Investing in supplements can be a powerful step towards achieving your health and fitness goals. However, it’s crucial to have realistic expectations.
Supplements aren’t magic bullets; they’re designed to supplement a solid foundation of proper nutrition, consistent training, and adequate rest.
While consistent effort is the ultimate key to success, are your supplements actually contributing to your progress?
Discover the tell-tale signs that your investment is paying off and helping you get closer to your desired outcomes.
Fat Burners
The effects of a thermogenic fat burner are generally immediate as the stimulants they typically contain start working within 30-60 minutes.
The effect they have on the central nervous system (CNS) means you typically experience feelings of heightened energy, alertness, awareness, mood, wakefulness, endurance and performance, which can give you that extra impetus to train harder or longer.
Thermogenic fat burners help to burn additional calories, predominantly from stored fat, by increasing your metabolism, which typically raises your body temperature, even at rest.
When taken before exercise, the rise in body temperature can increase sweating during your session.
These active ingredients also boost your energy expenditure when you exercise, especially at higher intensities or longer durations. Moreover, these supplements may include ingredients that may help reduce your appetite and control cravings.
When combined with a calorie-controlled diet and exercise, you should start to see a more noticeable and consistent decrease in body weight and body fat percentage over time. This is a gradual process, and the supplement is intended to aid this, not be the sole driver.
Pre-Workouts
Much like a thermogenic fat burner, the tell-tale signs that a pre-workout supplement are instant and undeniable.
The inclusion of stimulants like caffeine get to work quickly to boost alertness and energy. You should start to feel these effects within 15-30 minutes, making you feel more “switched on” for your workout.
Ingredients like L-citrulline or arginine can enhance blood flow, leading to a more significant “muscle pump” during and after your workout.
Ingredients like beta-alanine can help improve your endurance by buffering the effect of lactic acid on muscles. You might find that you can push harder for longer, delaying the point when fatigue sets in during your training session.
Some pre-workouts also contain creatine and other ingredients that can contribute to short-term improvements in strength and power during your workout.
Protein Powders
As protein provides the building blocks (in the form of amino acids) that your muscles need to grow bigger and stronger after weight lifting, the major tell-tale sign that a supplement is working is an increase in muscle size. Your muscles should also start feeling firmer over time.
You might also start to see more definition in your physique as your muscles get bigger and more shapely and you start losing body fat.
A less obvious indication that your protein powder is giving you a return on your investment is less muscle soreness after hard training sessions. You should also start to recover more quickly between sessions when your protein intake is on point.
If you’re using a meal replacement protein powder, you should feel fuller for longer and potentially experience fewer cravings.
Creatine
Creatine is another effective supplement that doesn’t take long to start experiencing benefits. Creatine monohydrate is the most common form of creatine available today, and it is considered by many to be the most effective.
Adding a creatine product to your supplement plan will increase the amount of creatine you have stored in muscle cells.
Boosting creatine stores means your muscle cells can produce more energy, letting you train harder for longer.
The immediate impact is increased strength and a higher work capacity, which means you may notice that you can lift heavier weights or perform explosive movements with more power, particularly in short bursts of high-intensity activity.
Creatine can help your muscles regenerate energy more efficiently, which positively impacts strength endurance by allowing you to perform more repetitions or sustain high-intensity efforts for slightly longer.
It can also support the muscle pumps you experience from a pre-workout as creatine draws water into muscle cells, which can lead to a slight increase in body weight and a feeling of fuller muscles.
Important considerations
It is important to keep in mind that everyone responds differently to supplements due to various factors such as genetics, training histories and the rate at which your body metabolises ingredients like caffeine.
As such, these effects can vary from one person to the next and deliver different results. The key is taking consistently over a period and in combination with a suitable diet and individualised exercise plan to see noticeable results.
It’s always a good idea to discuss your supplement use with a doctor, registered dietitian, or certified sports nutritionist, especially if you have any underlying health conditions or are taking other medications.
Author: Pedro van Gaalen
When he’s not writing about sport or health and fitness, Pedro is probably out training for his next marathon or ultra-marathon. He’s worked as a fitness professional and as a marketing and comms expert. He now combines his passions in his role as managing editor at Fitness magazine.
