“What Supplements Should I Buy?”

Ah, the million dollar question. Always the first inquiry from budding gym rat to well-muscled iron veteran. Not “how long have you been training?” Not “how much sleep do you get each night?” Not even “can I please touch your rippling pecs?”

Nope. The first question is almost always “Bro, what supplements do you take?”

The lack of logic in this scenario is painful. It’s like a tee baller running up to Ken Griffey Jr. and asking him what flavor of Big League Chew he likes, because most certainly the Big League Chew was the secret ingredient that helped Griffey hit 600+ career home runs. (Ryan Braun is the guy you really wanna ask about supplements – ZING!)

The point is that supplements are, in fact, supplemental. They are a small, often non-essential component of a multifaceted exercise, nutrition and recovery plan. If your lifestyle doesn’t already revolve around health and well-being, supplements won’t do a damn thing.

That said, supplements can help and take your fitness up a notch if the rest of your game is on point. But how do we know what works and what doesn’t? Open up a fitness magazine or walk into a GNC and you’re bombarded with thousands of flashy ads and lofty claims. It’s more confusing than trying to figure out why this little girl insists that she’d rather be a slow turtle than a fast turtle.

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If you believe the hype, it’s easy to blow hundreds of dollars a month on supplements that promise a lot but deliver next to nothing. Here are a few tips to help you pick the right supplements for your goals:

1. HAVE A GOAL

If a sales rep at Vitamin World tells you that you “need” a product within 30 seconds of meeting you for the first time, kindly and politely tell them they are an idiot and walk out the door. Nobody needs a supplement and recommending supplements to someone without first knowing their goals is utter nonsense. A competitive runner, a Type I diabetic, a weekend warrior looking to lose weight, and someone with high cholesterol shouldn’t all take the same supplements. They all have different goals.

So, based on your health and fitness goals, pick the supplements that will help you get there faster once your exercise, nutrition and recovery are in check.

2. EXAMINE YOUR DIET

Supplements should fill in the gaps that don’t get filled even when your diet is spot on. Let’s face it – even if you’re crushing a ton of high-quality meats, fruits and vegetables every day, chances are you’re still missing trace vitamins and minerals that could make you feel and perform better. But unless you’re forking over the cash for real, organic, local foods, you have no business dropping dough on supplements.

I’d give up every supplement I take (and my cable, internet and air conditioning) before I gave up grass-fed beef, eggs from pastured-raised chickens and veggies from local farms.

Don’t put the cart before the horse. Fix your diet before your worry about the pills and powders.

3. KEEP IT SIMPLE

Aromatase inhibitors? Raspberry ketones? Dimethylamylamine? What is this stuff?

If it sounds like you need a PhD in chemistry to know what a supplement is, maybe it’s not for you. You’re better off keeping it simple and choosing a few well-known supplements that will actually have an impact on your wellness.

You wanna know what supplements I take?

• Athletic Greens (in lieu of a low-quality, poorly-absorbed multivitamin)
• Creatine monohydrate
• Vitamin D
• Fish Oil

That’s it. That’s all that I need for my goals. And unless you have some crazy athletic aspirations or specific medical needs, I bet you don’t need much more either.

4. DO YOUR HOMEWORK

Don’t be a mindless sheep and believe everything you read. I cannot stress this enough.

It’s not enough to “do your research” and read a couple abstracts from scientific journals. Guess what? Even researchers lie! Supplements are “proven” effective in “clinical studies”, but most of them are funded by the supplement companies themselves and the researchers will be damned if they don’t whip up some results that make the tested product sound like it’ll make you jacked and tan, cure impotence and fix your bald spot in just one pill a day.

But there’s a problem. Reading research is boring, and interpreting it is hard. The most important thing I learned in grad school was interpreting research studies and knowing how to sift through bullshit. But it took me over two years and I had to read thousands of studies before I felt comfortable with processing all the information.

Lucky for us, the brainiacs at Examine.com have put together a staggeringly-thorough e-book that makes supplement research quick and painless. These guys have sifted through over 20,000 scientific references and created a database that separates the good from the bad from the ugly. And they’re a completely independent organization with no agendas or bias, so you can trust what they write. The number one reason you can trust them – they don’t sell supplements.

The e-book is called the Supplement Goals Reference Guide, and I’ve never seen a more user-friendly, no-bullshit guide to buying and using supplements.

I was lucky enough to get an advance copy and I’ve gotta say this book is insanely helpful. I’ve never pimped a product on my blog before, but this book is different. It’s not something you pick up and ready front-to-back. It’s more of a cheat sheet that you crack open when you need fast info. Remember how awesome SparkNotes were back in high school when you forgot to read the first 200 pages of The Great Gatsby and you had a quiz that day? That’s how awesome this guide is.

Here’s how it works. The book has over 300 supplements and 180 health goals. It lists all the studied effects of each supplement and gives each effect a letter grade (A, B, C, etc.) based on the strength of the scientific evidence for each effect. The magnitude of the effect is then given a ranking of 1-3 stars based on how strong the effect is. Finally, it lists how many studies are cited and summarizes what the studies say. Basically, you get all the info without having to do all the reading.

Here’s a screenshot so you can visualize what I’m saying. Click to zoom:

Basically, the supplement’s most potent effects are at the top of the list. The better the letter grade, the more stars and the more studies, the more we know that the supplement is legit. For example, creatine gets an ‘A’ for both weight gain and power output, and both have a magnitude of 3 stars. Weight gain is backed by 18 studies and power output is backed by a whopping 43 studies. So it’s safe to say creatine is proven to increase weight gain and power output. On the other hand, L-Carnitine, often flaunted for its supposed fat-burning effects, only gets a ‘C’ for fat oxidation and is only backed by one study. Basically, the benefits of L-Carnitine are all hearsay and no science.

The fun doesn’t stop there. The list of 180+ health goals (from immune function to insomnia, from canker sores to constipation) tells you exactly what supplements have been shown to have an effect on that goal. For example, under blood pressure, the top three supplements are fish oil, ephedra and caffeine. Fish oil decreases blood pressure slightly (‘A’ grade evidence, 1-star magnitude of change, 8 studies), while ephedra and caffeine both slightly increase blood pressure (‘B’ grade evidence, 1-star magnitude of change, 5 and 6 studies respectively). This is extremely helpful if you have a goal in mind but you’re not sure what supplement will help you.

The Supplement Goals Reference Guide went on sale today for $29. You get over 20,000 studies condensed into about 700 pages – talk about efficiency. If it sounds too pricey for you, think about it this way – an average 2-pound tub of protein powder is about $50, and you’ll be lucky if it lasts you more than a month. If you pay $29 now, you could potentially save yourself thousands of dollars in bogus supplements down the road. Do yourself a favor and invest in your health AND knowledge by picking up a copy today.