Increasing strength training- product comparison advice, ple

Look into a natural cleanse, if you're stuck at a number. When I get stuck and/or before I start any new fitness programs, I do a 3 day cleanse to kick start my metabolism and "clean slate" my body. This is just MY personal experience and it's worked for my clients that have tried it.

I personally use a product called Shakeology to cleanse. There are a lot of products for cleansing, I would just make sure whatever is being used is all natural and you're not loading up with chemicals instead of cleaning out.

"Any hints on how to restart weight/fat loss is always welcome as well!"

Hint- Stop with the silly cleanses and quack supplement crap. They will only make the process more expensive. Eat a balanced diet, a reasonable calorie deficit, and excersize.

This.

Look into a natural cleanse, if you're stuck at a number. When I get stuck and/or before I start any new fitness programs, I do a 3 day cleanse to kick start my metabolism and "clean slate" my body. This is just MY personal experience and it's worked for my clients that have tried it.

If it's just your "personal experience" what's the linkage to "my clients who have tried it", it kind implies some sort of professional association.

"Cleanses" do not kick start your metabolism. Eat properly, drink enough water and save your money.

Back to the OP:

I had a look at the GNC supplement you were asking about and noticed that the first ingredient in the label is maltodextrin - basically carbs (it's a flavourless starch commonly used to thicken processed foods)and the nutritional info panel lists 200 cal per scoop (38g carbs). My instinctive reaction is that if you need the extra carbs eat a couple of pieces of fresh fruit.

Unless the supplement is whey, creatine, fish oil, vitamin D, or a multi then it's generally not worth your money.

If you want a performance boost in the weight training room, there are concoctions you can make but it's an expensive initial investment since buying them bulk is more intelligent. The perfect combo currently is beta-alanine, caffeine, citrulline malate (note: the evidence on this particular supplement is quite small, so you'd be taking more of a leap of faith), l-tyrosine, and acetyl-l-carnitine. This will (and should) provide more energy and (hopefully) more repetitions performed with a given weight. This is up to you, of course. I personally don't take it but that is what is most useful as a pre-workout. Pre-made pre-workouts by companies are expensive and filled with unnecessary ingredients.

You can also take the most proven of all supplements and that's creatine. It's dirt cheap and you only need 5g a day. Only downside is that it increases weight on the scale but that isn't anything particularly visible or bad. It just throws a lot of people for a psychological spin.

I'm not particularly fond of supplements by GNC. That whey seems quite expensive for how many servings (I moved it from 3 scoop serving to 1) and how much protein you get per scoop. It also doesn't tell you the processing, so that makes me think it's probably ion-exchanged.

Of course, in the end, this is all for convenience and a small performance boost. You actually don't need any of it if you don't want to spend the money. I personally buy LeanFit whey in Canada from Costco as it is by far the most affordable whey I have ever come across and it's extremely high-quality. The taste is so and so but not a big deal since I mix it with peanut butter.

how do you mix your peanut butter into a shake? i usually just use a blender bottle and would love to put PB in but figure it would just get stuck in the wire ball.

I use a blender bottle as well but I use whipped peanut butter instead of regular or natural. Once I put the milk, chocolate whey, and PB, I shake vigorously for 15-25 seconds. I shake to the point where I can't shake anymore haha. I've noticed that gives me the smoothest consistency.