The Best Supplements To Build Muscle and Lose Weight

Are you caught up in this supplement hype taking as many supplements as you can in hope that they will be the fast track to your goal?

Are you avoiding taking any supplements because you think they are bad for your health and might make you add too much muscle or put on weight?

Well let me start by saying that taking most supplements are NOT needed and you are getting suckered into believing they will make a different when they Won’t…

Also you are 100% WRONG to think that taking supplements will make you put on weight or make you ‘too muscly’’.

So with this in mind, do you want to know 3 supplements that you should be taking and why?

Would you like to know how to make your exercise more worthwhile and get better results inside and outside of the gym?

I am presuming the answer is yes so read on and discover why you should be taking supplements to build the body you want.

First of all what are supplements and why do we need to take them?

Nutrition supplements are fast becoming a staple in every household and if you are someone that likes to exercise then they are certainly going to be very important and should not be overlooked and here’s why;-

Taking nutrition supplements or not could be the difference between success and failure.

A good workout can become a great one if you use the correct supplements alongside it. Before, during and after we exercise we need to ensure that our body is in an optimal state to help us build, repair and maintain muscle mass.

You may know that from time if we don’t supply our body with the correct nutrition our body goes into what we call a ‘catabolic’ state where we start to break muscle down, which is the last thing we want. So keeping our body in an anabolic state where we can build muscle is critical.

If we were to rely on just food alone it would nearly be impossible to provide our body with the right nutrients at the right times to stay anabolic and build muscle.

So…. Enter Mr Supplement.

When building muscle and muscle recovery is concerned nutrition timing is everything. Since our bodies take a lot longer to digest and process food as opposed to specific supplements it makes sense for food to take a back seat.

After a hard training session in order to maximize the potential muscle growth and repair and keep our body anabolic, research shows that a post workout supplement should be taken immediately for best results.

Do you want to know exactly what take post workout for best results? Find out by reading this here.

So now we know the importance of supplements is two-fold:

1.     To help provide our body with the correct nutritional intake that we don’t manage to get from food sources.

2.     To ensure we can deliver the required nutrients to the muscles in as little time as possible.

With this in mind, which 3 supplements are most beneficial for you to get lean build muscle faster than ever?

1. Whey Protein

Do you want to lose fat or gain muscle?

Then a whey protein supplement is going to be one supplement that you will need to use. But why?

As mentioned above after we workout we need to get a rapid supply of protein to the working muscles in order to kick-start immediate muscle recovery.

Why is whey protein considered the best choice?

Whey protein is easily digested by the body meaning the nutrients are quickly absorbed by the muscles. This makes whey the go to choice after a workout so that the recovery process can start immediately.

Whey protein supplements also give you a metabolism boost.

Consuming large amounts of protein throughout the day helps to give us an energy boost by raising metabolism. This is turn has a positive effect on calorie expenditure to support weight loss and lower body fat percentage.

This is down to the effect that protein has on our appetite.

Do you want to stop snacking?

Then Whey protein is shown to stop snacking by up to 60% and when combined with weight training replacing calories from other sources with a high quality whey protein supplement is likely to help you reduce body fat at a greater rate.

Packed Full of Essential Amino Acids

The make up of protein is of smaller molecules named amino acids, which are the building blocks for everything essential in the human body. Including muscle growth!

Some of these amino acids are known as ‘essential amino acids’ that we can only get from foods and guess what Whey Protein is packed full of them!

Particularly Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAA’s) providing the biggest support to muscle growth than any other amino acids.

How much protein do you really need though? Research shows that aiming somewhere between 30-50g post workout will get you best results. To learn exactly how much protein you need read my blog on the perfect pre and post workout nutrition by clicking here.

Did you know that if you aren’t taking a BCAA supplement you could be breaking down muscle tissue throughout the day? Read further to see the importance of BCCA’s as a stand alone supplement.

2. Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAA’s)

Did you know that evidence shows having a high BCAA intake will help produce greater muscle gains?

But do you know what BCAA’s are and when you should take them as a supplement? No…. Your about to find out!

So as we now know from above BCAA’s are a branch of essential amino acids that can’t be developed by the human body so we must get these from food and supplements.

The 3 essential amino acids that make up BCAA’s are Valine, Leucine and isoleucine. Out of these 3 essential amino acids research has shown that Leucine is more effective that any other amino acid in promoting protein synthesis and stimulating muscle growth.

Just to clarify protein synthesis is the process in the body where we build new proteins to replace existing ones making sure there is a constant supply of amino acids so that muscle tissue can be repaired helping to reduce muscle breakdown and soreness but most importantly…. Muscle growth!

This process stars even before we begin exercising so if you aren’t giving yourself an adequate supply of proteins and amino acids before during and after your training then you could be putting in all that hard work only to miss out on the results you are searching for.

Yes that’s right consuming BCAA’s before during and after a workout will help stimulate more muscle growth.

