What Supplements Should I Take?

It’s only right that I start this article by saying that you don’t need to take supplements to make progress or be healthy.

And what supplements you should take will be different for each person, depending on your goals and lifestyle.

For the first 8 years I was in the fitness industry I took a protein powder and a multivitamin. Now I take protein powder and creatine.

My goals and lifestyle have changed which made me adjust the supplements that I take.

In this article, I will break down the pros and cons of some of the most popular supplements so you can determine which ones are right for you, if any.

Remember, the supplement industry is a business. While some companies may have your best interest in mind, the goal is to sell you products, whether you need them or not.

My suggestion is to only use a supplement if you can’t get enough of it through diet or nutrition.

Let’s dive in!

Protein Powder

Protein is an essential nutrient which means you have to get it from your diet because your body does not produce enough of it to survive.

There are plenty of ways to get protein from food, for example, lean meats, seafood, greek yogurt, eggs, cottage cheese, and more.

While there are plenty of healthy options for getting protein in through whole foods, it can sometimes be challenging. Especially for people who strength train or are going through a fat-loss phase and need to eat a high-protein diet.

Protein powder is a safe and effective way to increase your protein intake.

In all honesty, I think protein powder is one of the only supplements that you should take.

A quality protein powder can increase your daily intake by 20-25 grams with just one scoop. It’s convenient and can even add flavor to things like water, milk, and oatmeal.

Most people don’t eat enough protein so I am a huge advocate for protein powder supplements. Here’s how you know if protein powder is right for you.

If you are on a fat loss journey take your goal body weight and multiply it by .9. If you are not on a fat loss journey and you just want to build strength and muscle then take your current body weight and multiply it by .9.

Goal body weight (130) X .9 = 117 grams of protein per day.

Now, you are going to track your protein intake for three days. If you are under the number that you ended up with from the equation above then you are going to need to increase your protein intake.

A simple way to increase your protein intake is to take a protein powder.

One scoop of protein powder per day should do the trick but if you need to, you can take two scoops. I don’t recommend taking more than two scoops per day because you want to make sure that you are getting protein from multiple sources so you can check all of the boxes regarding amino acid profiles.

Find a quality brand that you trust and enjoy, here are my suggestions.

Legion Athletics and Optimum Nutrition both have quality products that you can trust. I am affiliated with Legion but that’s not why I recommend them. They are high quality and have a lot of flavors that I enjoy. However, they are a little more pricey than some of the other brands out there. If you want to try them you can use my discount code SyracuseFit at checkout to save 20% on your first order, and earn double rewards points on every order after that.

Optimum Nutrition has some good flavors and they are less expensive than Legion Athletics. You can get them at Target, Costco, and Amazon.

The choice is yours.

Creatine

Creatine is necessary for the production of creatine phosphate, the high-energy phosphate compound stored in the muscles and responsible for the rapid resynthesis of ATP(adenosine triphosphate).

In other words, it increases the body’s ability to create energy faster.

It’s a compound made up of three amino acids, L arginine, glycine, and methionine.

Creatine is naturally produced in the body by your liver, pancreas, and kidneys.

They can produce about 1 gram of creatine per day. You can also absorb and store creatine found in food, it’s found in mostly red meat, eggs, and fish. Your body stores creatine as phosphocreatine primarily in your muscles, where it's used for energy.

Small amounts of creatine are also stored in the brain which explains why new research is showing that creatine supplementation can boost cognition, particularly in people 40 years and older. On the other hand, not getting enough creatine can impair cognition.

Creatine is natural and it’s safe. You will gain muscle faster and strength faster than if you were training without taking creatine.

It will boost strength gains, reduce soreness from exercise, help preserve lean muscle mass, and can play a role in normal brain function.

It’s extremely difficult to get enough creatine from foods in your diet which makes creatine supplementation important if you want to get the benefits of it.

Creatine is one of the most studied supplements on the market and those studies utilize 5 grams per day to maintain skeletal muscle creatine and creatine phosphate levels.

The best form of creatine is Creatine Monohydrate Micronized. This is the purest form of creatine as it has been processed to make the molecules very small which makes it better for digestion.

Plenty of companies sell micronized creatine monohydrate and it’s super affordable. Again, I prefer Optimum Nutrition brand or Legion Athletics.

I like Optimum Nutrition because it’s cheap and it’s available on Amazon with quick delivery. It’s unflavored and can easily be added to a protein shake or a smoothie.

My favorite brand of creatine is made by Legion Athletics. I prefer this because it’s flavored and adds great taste to my smoothies after a workout. Their product is called Recharge, it’s their post-workout recovery supplement with 5 grams of creatine. I am obsessed with the blue raspberry flavor. My discount code can be used to receive 20% off your first order and double reward points on every order after that. Use SyracuseFit at checkout if you want to try it.

The way I suggest creatine to my online strength clients is by making sure that they have their protein in check for at least six months and that they consistently hit their workouts.

There’s no point in taking creatine if your protein isn’t in check and there’s no point in taking a supplement to help increase strength if you aren’t making the most out of strength workouts.

Make sure you are getting the most out of your workouts before you look for an extra boost from a supplement.

Multi-Vitamin

Multi-vitamins might be one of the most popular supplements on the market.

The point of a good multivitamin is to fill in any nutritional gaps that may be missing from a person’s diet.

