50 TOP TIPS FOR FAT LOSS – TIP 17

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If we ate the perfect diet, sourced from organically produced meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, poultry, nuts and seeds and drank clean the required amount of uncontaminated water and we ate these foods according to their seasons and availability then I would be proud to say that multi vitamins would be a complete waste of time.

The trouble is I’m yet to meet someone living in a large urban western metropolitan city that does exactly that.  The truth is, no matter how hard we try, all of us need help when it comes to getting the required macro and micro nutrients, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.  We simply don’t get enough from our foods.

Why?  A multitude of reasons.  Firstly, we don’t eat the right foods.  Too much of our diet contains processed sugars, commercially grown meat fruits and vegetables where the animals are caged instead of roaming free and they eat grains instead of grass and the soils are completely devoid of vital minerals due to poor farming practices and excessive use of fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides.  Secondly, we are drinking water that is contaminated with pollution from rural runoffs, industrial waste, not to mention the century old pipes that pump the water from reservoirs to suburban homes across the country.

So our only alternative, on top of doing the best we can to eat the perfect diet, is to supplement our diet with a multi vitamin.  But which one? Most commercially produced vitamins are made from synthetically produced ingredients and this simply means that what you end up taking ends up in the toilet.  Now I don’t profess to be the expert on all things vitamins.  I take my guidance from those I follow and respect.

One person I trust in this specific area is Charles Poliquin.  In one of Charles’ blog he makes a number of suggestions to improve your chances of losing body fat specifically related to taking different supplements.  They are:

1. At least 40 ng/ml of vitamin D,
2. Take a probiotic to improve your gut health,
3. At least 500mg of magnesium,
4. Zinc if you are deficient,
5. B vitamins, especially if you also take BCAA’s.  (Branched chained amino acids)
6. Carnitine to help your body use fat for fuel,
7. Taurine because it lowers your cortisol levels and helps the body digest fat,
8. R-form alpha lipoic acid because it supports detox and helps you recover from training

So, if fat loss is your goal, find yourself an awesome multi-vitamin that covers off on these suggestions.

Tomorrow, tip 25, an exercise related tip on rest periods while training.