A Beginner's Guide to Supplements and Fat Loss
by Brandon LaRueYOU MUST HAVE THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE OF SUPPLEMENTS AND NOT VIEW THEM AS THE “SECRET SAUCE.”
When it comes to fat loss, it all hinges upon calories in, calories out, macronutrient distribution, training stimulus, and the last ingredient is a slight edge is intelligent supplementation. If you do all the other thing wrong and do the “intelligent supplementation” part right, you’re not doing much intelligently at all. This is the curse of “diet culture” and “miracle pills” in marketing and misinformation on the interwebs. People really believe they can take something without doing all the hard work and get the results they desire. You already know this, but THIS NEVER HAPPENS. You must be willing to do the hard work and then the intelligent supplementation thing really begins to pay off.
Like many things since the world wide web became a thing, there’s an ocean of information out there on the topic of supplementation, which is really just a branch of nutrition. I’ve written about this many times before, but quality supplementation and quality nutrition are one in the same; supplements are just able to provide some key nutrients that are oftentimes not found in our daily food supply or not in adequate amounts anyway. The supplements we are going to talk about today are very basic, and you’ve likely heard of them before. For most people, this is where they should stay with supplements, basic.
1. PROTEIN
“Really, protein is number one!?” You might be saying to yourself. “Yeah, really” is my response. We can dive deep into research study after research study about the effects of different diets on the fat loss and compositional structure in a body, but let’s just keep it at the surface level, because quite honestly, that’s really all most people need to know.
High(er) protein diets, so long as one is still in a caloric deficit, retain more lean muscle (leaving a higher basal metabolic rate), have a higher thermic effect of food (burning more calories through digestion of protein), and have a higher satiety (less hungry) effect. Those are some major advantages to making sure one not only has adequate protein intake, but intakes that are 1 gram per pound of bodyweight or higher. This amount alone presents a challenge for most people to get through food alone, and when we talk about more than this even, it becomes almost impossible for the average person to get enough protein through food alone. Keep in mind that the average person isn’t going to massive amounts of food prep daily to make this happen. Additionally, people who want to lose fat also have to be mindful of the amount of calories coming in, and a quality protein shake like Well Built Supplement’s LEAN Whey Protein is only 120 calories per serving.
Higher protein intake plays even more important of a role when people are involved with a strength training program as part of their healthy lifestyle, as protein serves a rebuilder of broken down muscle tissue. If you’ve read any of my writing, you know that strength training isn’t an option, its a requirement for the optimal results you seek.
2. OMEGA 3’S (FISH OIL)
Another nutrient that you’re just probably not going to get enough of through food alone are Omega 3 fatty acids, in particular, EPA and DHA. These fatty acids have been shown to enhance to cardiovascular health, brain health, joint health, and metabolic health. Those are some major systems in the body that can benefit from getting more of these nutrients through diet and supplementation.
The reality is most people are not going to eat fresh cold water salmon, sardines, herring, or other small cold water marine animals that would get you a beneficial amount of EPA and DHA daily. So, what’s the next best bet? Find a quality fish oil supplement that is sourced well and 3rd party tested like WBS’s Omega 3’s.
3. GUT HEALTH SUPPLEMENTS
They say the gut is the 2nd brain and the source of our immunity. If you have poor gut health, it is likely that your brain isn’t hitting on all cylinders and your immune system sputters, leaving you susceptible to getting sick more often. One of those situations is bad enough, but experiencing both of those side effects of poor gut health isn’t exactly leading to a quality life. If this is you, you’re likely shaking your head with me in agreement. Good gut health stems from putting the right things into on a daily basis as well as reducing the amount of stress in our lives. High stress can lead to poor gut health also. So you can see why enhancing our gut health through good food and supplements is even more important to counteract the stress in our lives.
We’ve all heard we need to eat more fruits and vegetables of different varieties daily; in fact, many health experts recommend 10 servings daily from a combined effort of fruits and veggies or 5 from each category. That’s a lot of fruit and veggies. If you’re anything like me, the 5 servings of fruits is much more realistic to me than the 5 servings of vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are oftentimes the most nutrient dense foods we can consume. They are loaded with micronutrients in the form of vitamins and minerals, and they are also many times loaded with fiber, another area that most Americans are deficient in. The issue arises when expecting the average person to get these 10 servings daily and from a variety of sources daily. This just doesn’t happen, even for someone like me, who really pays attention to my nutrition. For this reason, gut health supplements like super greens, super reds, and probiotics build a great bridge for people to get them close to the ideal scenario above. It could also be argued that taking a product like WBS’s DAILY Greens/Probiotics is necessary even for the 1 percenters who do get their 10 servings of fruits and veggies in daily, because there’s so many ingredients in the DAILY Greens/probiotics that you’ll just never find at your grocery store that are highly beneficial to the human body.
4. CREATINE MONOHYDRATE
If you still think Creatine is unsafe, chances are you haven’t read much of anything health and nutrition related since the early 1990’s when there was some misinformation going around about Creatine causing injuries and such. Creatine monohydrate is probably the most researched supplement on planet Earth, and it’s safety and efficacy is hard to match in the realm of supplementation. I always tell people that I’d recommend my 85 year old Grandmother to take it if she’d actually listen to me.
From increasing lean mass, strength, power, and recovery, creatine is incredibly beneficial. There’s even been emerging research that is pointing to creatine monohydrate enhancing cognition as well as being an anti-carcinogenic (cancer) ingredient. Long gone are the days where creatine was deemed unsafe, and anyone who is looking to retain or gain lean mass, which should be nearly every human being, especially while losing fat, using creatine can be very beneficial, because you will be strength training on your journey anyways right!?
There’s a million names in the supplement industry for creatine, but the truth is, the most researched and most beneficial form of creatine is the original pure creatine monohydrate. It is a very economical product and the WBS’s Creatine lasts you 100 servings for 5g/day, which is the amount most experts recommend as a daily dose.
5. MULTI-NUTRIENT ENERGY
Ahhh…….caffeine, my precious. This beloved ingredient alone is highly favored and one of the first places people look for a supplement. While someone may need all the top 4 supplements for fat loss listed above, they will likely purchase this one first. Why? Because they lack energy and want energy NOW! This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just shouldn’t be the priority, but it can certainly accompany the priorities. Caffeine, for many, can increase mental alertness, improve cognition, enhance performance in the gym and in competition, and may even elevate the metabolism. Consuming too much caffeine can have some detriments though if people become too dependent on it. I’ve found that most people do pretty well with 300 milligrams or less of caffeine per day. Some can do just fine with more, while others have to do much less as they are easily stimulated by caffeine. Some people have to avoid it altogether because it makes them anxious and wigged out; however, for the majority of people that handle caffeine well, it can really provide a slight edge in powering through those early morning training sessions and mid-afternoon lulls at work.
The cool thing about our PERFORM Energy is that it is much more than just a supplement that delivers energy. First of all, it’s very mild in caffeine per serving (87.5mg) so people of all kinds can enjoy the boost, and for those who want some more kick, they can do two scoops. Secondly, innovating ingredients like Infinergy, AstraGin, and S7 that aid in prolonging the energy effects of caffeine without any crash, enhance gut health and absorption, and improve blood flow naturally through whole food extracts.