While you can have your nutritional needs met through food alone, the standard American diet does leave quite a few gaps.

The amounts of the various nutrients in a multivitamin that someone should have depends on the individual’s needs and their intake of nutrients from other sources.

The safe levels of most nutrients in multivitamins should be around 100% of the Daily Value. However, there are some notable exceptions to the rule.

Vitamin A, if present in a supplement only as retinol, rather than carotene, should be less than 100% of the daily value. Retinol is usually indicated as retinyl palmitate or vitamin A palmitate.

A high intake of retinol, but not B-carotene, is associated with increased incidence of hip fracture in older women. Also, excess intake of retinol at conception and during early pregnancy increases the risk of birth defects.

Calcium should be at low levels or absent in a multivitamin because taking 100% of the recommended daily allowance would make the pill too big to swallow with ease. For best absorption, it’s preferable to consume calcium with meals spaced throughout the day, rather than to ingest 100% of the daily needs at one time. Also, excess calcium consumed with other minerals at the same time can decrease the absorption of some important trace minerals.

Deficiencies in vitamins and minerals can impair the ability and desire to perform physical activity. Some nutrient deficiencies can also cause mental and emotional problems.

Iron deficiencies have been shown to affect both physical and mental function.

A deficiency of some B vitamins can affect mental functions and emotional state.

With all of that said, it’s a good idea to consult with your physician regarding your need for a multivitamin as well as which one would be best for you.

I do not take a multivitamin. I eat 4 to 6 servings of a variety of fruits and vegetables every day. I feel like that’s plenty to get me the vitamins and nutrients that I need and removes the needs for me to spend money on an expensive supplement.

Fish Oil

Fish oil is exactly what it sounds like, an oil obtained from fish. But it’s also much more than that.

Fish Oil provides your body with two key nutrients that are hard for you to get through diet alone:

• Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)

• Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)

The combination of EPA and DHA is known as omega-3 fatty acids.

Omega-3 fatty acids are also known as essential fatty acids.

Your body needs omega-3 fatty acids for many functions, from muscle activity to cell growth.

Fish oil is known for its role in reducing inflammation and more recent studies are showing muscle and cognitive benefits as well.

Omega-3 fatty acids can influence skeletal muscle metabolism. Your skeletal muscle is a tissue that adapts to physical activity and diet.

Nutrition can influence the muscle to have an impact on physical function and whole-body metabolism.

Omega-3 fatty acids of marine origin have the potential to alter the trajectory of many human diseases including the physical decline associated with aging.

Everyone experiences muscle loss when they get older but that doesn’t mean we just start to deteriorate when we hit a certain age. You can still have muscle as you get older, and you should.

A randomized controlled study of elderly women concluded that strength training and supplementing with fish oil provided greater improvements in muscle strength and functional capacity than strength training alone.

The study took 45 women and randomly assigned them to 3 groups. One group performed strength training only for 90 days. The other groups did the same strength training program but also took a fish oil supplement. One group took 2 grams per day for 90 days and the other group took 3 grams per day for 150 days.

All of the groups showed increases in strength in knee flexion and extension as well as ankle dorsiflexion and plantarflexion. But the biggest increases came from the groups that were taking fish oil. They also measured performance in chair-raising exercises and those results were also greater in the group that was taking fish oil.

Another randomized controlled study took 16 healthy older adults through an 8-week trial to evaluate the effect of omega-3 fatty acid supplements on the rate of muscle protein synthesis. The conclusion was that omega-3 fatty acids do indeed stimulate muscle protein synthesis in older adults. They also said that omega 3’s may be helpful for preventing and treating sarcopenia, an age-related, involuntary loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength.

Fish oil has been shown to enhance muscle protein synthesis which is going to benefit you when it comes to strength and muscle building. This is true in both younger and older adults.

Studies show that fish oil supplements can help reduce joint pain, improve morning stiffness, and relieve joint tenderness in people with rheumatoid arthritis.

Fish oil can be considered an effective joint supplement considering its anti-inflammatory benefits.

Supplements to Avoid

I consider any supplement that hasn’t been mentioned up to this point as completely unnecessary.

These are marketing gimmicks that are either unnecessary or don’t do what they claim to do.

• Fat burners

• Green powders

• Detox pills and drinks

• BCAA’s

• EAA’s

  Wrapping Up

The question of what supplements should I take is going to be up to you, and possibly your doctor. But the supplements detailed above are worth considering.

Just don’t get caught in the trap of thinking that you need supplements to get in shape or to be healthy. The right supplements can help but the wrong ones could be a waste of money or worse, do more harm than good.

The supplement industry is unregulated which means anyone can start a supplement business.

A good way to see if a supplement is trustworthy is to find out if they are lab tested by a third party and if so, look up their products to see if they are what they say they are.

Avoid any product that says proprietary blend because that’s a red flag that the company may be using filler ingredients. This allows them to fill their product with cheap ingredients but sell it at a markup claiming that they have more of the main ingredients than they do.

The more transparent a company is with their products and ingredients the more trustworthy they are. The reason that I like Legion Athletics so much is because they use quality products, they are open and honest about what goes in them, and they have a 100% money-back guarantee. If you don’t like their product for any reason they will refund you your money, no questions asked.

If you have any questions you can email me directly at patrick@mimathletics.com.

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Thank you for reading!

-Patrick