Snacks #011: Five Supps for fitness performance

Unless it’s one of the five supplements outlined here, it’s not helping your fitness performance ⬇️ ⬇️

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But first, I want to clear up a misconception:

Myth: Your nutrients should always come from food rather than supplements

Truth: Food first, but not food only.

For example, it can be incredibly impractical or even impossible to get an effective dose of nutrients like creatine, omega-3s or other micronutrients found in small amounts in food. To get 3-5g of creatine (a typical daily dose for sports enhancement), you would need to eat 1-2kg of meat or seafood. I wouldn’t be recommending that anyone try to eat 14kg of meat per week from a practical, financial or health perspective.

This is where supps can come in very handy...

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Foundations of focus:

When it comes to supps, my primary recommendation is to concentrate your efforts where you should first, in this order:

1. Energy Balance (bulk, maintenance, recomp, shred)
2. Macronutrients (protein, fat, carbs)
3. Micronutrition & Hydration
4. Nutrient timing & frequency

And then…

5. The final piece of the puzzle (not the first): Supplementation

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In a nutshell:

Here are the five supplements that are scientifically established to provide ergogenic benefits when it comes to your training and fitness:

• Creatine (I recommend this for all women, in most cases, even if they don't train)
• Caffeine (I recommend for all training goals, in most cases, to boost performance)
• Nitrate (recommended for higher intensity, intermittent or shorter-duration sports eg team-sport exercise of 12–40 min in duration)
• Beta-alanine (can improve tolerance for maximal exercise bouts lasting 30 s to 10 min)
• Bicarbonate (can enhance high-intensity exercise performance as an extracellular (blood) buffer)

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The takeaway? 

Time to have a look at your supplementation! And if you're not at stage five in your foundations of nutrition yet, where can you focus your energy to move the needle?

For a more detailed breakdown of each of these supps, and a walkthrough of how to calculate your energy, macronutrient and fuelling needs for your exercise goals, I recommend diving into FUELLED: my sports-nutrition mini-course for the everyday active woman to get the most from your training.