Day 17 - On Supplementation

The efficacy of supplementation when it comes to body composition change (building muscle or burning fat) is challenged and debated from every group in the world. For every supplementary additive, there is a group that believes its the best thing since sliced bread and another that believes it is an absolute waste of money and effort.

Of the very, very few for which there is unanimous agreement that it actually improves body composition, most of those are illegal and have debilitating side effects, but work they do, and they work very well.

For someone using anabolic steroids, or human growth hormone, or a myostatin inhibitor, their muscle growth rate is faster AT REST (ie, not working out at all) than the most extreme athlete performing the most extreme body-ripping exercise.   These supplements come at a cost. Their effectiveness must be balanced by their risk. Anabolic steroids can be dangerously androgenic. This means that the introduced hormonal testosterone will cause the male hormone producing glands (the testes) to atrophy since the body no longer needs to produce its own, leading to, among other things, shrinking testicles, hair loss, mammary development, mood swings, severe acne, etc.

Steroids, along with HGH and MI, can also cause muscle growth to outpace the growth of the connective tissue and bone density, increasing the chances of serious injury or death.

Injecting anything at home comes with a high risk of infection, hemorrhage or internal rot.

MI aren't even finished with human trials, so we have no idea what other horrible side-effects they may have.

There are a few good things that we are mostly positive provide us with beneficial advantages to composition change that don't kill us or cause us to go to jail.

For one, we are relatively certain that eating high quantities of protein lends the building blocks necessary for muscle growth, they also take more effort to digest which burns calories. Even so, there is still a lot of debate about how much protein is necessary if any at all. Some claim that there is no upper limit to what can be processed and lifters should eat hundreds of grams a day. Some claim that the body can only process up to 40g per sitting (a tad more during the anabolic window - the 15-45 minutes following a resistance workout in which nutrition is crucial). And others still, claim that the body only needs 50-100g per day. (I think this group has their heads up their asses.)

The general consensus is that high-quality animal protein (whey, egg, casein) supplemented all day, particularly during the anabolic window, will lead to improved muscle development and fat loss. Studies show less development with rice or soy protein. (Never eat soy anyway, unless you are of east asian descent and have developed an immunity. Seriously, it does all the nasty hormonal things to your body that steroids do, just without any muscle growth or man rage.)

Another, creatine monohydrate, a substance found primarily in beef, is found to speed up the absorption of liquid into the muscles after training, and has been found to provide cumulative benefits. The debate on this substance is if supplementation is required, since it is part of most people's diet anyway. Most serious lifters make a habit of cycling creatine.

A particularly recent addition to this group is fatty acids, particularly omega-3. It's benefits to the endocrine system and hormonal health are said to increase and stabilize muscle production.

One of the newest would be Vitamin D. Conclusions are reserved for further study.

For the next few posts, I will be highlighting other, less widely used/known supplements that I am sampling on the brodyssey. I will share the science behind it, the purported benefit, and my experience so far.