Supplements - a necessity or overrated?
The supplement industry is a multi billion dollar industry, with little to none scientific evidence showing that these supplement products have the desired effect that they claim to.
The fitness supplement industry ranges from products such as:
Protein powder
Pre workout
BCAA’s
Pump products
Creatine
Collagen
Fat burners
Greens
& many more
These products are not cheap and the supplement industry is estimated to be over a $100 billion industry. People love quick fixes, and the supplement industry targets straight to that.
But are these products necessary for gains?
NO - the answer comes from the name itself. Supplements are there to supplement what you are already doing. If you are eating primarily junk food, working out sporadically, a fat burner will not help you lose the weight you want. Especially no where near the amount that cleaning up your diet and increasing your physical activity could.
Below is a pyramid to illustrate the importance of nutrition components for fitness.
As illustrated, supplements are the very tiny top, meaning they have the least significance. Investing into buying whole, natural foods to fuel your body with will make your money go much farther in helping you see the results you want.
Does this mean that all supplements are bad?
Of course not! Yes, obviously there are some brands or types of supplements that are worse than others. But supplements can play a role in helping you see progress or helping you reach your goals. For example, if a 150lb female is looking to build muscle she needs to be eating roughly 0.85g/lb of weight to properly fuel her body and allow muscle synthesis to occur. For many, reaching this protein target can be hard to do, and many use protein powder as a supplement to help reach their protein goal to aid in muscle growth.
Supplements are a great tool to use and some taste great. But before investing into all these different types of supplements, make sure your foundation blocks of nutrition and exercise are in order. Because supplements won’t work off a bad diet. And don’t be afraid to do your research, look into what has actually shown to be effective, and what ingredients are actually in these supplements, as the supplement industry is not FDA regulated.
Just because your favourite fitspo hypes up a supplement, doesn’t mean it will help you look like them. Do your research, have a good foundation, and make your money worth its while.
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