help with supplements

[lab181]

so heres my current position

ive been working out consistently since sept 2006. originally around 23-24% bf. as of last month, that was reduced to 16%. weighing in around 158 right now.

my goal: maintain bf under 10% while hovering around 165-175lbs.

plan of action: now that i am pretty used to the gym, i want to bulk up until i hit 175-ish. try to build as much muscle mass as possible and limit fat gain. then, ill go through a cutting cycle to get my bf under 10. and repeat if necessary!!

my main q:

to get where i am now, ive been using whey protein and betagen. i want to add a few more supplements to keep things rolling in the right direction.

i have bought fish oil capsules, zma, and hydroxycut.

can i take whey (pwo), betagen (3x a day), fish oil (with each meal), zma (at bedtime), and hydroxycut (before each meal) together?

ideally, the whey, betagen, and zma will help preserve protein synthesis and build mass.

the fish oil is just darn good for your body.

and the hydroxycut will limit fat gains during the bulking cycle...and maybe even help keep my metabolism up to a point where i gain tons of muscle mass and lose a few bf percentage points.

...
basically, thats my reasoning. but i need advice from people who know about this stuff. thanks in advance!

[Terry Monk]

Before you put all your eggs in the supplement basket, what does your diet look like? All you mention is supplement this, supplement that. There is no magic pill. To gain size with limited increase in bf you need to eat A LOT and a lot of the right foods. You need to time your carb intakes (nutrient timing). You need to make sure you're getting plenty of good fat, you need to not only do weights, but also some HIIT.
The main thing, this is your first post and you're asking about nothing but supplements. They are supplements, they are to supplement your diet. They won't do shit if your diet isn't in order. Now obviously you've done quite well for yourself and for that I commend you. However you're now trying to take it to the next level and I want you to start out right. Forget about the supplements right now and focus on your diet. You've got a long hard road ahead of you and this is definitely the place to be to learn. Stick around, read and learn.

[I. Kay]

Check out some of the articles from John Berardi in the link in my signature. Or check out this link:
http://www.alanaragon.com/my-book.html

Alan knows his shit. You read that and you'll have plenty of answers!

If you want to grow and limit fat gain, it's going to be all about your diet. Supplements are add-ons, while your nutrition is the key factor. It's like buying gold rims for your Honda. Save the special features for when you have a Porshe... or you're wasting your money.

Drop the Betagen. Buy some regular old creatine monohydrate (get the micronized if you need to for digestion) and mix it with some gatorade powder. HMB is a joke, and creatine is cheap stuff... not expensive "custom-designed" stuff. I think you'll find you'll do fine with the creatine and whey (which contains plenty of the aminos).

Thumbs up on the fish oil and zma though. Why on these and not other stuff? Because I see supplements as providing the things we don't/can't get from our typical food, but that we SHOULD be getting. Creatine, zinc, magnesium, omega-3's are all on that list.

[Cynic]

I've never heard of betagen, so I took the time to look it up. I'm not impressed. I contains vitamin C. Well, guess what, most multivitamins have vitamin C and Vitamin E.

Creatine? I can get 2000g for less than the price of betagen.
L-Glutamine? whey already has it, at least mine does, 4g/scp.
Taurin: Not sold on it. They suppliment infant formulawith Taurin, especially premies. This, from Wikipedia, should say it all: Recent studies show that taurine supplements taken by mice on a high-fat diet reduced their overall weight. Studies have yet to be done on the effect of taurine on obesity in humans.

IOW, they don't know the benefit to humans for fat loss.

I would drop hydroxy cut and betagen, replace with creatine monohydrate and a good, complete whey. Keep the rest.

[AFI82]

My wife tried out hydroxycut a few weeks ago. Initially it made her feel very sick to her stomach. At about the 2 week mark it still made her a little queasy, but not as bad. She mentioned to her doctor that she was taking it. The doctor told her that it could cause long-term heart damage. That was enough info for us to throw away the rest of the bottle.

I'm not saying not to take it, but maybe look around to find some more info on it.

I've known one other person that has taken it, and he successfully lost weight while taking it. He also had his diet in order, lifted, and ran several miles a day. So it's hard to say if the hydroxycut alone made the difference.

[Alan Aragon]

Originally Posted by Ian Kay

Check out some of the articles from John Berardi in the link in my signature. Or check out this link:
http://www.alanaragon.com/my-book.html

Alan knows his shit. You read that and you'll have plenty of answers!

If you want to grow and limit fat gain, it's going to be all about your diet. Supplements are add-ons, while your nutrition is the key factor. It's like buying gold rims for your Honda. Save the special features for when you have a Porshe... or you're wasting your money.

Great advice, Ian... And I'm glad you're enjoying my book.