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Nutrition spices/supplements/life hacks

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@Harry Westgate When I use it, I do about 3/4 of a teaspoon. I find anything else tends to overpower the taste. I probably use cinnamon less now that I did before, simply because I love my coffee black. I am a little OCD with my coffee in that I go to an amazing local roaster to buy beans, grind/french press it myself every morning, but I love their medium roast specialty almost too much to "sully" it by adding anything in haha.

Not that it's a life hack, but buying your own beans and doing the work yourself is definitely a "wallet hack" for me. 1 lb of beans will last me over a month and a half at one cup a day. At 14 bucks per 1 lb bag it is unbelievably cheap.
 
Has anyone ever tried creatine ?

From what I've read it seems like it could be more effective than a lot of other supplements. It might be OK if you are prepping for a challenge or competition etc.

I don't use anything like that myself, if I did I'd have it the back of my mind that I needed it to perform well and if I had to go without it for some reason I'd be second guessing myself.
 
I use creatine, it is one of the very few proven supplements, and it is cheap. It occurs in meats, especially oily fish, naturally in small amounts, but larger doses have been proven to increase power output. I take 5g pre, and post training.
 
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@Tarzan I used it in my 20s with good results and zero issues. Now in my 30s it gives me cramps like crazy. Can't explain it but it's a no go for me.
 
@Tarzan I use it from time to time (I am at present). Without a shadow of a doubt very effective for muscle and strength gains.

Note: 'very effective for muscle gains' in my book means good for adding a few (<5kg) kilos over a couple months. It seems to kind of nudge the system into carrying more mass.
 
Thanks for that Guys, does the effect kick in after a single dose or is it a cumulative effect ?
 
Lots of good info here, cinnamon huh? I'll have to give that a try. You can get so crazy with this stuff, I like @Steve Freides approach, keep it as simple as you can. Steve likes potassium, I like magnesium. I also like zinc but make sure it's chelated zinc. Fish oil is great but there is so much that isn't any good really. What you want from it is the DHA and most has more EPA than DHA which is normal in all fish oil. It's tough to find a fish oil that has a gram of these in them per serving. Most only have about a quarter of a gram of EPA/DHA per serving and to get a full gram you would be taking enough that you may have a very interesting reaction. : O Then the one I wouldn't give up is D3, 10000 units per day. Read the label, is soy the first ingredient? You don't want that. Creatine is about the only proven supplement they say. I have BB friends who believe in it. But what happens when the get off of it? Think you need more protein? If you're trying to cut carbs I think a protein sup is great after a session, you get what you pay for. BCAA are basically filler in them and some have lots of hidden sugar. But what are the long term effects? And, what happens when you quit taking this stuff? Like some of these so called T-boosters. If it does work, again, what happens when you quit taking it?

There's a blog post I posted under the Master's section written by Dr. Steve Horwitz. It does read like a supplement advertisement, (he's a big boy, he can take that : ) ) but Dr. Steve does believe in this stuff. He put up some impressive numbers at this falls TSC. But the thing that's interesting here is this dude's life story and why he uses these suppz. It really is impressive what he's done when you consider where he came back from.
 
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You have to "load" it for like 2 weeks then take a maintenance dose. Not sure of exact recommendations.
A lot of people experience varying degrees of diarrhea during the loading phase :confused:
It definitely helps to add some weight (in form of water) and give you that 1 or 2 extra reps in a lift (think 12reps instead of 10 in a typical bodybuilder routine, not your 1RM suddenly becomes your 2-3RM).
But for me it's not worth the money or the potential visits to the toilette...
 
You do not have to "load" creatine. Just one teaspoon, 5g, a day is all that is needed for solid results. If you are having cramps you need to take a look at your water intake or check your potassium levels. Cheapest most effective supplement there is.
 
You do not have to "load" creatine. Just one teaspoon, 5g, a day is all that is needed for solid results. If you are having cramps you need to take a look at your water intake or check your potassium levels. Cheapest most effective supplement there is.

I've done all of that. It gives me cramps and that's all there is too it. And the jury is still out on the loading.
 
@banzaiengr: 10.000 Units PER DAY?

I take krilloil (instead of the usual fishoil) at the moment with Astaxantin. Great stuff :)

Yes, 10000 UNITS. I'm not sure what a unit is but it only amounts to 2 small 5000 unit capsules. I've used Krill oil, but I've found the same thing as with fish oil, no where near the 1 gram of DPA and EPA that you want.
 
As far as I know are 5000/daily save. Everything above...no longterm studies?!
Vitamin A,D,E,K can be overdosed and should be treated different from the other vitamns.
But only my two cents.
 
Has anyone ever tried creatine ?

From what I've read it seems like it could be more effective than a lot of other supplements. It might be OK if you are prepping for a challenge or competition etc.

I don't use anything like that myself, if I did I'd have it the back of my mind that I needed it to perform well and if I had to go without it for some reason I'd be second guessing myself.


I have used creatine and still do. I do not use it all the time, but when I'm on a heavier, more intensive phase or cycle.

I have not noticed any negative side-effects. That said, the positive effects have not been anything ground breaking either.

I take 5g a day.

Like said, creatine and whey are about the only consistently scientifically proven supplements.
 
I have used creatine and still do. I do not use it all the time, but when I'm on a heavier, more intensive phase or cycle.

I have not noticed any negative side-effects. That said, the positive effects have not been anything ground breaking either.

I take 5g a day.

Like said, creatine and whey are about the only consistently scientifically proven supplements.

Likewise I use and will continue to do so. I do notice some minor GI impacts the first couple days of a cycle as well as 2-3% increase in weight.

So as far as negative. If you're not loading heavy weights... or even if you are, creatine is contraindicated during a weightloss or cutting phase.
 
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