Does taking supplements work?
And is it good for you?
My opinion is: sometimes.
I assume a bunch of gym ogres will now burst through my window and yell that supplements are awesome.
Yeah.. So I’m here to give you a few reasons why you shouldn’t take supplements, this includes: multivitamins, pills, diet pills, anabolic steroids or anything that promises you “quick muscle gain”.
Supplements such as multivitamins, they must be helpful right?
You’ve just bought a multivitamin and you can’t wait to see the massive effects it’ll have on you, you’re so excited. Read on to figure out why you’re wrong.
1] Supplements, or more specifically, multivitamins, great for people who lack a certain vitamin and at best, will give you the vitamins they say they provide, that’s great, but some of these vitamins don’t really get ‘soaked’ inside the body, as they are not from a natural source, the body may see them as hostile and he may not accept them.
2] These types of supplements are also dangerous, most people get enough vitamins and are pretty balanced, but getting in more vitamins without a doctor’s approval, is pretty dangerous. For example, you take vitamin A pills, but you’ve got a healthy level of vitamin A, you know what will happen to you?
“Hypervitaminosis A” will happen to you, a horrible disease that involves too many vitamins in your body and a lot of complications.
3] But what if the supplements you’re taking aren’t filled with what the company claims they’re filled with? Basically, you should know that the supplements market isn’t supervised by the government, meaning, anybody can go there, stuff a pill with poop and sell it. So you just might be receiving a placebo effect, or at worst, steroids.
4] A lot of people take supplements such as multivitamins, but as a normal person, you shouldn’t have any vitamin imbalance, meaning, most people don’t need supplements at all, it’s just the ads that promise “quick muscle gain” that get to you.
Supplements like protein powders: works, but not needed.
“Oh boy! I just love supplements so much, I bought myself 300 kilograms of “super-duper-muscle-gain-powder-especially-for-people-who-can’t-gain-muscles-easily”, I don’t need to do anything now, I’ll gain muscles naturally!” That’s as stupid as it can get, you must feel the pain to get the gain, no powder adds muscle mass naturally.
5] Supplements that involve protein powders usually work if they’re from a good brand, (if not you might start getting sick a lot, and don’t be surprised if you grow an extra leg and maybe even a tail) but they cause severe kidney issues, kidney stones at best. What the supplements do is, they bring your body a lot of protein, that’s great, but the body has to break down the protein in the supplements and build its own protein [because every protein is different for every human], this breaking down process is what makes your urine yellow, there are side effects that need to be dumped, so who cleans those side effects? You guessed, your kidneys work extra hard to make up for all of those supplements you took in.
6] “But protein powders and other supplements are used by all of the guys at the gym!”
Peer pressure is NOT a reason to take those supplements.
Supplements may help very advanced bodybuilders who need a huge amount of protein after a workout, but as for the average trainee, why would he need so much protein? Excess protein is either dumped or turned to fat or energy.
7] Supplements that are protein powders simply provide protein, protein isn’t the world’s rarest thing, you can get it simply by eating a goddamn chicken breast or a low fat yogurt, while you retain the protein benefits, you also gain valuable vitamins and minerals.
8] Your body can’t break down more than 20~35 grams of protein at a time, so if you’ll take supplements that contain around 30 grams of protein, and after that you’ll eat a meal worth of 20 grams, you’ve just wasted a fair amount of protein because the body really doesn’t know how to store protein.
9] Some of the protein in supplements might not react well with your body, depending if it’s quality protein or not, it might just get wasted.
10] There are even supplements that claim they can build muscle for you or make you lose weight without you moving a finger. This is utter BS, weight loss and muscle gains are very hard to get (especially the latter).
10] Overall, supplements that contain protein, are useful for:
*Huge bodybuilders.
*As a snack if you can’t get a protein rich meal at a single time of the day, up to 4 times every week, (in my opinion) won’t damage your kidneys.
*Small amounts in a meal you feel lacks the needed protein.
*Right after a workout if you can’t simply make a post workout meal that will earn better results. (e.g, low fat yogurt, some milk, a bit of ice cream for flavor and a wholewheat bread on the side will get you around 18 grams of protein, and vitamins and other useful stuff supplements don’t have)