The Supplements I recommend for a PRIME BODY
I recommend keeping it simple in the beginning with just a Protein-Powder and a good quality Omega 3 fish oil. These are what I believe to be the 2 most important supplements to optimise your health and help you on the journey towards your PRIME.
Technically you could argue that Protein Powder isn’t really a supplement since ‘Protein’ its one of 3 entire macronutrients (The other two being Fat and Carbohydrate) and it’s touted as the most important of the three. A protein shake can more accurately be seen as a helpful snack to help balance your macronutrient ratio. It’s such a useful cost-effective addition to a persons diet to help them reach adequate daily protein intake. People not reaching adequate protein intake is one of the biggest hurdles to improving their body composition (increasing lean tissue and decreasing fat ) and overall transformation.
Another more common hurdle is the over-consumption of calories. Increasing protein intake can help with this too: Protein is more satiating than carbohydrates –meaning it makes you feel fuller. Protein also requires more energy (calories) to be digested compared to carbs and fats. Win/Win.
*The importance of GOOD QUALITY protein is discussed further down the page so keep reading.Omega 3 Fish Oil : The most important factors to consider when choosing an omega 3 supplement are
a) Quality. Even ‘good’ fatty acids are bad for you if they are rancid or are contaminated with heavy metals for instance.
b) What is the actual content of EPA and DHA of the capsule or liquid you’re taking? (these are the amazing fatty acids of Omega 3 fats). If the ratios of EPA and DHA aren’t upward of 50-60%, find new ones.
c) Plant-based omegas 3 capsules don’t cut it. They contain ALA which must be converted by our bodies into the brain healthy EPA and DHA fatty acids. However the conversion is so poor that you will never get enough without extremely high intake.
*ALA ~ DHA 0.5-5% conversion , ALA~EPA 1-10%conversion. Don’t waste your time or money on itI recommend taking a fish oil that has vitamin D included in it. If yours does not, then you should take a separate vitamin D supplement over the winter months or potentially all year if you limit your sun exposure excessively.
After prioritising the 2-3 mentioned above, if you have the flexibility to add additional supplements to your regime, these are what I recommend.
4. I also recommend a pre-bed supplement consisting of Zinc, Magnesium and one or more calming compounds like L-theanine, Ashwaganda root, 5-HTP.
Magnesium is one of the most useful minerals involved in over 300 enzymatic processes in our body. Zinc is an important one for the immune system as well as protein synthesis (muscle building) and is great at optimising our sex hormones.
My favourites for this, which I’ll often rotate is ZZZZ from Form
and Unplug by Motion Nutrition
5. Another supplement everyone should take is creatine. It is not just for body-builders –as is commonly assumed. Interestingly recent research has indicated it's also great for brain health and can have some cognitive enhancing benefits. So although I recommend EVERYONE should dedicate a few hours of the week to resistance training, creatine can benefit you even if you aren’t lifting weights. I put a 5 gram scoop in my protein powder daily. As long as the supplement is ‘creatine monodrate’ you cant really go wrong with where you source this powder.
WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS MANAGED
Lastly, if it’s affordable to you, I recommend getting regular full panel blood tests in order to identify any nutrient deficiencies unique to you. This is especially important if you are vegan or vegetarian as deficiencies are far more likely and extreme. I also get my sex hormones checked 2-3 times a year via simple pin prick tests. I think of these as great predictors or recovery and stress but also the canary down the mine for a bunch of other ailments.
Checking your sex hormones are optimal will ensure you’re squeezing the most amount of potential out your physical training as well as boosting your mood (and sex-life). In NZ I go to my G.P for these tests but in the U.K I order my test from OPTIMALE.
Women in the UK can use THRIVA.
Most westernised countries will have their own similar order-online-home-testkits that you can google.
Check below for my Protein-Powder and Omega 3 fish oil brand recommendations:
FORM NUTRITION
FORM NUTRITION have a range of different Protein-Powder. I highly recommend their ‘Performance Protein’ range (any flavour) as is contains a good amount of Leucine and most plant-based protein powders lack enough.
Leucine is the most important amino acid (building blocks of protein) for muscle protein synthesis (muscle growth).
Unfortunately it is an all or nothing principle: If you don’t achieve the 2.5-3.0g threshold of Leucine from a shake – Or any meal of the day for that matter – Your body will not switch into an ‘Anabolic’ / muscle and tissue building phase. The alternative is that you body spends longer in the reciprocal stage of ‘catabolism’ where in is continually breaking down tissue to recycle amino acids.
In short: the more anabolic phases you can switch into during a day the more lean tissue you can build and/or maintain.
*Obviously you want to do this without consuming more calories than your current goal. Hence why protein is the most important macronutrient target to reach.
If you prefer and tolerate whey protein, this will always contain enough leucine too.
I prefer their Omega 3 pills that contain vitamin D3 for winter time.
Read More about the importance of Vitamin D in this blog I originally wrote for Bare Biology.
