What differences will i notice?and what else should i take after i start on those?
To be honest, I’m not sure if you’ll notice much of a difference. I went through a supplement phase (whey, glutamine) before catching myself on. Money down the drain. Maybe people will disagree, but I would stick to getting my protein from whole foods. That may be difficult if you’re trying to take in large quantities, in which case a supplement may prove helpful, but ask yourself, do you really need huge amounts of protein in your diet?
The multivitamin is a good idea though.
Your response/results partially depends upon your diet as of now and the quality of the products that you introduce. For instance, low quality and poorly manufactured whey products contain very low, call it trace, amounts of the microfractions such as immunopeptides that differentiat the milk protein from say a chicken breast. Personally I totally notice the difference when I stop utilizing our casein and whey blend with the lauric acid as my body doesn’t respond as well to the training.
These drinks also can make it easier to consume the required calories for your training. The less intense your training, then obviously the less benefit of the added supplementation. Make sense?
In my research though, most athletes do not eat enough protein as they have been pounded about carbs for their entire training career. Yes the carbs are important, but it is all relative to the type of trianing that you do. With all the available protein drinks I was very suprised to find that protein consumption is actually low in athletes. I guess they have also been pounded on that supplements are bad. To me whey powder is not a supplement but rather a food option. Chicken, beef tips, and turkey breasts have mostly protein but we do not refer to them as supplements do we?
what is real and what is not real…food hand picked by some farmer in Virginia is not real but a product of marketing for stop and shop. Fresh sliced oranges passing through tiny waterfalls on your TV is not REAL.
Sure organic and fresh food exists that is very healthy…but nobody tests the nutrient count so you must make sure you are getting food from very good sources and weight what is key. Fiber and phytonutrients…that’s why I load up vitamin C since it is breaks down the fastest.
Supplements are food now for athletes since we are at the age of super training. Sprinting on mondo tracks and doing cleans of killer weights destroys cells and it is vital that coaches get out of their training modes and think recovery.
Sure I am a chef and can bone a salmon to cook a great dinner…but time and practical requirements are issues that athletes must face. In a dorm room with just a microwave and the meal plan consists of greese and canned fruit? How is that going to work?
The greatest benefits with supplements are convenience and consistency of nutrient intake.
And I agree with zeppelin regarding the alleged distinction between food and supplements. Most protein powders are essentially milk proteins in a more convenient form (and more refined without the extra baggage). And with things like Udo’s greens and other whole food concentrates, it’s getting harder to draw the line, since many of these “supplements” are pretty complete do not contain just a few isolated substances.
For a college student, protein powders and vit/min supplements are pretty much essential and cheaper than the fast food and other snacks that usually “supplement” most students’ diets when they’re on a meal plan.
heh when i first started multis last year i noticed a big difference 
i definately wasn’t getting enough from food.
When it comes to commercial supplements I really don’t know how to choose a good supplement. How much is real and how much is hype is very difficult decide.
However, I have to agree with Clemson on this one if you are putting your body through hard training you need good nutrition.
In my experience supplementation does work very well and you don’t need to spend a fortune to achieve good results.
The key to progress in anything is establishing good habits and creating a progress plan. This plan must be progressive and sustainable. If something cannot be sustained it isn’t really useful in the long run.
Rule 1: Start slowly and change one thing at a time.
When I pledged to change I first I began with the basics. I started with eating Oatmeal for breakfast. I hated it at first but after 2 weeks I rather liked the stuff. Now i can’t live without it!
Then I added cottage cheese and eggs to my diet. I followed this up with scatterings of flax seeds/pumpkin seeds and started eating a selection of nuts for snakes. Then started to cut down on Hi Gi foods, so I swapped from white bread to wholemeal pitta bread etc.
All in all, I changed one thing every 2 weeks and within 4 months had established a successful eating regime which I now stick to for 90% of my meals.
This is the basis of rule 2: Ensure you have a sustainable foundation before adding the next level of your skyscraper.
Once you have a sustainable foundation in place you can begin experimenting with supplements.
I tried supplementation two or three times before I saw any benefit. Although I hate to agree with JB and the T-Nation marketeers perhaps the most important thing is timing. You need to get the food into your system at the right time.
Start post workout. This doesn’t mean spending £2/$4 a pop on some “famous” after workout potion. You can start by buying raisins and banana chips. Buy a little plastic container and fill it up with about 30g raisins and a few banana chips. Eat them straight after your training sessions. Then when you get home 30min or so later make yourself up a shake. I currently use Met-Rx protein because I picked some up on special offer for £20 for 2.5Kg but when I started I mixed my own shake from skimmed milk powder, real milk, how water and low fat chocolate milkshake powder. It cost me about 30p/$0.5 a shake and gave me a good 25-35g protein and a few carbs. I then followed this up with a smallish meal of carbs and protein 45min later.
I and several of my athletes have had phenomenal success with this simple method. Personally I dropped about 0.5lbs a week for several weeks with no decrease in gym strength (I have now been lifting 7 years) and saw a 0.3s decrease in my 100m time over the first 4 months (perhaps from my improved strength to weight ratio).
Expert Alert
There are experts who have you believe that their product has the optimal nutritional balance for whatever situation. Perhaps it does but until you have established a simple baseline on a sustainable and cost effective diet don’t start splashing out the cash because you just can’t effectively evaluate how much of a difference it is making. Once this baseline is in place you have the power to make fine adjustments and see what happens.
Brand Wars
I mentioned MetRx but I’ve tried a few different brands. At the moment I have seen no noticeable difference between any of them. I plan to try a more expensive supplement (AST) when my current supply runs out simply because I have been reading some new research done with their products which presented impressive findings. However, I doubt it will make much difference. Until I have hard evidence I will just go with the cheapest and most ethical supplier I can find.
I also currently take extra EFAs in capsule form (Fish oil and Flax Oil). It is a minimal investment and I believe it helps but cannot quantify the difference.
The difference
All in all I have more energy since I made the switch, I haven’t been ill in 2 years and I only got 1 cold that lasted 3 days so far this winter. I think my nutritional changes combined with CFs ideas about minimizing CNS fatigue have kept my immune system healthy and I feel that alone is worth the effort.
Hope this gives you something to think about.
Great post
Yes and no.
Before I had whey I couldn’t get what I need through just meat. The extra protein made a difference, but WHEY protein didn’t make any difference.