Villans Bodybuilding Tips - Saving Money on Supps
So I though I would create this post as it never ceases to amaze me how many people pay way too much for their supplements.
When you start to take your body building seriously, supplements can really help with the recovery process. Especially when you have a busy schedule and find it hard to eat 5 meals a day.
I talk to people all the time in the gym and it surprises me at how many of them actually think if you pay more for the big brands you get a better quality product. However this is simply not true.
Big brand supps are often loaded with artificial sweeteners too ensure that everyone will like them.
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Me personally I would rather look for alternatives if I can save some money, cause I'm a major tight arse when it comes to opening my wallet.
In the process of looking for alternatives I stumbled across a company called Bulk Nutrients.
I have to admit I wasn't sure if I should give them a go or not, and I'm not too big on shopping online with companies I never heard of. But I decided to make a leap of faith.
Looking back now almost 2 years later it was the best decision I made for my health and fitness.
I had moved away from products, many of which contained acesulfame potassium(which is as bad for you as aspartame) to raw products with a bit of sucralose as a sweetener(optional I might add)
So lets look at something like your BCAA's
The following product is BPI sports BCAA's
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At the popular supplement stores here in adelaide it costs $45 bucks aud.
Now lets look at the ingredients.
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Now this product is 30 servings, so a serving size is 10 grams and per serving you 5 grams of BCAA's. The rest of it is fillers, and surprise surprise good ol acesulfame potassium is in there.
Now lets compare this to the BCAA's I get.
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I can get 1 kg of this stuff for $39 bucks, 6 bucks less than BPI BCAA's
Now lets look at the ingredients.
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As you can see for my 5 gram serving size, I actually get 5 grams of raw BCAA's.
For 1 kg of the stuff I get 200 servings, that's like over 6 times more and I'm paying less for it.
Now BCAA's aren't the most tasty thing in raw form, and considering I drink them 2 - 3 times a day I get a flavouring packet also.
https://www.bulknutrients.com.au/products/amino-acid-flavourings.html
I also get the essential ammino acids, 1kg. They recommend using one flavoring packet per 1kg of aminos, but I use one flavoring packet per 2kgs of aminos. It tastes quite nice I might add.
Now some might say well how do you know your getting a quality product, well the proof is in the pudding. I can train much harder than the other guys in the gym and my muscles repair much faster. plus as I'm getting my aminos much cheaper, I can consume more of them each day as it's not as costly as other products.
I really noticed a difference switching to these products, and would never go back.
So there you have it, I hope I can convince others to look for those alternatives. Now I'm in Australia, so I'm not sure about the companies outside Aus.
In europe region I guess this place looks ok > https://www.bulkpowders.co.uk/branched-chain-amino-acid.html
In the US This place looks ok > https://purebulk.com/bcaa-branched-chain-amino-acids-powder-instantized/
These are only quick searches too, there may be better options.
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The best way to save money on supplements is to simply not buy them. If you are sleeping, eating whole foods, and doing multi-join compound barbell movements you should not need supplements
Yeah I can't argue with that, but if you don't get the time to eat 5 meals per day then supps can really help.
Ha ha, well I can, and do easily eat over 1000kcal in a sitting. Cheers
Thank you for this!
I have recently started going to the gym myself and have begun to look into what supplements I can use to help me along my way. This has definitely helped!
No worries glad I could help, I will share many more of my tips along the way.
Maybe follow me and if you have a question maybe I can answer it for you :)
You'll definitely want to check out this stack.. very cost effective:
It is true you don't need the best brands. They may hold patents, but for me, something as simple as leucine is enough.
Bodybuilders are not very clever people in my experience. Years have passed since The China Study discovered the fast, we don't need as much protein. Yet, it changed nothing about bulking and supplementing it. You just need extra leucine, isoleucine, valin and sometimes glycin might be also helpful. But you don't need to take more than 12% of your energy intake from proteins.
Yeah m8 u don't need the fancy packaging ;)
I have tried many different brands over the last 5 years, so I know enough.
I'm a programmer so I'm fairly intelligent, and have done alot of research into health and fitness for my own personal benefit.
Leucine is not enough on it's own, and amino acids are just precursors to molecules in our body. Which there are way too many to talk about now. I will do other posts on supplmentation.
Leucine Isoleusine and valine are the three branched chain ones, they should be used together.
essential aminos are benefitial also.
We are only scratching the surface of our complex bodies with science, so even science knows little about this stuff.
How much you take depends on how hard you train, I used to lift fairly heavy and only have a protein shake or two a day and would still be sore a week later. Now with my aminos in the mix I can recover in 3 days for a given muscle group.
amino acids come from all sorts of food also, so having a wide range of meats veggies fruits and legumes are essential.
Thank you for the answer. Your presence on Stemmit makes you an exceptional among bodybuilders by itself.
The reason I take only leucine is - it is rare and if taken in a greater dose, it remains in the blood and works as hormone blocking burning of muscles. As a result of that, your body preserves muscles even in a sittuation it would partly burn them. Apart from supplementation, only fasting or intermittent fasting makes body release leucine into blood.
A mentioned glycine, which is important for connective tissues and bones together with valin. Some might have inefficient intake of these. Calcium and Magnesium play its role too. But that is for bones.
Thanks for the comment, I enjoy talking with fellow gym goers :)
Leucine is actually more abundant in food according according to the US national library of medicine.
Here are some good links:
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/l-isoleucine
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/L-valine
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/L-leucine
I found this quote interesting on leucine
"BCAA, particularly leucine, stimulate protein synthesis"
I guess thats why it's more abundant, but all BCAA's play their role in protein syntheses.
Btw I have followed you ;)
I think you are mixing up health and longevity with optimal conditions for building muscle. You will certainly need a higher protein intake for optimal muscle building, although this should not be confused with requirements for health and longevity. You simply can't have it all and you must find an acceptable balance for your own life. The good news is, it seems .6G per # of bodyweight to .8G seems to be about as much as one needs.
Here is an article you should read if you are interested in this topic
https://bayesianbodybuilding.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/