As a personal trainer I am often asked what supplements are effective for losing weight or building muscle? While there are a some supplements that can be effective at helping with these goals, today were going to focus on what to look for when choosing supplements. Choosing supplements can be quite confusing and hopefully this blog will help provide some clarity when choosing supplements.
First it’s very important to know the proper doses of particular ingredients. For example you often will find research to back up the benefits of a particular ingredient (e.g. beta alanine), however companies will put in much less than what the studies have shown to be an effective dose. Companies often do this to save money on production costs.
Similar to the problems associated with not having enough of an active ingredient is proprietary blends. Proprietary blends list multiple ingredients but fail to disclose the exact quantities. Companies would lead you to believe their proprietary blend is a magic formula that allows their product to deliver great results – the truth is proprietary blends allow the company to put in whatever dose they want, often falling well short of the amount needed for maximum benefit.
Proprietary blends are useful when it comes to marketing because a company can say it contains effective ingredients without having to disclose the exact quantity. While certain supplements with proprietary blends might be effective, knowing exactly what is in product takes out the guesswork. I rarely if ever will purchase proprietary blend.
Now that we know the amount of active ingredients is important – how do we find objective research that talks about how much of a particular ingredient we need? Unfortunately many websites that praise certain supplements are also ones that have “click here to buy now” links on their page -how’s that for objective? One website that compiles objective research from an unbiased point of view is Examine.com. While it doesn’t provide all the answers it is a good place to start and can end up saving you a significant amount of time.
Even when you have the objective research finding supplements that contain enough of the right ingredients can be challenging. If your having difficulty finding the right supplements there are websites that offer products containing individual ingredients. Purchasing individual ingredients in bulk can be helpful in getting the right amount.
In addition to individual supplements it is wise to choose supplement companies that use high quality products. Some signs to look for are for companies that produce the supplements themselves and don’t use a third party manufacturer. Other things to look for include companies who produces their products in a G.M.P. (good manufacturing practices) facility certified by the FDA and one that also does in house testing.
In review:
1. Know the quantity of the active ingredients
2. Be leery of proprietary blends
3. Check out what the independent research says
4. Buy individual supplements if having difficulty finding the right amount.
5. Choose high quality supplements
If you have any questions about choosing supplements please e-mail me at glen@freedom4lifefitness.
