4 Extremely Important Supplements for Fat Loss, Strength, Performance and Health.
James White
Right, so we all agree you can't out train a crappy diet? If you are carrying around too much adipose tissue, if your arm wobbles when you wave, or if you cannot see your abs, you need to put better stuff in your mouth. Similarly, if you want to get stronger, bigger, faster, and harder, what you eat directly affects the results you get. In this world of shortcuts, McDonalds, KFC, mass gainer protein shakes and marketing fuelled nonsense, it is easy to get confused, tricked into spending money on expensive supplements you don't need and easy to get off track.
Here are 4 of the most useful supplements most of us would actually benefit from and why...
Magnesium
Magnesium is one of the most important mineral compounds for your body. Around 70% of the population are deficient in magnesium and if you train, you are even more likely to be deficient, as training (especially resistance training) increases the bodies magnesium requirements.
Just a few of the important jobs for magnesium in the body are: being responsible for over 300 different types of enzyme reactions; building and repairing lean tissue; cortisol reduction (probably the reason you’re struggling with belly fat!) hampering your insulin sensitivity which makes it harder for you to get lean and to store glycogen so you can recover from workouts; increasing the attention span in children by reducing hyperactivity; reducing inflammation in your body and increasing your memory. Deficiency in magnesium keeps your sympathetic nervous system in overdrive which makes it hard to get a good night’s sleep.
When selecting your magnesium make sure that you don't go for a cheaper magnesium oxide as your body can't absorb it. Instead go for magnesium lactate, orotate, cyrate and glyconate. Also try to find them in their chelated forms as this means an amino acid has been bound to them to further assist in absorption. Constipation is big clue that you are deficient in magnesium. Another sign that you are deficient in magnesium is poor energy levels. Bringing peoples magnesium levels back up to normal often increases their energy levels. The Palaeolithic (google it) man’s calcium to magnesium ration was around 1.3:1. Today it is around 5+:1. This is mainly due to the over consumption of dairy which contains small amounts of magnesium and large amounts of calcium. Also the consumption of calcium and magnesium together can counter each other’s absorption so if you’re supplementing with both you should take them separately.
Zinc
Zinc deficiency is not only one of the most common but one of the most serious mineral deficiencies. This may sound a bit of a guess but it’s actually very likely that if you’re wondering if you’re deficient in zinc...you are! A slight deficiency in zinc can result in decreased lean body mass and low serum testosterone. In fact testosterone can not be created without zinc and forget all these expensive testosterone boosters, if you bring your likely zinc deficiency back up to normal you will increase your testosterone by a significant amount. Another interesting symptom of zinc deficiency is an altered sense of taste leading to cravings of saltier and sweeter foods! Combining zinc with magnesium can really help to increase the depth and quality of your sleep which will give a world of benefits alone. If your zinc levels are low you will also have an inability to reduce cortisol and low thyroid T3 levels which means less muscle and more fat.
Again, here you should avoid the zinc oxide and gluconate and go for a chelated zinc where the bound amino acid will help absorption. The best type is zinc orotate but picolinate and acetate are all still great.
Vitamin D3
Vitamin D3 is now becoming thought of as one of the most important supplements you could take. Just about everyone is deficient in vitamin D3 and virtually every disease and adverse health condition is related to low vitamin D levels. The benefit that you are probably aware of is its link to bone health and reducing osteoporosis and other bone diseases. However this vitamin (or more accurately pre hormone) is involved in a huge number of other functions. Some of these involve reduced cancer rates, lowered immune system, cold and flu, depression, hypertension, blood sugar regulation and much more. Perhaps more scary for our readers here though is that vitamin D3 causes muscle weakness. Increasing your vitamin D3 levels to normal and beyond will significantly increase your muscle function. Also vitamin D3 can aid significantly in fat loss.
So you now can't deny that vitamin D3 is extremely important. Let’s look at how you would get your levels to optimal. If you supplement is 5000IU of vitamin D3 every day it would take about 3 months to get you into the normal range. Another approach and perhaps a better approach is to supplement high amounts for a few weeks and then drop back to a lower dose once you’re at normal levels.
Cod Liver Oil
Cod liver oil is pretty much on a par with vitamin D3 as being one of the most important supplements you could take. Firstly it contains more vitamin A and D than any other food per unit weight. Vitamin A and D are very often deficient in our diets but are vital for good health and athletic performance. Supplementing with cod liver oil can also burn fat, improve mood, strengthen cell walls, reduce the amount of sugar your body will absorb, reduce inflammation and increase bone health. There is barely a disease in the books that doesn't respond well to cod liver oil.
Yes cod liver oil is known for its essential fatty acids but what's important here is that it’s high in omega 3 fatty acids and low in omega 6 fatty acids. Our diets should be a ratio of 1:1 or 1:4 maximum in the favour of omega 6 fatty acids. However with all the omega 6 containing vegetable oil that we consume to day this ratio is around 1:20+ with cases being as much as 1:50! Among other problems, this causes lots of inflammation in our bodies which consuming more omega 3 and reducing omega 6 can reduce.
Conclusion
In choosing these supplements it is vital that you go for quality as you really do get what you pay for. It really is worth taking a quality multivitamin as an insurance for most nutrients and also take these four supplements in a high dose for a months and then come back down to a smaller dose. These supplements will only cost you a few £s per day maximum so increased fat loss, energy, mood, strength, health and fitness has got to be worth that.
Get healthy, get results. If you’re struggling through life with nutrient deficiencies, you’re not going to get the results you could get, no matter how much mass gainer protein powder you take! Your body just won't be able to use it. It's like trying to build a house with all bricks and no cement. It won't work.
More nutrition coming from James soon.
James White- James is a young guy but he is seriously strong! – He started out as a Powerlifter and has competed for Great Britain on numerous occasions. He holds British and Commonwealth records and was 2007 British Junior Powerlifting Champion. Recently he has decided it is not enough to be able to simply shift huge weights, he wants to hurt people as well. He is now dedicated to learning the sport of mixed martial arts and intends to make his competitive debut in the near future. He is a highly knowledgeable personal trainer, and is also studying osteopathy. See his personal sites at www.build-muscle-burn-fat.com and James Whites Personal Training
Lazy man's training guide
14 Random Fat Loss Tips
Rotational Training
