Supplements

If you are doing lots of exercise it is good to get the right nutrition, however, this is not always possible. Consider a body builder who needs to consume 250 grams of protein every day to achieve his desired level of lean muscle mass. Consider the following, high protein foods and weights needed to achieve his desired protein intake:

  • Tuna fish - 25% protein, would need to eat 1kg
  • Chicken - 22% protein, would need to eat 1.136kg
  • Steak - 26% protein, would need to eat 961 grams
  • Pork - 20% protein, would need to eat 1.25kg
  • Eggs - 12.5% protein, would need to eat 2kg

Which you could say would be a little difficult for most people to manage, especially if they were trying to achieve this amount of eating round a normal job. This is why the supplements industry is so popular and large nowadays, because it provides high quality protein (largely) to the many body builders, fitness freaks and sports people out there that don’t want to spend all their free time eating chicken, tuna, steak and eggs. Here’s a list of different types of supplements sold by the nutrition industry:

  • Protein powder - used as a low fat / low carbohydrate source of protein
  • Creatine monohydrate - used to increase the intensity of training 
  • Fat metabolisers - used to help aid fat loss, but not muscle loss
  • Weight gain shakes - to help add weight, mainly used by bodybuilders 
  • Weight loss shakes - to aid weight loss as part of a calorie controlled diet
  • Vitamins and minerals - that can be used to help maintain a healthy body