I’m very aware that the vast majority of people have absolutely no concept of science, how science works, or what scientific truth is. While it is fun to point at these people and laugh, the truth is, the human brain is wired more for superstition and horseshit than facts and evidence. I suppose there is some evolutionary advantage to cavemen believing in odd things like sun gods, and maybe even some advantage to modern humans believing in zombie deities and ghosts and hell and whatnot.
Because we are wired this way, a sad number of people think that what they feel or believe is more important than what is true. This is why we have many, many more religious freaks than scientists, but more interestingly (to me, anyways), why we also have a few scientists who are religious freaks. The human brain has a hard time letting go of superstition, even when it has been fully convinced that the superstition isn’t real.
On to the point of this post: the supplement industry depends on the superstitious nature of the human mind. People spend outrageous amounts of money on totally unproven herbs and spices that have absolutely no clinical proof to back them up. They want them to work, so they buy them, and they never question it.
If you go to your local vitamin store, you’ll see a ridiculous amount of products that claim to put on muscle, take off fat, cut you, build you up, reshape you, give you more energy, etc. I personally know people who spend hundreds every month on this stuff, and spend a good chunk of their day just swallowing pills and powders, hoping it is all having some effect. Most of it doesn’t.
Not only do they not do anything for you, but keep this in mind: every time you put something in your body, you are forcing your liver to deal with it. If there is no chance of it doing anything for you, give your damn liver a break already.
That said, there are a few fitness supplements that actually have science behind them. These are the ones I take regularly:
- Creatine Monohydrate
- Fish Oil
- CLA
- Multitamin
- L-Glutamine powder
- Whey protein
That’s it. You can research those yourself, but that’s a pretty standard, basic workout supplement load.
If you are trying to burn fat, the most effective is the (now illegal) E-C-A stack of ephedrine, caffeine and aspirin. I have heard people swapping one of those out for yohimbine. I still think the best way to burn fat is eat right and do a bunch of cardio though. Why tax the hell out of your heart with pills when you can tax the hell out of your heart with exercise?
One thing that is interesting to note though: although there are supplements that are proven to have some beneficial effect, you next need to ask yourself how MUCH effect can I expect?
Just because something has been proven to work, doesn’t mean it is worth taking.
I remember a commercial for some bogus weight loss pill that claimed it was CLINICALLY PROVEN TO BURN FAT*. If you could pause your tivo fast enough you’d see that the results of the clinical trial showed something like 3 pounds lost over 20 weeks or some other absurd amount. In other words, you’d be paying a ton of money for something that was proven to have a negligible effect on your weight loss. Yes, it had an effect, but the effect didn’t equal the cost. Or the extra work for your liver.
Everything on that list up there (except for the protein) has a pretty small effect on your results, but for the most part, the stuff is cheap, and in some cases (fish oils, eg.), good for you anyway.