However is using a BCAA supplement focused solely around stimulating protein synthesis and muscle growth?

Studies have shown that people that consume a higher concentration of BCAA’s are likely to have less body fat. This is partly down to that magic like Leucine, which increases energy expenditure and fat oxidation.

So if you want to build more muscle and burn more fat then a BCAA supplement needs to be added to your routine.

Another question you might want answering though… Why can’t you rely on the amino acids present in other proteins such as food sources and whey protein?

When taken as a stand alone supplement BCAA’s are require no digestion and are absorbed straight into the blood stream.

On to the next…

3. Creatine

Do you want to increase your workout intensity? Who doesn’t….

Creatine can help you do just that. So there’s no wonder it’s found its way into my top 3 supplements because increased workout intensity means better results right!

Let me explain why you should consider adding creatine to your supplement list.

What is it?

Creatine is also made up of amino acids (We all know what amino acids are by now). Its main purpose is to help us restore Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) levels in the muscle. ATP is the body’s main energy source so if this energy isn’t readily available then there will be a negative impact on workout intensity and performance.

So supplementing creatine helps to restore ATP levels meaning we can train harder for longer! Perfect!!

Think of it like this… Towards the end of a workout you will be experiencing muscle fatigue and more likely to fail on reaching the required repetitions in each set. Creatine goes a long way in helping you to push out those final repetitions.

What is the result of taking creatine for this benefit? Quite simple really it’s More Muscle Mass!

So here is an important question… Who should take creatine?

Is creatine only effective for building muscle and size or can you use it to aid weight loss too?

Well another huge benefit from supplementing creatine is that it helps to gives you a metabolic boost. One of the most effective ways to burn body fat when we want to lose weight is sprints.

Purely down to the huge metabolism boost sprints give us. When we increase our metabolic rate we are going to burn more energy and since sprints are a very explosive exercise creatine supplementation allows you to recover quicker and work harder throughout each sprint.

That’s not all though..

Even when we are on a weight loss diet we will need to reduce carbohydrates and be in a calorie deficit. This is going to leave us more fatigued so in order to ensure the amount of weight we can lift remains as high as possible creatine supplementation can assist us in achieving that.

Remember Heavy Weight lifting is recommended as the number one way to continue burning calories after you finish exercising.

How is this possible and how many more calories can you burn?

Read my post on the ‘after-burn’ effect and burn more fat than ever. Click here.

One final thing…

Are there any side effects of taking creatine?

When supplementing with creatine it is important to increase water intake, which is a good thing anyway as we could all do with drinking more!

This is because creatine will retain water in the body by storing it in the muscles so dehydration is likely to occur hence the reason for more water consumption to combat this.

Do I still recommend using creatine for weight loss?

Certainly! But only if you can get everything else in your nutrition plan spot on and manage to successfully keep yourself in a calorie deficit.

Want to learn how many calories you need to be in a calorie deficit? Check out my online plans here.

When are you going to take your creatine supplement?

Research shows that taking 5mg either pre or post workout will have the best impact on athletic performance.

To Conclude…

Are these the only 3 supplements that you should be taking? No but these 3 can help you go along way to hitting your fitness goals.

Please also bear in mind that these are my top 3 supplements and there are others than can benefit you.

But hopefully the evidence presented above will can you an insight into what your body really needs to build muscle and burn fat.

Until Next Time

EJP

Reverse Dieting.... How to Reverse Diet Correctly

So this is term that I keep seeing thrown about at the moment by trainers and athletes on social media. It might leave you wondering what actually is reverse dieting or why would you want to do a reverse diet? Let me summarise this for you and hopefully make it sound simple enough for you to give it a go.

The main reason you may of heard the term reverse diet being used quite a bit at the moment is partly to do that a lot of people will have entered the so called bulking season, having finished cutting for various competitions or now that British summer time has officially ended its time to add some muscle mass and weight to replace that chiseled physique in the hope of building a bigger frame for next summer.  Surely you just need to eat more and increase your carbohydrate intake right? Wrong! Reverse dieting is crucial to help you with the transition from your cutting phase into bulking season by changing your diet in a controlled and effective manner to increase calorific intake whilst preventing unwanted weight gain that will be the result if you don’t have a planned and structured reverse dieting system in place.

What tends to be the case during this transition is that people think that now they want to add extra weight in the off season its just the case of increasing your daily calorie intake to match this goal. Once you have worked out that magic number of how many calories you need to grow and to add some serious gains using various macro calculators that can be found online it is then just a case of hitting that number immediately. Wrong Again! Of course for any nutrition plan to be successful you will need to determine you’re your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE, which can be done online. Once you have this figure it gives you have a target of how many calories you can consume from your macros without causing any additional and unwanted fat gain. During this phase you will of course concentrate on increasing your carbohydrate intake to assist with building muscle mass and bulking. It is recommended that sufficient amounts to divide your macros up can be anywhere from 1 – 1.5g of Protein per pound of bodyweight. For fat it is recommended either 0.3 - 0.4g per pound of bodyweight and then whatever remains is made up from Carbs. Although it is not uncommon for people to increase their protein intake beyond these figures.

