The Truth About Body Building Supplements
By Dave Kettner

Do supplements work? This is a common question that many people may have when they walk into any health or nutrition store and see the large volume of powders, pills and other products that flood store shelves. Now, this is a very fair question to ask, but it is unlikely that anyone in the store will say that they offer a product that does not work!

However, people need to be realistic about what they expect supplements to be able to offer. They are not miracle products that will pack on 50lbs of muscle nor will they magically burn off 10lbs of fat. supplements have their particular values, but these values and benefits are based on realistic nutrition and science and not over the top advertisements. Well, that is not entirely accurate. Often, the advertisements and their claims act as substitutes for actual science and this is unfortunate.

The Magazine Days

In the early days prior to the great expansion of nutrition shops all across the USA, virtually all supplements were sold via mail order through magazines. These ads were generally bombastic and promised that the person who took the supplements would develop a body builder physique

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of massive dimensions. Now, this is a bit of a stretch! However, within the hyperbole was some truth – these supplements are helpful. However, they will not pack on a massive amount of unrealistic muscle. So what is it the supplements will actually do?

The Supplements

Different supplements do different things. In general, however they are designed for building mass and reducing fat. In terms of mass building, there are those supplements that increase testosterone production, there are creatine supplements that help the muscle retain water, there are supplements that aid in providing significant calories without excess fat and then there are those protein supplements that aid in the repair of muscle after a hard workout. The fat loss supplements either suppress appetite or they speed up heart rate to burn more calories.

While this may seem somewhat mundane it is because it is an explanation of what these products actually do without any hyperbole that attempts to sell a particular product. While this is not over the top, it is accurate and accuracy is what you want when selecting a product. Or would you prefer to take the word of a nutty over the top ad campaign instead?

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