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I'm interested in ordering supplements. I have been checking out http://www.trueprotein.com and I'm a little overwhelmed by all the products they have to offer. I am going to order the rice protein supplement, but I also am interested in ordering the best supplements for fat loss and muscle growth. I don't know what to order!! What are the best supplements to order for fat loss and muscle growth?

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Best thing for muscle growth = lifting weights

 

The protein powder is a good option but supplements don't do much at all (you won't even be able to tell the difference except for the lack of money you will have).

 

Fat loss is achieved through training hard and eating clean and appropriately for you goal.

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Check out www.veganproteins.com and www.veganessentials.com too since both are 100% vegan companies and great to support.

 

I've gone through phases of no supplement use at all and still achieved great results and I've used supplements to "supplement" my diet and that has worked well too.

 

I work for Vega and use their products (ones you can find at Vegan Proteins and Vegan Essentials) www.myvega.com -They are some of the best around, period.

 

But in general, the ones I suggest in my book as the top 5 are:

 

Meal Replacement Powders

Protein Powders

BCAA's

Glutamine

Creatine

 

Those 5 seem to do the best job at building muscle, strength, and supplementing your bodybuilding or fitness goals.

 

That has been my experience.

 

Vitamins, minerals, essential fats, etc. are also great, but many of those are found in "meal replacements" which is why I didn't list them on their own.

 

As for types of protein. Rice, Pea and hemp all seem to be great. I don't know if any are better than others. Maybe ranking them Rice, Pea, then Hemp in order. It's hard to say since a combo is always the best option.

 

All the best!

 

Robert

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Best thing for muscle growth = lifting weights

 

The protein powder is a good option but supplements don't do much at all (you won't even be able to tell the difference except for the lack of money you will have).

 

Fat loss is achieved through training hard and eating clean and appropriately for you goal.

1. All the weight lifting in the world won't do anything if your diet isn't good.

2. Protein powder can be very beneficial, especially for those trying to build large amounts of muscle mass (bodybuilders, powerlifters, etc.)

3. Eating appropriately can involve protein powder.

 

Anyway to answer the OP, personally I like the amino acid profile of their Gemma protein, and it's also cheap, but it does have a strong taste that many people find it's hard to overcome. A few people choose to get one of their custom protein options, and they mix different ratios of gemma and rice proteins in order to make it a bit easier to down...

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Thanks, coldfission and fallen horse. I started working out last Thursday. I've done 5 days in a row of cardio 30-60 minutes and weight lifting on all days but the first day. I've done pretty well with clean eating except I have a real addiction to sugar. Any suggestions on stopping the candy intake?

 

Robert Thank you! That is the kind of info I need! Thank you so much!

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I've done pretty well with clean eating except I have a real addiction to sugar. Any suggestions on stopping the candy intake?

yes, just eat a lot of complex carbohydrates throughout a day: whole grain rice, millet, buckwheat, quinoa, whole grain pasta, potatoes, etc. Complex carbohydrates release sugars slowly into your bloodstream so you won't feel ups and downs in your sugar-levels, mood, strength, etc, and you will have no cravings for sugar, because it's always there where its needed, not too much, not too little. But there is also mental craving for something sweet. In such situations use fruit, barley malt, dried fruit, etc.

I used to crave chocolate so much, and then I started to mix barley malt with unsweetened cocoa powder, and some lukewarm water - it turns out as melted dark chocolate, realy satisfying

 

I don't use any supplements yet. I see good results just from working out and eating a lot of beans and lentils, but I guess if you want to get REALLY BIG like Arnold Scwarzeneger, you have to use supplements.

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I use something called Purple Wraath during my workout and I also throw in BCAA powder, Glutamine and Creatine. I sometimes add Beta-Alanine if I have it, but it's already in the Purple Wraath powder that I use. Post-workout I always have a rice protein shake (at the moment I'm using Nutribiotic Organic powder) mixed with water and rice milk or water and some juice. I throw in some coconut oil for some fat and one cup or berries usually, along with spirulina powder and/or ground flaxseeds. I usually have an apple pre-workout and lots of water. I also have oatmeal about an hour after my post-workout shake or something with lots of carbs. I never really have cravings for anything bad and haven't eaten anything with refined sugar in ages. I can honestly say that I don't miss junk food at all. I actually crave fruit now when I want something sweet. What happens to me now is that if I eat something loaded with sugar, I get a bad headache and crash really quickly. I've played around with tons of supplements and truly do believe that it's 80% what you're eating, 10% genetics and 10% exercise. No amount of supplementation will help if your diet and lifestyle are not up to par. That's just the simple truth.