So lets say for example in my cutting phase I was consuming around 2000 calories per day to keep me in a deficit to lower my body fat percentage. After this phase and during the off season I then work out that I can consume around 2800 calories daily without adding any unwanted fat but still gain some muscle mass. I would set about reaching this target gradually over a period of weeks rather than just ramping up my numbers. I may increase my calories by 100 – 150 each week until I had hit the magic number of 2800. This would ensure I prevented adding excess weight and completely wasted my gains Id made from working seriously hard during a long and tiring cut and restrictive diet. Once you reach your new TDEE you will need to weigh yourself on a regular basis, as your weight increase will determine your calorie intake meaning you may need to do regular adjustments.

So why do so many people get this wrong? To start with when you have been in a calorie deficit for so long on a cut you feel extremely low on energy and the thought that you are now able to eat more food sounds amazing so its common that people get a little bit too carried away and consume far too much. When you are in a calorie deficit your metabolic rate (the speed at which you burn calories) slows right down so naturally you are unable to burn all these extra calories quickly enough and this is what causes fat gain. Once you change your training program to match your bulking goals your metabolic rate will begin to increase due to the fact your are lifting heavier weights increasing muscle mass.  By applying this principle along with slowly increasing your calorie intake to reach your goal you will perform a successful reverse diet and will only thank yourself later. So in hindsight yes a reverse diet is about increasing your calories but in a structured and controlled way that prevents unwanted fat gain. Get this right and your bulking season will become your best yet!

Also don’t forget some important benefits a successful reverse diet will bring : -

1.     More Energy

2.     You Can Eat More

3.     Enjoy Your Workouts Feeling Fuelled to Perform

4.     Forget about that Dieting Mindset

5.     Flexible Dieting (Coming soon in my next blog posts)

Hopefully this helps you to understand the term reverse dieting a little bit more and help you get it right. Any questions or help you need planning your reverse diet or cutting phase drop me a message and I can help you structure your personalized plan.

EJP

Multivitamins & Omega-3 – Two Ignored Supplements?

With all the talk these days being about which protein you are taking or which protein supplement your friends are using. It is common in most nutrition plans I see or talk to people about that the majority of the time people forget the basics and the simple essentials that help our bodies to function optimally alongside an exercise or training program.

I’m talking about Multivitamins and Omega-3 Supplements. Why are these important? Read below to find out.

Lets Start with Multivitamins. When you are exercising or training on a regular basis your body requires a load more vitamins than usual to make sure it can complete all its daily tasks on top of the added demands from living a more active lifestyle as essential minerals are lost and used up by the body in intense workouts. The vital nutrients needed by the body help to improve such basic things like increase energy and metabolic pathway regulation that ensures the metabolic reactions that happen in our body are efficient. This includes how your body utilizes the protein you may take after training.  The last thing you want is to let all your hard work go to waste by ignoring such a simple protocol of taking a Multi-Vitamin.

Don’t be one of those people that think you have planned your diet to perfection so you have nothing to worry about. The mistake here is that you spend all your time concentrating on hitting your macros (Carbs, Fats, Proteins) that you completely overlook the micronutrients that come from other sources. My conclusion on this is that the Multi-Vitamin should be the foundation of your supplement program and without them the other supplements you are taking will not be anywhere near as effective. Hopefully this has convinced you to look into this if you hadn’t already?

Moving on to Omega-3 and why this is another supplement that should be in your stack. First things first Omega-3 is one of the essential fatty acids (EFA’s) that the body is unable to produce itself so needs to outsource it from food and supplementation. Omega-3 and other EFA’s are crucial for repairing cell damage within the body, which is an ongoing process when exercising regularly. One of the main functions of Omega-3 in our diets is to improve joint health. Yep that’s right our joints are constantly under stress when we are exercising at high intensity and the last thing you want is for them to not be up to the task. Studies also show that sufficient amount of omega-3 helps us to increase muscle mass as well as increase fat loss around the abdominal region. Sure you can eat a ton of fish such as salmon but how likely is that going to be on a daily basis. You can save yourself a lot of money too by investing in a high quality Omega-3 supplement. With this in mind, building muscle or losing weight are both one of two goals that most of us will be looking to achieve and Omega-3 supplementation can be your best friend in helping you achieve them.

Hopefully this has got you thinking. It’s time to get these supplements into your diet and nutrition plan. Don’t ignore the science and let your body work at it’s optimal level

If you need some support on which ones are the best to select and where you can get them from then drop me a message or leave a comment below. Personally I use Opti-Men from Optimum Nutrition for my Multi-Vit and Reflex Nutrition for my Omega-3.

EJP