Im completely lost when it comes to everything about vitamins, ect...
After crusing around some of the threads, I noticed that alot of you talk about taking Protein shakes... Whats the benifit? whats the downside?
Same goes for vitamins.. I take a womens 1-a-day, and have recently added a fiber supplement, but is there anything else I am missing? There are so many out there I have no idea what to do... (fish oils, omegas, ect..)
I know pretty much nothing when it comes to nutrients and such, so anyhelp is apprechiated.
The best bet is to consume a well rounded diet. With that said it's still often hard to get all the nutrients you need.
For me personally, I take a multivitamin every day (Rainbow Light for Women). With limited caloric intake this helps cover some of the nutrients I may not be getting enough of.
As far as protein goes, I started having 1 scoop of protein powder after my workouts. The main driving factor for this is that I wasn't getting enough protein in my regular diet and you need protein to build lean muscle mass (which will help you burn more calories!).
All of the other supplements depend on you personally. Do you have high cholesterol? Then you might want to take fish oil for better HDL levels and heart health.
There are tons of herbal supplements to help aid your body in many ways, but unless you have a specific condition your trying to treat more naturally I don't think you need to worry about incorporating them into your diet.
IMO, a multivitamin is the best way to start. As you continue down the weight loss/health path you may discover you need to supplement other areas, but wait on that until you cross that road.
I personally end up drinking a protein shake a day either as a snack to get my protein levels up for the day or as a post-workout snack. However, I do prefer (and it is better for you) to just eat a real piece of food high in protein whenever I can (like chicken or tuna).
I think it is a good idea to take a multi-vitamin everyday just in case you are not getting everything you need from foods. There are very, very few cases where taking too much of a vitamin is going to hurt you (I'll have to look back in my biochem notes; I believe there's only 4 vitamins that too much of is bad. But again, it's very hard to make this occur!) and your body will usually just excrete what it doesn't need anyway.
Personally I take an iron supplement right away in the morning (doctor Rx'ed) and then a centrum multi-vitamin and calcium supplement at lunch and then another calcium supplement at dinner.
I also added protein powder to my diet after I started lifting weights. I am aiming for 35% of my calories from protein, which equates to about 120g a day of protein. I personally find it hard to get in that much protein w/out using a scoop of powder each day - although there are some people who manage it just fine.
Just one last question.... There are soo many different 'types' of protein powders out there.... are they all the same and just based on brand name?? or is there a difference??
There are different types of protein powders. They can be soy, whey, or other types.
Brands vary, but you really want to check ingredients. Some protein powders are sweetened, some are not. It all depends on what you like. Different brands also incorporate differently into whatever you are making.
One other thing to keep in mind (if you happen to have a thyroid condition) is to avoid the soy based powders. The soy messes with the thyroid meds. (Can you tell I'm not a doctor?) :P
I get egg/milk based protein powder that is unsweetened. I like to add it to soups as well as smoothies (made with almond milk, splenda, ice and fruit). The sweetened ones tend to have a lot more caloreis.
I have an allergic reaction to soy protein isolate (but not to whole soy foods), so I stay away from the soy powders. I use the whey protein instead. Designer Whey is the brand I like best. It comes in different flavors. One scoop has 90 calories, with 2g fat, 2g carb, and 18g protein. I buy it at GNC--but you might check other stores.
The people who are having protein shakes/supplements on a regular basis are doing so to get their daily protein intake up. If you eat a good amount of protein though, they are not necessary. Protein isn't something that you HAVE to take to lose weight-chicken, fish (or any type of lean meat), nuts, dairy products, eggs, soy-these are ALL good protein sources.
So, don't think that it is something that you HAVE to take.
And I defiantly fall into the category of someone who should take some type of protein supplement, I pretty bad about reaching 100% of any of my daily nutritional values..
Protein Shakes? Vitamins?
