I become overwhelmed when talking to supplement consultants as they suggest so many things I can’t keep up. I just want to build and maintain muscle and lose fat. Please help.
Building muscle and losing fat does not happen in the supplement aisle of your favourite retailer. It starts in the kitchen, the gym, on your bike or treadmill or out on the road. It continues throughout the day, holding you accountable for all your choices, and ends, almost magically, while you sleep.
Most people don’t want to hear this, especially after walking out with a load of packets and a till slip for more than R2,000 — and that’s cheap. No supplement you buy at a store or online will give you your dream body. Get ready for the gym bro cliché: you have to earn it.
A sports scientist once told me that steroids are banned by sporting associations because they work, notwithstanding the health risks. If the legal supplements on the shelves “worked” the way people want them to “work” they would also be banned. It’s why reputable companies and resellers work so hard to find and remove supplements containing banned substances. Even then, social media is full of steroid users telling people that they didn’t attain their physiques through drugs alone but that they earned them through hard work.
According to the Collins dictionary, “If you supplement something, you add something to it in order to improve it.” As a noun, it means “a pill that you take or a special kind of food you eat in order to improve your health”.
Whether the hundreds of available supplements really do improve your health is still up for debate. They may do nothing. There’s also a possibility that some can be detrimental to your health. However, the point is this: supplements are designed to supplement what you eat. They’re not designed to replace what you eat.
Supplement consultants are just doing their job. Have you ever noticed when you are in a restaurant that the waiter will always suggest extras? When ordering most things online you’ll almost always be prompted to add more items during the final step before checkout. Upselling, cross-selling, bundle-selling, the point is to increase the basket size and the amount of money you spend.
Want to build lean muscle and lose fat? We’d bet you heard something like this: “You need whey protein for the day, cassein protein for the night, creatine, branched-chain amino acids, L-glutamine and these lovely stimulant-free fat burners. If you buy this version you get a free tub of CLAto take before meals. If you want an extra kick, this pre-workout works wonders.” Yet, you could walk out with nothing but a tub of whey protein and be just fine.
The Water Cooler is not against supplements. The annoyance comes from supplements being at the start of the conversation when they should come at the end. Diet is paramount. Non-negotiable. Then comes the training. Is there resistance training? Is the intensity high enough? What cardio do you do and have you included high-intensity interval training? Do you sleep enough and manage stress well? These things are more important than supplements.
When you do some desktop research, it will become clear that the claims made by many supplement companies are contested or they haven’t been backed up by science. That’s not surprising as it takes years, and clearly a lot of money, to conduct trials and produce studies that are peer reviewed.
Some supplements really do work, even in the absence of robust scientific evidence. The internet and gyms are full of anecdotal evidence. There are supplements with credible evidence backing up their claims. Some well-known ones are creatine monohydrate, beta-alanine, whey protein, branched-chain amino acids, L-glutamine and L-citrulline.
Supplement aisles are also full of so-called fat burners, testosterone boosters, appetite suppressants and more. There are rules about what they can and can’t claim, so read the label carefully, do some research and then decide whether to try them.
Start with a dietitian or nutritionist, hire a trainer or design a proper workout regimen, be disciplined with your diet and sleep, and then worry about supplements.
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