The most redundant dietary supplements on the market

Dietary supplements are experiencing a huge boom and many young athletes buy them right after their first visit to the gym. But there are many supplements out there, and it's certainly not true that all of them are necessary or even essential. Very often manufacturers just sense an opportunity to sell a product to gullible customers with a large margin and almost no intended effect. So if you as a beginner don't want to throw your money out the window, you should read our article today, which will be about the most redundant supplements on the market.

Will carnitine drinks burn fat?

Carnitine drinks are one of the most popular supplements ever, although there is some doubt about their effects. Primarily, this dietary supplement is sold for its supposed positive effects on weight loss, which, simply put, consist of getting stored fat into the mitochondria and converting it into energy. But the problem is that the vast majority of scientific studies suggest little or no effect on weight loss in humans and mice. There are, of course, studies that talk about a positive effect, but the results are certainly not as clear-cut as supplement manufacturers and marketers often claim.

What the scientific studies do suggest quite unanimously, however, is the positive effect of carnitine supplementation on preventing the worsening of brain disease, in specific cases also preventing brain cell damage, lowering blood pressure, and even talking about better recovery, reduced muscle soreness after training, and better blood flow. Good forms include either Acetyl-l-carnitine or l-carnitine l-tartrate, while D-carnitine is completely unsuitable.

So what to take away from this?Carnitine is of course effective and has a number of scientifically proven benefits. Only the effect on weight loss is highly debatable. If you want to buy it for the sake of burning fat, don't have any high expectations.

There is no creatine like creatine

Creatine is an absolutely great supplement. It's relatively inexpensive, but as a strength athlete (regardless of whether you train for muscle, endurance, or strength), you'll get a lot out of it. Scientific studies continuously and repeatedly talk about not only the effect on performance, but also an increase in IGF-1 growth factor, improved endurance through ATP production, and many health benefits including positive effects on the human brain.

But there is no creatine like creatine. In fact, it is increasingly becoming apparent that in a sea of various new and revolutionary forms, classic monohydrate is still the winner. Why? It is the oldest form ever, and of course it was extremely popular in its day, which means that scientists have had plenty of time to devote to it. And the effect of monohydrate has actually been confirmed every time, as well as the safety in the short and long term. When you add to this the fact that it is significantly cheaper than the others, there is nothing to argue about and it must be clear that monohydrate is the best possible choice.

The vast majority of gainers are useless

If there's one supplement that, in the vast majority of cases, has no justification, it's a gainer. In fact, if you look at the ingredients of most such products, you'll find that up to 50% of the supplement is simple carbohydrates (often maltodextrin, glucose and fructose). The rest is whey protein, usually a very mixed amount of amino acids or various vitamins and minerals, thickeners or sweeteners. So de facto, a protein and a tablet of a quality multimineral will cover everything important.

In fact, from my point of view, the very idea of taking "liquid calories" is relatively bad. Because if you are, say, 60kg and failing to put on weight, a gainer is not an effective solution. It might help you get to 63kg due to the amount of carbs, but what will it lead to? Since you will be heavier, you will have higher calorie requirements and since you wont be used to eating, you will need more gainer. But if you're still craving this supplement, we'd definitely recommend paying extra for a quality product. One of the few such supplements is One Stop Xtreme.

There are really few quality creatines on the market.

Testosterone Booster? Not really for testosterone

Testosterone boosting supplements are a typical example of marketing targeted at ignorant beginners who want to gain muscle mass effectively and, most importantly, quickly. A whole range of these supplements have a wannabe scary or drug-like name and pretend to be a real legal testosterone replacement, after which muscles will grow like mushrooms after rain. But how is it really?

The most well-known ingredient in these supplements is a plant called Tribulus Terrestris. And what do scientific studies have to say about it? Exactly, nothing. Even various meta-analyses evaluating multiple studies show that anemone does not increase testosterone (and in people across the age spectrum, gender, and health status), and thus does not affect muscle gain or recovery.

However, similarly to the above mentioned carnitine, we can find some positives here as well. Tribulus can increase libido and some studies suggest a correlation with lowering blood sugar as well as cholesterol. But definitely don't count on extreme increases in muscle mass.

Beware of multi-ingredient proteins or poor quality multivitamins

Today's article should be concluded by saying that the more you save on your supplementation, the more you risk buying a completely ineffective supplement that you will actually waste your money on. Typical examples are multi-ingredient proteins or low-quality multivitamins. While cheap multivitamins will quite often contain oxide forms of minerals, poor quality multi-ingredient proteins contain calcium or sodium caseinate instead of micellar casein, which is harder to use. If you want to understand the issue of multivitamin supplements and their quality better, we recommend our separate article.

What other supplements are not recommended?

If you're on a budget, there are a number of accessories you don't really need. In the case of the vast majority of athletes, this includes things like protein bars (which are quite expensive and eating them regularly instead of meals doesn't make sense), nut butters, or even BCAAs. Robert Humpál, the main face of the supertrener.cz project , talks about this issue in one of our videosin more detail. So if you have time and want to know what supplements to save on and what is useful, be sure to watch the following video:

Well, that's all for today's article. The main thing you should remember from it is that not all the supplements offered on the market are really functional and it is much better to buy only the necessary supplements and invest the rest of the money in quality food. Definitely don't waste your money on carnitine, revolutionary creatines, gainers or testosterone boosters.