Anyone else want to lose fat or build muscle a little faster or easier?
We’ve had SO many clients ask us over the years “Will this supplement help ‘insert specific physical goal here’ faster or easier?”
And the answer is almost always - NO! Do you spend at least $50 per month on supplements but aren’t seeing the gains / results you were hoping for - you’ll want to keep reading on….
First - what are supplements? By definition - they are to be used in case of deficiency, when we are lacking something - they are NOT (or rarely) a REPLACEMENT!
There’s SO much to unpack here, but the facts are - taking a HIGH quality oral supplement will result in ONLY 10-20% absorption (and of that, how much will actually be used is inconclusive). And if we take a lower quality compound - like Magnesium Oxide - our body can’t do much with this so while “Magnesium” has a TON of benefits in the human body - it has to be in a form that works. Real food is the BEST way to get your daily needs - Dark leafy veggies, mixed nuts, and avocado are just some of our favorite foods for magnesium. When we eat real whole foods, our body’s digestion process is more efficient and effective at absorbing and extracting (utilizing) the nutrients compared to processed foods (which most supplements are essentially)
So before we dive into what supplements are beneficial - we need to look at what your current habits look like and what your goals are.
If your goal is fat loss, (say you’re a male and weigh 225lbs, but would like to weigh 185lbs and you’re constantly consuming way too many calories each day - no pill is going to help you out. No, not even the one that says it suppresses appetite and burns 20x more fat (marketing messages can be the devil sometimes).
Instead of wasting money on a pipe dream shortcut - invest your time and energy into yourself - and your daily habits. If you don’t know much about protein, fats, and carbs - and what those look like in real foods, then this would be a great place to start.
Learning about energy balance (calories burned in a day versus calories consumed in a day), would be the next great place to go.
Once you’ve got a good handle on what you’re eating, and you’ve seen some good progress WITHOUT any ‘supplements’, then maybe we can start talking about how to supplement wisely.
Looking to build muscle?
First, we want to know what you’re eating and how much, after we optimize for ideal calorie intake, macro-nutrient breakdown, and physical activity levels (including recovery), then we may suggest things such as Protein, Creatine, Beta Alanine, Citrulline Malate, or a combination of other supplements to help with building muscle.
Looking for more energy?
How’s your sleep? How much water do you drink? How much coffee do you have daily? What is your daily and pre game/lift nutrition like? How stressed are you in your daily life (relationships, career, team, etc). These factors will play an integral part in performance. With that being said, are these boxes checked off for you? If so, and they're optimized, then we can venture into things like stimulants (eg. caffeine), green powders to improve cellular functioning, creatine to increase ATP generation, and other energy producing supplements.
Looking to burn fat?
Once again, we need to know what you’re eating (type of calories being ingested), how much of it (ie amount of calories ingested), and what you’re doing for physical activity (ie amount of calories being burned). Once these are addressed we can look at protein isolate powders, L-Carnitine to burn more stored fat, beta alanine to workout harder and longer (acts as an acid base buffer), and others.
What do all these have in common? They all start with your nutrition and daily behaviours. We can take everything under the sun, throw it in a blender and make a shake … but will we even digest most of? Or just cause more stress on our digestive system than good for our bodies? And what about our other meals throughout the day?
Nutrition will always be number one here at ALP-TI and we have industry leading fitness professionals to help you on your journey to reach your goals along with a full line of industry leading supplements at prices you won’t see in most big supplement stores!
So, if you’re looking to supplement an area that you’re currently deficient in (maybe you just can’t eat enough protein throughout the day but are doing well otherwise and just need a good protein powder) but aren’t sure where to go - contact us today with your goals and we would be happy to point you in the right direction.
And check out our BLACK FRIDAY DEALS that will be going live first thing Friday morning - available FRIDAY ONLY - all day long (while quantities last).
FREE gift with every order over $50 ... Volume based discounts .... mix and match supplements with apparel and accessories to hit the higher volume discounts!!!