The thought process which governs the decision around whether to use a supplement or not is somewhat different for food supplements and non-food supplements. The only reason you would use a food supplement is if you cannot consume sufficient amounts of a given nutrient on a regular basis – for example you may have a dietary imbalance for any particular reason.
You might also have higher than usual requirements for a number of reasons. If this is the case you should assess your likelihood of deficiency (or speak to your GP for a blood test) and then supplement accordingly. As mentioned before in this course, always be wary with supplementation of nutrients like copper or retinoids which can become toxic with overconsumption. A broad-spectrum multivitamin would be another option here, provided it ensures adequate intake of the nutrients you are concerned about most.
If you’re looking to supplement with a non-food supplement, your thought process should generally follow this path:
- First ask yourself if your overall dietary approach and lifestyle is in line to a reasonably high degree. This does not necessitate perfect eating and sleeping habits, but if these factors are not either 80-90% in place or on their way to being in place through progressive alterations to your lifestyle, then this should be your point of focus before considering supplementation. Sleeping well when you don’t currently will improve your sporting performance more than creatine in the same situation, as well as conveying other benefits
- Can you afford to buy it? If you can’t, work with other factors to rectify imbalances, and know that you can achieve excellence without ergogenic aids
- Is the supplement going to benefit you for your specific goals? There are multiple supplements which are beneficial but only for those who need them – a power athlete supplementing with nitrates, and a person eating a lot of vegetables but supplementing with vitamin C are both wasting money
- Is the supplement supported by the current body of evidence, reliably? Each product listed above carries a strong body of evidence unless otherwise stated. We have not mentioned some supplements which could be taken to some effect, of course, but most useful products are listed here. Whatever you do choose to use it’s critical that you learn if and how it works. Never forget that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and that goes double for supplements you’re going to pay money for and then consume. For impartial advice on supplements we recommend looking at the free resources on www.examine.com
- Do you know the dosage, required timing and specific forms you need? Opting for suboptimal forms of a supplement or incorrect dosages may be counterproductive
- Do you have realistic expectations of the effect and the timeframe in which you will feel these? Supplementation with vitamin D or whey protein is unlikely to make night-and-day, subjectively noticeable differences but they can both be very helpful, whereas beta alanine may create paraesthesia even if you don’t benefit from its use due to your sport. Be clear on what you expect to happen
After running through the above thought process, add a supplement one at a time to assess its efficacy. If you add 2 or 3 supplements at once and your sporting performance improves you can’t tell what it is that created the effect, and so it’s a good idea to go one by one and pay close attention to the effects. Of course, adding fish oil and a multivitamin or other supplements which don’t have affects you can immediately feel need not be done in this way.