Biglee Answers: Nutrition supplement Q&A

Biglee: My current off season supplement stack - Multivitamin/mineral, BCAA & Whey protein.

Question by Vishvnath Dobhal:
Bhai...I need your help.
Could you please suggest me a Bulking Supplement schedule/Program?
I am talking about BCAA, multivitamin, Glutamine etc etc.
I am not able to conclude from the program’s available in the bodybuilding.com or in some other BB sites.
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Aim – Mass gain
Level – Intermediate level ( Squat and DL – 2X Body weight , Bench press – 1.5XBW)
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So my questions are here…
1 - Other than Whey protein and Creatine what are the things I need to add in my nutrition.
2 – Do we really need BCAA, multivitamin, Glutamine etc. (Other than Whey protein and Creatine)
3 – If I am Tight in budget,,,,Then what are the minimum stuff we have to consider for a prolific bulking result.
4 - Ideally how long we need to keep the bulking period (Considering for an intermediate level of lifter)
5 - Any other point which you want to mention / suggest here.

Thanks Bhai


Biglee Answer:

First of all Thanks for trusting Team Biglee and writing to us brother.

Let me explain things so that you will understand this concept better and find answers to your questions.

In my opinion, multivitamins with a good array of B complex vitamins is the first and foremost supplement that everyone should opt for. Let me tell you why. Being iron addicts and fitness freaks, we tend to count our calories, protein, carbs and fats but miss out on vitamins. There is a good chance that we are deficient in vitamins and micro-nutrients inspite of a well planned diet. So if we consume a multivitamin/multimineral pill, it serves as an insurance to protect us from any deficiency , keeps us healthy and keeps our performance optimum.

The second most important part of supplementation would be a good whey protein supplement. If we look at scientific studies, human milk is more whey and less casein (the secret why children grow very fast when breast fed). But when we opt for cows milk, it has very less whey and more casein... That should answer the question  why people bloat up with milk. Whey has a good balance of amino acids that we require in readily useable form and is perfect for our digestive system. So whey can make a very good post workout supplement.

We all know that the branched chain amino acids are the most important part of our protein. One reason why whey makes your recovery faster is because it is very rich in BCAA.

Why BCAA? Leucine, isoleucine and valine make the BCAA. Leucine is considered as the protein switch that helps you synthesise protein and hence the most important amino acid when you are bulking to build muscle and while cutting to preserve all your muscles. Isoleucine and valine have a very big role in damage repair and hence forms the second and third most important amino acids in your protein. So if you supplement BCAA immediately upon rising from bed and during workouts, IT WORKS OPTIMAL.

Creatine and Glutamine: Glutamine is a conditionally essential amino acid. It helps in muscle recovery and prevention of cell damage and in general keeps your immune system healthy. When we consider creatine, its a salt that fills up fluid between cells helping them to absorb nutrients better. I suggest this only to people who are bulking in minimum quantity around the workout (5g a day) and no more as this causes unwanted water retention.

What about casein??? I dont recommend it because it is very expensive, overpriced in fact, not everyone can handle it well and we can get casein like effects by adding essential fats to our meal for sustained release of protein.

Supplements while on tight budget.
I would recommend multivitamin alone if you can manage with all solid meals (if you dont have very stressful and long hours at your workplace ). Adding a whey supplement can reduce the stress of carrying all solid meals.

How long should you bulk?
Ideally any program needs at least 2-3 months to show noticeable difference. And anything more than 6 months reduces the motivation towards the goal. So a bulking phase of 3-5 months would be ideal.

Thoughts:
Many kids in the gym and many coaches think that supplements can work wonders. They may if designed properly. We should first understand what a supplement is before using it. Supplements are the stuff we use in our nutrition plan to bridge the gaps in it and is not the main part of it. For example, whey protien enters and leaves your system in less than a couple of hours. If you consume only whey for your protein and space your meal every three hours...then about an hour from your meal, your blood
has abundant amino acid levels, but after two hours it is very low in amino acid levels. This means you are not keeping your body anabolic and you are being counterproductive in spite of eating a lot of protein.
So i recommend supplements to be used sensibly. Depend more on whole food sources like chicken, beef , fish, eggs and milk products for protein; brown rice, wheat, sweet potato, oats etc for carbs; nuts, fish oil,olive oil etc for fats; plenty of green vegetables for fiber. Once you incorporate all these in your diet, plan on adding your supplements based on your needs.

Bed Time Meal

Most of you know about proper nutrition, nutrition ratios and nutrition throughout the day, but what do you eat before bed? Common sense suggests that we should consume a meal with a balance of complex carbs, protein and a little fats. This would be adequate at this time, but I will be telling you a bit more than that. I will explain precisely what you should be eating before bed.

Bed time meal is as important as any other meal of the day. So here is what you should do. At this time you have to consume slow carbs, fibrous carbs, casein protein and even healthy fats. We all know that EFA’s play a very vital role in our day to day activities and should never be neglected. Taking a little of EFA’s will help you to increase the hormonal balance in the body.

At bed time you can consume something like cottage cheese, peanut butter, milk, and any type of vegetable. You can even consume some complex carbs, but stay cautious not to eat too much of them as an insulin spike is the most undesirable thing you need before bed. In simple words, carbohydrates are the main energy source for our body and we won’t be burning much while we sleep and so it is desirable not to take a lot of them before bed.

And of course you should be avoiding fattening and sugary foods at this time. Anyways if you are a bodybuilder you should be limiting these.

Avoid caffeinated food at this time. It is a world known fact that caffeine keeps you from getting a good sleep.

All these guidelines are ok. But the toughest part is keeping the food intake low at night. Most of the people sleep late at night and they feel bored at night. Sometimes they feel that eating is the only thing left to do. Keep yourself occupied and make sure that you are in control of what you are eating. Read a book, watch tv, listen to music and the options goes on and on, just see to it that you don’t eat what you shouldn’t be eating at this time.

All the best...