I am an experienced lifter but not super experienced with supplements. Looking to continue to build solid lean muslce without bulking up. Please help.

Thanks in advance!!!

Cheers! [/quote]

If you’re relatively new to supplementation, just start with one or two products and take the time to understand how your body responds to various supplements before adding something new.

If your diet is lacking protein and/or calories, a quality protein powder and/or MRP can be very useful. For the I recommend Grow! Whey or any of the Metabolic Drive products depending on your budget. You usually get what you pay for with protein supplements, so I wouldn’t necessarily choose the cheapest product you can find, unless you want the lowest quality protein available.

The consensus is that HMB doesn’t do much at the recommended dosages. I have known people who have found a benefit at very high dosages, but this isn’t cost effective.

I wouldn’t add glutamine at this point. You’ll get more benefit from supplementing with protein powder to fill the gaps in your diet.

Creatine monohydrate is probably a good choice. Stick with pure Creatine monohydrate like that sold through the T-Nation store.

If you want a good ‘muscle-building stack’, I recommend Alpha Male. It’s actually a combination of several products and is one the most popular supplements sold through T-Nation. You can check it out in the T-Nation store for an thorough review.

6

A good multivitamin, fish oil, whey and glucose (Surge if budget allows).

7

For overall health make sure you’re getting enough fiber and efa’s. So if you’re aren’t I’d add fiber and fish oil.

My healthy performance enhancers for sport are:

Beta Alanine
Power Drive
BCAA’s

8

[quote]Mod Brian wrote:
steinnes wrote:
Meal replacements are not the way to go in my opinion if you’re interested in increasing your general health.

That’s a crazy statement. I use Metabolic Drive Complete daily and it doesn’t do anything to negatively affect my health.[/quote]

Not really. I’m sure he is talking about relying on them, like many people do. Having one or two here and there shouldn’t be much of a problem, since thats what they were meant for. But I wouldn’t rely on them nor would I eat more than two a day since they’re called meal replacement bars- something you use when you cannot cook or eat a meal.

I do believe the Metabolic Drive bars has 0.5g of trans fat per serving? So anyone eating two bars every day, or more, like I’ve seen people on here do, will be getting 1-2 grams of trans fat daily. How is that healthy? I’m not saying that you SHOULDN’T eat them, since a few won’t hurt. But if you’re trying to stay away from hydrogenated oils, eating 2-4 every day won’t help you either.

The Metabolic Drive Powder, however, I believe has none, so it wouldn’t hurt.

9

There are no trans fats in Metabolic Drive products. Please check your facts before making such claims.

Regardless, one to two grams of trans fat per day is fairly insignificant.

10

[quote]Mod Brian wrote:
steinnes wrote:
Meal replacements are not the way to go in my opinion if you’re interested in increasing your general health.

That’s a crazy statement. I use Metabolic Drive Complete daily and it doesn’t do anything to negatively affect my health.[/quote]

Don’t get me wrong, just because I think there are better ways to increase your general health, doesn’t mean I think MRP’s decrease your general health. Not at all.

Thanks Cthulu btw for seeing it my way :wink:

11

B-Complex vitamins. Important for cell metabolism. (alt. choice: multivitamin)

Vitamin C helps with recuperation from training (cell repair). IMO you should get extra C even if you take a multi-vitamin.

By the way, get capsules whenever possible. Tablets can be hard to digest, especially big tablets. Big tablets can pass right through you, only partially digested. Capsules break down in the stomach almost immediately. And always take vitamins with food, to protect your stomach and slow down the passage of the vitamins.

High quality protein powder (I’m not big on meal replacements, ot6her people like them.) You mostly want the extra protein, but not so much lots of extra carbs (which are way too easy to get without needing supplementation).

And IMO protein powder is for what non-lifters would consider ‘between meals’ and especially immediately post-workout. It’s a supplement to your diet, it’s not necessarily replacing any solid foods. If you want extra carbs with your protein powder, add a banana, milk, frozen starwberries, peanut butter, granola, etc. Add food, not a ‘carb supplement’.

Creatine. It works. Take it post workout at a bare minimum. Get plenty of water.

IMO those are the bare minimum supplements.