5 supplements you are wasting money on

I'm sure you know the feeling when you're shopping for supplements and wondering what you could possibly use at home. You click through hundreds of different products and read their descriptions and get the feeling that this supplement just and you just have to have it because none of them offer such great effects backed by so many scientific studies. Now back to reality.

Knowing low quality supplements from high quality ones can sometimes be very difficult. It's even worse if you're just starting out with exercise. To show you which supplements you'd better avoid, we've created the following list for you.

1. Poor quality multivitamins and multiminerals

Almost every time it comes to multivitamins and multiminerals in our articlesWe stress that these are the most important supplements ever. But that's only assuming you choose a really good quality supplement with well utilized ingredients. To better illustrate the usability of some ingredients, let's take an example on high quality and low quality forms of magnesium. Examples of quality ones include:

• Citrate- Probably the most popular form of magnesium, cheap and easily absorbed. Although laxative at higher doses, it is the best choice for normal use. It is energizing, due to citrate's participation in the Krebs cycle.
• Malate- