Essential daily supplements?
 

Just about to get back into a decent work out regime and was wondering what ppl take for their general health on the daily?

Currently I take omega 3-6-9, vitamin d, c,e, multi, glucosamine, and additional fiber

I've heard good things about fish oils, green tea extract, flax seed oil?

all you need is a good multi-vatimin.

I eat lots of McDonalds with some Burger King thrown in for good measure... seems to be working for me. I've been looking into protein powders recently though just haven't pulled the trigger on anything yet.

Berz out.

IMO, there are three absolute essentials you should take, unless you eat a perfect diet.

1) Fish Oil - at least 3500-4000mg of combined EPA/DHA per day. With a high quality product, this is about 5-6 caps a day. Don't buy cheap stuff or you'll have to take like 13 caps a day!
2) Greens+ - a full serving every single morning
3) Good multi-vitamin. Quest Super or something along those lines.

this stuff is amazing

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/5890/ascenta.jpg

you've got the right idea. flax seed oil and fish oils are a good source of omegas, just get them in pill form to avoid the taste.

multi vits
omega 369
cla

Don't bother with omega 6 and 9 - we get plenty of that in our diets due to the prolific use of vegetable oil in cooking these days. Mega dosing omega 3 is a good idea.

The studies done on CLA are sketchy at best, in terms of weight loss. They make some pretty hefty claims, but I haven't heard much in terms of results from real people. You do have to mega-dose it (more than 6g per day) so that could explain why. Not many people are willing to take enough of a supplement to get any effects from it.

what is CLA?

skinny can u recomend any certain brand of fish oil or just go looking for one along the guidelines u laied out in your first post?

just curious as to why your taking glucosamine?

When I was in Canada I bought President's Choice brand "Omega 3 Body". It contains 700mg of EPA/DHA per capsule, so you only need to take 5-6 caps a day to get the full mega-dose. Look for the bronze coloured bottle.

When buying fish oil, make sure to get the freshest bottle you can (check the expiry dates). Also, keep it refrigerated or even frozen as it's being stored. I keep a few 360-cap bottles in my freezer, and just empty about 50 of them into a smaller bottle for use throughout the week. During summers in HK, I can't do that at all, so have to take them right from the freezer. Also, for best absorption, you want to take fish oil with a carb, as it is preferentially oxidized by the liver. This is only an issue if you're on a low-carb diet usually. Basically, take it with food.

CLA = conjugated linoleic acid. Some studies show that mega-dosing it can really help with fat loss, but all studies were done on obese people, so it is likely that any improvement in their diets would be responsible for their results.

If you are truly interested:

Over the span of 3 or 4 days, note what you have been eating and see what your intake of vitamins and minerals are. You can buy some programs that help you track it as well. You would be surprised to see that you don't need anything. Multi-vitamins may be good but you are likely overdosing some vitamins (which usually isn't that much of an issue).

CLA may help reduce body fat but not overall weight (make you more lean). It actually isn't really recommended in obese people because it may increase the risk of diabetes in overweight people.

so i went out and bought both the OMEGA3 fish oil, same brand as you refered to skinny, as well as Flax oil caps

although they are both omega3 they are different correct? maybe just mix both and take like a half dose of each?

EDIT* nevermind found my answers, both are good and both should be taken in full portions

Return the flax oil if you can, there's no point in taking both. Flax oil's omega 3's have to be converted to your body, and you can't really mega dose.

If weight loss is your goal, all you need is the fish oil. Take 6 a day with food.

so like 2-2-2 with each main meal?

sure

quick q to anyone here since they seem to ignore me on bodybuilding.com...

when a suplement is suppose to be say.. 3G a day, should you be taking 3G all at once or over the day?

mostly concerned with this regarding the fish oil and CLA..

Always spread it out, especially with fats that can be burned as fuel easily

is centrium a good brand

so i also followed skinnypupp's advice.
i am new to taking supplements, but these fish oil caps are huge. do you guys take them with meals? or take them separately after meals? or does it not matter? =x

post 11

What caps did you get? How much is in each? Look at EPA/DHA, not total oil per cap.

The easiest way to do it is split the dosage into your 2 biggest meals. So if you have to take 7 a day, take 4 in the morning with breakfast, and 3 with lunch or dinner.

And BTW, the fish burps go away with time :)

i took cla when i was losing weight the first time but I was also stacking ECA at the time. I stopped taking the CLA's because I think ECA's worked better.

animal pack is good. Right now, I'm taking progressive multivitamins. They are cheap and i've seen decent reviews on line.

PC brand, bronze bottle. 400/300 EPA/DHA, pretty much what you bought before, never seen capsules like those :eek:. For starters, would it be best to begin with 1 for each meal the first week then bump up to 2 per meal?

Reading up on the net about side effects seemed frightening.