Many people nowadays go to gym to be fit and look good. But as soon as you ask them if they use supplements 95% of them will react as if you asked them if they take drugs. Supplements are considered as things which do more harm to the body than do good to them. Let’s face it supplements are looked upon like drugs by our mothers and fathers. How many times have you been looked down upon by your parents if you take supplements ? During my college days if I asked my parents money for buying bodybuilding supplements, my parents always tried to avoid the talks and I never used to get money for supplements. And I guess that’s the sad part for every college going bodybuilder.
But if I tell you we all take bodybuilding supplements in some form or the other right from our childhood none of you will ever believe me. We all have been taking cerelac since childhood. What is cerelac ? It’s a dietary supplement for infants. We all have taken that when we were young. We grow a little older our parents gave us fish oil soft gels, we have had calcium chewables since childhood.
Fish oil is the most essential supplement in a bodybuilder’s diet. nowadays you get caffeine pills, green tea pills, amla juice, aloe vera juice etc which everyone from elderly to young people use. What are those ? Are those not supplements ? Most of you will say no. If your answer is no then pls read the following definition of supplement given on Wikipedia “A dietary supplement is either intended to provide nutrients in order to increase the quantity of their consumption, or to provide non-nutrient chemicals which are claimed to have a biologically beneficial effect.
Supplements as generally understood include vitamins, minerals, fiber, fatty acids, or amino acids, among other substances. U.S. authorities define dietary supplements as foods, while elsewhere they may be classified as drugs or other products.”
I hope that clears your doubt about supplements. They are not bad for an individual. If you go through the list of most common bodybuilding supplements available in the market. You will stumble upon protein, bcaa / amino acids, pre workout, fat burner, creatine. These few supplements are the building blocks of any good supplementation stack for a bodybuilder.
Now lets talk about them in detail first and most common supplement is protein. Protein is derived from dairy, plant and vegetables or meat. Next most common is bcaa / amino acid which is derived often from fruits. Pre workout and fat burner is nothing but caffeine added with other vitamins and minerals. So many of us drink coffee or energy drinks such as red bull. Coffee is nothing but caffeine many gym goers drink black coffee before a workout session or even drink a red bull as an intra workout session. Apart from this red bull and coffee are taken in a normal diet of a person who doesn’t go to the gym. If you ever look at the ingredients lable of a pre workout and compare it to the ingredients on the can of red bull 99% of the ingredients will be the same just a small little difference will be there. Two products completely same and one is safe with the society and other is not. Why ? Just coz it’s marketed and portrayed in a different way. Isn’t that biased ?
So is it necessary to take supplements to build muscles or lose fat ? The answer is no. Its not the only means to build muscles. Supplements are just products which help u achieve results faster and in a better way. Ofcourse one can’t go on a natural diet and workout really hard and build a physique like someone who is on supplements. Supplements are just a way to give you extra nutrients which one can’t get from a natural diet. They are called supplements as they are supplemented with food and not called as alternatives one just can’t have only supplements and no food and build a physique. For e.g. a 100 grams scoop of protein supplements gives you around 50-60 grams of protein, whereas to get the same amount of protein from chicken one will have to eat 500 grams of chicken in one serving, as compared to broccoli one will have to consume around 2 kg of broccoli in one serving and so on from other food items having such huge amount of food in one serving which is not a pleasant and comfortable thought.
Supplements are just concentrated forms of food which help one to keep up with high requirement of nutrients needed for someone who workout. They not only help one to build muscles but also help in recovery after a tiring workout session.
At the end I will just like to say supplements are not bad we all have been eating them since childhood. Before you think of purchasing a supplement there is no harm in doing a little research on them and then deciding if you want them or not. And yes you can build a good physique without use of supplements just you will have to work really hard and be really dedicated to your workout and have a super strict diet.
Stay hungry !!!! Stay Foolish !!!