Thank you for checking out The Community Conversation, brought to you by Prototype Training Systems, home of CrossFit Prototype! This episode of The Community Conversation is a NUTRITION EDITION! Typically, The Community Conversation highlights a different member of the Prototype Community each week and allows them to tell their story, share their life experience, and communicate their perspective on all things fitness. For this episode, we have two of our Prototype Nutrition Coaches dropping some Nutrition knowledge bombs!
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For this nutrition edition of the Community Conversation, Prototype Nutrition Coach Jon Collette and Prototype Nutrition’s Registered Dietitian, Sam Russo will be discussing Our Top 3 Supplement Recommendations. If you’re looking to learn more about nutrition for yourself or pick up some good eating habit tips, you will want to check this out!
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Jon 0:02
All right, neighbor tuning in to the community conversation brought to you by prototype Training Systems home of crosser prototype, Tim and I are back with another nutrition episode to help provide you with some education and strategies to better your nutrition. while still having a social life. There’s a lot of misinformation on nutrition, we aim to provide you with some clarity. Today, we want to talk about three supplements that the average person could take and benefit in the gym. So I’m Sam, before we even dive into supplementation, you know, where that would actually be applicable? Um, what, uh, why why supplement why even consider taking a supplement, you know, what rhyme or reason would, you know, we want to have before even trying something.
Sam 0:51
So I think the main reason to supplement would be that, like the diet is deficient in something. So a lot of times we see that vegetarians or vegans will supplement with B 12. Because it’s not found as commonly an animal or in non animal proteins. You might supplement with a specific vitamin or mineral, if you know you’re lacking in it, for example, iodine is that it’s assault, that we’re like supplementing with that on on a regular basis. But I think the ones that we’re talking about here today are things that aren’t necessarily like needed in great quantities by the body. But by taking more of them, you could see major effects in the gym with regards to recovery, and muscle synthesis. And just really anything that would help performance like the three that we’re going to talk about today are beneficial in extra quantities more so than you would get in like your normal diet. That sounds about right. Yeah, right on. Cool, john, I feel like we should start. And you should tell everyone, maybe all three off the bat, because it sounds like you supplement with all three of the things that we’re going to talk about today.
Jon 2:03
Yes, I do. So three things that I have, my diet will kind of explain. Some of the benefits of them are one, which a lot of you probably take, which is most common is going to be whey protein as a supplement to increase our protein intake. To is going to be we’re going to talk about vitamin D, why that’s important, and how that is going to benefit you as an athlete. And three, which a lot of people don’t really know what this is, but your body naturally makes it is creatine monohydrate. So those are the three things that I take personally on a daily basis to help me perform well in the gym, and recover, we’re gonna kind of dive into some of the benefits of each one of those. But before we start, like Samson, the beginning, all those are non essential, that means that you’re going to, you’re going to get those things your body makes those naturally, well actually buy, it doesn’t make protein naturally, but your body will naturally get vitamin D from the sun, your body naturally made creatine monohydrate, a lot of us are going to get a certain amount of protein from what we eat. But by supplementing with each one of these things, we can get optimal levels, which can help us with muscle building recovery, and so on. So, Sam, why don’t we start with talking about vitamin D, a little bit beside some in go into with how it’s going to apply to the gym? What are some reasons why someone wants to take vitamin D just for overall health? Yeah, so
Sam 3:38
vitamin D is something that probably everyone should take whether or not you work out. Generally, vitamin D is linked to mood. So I’m sure people have heard about the seasonal was it seasonal affective disorder sad and like common during the winter time. And it’s very common because we don’t get enough vitamin D. in our day. It’s not as commonly found in foods, it’s more so from the sun. So during the winter months are for people with more melanin, it’s much much harder to get vitamin D and for the body to use it. So supplementing with vitamin D is just generally a good thing to do, because deficiencies do lead to like poor recovery, like issues with your like muscles and joints. And then also it has a huge effect on your mood, which then can also hugely affect your sleep. So those are some like the reasons you would take it not specific to the gym, but those are also reasons specific to the gym, that you should take it.
Jon 4:32
Yeah, um, so just go off of what Sam said. So you mentioned vitamin D have an impact on your muscles. So there’s actually some research where they discuss and they’ve applied this to athletes being deficient in vitamin D. and then supplementing with vitamin D. And some of the benefits of supplementing with vitamin D is that it can actually help you with recovery and help you a proper muscle contraction, it can help you be able to recover better, reduced inflammation. So being able to not feel super stiff, so having proper vitamin D levels can help us with our playability I guess, um, but proper vitamin D levels have been linked to being able to run faster, jump higher be more explosive, increased ATP, and a number of different things that are important for us to be able to train hard in the gym so we can be able to increase muscle mass and be able to perform well. So is it is it Alaska, Sam that where they better have a Yeah, they get like two hours or something like that now it’s fun like, and that’s where they have like, they have like a huge link with because of that vitamin D deficiency of depression and things like that. So we also think about not only like how this can help us in the gym, but if we’re not feeling our best, we’re probably also more likely to get into a little bit of a rut where we don’t feel motivated to do things that we know, we want to be doing to better ourselves. So it’s not a magic formula. It’s not anything that’s going to give you incredible gains, but it is something that is going to make you feel better and potentially perform better. If you take it in the you know in the right dosage. So the daily recommendation is, I believe it’s 800 to 1000. Right, Samara is it 6800
Sam 6:40
to 1000 is what I recommend generally,
Jon 6:45
yeah, 800 to 1000, they’ve applied this to athletes and their recommendation for athletes, it’s actually even a little bit higher, it’s 2000 to 5000. And now if you know yourself as like being someone that’s inside all the time, where you’re not getting out in the sun, you might want to go ahead and steer more towards that, but getting at least the bare minimum, I would probably say the bare minimum would be 2000. Just because it’s been shown to be safe. So I wouldn’t recommend something that’s not safe. It personally 3000 on a daily basis, but um, I think the best thing to do is start having it in your in your diet, see how you feel. And there is an upper limit where we don’t want to teach too much of anything. Because Sam, what’s the downside of having too much vitamin D, which is probably pretty hard to have. Yeah, some
Sam 7:36
vitamin D can be like, too high in quantity. And like we can develop vitamin D toxicity. Basically the body just for lack of like, time, I guess, explain everything. But like things start shutting down in the body. And you’ll feel like achy and feverish and all those like normal things that you would feel if you were getting sick like that might be a sign that you’ve taken way too much. That vitamin D does have an upper limit, you don’t want to take like 10,000 views a day that’s like, aggressive. But it’s definitely like something where it’s like, if you feel your mood changing, and you’re more down, like you might be low in vitamin D, like, if you’re feeling super fatigued, you might be low in vitamin D. So you might need to take more than other people. There’s definitely like a handful of people that have some serious effects by taking vitamin D. But the incidence of that is so rare that like, I don’t think by us giving a blanket blanket statement of like, take vitamin D in this quantity would have a huge effect. And if it does affect anyone, please come talk to us. And we’ll tell you how to cut back and eat an appropriate amount. Because vitamin D really does come from the sun. And that’s a major source, if you’re not getting a ton in the diet, unless you’re having like super fatty fish.
Jon 8:47
Right? Yeah, and if you guys ever have any issues, you know, it’s probably always a good idea to talk to your doctor versus just taking a supplement because you heard something. So don’t take even the words that we say. Right, but anyways, moving on. So the next one that I talked about would be whey protein. So most people take this, but I don’t know if everyone fully understands why this is important to have. So Sam, what is the benefit of having whey protein versus having other protein sources? Because there’s a lot of different ones out there.
Sam 9:25
Yeah, so whey protein is one super convenient. It’s something that we talked about when we did our protein podcast that like protein is probably the least convenient macronutrient. So to have whey protein and like a simple shake, makes it easy to get a high quantity of protein. Also, it’s really just his protein, there’s no other macronutrients in it. So if you’re someone who’s trying to count macros or hit specific goals, then having the whey protein is an easy way to get protein in the diet. There’s also some research about this actually like animal protein versus plant based proteins, and like how they affect the body and we know that the body uses whey protein really well. And it’s like really great for muscle recovery and muscle synthesis. So I think, and we’ve talked about this before, john, not on the podcast, but totally separately that like, in some capacity, like whey protein might not even be considered a supplement like it might just be considered food. But it’s something that we are eating in addition to like our normal meals, so to speak. So today, we are considering it a supplement. I don’t know. JOHN, do you want to dive a little bit more into whey protein? Why you take it why you think it’s beneficial for other people to take as well?
Jon 10:36
Yeah, I mean, I think like some of the big like, question marks around like protein supplementation is the absorption rate of how quickly you’re going to absorb whey protein versus case in protein versus like protein in and what amino acids are actually in the protein source. So a lot of the goal of building muscle, you’re going to find the leucine present in whey protein, you’re going to find leucine present in case in protein. Soy is it’s not a terrible plant based alternative. It’s better than other sources. But having leucine present in your protein supplementation is definitely beneficial because that is the amino acid for muscle building. Now the absorption rate, it’s like up for debate whether or not it is the end all be all meaning that like if you work out and you take a fast absorbing protein powder versus a you know, slower or whether or not you take it immediately after your workout, it’s up for debate because now they’re starting to see the like some studies that it’s more about getting enough protein and equally spreading it out throughout the day versus like immediately after like your workout like the I think I’ve heard the term like anabolic like you’re more anabolic state like if you have your approach after you work out. But I think now that’s like a little bit of a question mark. But either how quickly your body’s absorbing the protein, you want to just make sure that you have a protein that is going to have the right it’s going to be a complete protein and that you’ll be able to utilize it for recovery as in protein be something that you’d have before bed the theory behind that is that since it’s a slower absorbing protein that you are going to absorb it slower which means that you would like keep your amino acid profile like higher throughout the night. It that’s still like up for debate of whether or not it is that it matters but there’s there hasn’t been anything to show that it that there’s a downside to taking either one of those. But there’s definitely like better protein options and usually what we would recommend is a protein powder that also doesn’t contain a lot of other stuff because most of us are probably going to be eating food anyways. So you probably don’t want to have a protein powder that has like 30 grams of carbohydrates and like 10 grams of fat because now you’re basically having a meal replacement, which we’re not huge fans of because eating food is probably better because you’re getting a variety of different nutrients from your food or probably keep you full longer but now we’re going on a tangent protein powder should mostly be protein typically range of 24 to like 30 grams of protein with carb intake and about like five or less grams and dietary fat ideally as low as possible and like one grammar so the reason why you don’t want to have your dietary fat be high in in your whey protein powder is just because again like if you’re trying to recover from a workout and you have you know something that’s like high in dietary fat and high in fiber it’s going to slow down the digestion which again if you’re having a protein powder that is fast absorbing then that’s kind of defeats the purpose so if there is benefit to it you’re gaining it by having something that has a bunch of other shit in it. Um
Sam 14:24
But anyway, we love protein powder It is a good thing if you’re like I have no idea where to start on protein powder like let us know we sell it at the gym we sell one that we approve of at the gym. You like it tastes good right down
Jon 14:39
Yeah, I like the Yeah, the vanilla one because I like mix it in with like smoothies. Rather than just having like a straight up shaking like after like at the gym, I would do chocolate. So now is creatine monohydrate
Sam 15:00
JOHN, you are like the champion of creatine monohydrate. You’re like, the number one fan. So I think you’re definitely one you definitely launched into, like, why you think that this is so wonderful? And also why you take it?
Jon 15:16
Yeah, I mean, so first of all, I don’t take anything that I think is going to have negative side effects or have something that is a question mark, and whether or not it’s effective, I don’t personally want to waste my money either on buying something that is not going to be beneficial. So creating the most highly researched supplements that you will find there’s hundreds of studies on creatine monohydrate. There’s different kinds of creatine too, so you want to, you know, you want to have monohydrate, a lot of times supplement companies are going to try to like, make their products seem like it’s superior to something that is effective, which is creatine monohydrate. So if you find stuff that has, like all these different variations of something, just make sure that you’re taking the right thing. So it’s always good to like look at the ingredients of what you’re taking, because supplements don’t have to be FDA approved. Um, so anyways, I just wanted to say that because sometimes we don’t really know like, what even like grab, like, we’ll be like, Oh, this is creatine, it’s like creatine, something something and it’s like advertised as being a better alternative. So look for creatine monohydrate, we sell one at the gym, if you don’t know what they have, just get it from the gym too. But anyways, um, your body naturally makes creatine, okay, you’re going to get creative team from animal protein for the most part of where you’re going to get it in your diet. So what you eat is probably going to give you about one gram of creatine, which isn’t enough for what has been shown in the literature to be beneficial for athletic performance, which is somewhere around five grams, three to five grams on a daily basis, whether you’re taking a rest day or not. And it’s not something that you have to like dose, it’s something that has to get like saturated into yourself for it to be beneficial. So it’s all like a pre workout where you take it, and then you’re, you know, you’re gonna feel like, you know, like super energized, like, that’s all the caffeine and like the beta alanine and some of those pre workouts makes you feel like the jitters. creatine is not that creatine something that your body makes. And what it does is that it allows you to produce, it essentially is extending the window of how long you can go ahead and do something very high intense. So your body has three energy systems, you have your creatine phosphate energy system, you have your anaerobic energy system, and then you have your aerobic. So when you supplement with creatine, it allows you to be able to expand that threshold of how long you can do that very hard task, five rep max back squat, very hard task, you can’t go for six reps, you just can’t do it. Something that will create teams aren’t necessarily going to give you superpowers but allows you to be able to put that extra five pounds on the bar be able to build muscle and be able to push through like higher sets or be able to be more explosive and powerful when you do something like clean or snatch or heavy deadlift, it’s like when you throw a baseball, that’s the energy system that you’re going to use, you can’t do that like you wouldn’t be able to go ahead and have that same power output for any longer than that throw that baseball. So that’s like the energy system you tap into, if you try to expand that your body starts tapping into the other and other energy systems like anaerobic, anaerobic. So depending on how long the duration of time is that you’re being intensive, is where your body’s going to tap in. By adding treats into your diet, it can, what it can do is that research shows that it can help with like 15 to 30% increases in strength and power, over time, being able to take it consistently, you still have to train so it’s a supplement, it’s not something that’s like, okay, so if I take this and then I just gym, you know, you still have to go ahead and progressively overload where you’re, you know, building over time and strength and power, but this is something that can be utilized as allow you to push through some of those, like harder sets and be able to recover. Um, but again, it’s not like a pre workout where you feel like this, like, I don’t know, you feel like the Incredible Hulk. You know, you should have power. It’s something that I it’s just, it’s a it’s essentially just like expanding like an energy system they already have in your body and it’s just allowing you to have a little bit more of that energy to be able to use.
Sam 19:59
So I should take Creating. Yeah, everybody Tell me, everyone should take it, john, for everyone listening, Josh,
Jon 20:07
if you want to run fast 18 if you want to, if you want to be able to not have the barbell feel heavy in your hands, take creatine. If you want to jump higher, be more explosive take creatine, if you want to sit on the couch and feel better, you’re not a it’s not like it’s gonna go ahead and like give you magic powers, but
Sam 20:34
it can be helpful. Now, john, in all this research, have you come across any side effects or any, like negatives to taking too much crazy?
Jon 20:44
Yes, if you take so that’s a good question. So if you’re taking too much, so exceeding like that three to five gram dose, so let’s say you’re taking like 10 grams of creatine. Um, the side effects might be that you might have like an upset stomach. So you can go ahead and feel all gassy, you retain, you retain water when you start taking creatine. So you might if you started something a new creatine, you might see a little bit of a spike on this scale, acutely, that’s because your body’s not used to having that in your system yet, that doesn’t mean that you’re going to go ahead and put on two pounds, it means that your body’s like having like it, you’re going to retain some water when you first start taking it. Once you do something consistently your body gets used to it doesn’t hold on to like extra fluids like that. But if you take more than, you know the recommended dose, you could have like, you know, you could be like a little gassy. Like, let’s just put it that way you might like fart a little bit. There’s two ways you can like speed up whether you can take creatine so it takes about like three weeks to get like saturate into your cells reality, you’re going to start feeling like benefits of taking that supplement. And that’s a three to five grams every single day consistently. Or you could expand the dosage where you take six to 10 grams, and it will take half the amount of time. But again, the like the side effects is that you might feel a little bit gassy. Um, I haven’t come across anything of like, overdosing, but I haven’t really been hard on like overdosing on 18. But you very hard to overdose, as well. Yeah, it has to be like intentional. You’re like you’d probably have diarrhea. You had any other
Sam 22:36
findings. Yeah, circle back. Probably the same thing with whey protein, we didn’t really talk about like side effects of too much whey protein. Yeah, probably the same thing, you’re probably just gonna have gi symptoms, if you do too much whey protein or crazy. They’re kind of similar in what they do in the body and how we’re using them. So anything like that, causing an upset stomach is probably the first time they’ve taken too much. Yeah, I mean, you can keep on going.
Jon 23:03
No, no. Yeah, like, I’m just like, piggybacking on what you just said. So yeah, if you’re taking too much, like, if you’re taking too much protein, and your stomach is bothering you, then you should probably slow down how quickly you’re trying to increase your protein. If you don’t normally have if you normally have, you know, 50 grams of protein a day. And what you really should be taking is like 150, you probably shouldn’t do that overnight should probably be like a transition. So kind of like, always reflect on what you’re putting into your body how you feel when you take it, you know, he too much broccoli, you’re not going to feel good, I don’t think anyone’s going to say that broccoli is something that you shouldn’t be having. You know, having too much of anything isn’t going to make you feel your best. So you know, pay attention to how you feel when you take these things. And if you don’t feel good taking it, then take smaller doses, if it’s something you really want to experiment with, or don’t take it, it’s a supplement. It’s not like, you know, it’s not like water, where you like, you need to have that, you know, it’s
Sam 24:07
Yeah, and if anything like crazy happens, right? Like, at the end of the day, we are not doctors, your doctor is gonna know better than we do what’s appropriate for your body based on all your other health conditions. Now you can clue us into all of that information. And we can make better recommendations based off of like your history. However, what we’re talking about today is we think supplements that do have a positive effect for the vast majority of people and really have very few negative effects. And really only when they’re taken to EXA. And like john said, If you start slow and you build in dosage of all these three different things, then you might see significant changes in the gym over a longer period of time because you’re building muscle, you’re recovering better and you’re feeling well rested and in a positive mood on a regular basis.
Unknown Speaker 24:58
Right
Jon 24:59
yeah. And again, these are just supplements that like the average person should probably be taking, like, we’re not talking about beta alanine or switching la like stuff that also has benefits to taking but like who to get the jitters before they do a workout? Probably not my dad at 50 years old. He and you know, maybe the more like protein in his diet, those things are gonna be like beneficial for him to take. So like regular person, these are things that can be beneficial to you. But yeah, Sam, any anything, dad?
Sam 25:40
I don’t think so. These are exciting supplements to talk about. You take them all, even I take vitamin D, and I don’t take any supplements otherwise, so definitely a good list. Highly recommend. And if you’re listening to this, and you still have questions about it, and you’re still unsure if it’s appropriate for you, please do reach out to us. JOHN, did you have anything to say before we close it out? recap today? I don’t think so degree. Yeah, I think we we did a good job not going too in depth. But again, if someone wants to hear it, do let us know. We will talk to you with complete silence. JOHN definitely gave us some some good scientific background on some of the supplements that we are always happy to talk more science, and not just a recommendation. So with that said, Of course if there are any questions or concerns that you have thought of during this podcast, or that you just have thought of in regular day to day that you want us to answer please do let us know we want to touch on the topics that are important to you. So send us an email, send us a text, send us a message on Facebook or reach out to us directly. If you have suggestions or questions or concerns. If you’d like to set up a nutrition console, we can do that as well. We can send you the link so that you can set up a console with either john or myself. And thank you so much for getting this far through our podcast and we will see you next week. Goodbye!