Best Supplements

I’m always getting questions on the best supplements in general, the best supplements for Intermittent Fasting, best supplements for muscle gain etc.

Here, I’m going to answer all your questions.

What Are Supplements?

Supplements are products that are designed to improve your health, your appearance, your energy and your overall life, in addition to your diet/lifestyle.

They can come in tablets, capsules, liquids or powders, and are designed to give you an edge in your health & fitness life.

Almost everyone can benefit from supplements to some extent, and this is especially true if you’re over the age of 40, you don’t get enough nutrients from your diet, or you have special health concerns like cancer, diabetes, hypogonadism (low T), metabolic resistance, heart disease etc.

Athletes in competitive sports often take supplements to give them an edge over their competition, and fitness models and bodybuilders will do the same for similar reasons.

Let’s check out some of the benefits…

Benefits Of Dietary Supplements

The benefits are pretty powerful, especially if you’re combining your supplement regimen with an excellent Intermittent Fasting diet and training program.

Increased Fat Loss

Yes, supplements will get you ever closer to that elusive 10% body fat, assuming your diet is under control. This can be through two key mechanisms – increased Basal Metabolic Rate, and/or a decrease in your appetite – both of which make fat loss much easier.

Boost Strength In The Gym

This can be through increased energy levels, mental focus, creatinine levels, or glucose to the muscles. Or a combination of all of them. Leaving you to experience a real boost in performance.

Meeting Nutritional Requirements

In order to hit every single micronutrient and vitamin RDA (recommended daily allowance) which is often on the low end anyway, you’d need a pretty perfect diet every day.

What about ‘off days?’

What about if you train hard and sweat a lot?

Supplements help you to fill in those gaps, and your competition will struggle to keep up.

Reducing Anxiety & Stress

There’s plenty of supplements out there that will enhance your sleep quality, which will indirectly help during stressful times. Then there’s supplements that directly reduce anxiety through neurotransmitters in your brain. Both work.

Increasing Energy & Clarity

This is the ‘clean’, focused energy that all men need more of. Often, this is through enhancing blood flow, recovery or improved digestion.

Controlling Blood Sugar

This is the biggest one for obesity, diabetes, and general heart health. Improving insulin sensitivity can often be the first step for those who have been obese for extended periods of time.

WHAT ARE THE BEST INTERMITTENT FASTING SUPPLEMENTS?

ELECTROLYTES

Unfortunately, I don’t have a ‘best electrolyte product’ yet – I’m working on it. Electrolytes are absolutely critical for maintaining energy levels and normal bodily functions on extended fasts, and can be very important for ‘normal IF’ once you start to get a little leaner.

BCAA’s

PHEN GOLD

Phen Gold has:

• Caffeine
• Green tea
• Black coffee
• L tyrosine
• And more

And essentially combines all the best, science backed fat loss ingredients into one neat formula. My suggestion would be to take this in the morning while fasted, for maximum fat loss benefits without the caffeine interrupting your sleep.

The way I look at Phen Gold is that the effects are similar to black coffee, except it’s 2-3x as powerful for fat burning.

GRASS FED WHEY PROTEIN

This is the highest quality why protein out there. The reason I chose grass-fed whey protein isolate, is that you’re not going to be getting any toxic additives thrown in there, and also the whey itself is coming from grass fed cows, rather than it coming from a food chain that’s been infiltrated with garbage.

You can be assured that you’re getting the highest quality stuff here, and for a very reasonable price. My suggestion would be 2 scoops post workout, which will give you a whopping 54g of the best quality protein out there for muscle growth/maintenance.

WHAT ARE THE BEST TESTOSTERONE BOOSTERS?

VITAMIN D3

Vitamin D is absolutely essential for testosterone, for mood/depression, for sleep quality, and for your immune system. The optimal intake from the sun, your diet and supplements combined, is 8,000-9,000 IU’s per day.

Obviously this means that if you live in rainy England, Scotland, or most of Scandinavia, you probably are going to need to supplement a large amount. Even if you do eat plenty of salmon, eggs or sardines.

MAGNESIUM CITRATE

This one is enormous for a lot of people, but especially for Men Over 40. If you’re low in magnesium, testosterone will suffer, sleep quality will suffer, and recovery from training sessions will suffer. It’s absolutely critical.

Magnesium citrate is the most absorbable source of magnesium, with perhaps glycinate being another strong contender.

TESTOGEN

This is the best ‘overall’ testosterone booster I’ve seen.

It takes all the science-backed ingredients, and combines them into one super-product. Guys have legitimately seen 44% increases in testosterone using this. I’d recommend this as an all round ‘lifestyle supplement’ – for testosterone, sleep quality, anti-depression, sexual enhancer etc.

It really covers all your bases.

ASHWAGANDHA

Ashwagandha is your best bet for reducing cortisol levels (and total stress). Stress in the modern era can be one of the biggest killers of testosterone.

Whether it’s from your boss, your overall work culture, lack of holidays etc., cortisol literally prevents the secretion of testosterone. Ashwagandha can seriously help to control this. Piles of studies have been done on this, and I actually wrote a thread about this on Twitter right here if you’re like more information.

BEST HEALTH SUPPLEMENTS

MALE EXTRA (SEXUAL HEALTH)

I’ve written a blog post (linked above) about how this product will definitely give you a boost in the bedroom. Similarly to if you’ve been having issues with porn, quitting porn may change your life. If you’ve been having problems with ED or something similar, Male Extra may just change your life.

IMMUNE DEFENCE

THE ‘B COMPLEX’

FISH OIL OMEGA 3

CREATINE MONOHYDRATE (MUSCLE GAIN)

VITAMIN B12 (VEGANS)

TURMERIC (LOW INFLAMMATION)

Specific Supplements Effects

What should you expect from any particular supplement that you wish to buy? Fat loss, energy, appetite suppression, improved sleep, lower blood pressure, enhanced cognitive function?

Let’s explore…

So supplements can be pretty powerful when you’re already living a life of consistent training, a good diet, and quality sleep.

But what about the potential drawbacks of supplements?

What Are The Potential Supplements Side Effects?

When it comes to food, supplements, or anything in life, the dose is the key variable. Anything can become a net negative when it’s overdone, even something as critical as water and hydration.

All supplements are going to be safe when taken in the correct quantities, but here’s some potential (rare) side effects to look out for: