Good Source for Info on Supplements?

[westphalia]

I'm in the process of losing weight. I work out aerobically for an hour each morning, first thing, then do resistance training for one hour, three times a week. I've cleaned up my diet, and am taking in around 1700 calories. It sucks, but I'm paying the price for years of Mickey D's and Wendy's once a day. I'll get there, though.

Anyway, some friends of mine are also losing weight, or bodybuilding, or training for various and sundry sports, etc., and they all seem to be taking a multitude of supplements that claim to enhance fat-burning, stimulate muscle growth, etc.

Having already taken the steps to lose weight the right way, can anyone point me to a good source that might contain information on whether any of these supplements actually work, and whether they are beneficial to someone in my position?

Thanks for any help rendered.

(By the way, I'm not talking about steroids here. Some of the supplements I've heard of, and been able to find reliable information about [chromium picolinate, for example]. I know a lot of that stuff doesn't work, but there are so many new supplements that have made their way onto the market since I was exercising regularly years ago. It's hard to keep up with the latest.)

 

[Blue Wode]

Can’t help with any information as to whether particular supplements work, but this source might be of interest to you:

Side Effects, Interactions and Warnings About Vitamins and Supplements
http://www.personalhealthzone.com/vitamins_supplements/side_effects_interactions.html

If you do decide to go the supplement route it would be best to see your doctor about it first.

I might also add that if you’re already losing weight “the right way” that in itself should be enough for you to reach your goal in the long run – healthily and safely.

 

[westphalia]

I might also add that if you’re already losing weight “the right way” that in itself should be enough for you to reach your goal in the long run – healthily and safely.

I totally agree. I just need an educated answer when folks ask me why I don't take anything. Results don't seem to be enough.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Nutrionists can not agree on what is and is not helpful in doseages and the like. Then there are also no standards that the listed doses have any relationship to what is in a suplement, and there is also no official testing for contamination.

Consumer Labs does test them, to see if they for example have excessive lead in them and have the ammount of the ingreadients that they claim. They do not make any claims about what effect the product has just if it has what is says it has in it.

 

[rjh01]

My attitude towards supplements is that there are heaps of vitamins, minerals and other stuff, some of which we may not even know about, we need. Pills only give you a small percentage of these. Sometimes in very large doses.

Results
If your diet is poor then adding pills is unlikely to do much help for you. Take certain pills and they will do damage to you (see the above posts for an expansion of this point).

 

[Gromit]

This is going to be too late for you, but may help others in the future. Then again, the sample size will be too low for it to be scientifically valid, but perhaps stronger than anecdotal evidence:
A friend of mine is a twin. He and his brother are going to spend a few months with exactly the same diet and exactly the same workout routine, and both use a different brand of supplement. They'll be listing all the body fat, colesterol etc etc before and after to see what happens.
It's a pity they aren't triplets, so they can include a control on no supplements at all.
Anyway, they plan to have a web site up with all the details and how it goes, sort of like a blog. I can post the URL as it gets underway, if there'd be any interest.

 

[ponderingturtle]

My attitude towards supplements is that there are heaps of vitamins, minerals and other stuff, some of which we may not even know about, we need. Pills only give you a small percentage of these. Sometimes in very large doses.

Results
If your diet is poor then adding pills is unlikely to do much help for you. Take certain pills and they will do damage to you (see the above posts for an expansion of this point).

Well this is and isn't true. We know what diseases are caused by deficencies very well and how to treat them. It is the difference between not causing deficency based desease and optimal that is the issue.

So saying that we don't know much isn't really true. We know how to prevent all kinds of deseases based on nutritional defencies, it is if there are benifits to ammounts that to not cause problems by either thier excess or their lack that we have little information on.

 

[Beady]

I totally agree. I just need an educated answer when folks ask me why I don't take anything.

How about, "I don't need anything else."

 

[NeilC]

Most of them are pure BS but some of these supplements do work. There is one called Melting Point that people have a lot of success with. Has pretty aweful side effects including cramps sometimes so bad as to make one bedridden. Can't see it's worth that.

Bodybuilders love supplements. They tend to be quite compulsive/obsessive about their body and constantly look for a way of making things happen faster. That makes them an ideal target for dodgy products.

Chromium Pico. does jack ◊◊◊◊ for anyone without a chromium deficiency. It's supposed to help with insulin sensitivity but if it does have any effect, it's so small as to be insignificant.

If you want things that really work then just take the steroids and be done with it. You can buy legal steroids and the post cycle therapy to go with them. They come with a list of side effects including baldness and ball shrinkage but they do actually work - you pay your money and take your choce.

What you are doing will work better than anything and make you healthy too.

A good site is: SupplementWatch