To Supplement, or Not to Supplement?

I used to not "believe in supplements": it was at a time I was heavily researching into supplements and I found that certain supplements were marketed on the basis of misinformation.

It actually made me lose trust in some brands.

Eventually, I came across supplement companies that educated their buyers on this premise: you might not need this supplement.

This inspired me to develop Reforged with the intention of developing supplements with our four tenets: Quality, Simplicity, Safety, and Transparency.

WHY WE BELIEVE IN SUPPLEMENTS

Supplements are meant to assist in covering any deficiencies in a certain lifestyle you partake in. This means that supplements are circumstantial: not everybody necessarily NEEDS supplements.

They’re not essential, but we believe that supplements are like puzzle pieces: some don’t belong while others fit perfectly. In this short blog post, I wanted to dive into whether or not you need to supplement. The goal of this is to view different perspectives of supplementation.

Now let’s dive in!

Should I Supplement?

It can be very off-putting to hear that to get fit you need to buy the following: BCAAs, Preworkouts, Glutamine, Protein Powders, Creatine and more. The real fact of the matter is you might not necessarily need these supplements based on your circumstances.

You can get in the best shape of your life through diet and exercise alone.

However, during extreme dieting phases, we lack energy and nutrients to push forward, so this leads to use of supplements to get that extra “push”.

To reinforce this, we will discuss a few reasons why people might need supplements.

MICRONUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES AND HEALTH

Not everyone is going to be able to eat “healthy” 24/7. We can’t always get 3-5 servings of both fruits and vegetables daily. Sometimes we crave sweets and sometimes indulgence is ok. No one is ever perfect in their diet, and this is where supplements come in.

In addition, when we diet for fat loss (calorie deficit), we become nutrient deprived. This means that we are going to be lacking in nutrients, so supplementing with a multivitamin (for example), will actually make our fat loss diet a little more manageable.

I discuss why I believe in Multivitamins and Greens Supplements often, and one of the main reasons is optimal “life performance”. Nutrition is not only supposed to be for body performance, but also mental/mind performance. The mind allows us to physically function, so it should be of primary importance to optimize its health the best we can.

FATIGUE MANAGEMENT

Fatigue is ever so prominent in our society, and it can be due to underlying issues, poor nutrition or lack of protein intake after strenuous activity. For this example, we will use insufficient protein. Lack of protein makes it difficult for us to have energy and recover properly from muscle breakdown (through exercise and other activities).

Protein Powder is an easy way to get an adequate amount of protein in if you find difficulty consuming enough protein. In addition, it is a solid meal replacement for someone going through a fat loss diet.

If you eat diverse forms of protein, you might not necessarily need to consume Protein Powder unless you find it easier to hit your goals for protein consumption.

ENERGY AND MOOD

Although caffeine is classified as a stimulant/drug, you can also consider it an energy-boosting supplement. In addition to caffeine, various preworkouts, nootropics, and carb supplements will provide energy.

Being exhaustive after a long day of work and then slamming preworkout before your evening gym session might just be mandatory to some. It helped me get through a brief phase of “not loving fitness anymore” where I dreaded going to the gym. The preworkout forced me to “pay my dues”.

STRESS REDUCTION AND SLEEP AIDS

There are natural supplements that aid with stress reduction and proper sleep as well. Certain herbs, amino acids, or melatonin supplements can help us calm ourselves so that we can enjoy a good night’s sleep.

Sometimes there are times where we are just struggling, and supplementing with these kind of products for a little bit might seem small, but they do make things easier on us!

To Supplement?

So as you can see here, you might not have initially BELIEVED in supplements (or certain supplements), but I can assure you that many on the market could be a priority dependent on the lifestyle you choose to have.

Supplements magnify who you are: if you have your training and nutrition in check, you can optimize with supplements.

If you have any questions or additional comments, please feel free to comment below or direct message us @thereforged on all social media platforms.

Until next time, legion. Go out and crush it!