Supplements - Page 5

Got deets on piracetam?

A two week regimen of piracetam was found to enhance verbal memory in healthy college students in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. It has become popular as a cognitive enhancement drug among students.

Sounds interesting. Anyone have firsthand experience?

+1

I was once told by a very wise and experienced man, "If you have to take supplements, your diet sucks. You should be getting everything you need from real food." For the 99.99999% of us that aren't elite athletes, supplements really are unnecessary. Unless your training and nutrition are already as good as possible, spending hundreds of dollars to get minuscule benefits from supplements is silly.

I can eat only so much. I need my protein shakes.

No first hand experience, but I know that you need to take lots of choline with any *.tam nootropic since it makes your brain burn its reserves, thus giving horrible headaches.

PreWO: Scoop of ON Whey Gold and Animal Pak Multi
Post: Banana and another scoop of ON Whey

Need to get some fish oil, waxy maize, and creatine.

Yup. Works. I'll try to get a link to a few studies. My friend (mentioned above) has actually tested it in his lab.

I take/took it in conjunction with Lechitin and Tyrosine.

The posts seem to be oriented to general health which is fine, but I am assuming you are interested in supplements that will enhance muscle growth. The only one that has been shown to be worthwhile is creatine. Other pre-workout products provide energy but you can get that from coffee or a Red Bull. Look into products by BSN, the #1 supplement maker on bodybuilding sites. Specifically NO Explode (pre) and Cell Mass (post). You can add a good whey protein, but, honestly, most people who eat a balanced diet get enough protein from their normal diet. Also, if you are looking to put on muscle you must work out hard, eat a lot (in small, frequent meals) and get plenty of rest, because the rest period is where the growth takes place. Finally, if you are skinny, you really need to eat more; if you are overweight, do some cardio. If you can put on a solid 5-10 pounds of muscle in a year, you're doing well.

You can still readily buy ephedrine (not ephedra) quite easily, it just can't be marketed as a weight loss supp.

I've tinkered with quite a bit.

Right now, it's pared down to:

- Fish Oil
- BCAA
- Creatine
- Digestive Enzyme

The fish oil gets me a lot of the good fats I miss out on since most fish is too pricey for me to regularly eat. The BCAA powder cuts down on the amount of protein I need to consume, which makes 200+ g/day of protein doable. Creatine is inexpensive and effective enough to keep around.

The digestive enzymes are probably the top supplement for me on a personal level. I've always been prone to bloating and these things work wonders, especially on the WD.

I'm sure this is a noob-ish question, but is it a 1-1 exchange between Protein and BCAA's? Do 30g of BCAA's = 30g protein?

basically, yes.

NO. BCAAs consist only of leucine, isoleucine, and valine.

Where to KOP?

Look at my first post on the topic.