Fitness Nutrition Planning | The Facts About Supplements

When you consider how important good nutrition is to fitness, it is difficult to understand why many people, who are interested in bodybuilding and training, pay little attention to the food they eat.

One reason is that when you read any of the top fitness magazines, almost every page is full of information about nutritional supplements making big claims that are hard to ignore.

They show you very convincing "evidence" for the claims they make for the range of powders and tablets. In fact, they almost make it seem that food is a lesser substitute for their "perfect formulations".

Let's take one of the very popular supplements, branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) as an example. Most people have heard of these but don't really know what they are - but they sound very impressive and important.

BCAAs is the term used to describe three essential amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, and valine) which together make up about one-third of our muscles.

When you exercise, BCAAs are broken down within the muscles to supply energy. They are particularly important during long periods of exercise (more than 25 minutes) when the body uses BCAAs as its primary source of energy.

So you would think that taking BCAAs in the form of a supplement would make sense. At least that's what the makers want you to think. But the problem is that the supplements are made up of synthetic BCAAs and these are not as easily absorbed by your body as the BCAAs found naturally in protein rich foods like eggs, meat and whey protein powder.

So what this means is that only a small amount of the BCAAs contained in the supplements is actually utilized; the rest is totally wasted. The same is true for lots of the hyped-up supplements that the magazines want you to buy.

The question has to be, why are they making the claims they do?

And there is only one reason for this: they are making a fortune at your expense.

When you look at who is behind the magazines, you will see that several of them are owned by supplement companies or sell many pages of advertising to them - so there are clearly vested interests.

But this article is not designed to bash the supplement companies. It is designed to provide information on the value of good nutrition and to help you get real results from your training.

So Should I Take Any Supplements?

Vitamins and minerals that occur naturally in food are much more easily absorbed by the body than those contained in supplements, so you are much better to ensure that you eat a really good balanced diet.

However, a daily multi-vitamin and mineral supplement containing the recommended daily allowances (RDA) can serve as a safeguard against a less than perfect diet and is very unlikely to cause any ill-effects.

Do I Need Antioxidants?

You have probably heard of antioxidants but do you know what they do? Antioxidants are vitamins and minerals that neutralize the harmful free radicals that are created as a by-product of metabolism. In this way they help prevent damage to the heart, arteries and other tissues.

During exercise the rise in body temperature and increase in respiration levels increases the rate of free radical production and more antioxidants are needed to keep these in check.

Antioxidants include vitamins C, E and beta-carotene (found in a wide range of fruits and veg such as carrots) and the minerals manganese, selenium, copper and zinc. The RDAs of all of these nutrients are found in a good, balanced diet and there is little evidence to support the need for supplementation.

Again, a general purpose multi-vitamin and mineral supplement will make good any shortfall.

However, achieving a perfectly balanced fitness nutrition plan is a challenge and can be time consuming and difficult to do without expert assistance.

So, if you are serious about your training and fitness, it is well worth considering retaining the services of a personal nutritionist or subscribing to a scientifically developed service such as plan:one to make certain that your fitness nutrition plan is tailored to suit your personal requirements exactly.