Supplements

Nattiejean57

This is more for my husband. He is 30 and we are going to really start hitting the gym hard December 1st and he is interested in taking some kind of energy booster/fat burner. Anyone have any suggestions?

kwaters7

Yeah - creatine, whey and glutamine... work a treat!!!

binary_jester

Caffeine and ephedra

edorice

For a pre-workout boost he can check out Jack3d or Fuzion k-akg. They both have caffeine and creatine in them, Jack3d is less expensive. Check online.

lordofultima

Ephedra is probably the key to a proper thermogenic, but it's barred now (in US anyway). Thermogenics in their current legal form are pretty useless in my opinion. For an energy boost before workout, caffeine is simple and highly effective.

bethhoover

I recommend Herbalife Products....Healthy Meal Shake & Herbal Tea Concentrate ( Melts the bodyfat away while giving you antioxidant protection and ENERGY!!!)

introvert

Caffeine + ephedra tend to give most people the shakes. Most products containing ephedra were banned last year due to people not sticking to the products suggested serving. Caffeine can work if you monitor dosage. If you plan to go that route caffeine anhydrous would work the best. It would be tough to suggest anything without knowing the goals. Mass? Strength? Fat loss? For energy, a good preworkout would be USP Labs' Jack3d. Lipo 6 Black is also a decent energy/fat loss catalyst.

Most recently I tried "Cytolean v2" from Gaspari Nutrition. It was the first product from them I've tried and it made me a huge fan. Cytolean helped me get past a plateau I had for close to a year.

Regardless of what supplement you go with, BCAAs and protein are an absolute must regardless of whether he's trying to lose weight or gain muscle.

binary_jester

I take Bronkaid. It helps with my breathing.

Nattiejean57

Thanks for all the input, He wants to loose some of beer gut (suppose he would have to stop drinking beer hahaha) build some muscle and get some definition but nothing too crazy

kwaters7

Hiya

That can be done 2 ways then.

My way was to strip off all the weight I wanted through heavy cardio then I started the strength work and really upped my calories but was very careful that it was clean and largely protein based. That way, I knew when I was gaining, that it was muscle and not fat. Others swear by gaining more muscle and therefore turning your body into a calorie burning furnace (weight lifting doesn't burn as much in a session as pure cardio - but the effects go on for hours and hours).

The complexity comes from the fact that your body isnt very good at building muscle and losing weight at the same time- you need a calorie excess for one and a deficit for the other. Ie you have to either eat less and do more cardio to strip away fat (by creating a deficit) or be more strength focused, lift and eat more to gain muscle which then burns extra calories. It can be a bit of a conundrum.

One thing is for sure and there are plenty of studies that confirm it out there, alcohol and muscle building do not go hand in hand at all. With cardio you can run off the excess I suppose but when you weight train, the muscles get torn and need to repair when growing- the alcohol stops the amino acids etc doing their job and actually sets you back big style. From personal experience, it is a really nasty feeling and a mistake I never want to repeat.

Glutamine stops the body basically using muscle to repair itself and is very useful if cardio is still being done, creatine is great for helping performance (altho you need to drink 8 glasses of water a day) and whey is good as it's low carb & high protein (can be used pre and post workout).

Hope this helps, i'm no expert but if it's definition, then a strength based program will work ten times better than cardio...

Nattiejean57

I suppose i should clarify a tad, he was in a car accident 2 yr s ago and broke his knee so his lower half is only worked out with a trainer