Supplementation.

I'm going to talk about some of the supplements I take to help with my nutrition, diet and work outs.

Let's start with one of the most important supplement, Whey Protein. The brand I am currently using is Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Protein Gold Standard and the flavour I have is Cookies and Cream. I really enjoy the taste of Cookies and Cream, it smells great to me and it tastes very much like the name suggests. I've only yet tried it with water, have not with milk. I think the texture when mixed with water is really smooth, Optimum Nutrition's Whey mixes really well with water and milk. It doesn't get clumped up easily. The other flavour I've tried before is Strawberry, which tastes great too though towards the end I got quite sick of the taste. Mixes well with milk and water as well, tastes great with either. Although sometimes my tummy feels weird after drinking Strawberry with milk, but those are on rare occasions which I think is my stomach reacting to the milk.
It's good to invest in Protein powder as it serves as a cheap source of protein. It helps me to meet my daily protein intake of about 130g. The ON Gold Standard also provides 5g of Branch Chain Amino Acids(BCAAs) which aid with muscle growth and recovery as well, it is beneficial as some of these protein can't be synthesised by the human body. [Protein breaks down to various amino acids but not all that the body requires]
Whey protein is said to be a fast acting protein, where breaking down time is about 30-40mins. The slower acting protein can come in the form of Casein which metabolise slower, approximately 3-4hours.
I have yet to try casein. But I'll write a review on it when I do start taking it, don't really feel like I need it at this stage.
Oh! By the whey, it's a by-product of cheese production :).





Next up we have, Acetyl-L-Carnitine, which is an acetylated form of L-carnitine.(you don't say!) It is a dietary supplement and naturally occurs in plants and animals. Humans produce it within the body as well! However I believe that our body will benefit from supplementing on to whatever amount it produces. Acetyl-L-Carnitine(ALC) helps our body to facilitate fatty acid utilization, apparently helping to form fatty acids into chains which make it easier for them pass through Mitochondria's membrane. Some of the benefits of ALC are the improvement of both Short-Term Memory and Long-Term Memory, improvements in Athletic Performance, Eye to Hand coordination, Mental Function, Attention Span. ALC facilitates the production of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) which is used to transport energy within our body for metabolism.
Ideally from what I understand about ALC is that it helps boost energy within us, prioritise the use of fats as energy (i.e helps to burn fats!) and make us more alert and active. Do research on the other benefits of supplementing ALC, you'll be amazed at what awesomeness it does for your health and body. (it extends to slowing down aging and deterring other illnesses)



Now let's talk about Creatine! Well, creatine is produced naturally by the body from amino acids. It too is found in meat sources, like beef (red meat) and salmon. Creatine helps to supply energy to all cells in the body, primarily the muscle. Basically it readily helps to reform the ATPs(body's energy), a simple illustration would be that your body uses ATP (adenosine triphosphate) as energy when you work out, it breaks down to ADP (adenosine diphosphate) so creatine comes into play and reforms it from ADP to ATP. This supplement aids in providing bursts of energy especially useful when doing high intensity workouts, as it enhances the production of energy. However we must note that creatine is not a fast acting supplement like protein shakes, it takes a few days for it to get saturated into your muscles. Other benefits of creatine is that it allows the user to workout longer and in the case of lifting weights, allow for more reps. I can talk a whole lot more about creatine, but basically this is what it is used for. Maybe I'll talk about it in detail in a future post, things like creatine cycling, how to consume creatine and perhaps some extra information about creatine and its variations.
Do note: Drink loads of water when supplementing with creatine! at least 8-10 glasses a day. Another thing is that creatine helps retain water in the muscles to help with energy production, so you'll tend to bulk when using creatine, most of which is water mass.




The last supplement I'm currently taking is the multi-vitamins. The brand i'm using is Now: Daily Vits. We all grew up knowing that vitamins is good for you, same reason we're still taking it. When we workout, our body uses more of everything, including vitamins, that's one reason for supplementing with multi-v. Another reason is that when dieting, we miss out on certain kinds of vitamin as we don't consume it's source, so we ensure our body has it by taking a multi-v. However, to be honest I bought it without much research and I would say I regretted buying multi-vitamins because I'm usually able to get most of my vitamins from the food I eat everyday, taking the extra multi-v only results in my body flushing it out of my body (waste of money). Still, I would recommend it for those who are sticking to a certain diet or exercise a lot.





Till the next post!