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I don't use any supplements yet. I see good results just from working out and eating a lot of beans and lentils, but I guess if you want to get REALLY BIG like Arnold Scwarzeneger, you have to use supplements.

 

if you want to get anywhere near as big as arnold, you need to take drugs. period.

 

as for protein intake, more protein doesn't equal more muscle - exercise builds muscle, not protein. there doesn't seem to be any solid data demonstrating huge amounts of protein building any more muscle than more moderate intake. true, plenty of studies show that ingesting more protein raises muscle protein synthesis, but that's only a secondary (indirect) measurement which doesn't say much at all. and studies comparing actual muscle mass increases with loads of protein vs. moderate protein suggest that there is no difference. at least not a significant one. 1g/lb seems to be perfectly enough. more than enough. and, as far as I'm concerned, there are myriads of real-world examples to prove the point fairly conclusively.

 

re: supplements, as far as I know, the only supplement that's been researched ad nauseam and demonstrated to work for most people is creatine. protein powder might be an okay idea for those on the go (even though personally I don't see that as a must at all), but absolutely unnecessary for most everyone else. what you would really benefit from, imo, is vitamin b12, vitamin d2 and marine algae dha/epa (and even out of these only b12 is absolutely needed). everything else you can get from whole plant foods.

 

just my two cents.

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Best thing for muscle growth = lifting weights

 

The protein powder is a good option but supplements don't do much at all (you won't even be able to tell the difference except for the lack of money you will have).

 

Fat loss is achieved through training hard and eating clean and appropriately for you goal.

I agree on the fact that different types of protein powders do not have that big differences between each other but it has been scientifically proven many many times that protein supplements as well as creatine and beta alanine actually make your training easier and they make your results go up faster.

 

Most supplements are overpriced garbage (If there are lots of techno words, leave the item in the shelf!) but I have to back up Robert here. Vega has one god damn good product line with all natural stuff. Many of the products also taste great and they make you feel great.

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I agree on the fact that different types of protein powders do not have that big differences between each other but it has been scientifically proven many many times that protein supplements as well as creatine and beta alanine actually make your training easier and they make your results go up faster.

 

care to support the claim about protein powder being scientifically proven (and not just proven - proven "many many times") to make training easier and bring about results faster? not saying you're wrong, just curious.

 

I'm with you on the creatine.

 

don't know anything about beta alanine, but, for some reason, to me it sounds like yet another money-making baloney for the "fitness" industry. I think people would be much better off if they focused on quality whole foods instead of wasting their money on such minor "helpers". training and nutrition constitute, like, 90 - 95% of your achievements, so until those are nailed down to near perfection, protein powders, creatine, beta alanine, bcaa's, etc., etc., will be a total waste.

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I use vega sport lemon lime(without protein) to fuel myself in the morning and I get a pump in the gym when usin it too.

 

The only proteins I use are sun warrior and spirutein.

 

Creatine is wishy washy with me. I've used it and at times felt like it may have worked and other not so much. With creatine it all depends on the person from all the different stories I've read throughout the years.

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For example for weight loss you need a decent amount of protein to get the best results (1g per lbs should be fine):

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19927027

 

sure, but that doesn't have anything to do with making training easier or/and bringing about results faster. also, there's some data suggesting that even on an extreme, very low-calorie diet people don't lose any significant lean mass as long as they weight train. so if you want to spare muscle mass, you should continue lifting, not cramming a ton of protein in your diet. which, by the way, was always my experience while dieting.

 

 

this only shows that consuming creatine is superior to not consuming creatine, nothing to do with protein powders.

 

 

this one's fairly interesting, but we don't know anything about the subjects' diets, so I wouldn't rush to make conclusions. I've seen loads of studies demonstrating that there's no benefit in adding extra protein to an already solid whole foods based diet.

 

a great read on this topic is brad pilon's "how much protein?". the dude's pretty beefy and he eats between 70-120g of protein a day. if you're interested, I can send it to you via e-mail.

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Sure, but that doesn't have anything to do with making training easier or/and bringing about results faster. also, there's some data suggesting that even on an extreme, very low-calorie diet people don't lose any significant lean mass as long as they weight train. so if you want to spare muscle mass, you should continue lifting, not cramming a ton of protein in your diet.

 

Which is odd, as everything I've read in the past that had to do with caloric restriction had always insisted that taking in high protein was essential for sparing muscle optimally, particularly when weight training was being done as well. Lots of people have sworn by Lyle MacDonald's ultra-low calorie /low carb fat loss programs (not that they're vegan-friendly, but apparently effective nonetheless), all of which apparently have been extensively tested to find that high protein intake was essential to their success. Perhaps it has some difference with calorie restricted diets that aren't low-carb, but the general concensus I've always come across is that reducing protein levels while doing weight training and being in a caloric defeceit = faster muscle loss vs. diets with higher protein levels.

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Which is odd, as everything I've read in the past that had to do with caloric restriction had always insisted that taking in high protein was essential for sparing muscle optimally, particularly when weight training was being done as well. Lots of people have sworn by Lyle MacDonald's ultra-low calorie /low carb fat loss programs (not that they're vegan-friendly, but apparently effective nonetheless), all of which apparently have been extensively tested to find that high protein intake was essential to their success. Perhaps it has some difference with calorie restricted diets that aren't low-carb, but the general concensus I've always come across is that reducing protein levels while doing weight training and being in a caloric defeceit = faster muscle loss vs. diets with higher protein levels.

 

sure, a little bit of extra protein while dieting might be a good idea - and I certainly don't mean to be yet another vegan claiming we need teh enzymes instead of a decent amount of protein - my point is that we probably don't need nearly as much of it as a lot of folks believe we do. which seems reasonable even on a commonsense level - we're mostly water, not protein. personally, I've never seen any difference between 100 and 250g of protein, whether dieting or trying to gain. what always helped was more calories and a smarter training regimen, not chugging down 1l of soymilk after workouts (which I used to do for like half a year or so).

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In my opinion 250g protein is needed only if you are 300 LBS roid monster (= pro bodybuilder). Someone around 200 lbs should be fine with ~ 100-150g protein and all above that goes to waist instead of muscles.

 

BTW, I don't think 1 litre of soymilk is even that much. It's just 30g of protein. I can drink that in one minute for a snack.

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In my opinion 250g protein is needed only if you are 300 LBS roid monster (= pro bodybuilder). Someone around 200 lbs should be fine with ~ 100-150g protein and all above that goes to waist instead of muscles.

 

/agree

 

BTW, I don't think 1 litre of soymilk is even that much. It's just 30g of protein. I can drink that in one minute for a snack.

 

yeah, it isn't that much, but I was adding it to an already high-calorie, high-protein (170-180g/day) diet because I was affraid I wasn't getting enough protein. which was not the case, obviously.

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sure, a little bit of extra protein while dieting might be a good idea - and I certainly don't mean to be yet another vegan claiming we need teh enzymes instead of a decent amount of protein - my point is that we probably don't need nearly as much of it as a lot of folks believe we do. which seems reasonable even on a commonsense level - we're mostly water, not protein. personally, I've never seen any difference between 100 and 250g of protein, whether dieting or trying to gain. what always helped was more calories and a smarter training regimen, not chugging down 1l of soymilk after workouts (which I used to do for like half a year or so).

 

And, I do agree that some people don't need excessive protein. I've found that I do best with high potein (35-40% total calories) when I'm working to lose fat and spare muscle, but when I'm trying to gain weight, it's more about total calories than having a massive protein intake (150-200g/day seems to be adequate). I'm sure some people find that really high protein works for them, but of course, everyone is different.

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I'm sure some people find that really high protein works for them, but of course, everyone is different.

 

might be. migh also be the extra calories that usually accompany protein foods.

 

as far as I know, in most cases the culprit is not enough calories, crappy lifting routine, lack of sleep, too much stress, etc. not a lack of protein.

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Has anyone ever tried L-Carnitine?

 

I was thinking of trying something called Quadracarn L-Carnitine by Beverly International (this product has "extra" carnitine.) It sounds like a great product to add, but a lot of things that I've read say that it isn't "proven" to be effective. I just wondered if anyone had experience with it.

 

L-carnitine transfers long-chain fatty acids, such as triglycerides into mitochondria (a cell's energy powerhouse), where they may be oxidized to produce energy. L-carnitine is a very popular supplement that promotes growth and development. It is also used for fat-burning, increasing energy, and improving resistance to muscle fatigue. L-carnitine also helps to build muscle. It is also great in dieting, as it reduces feelings of hunger and weakness. Supposedly, it works even better when paired with caffeine. It targets fat loss better together.

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L Carnitine should be useless if you use beta alanine since it does the same thing without the need to process the amino acids in between. If I'm mixing things up, please correct me but this is how I remember how it goes.

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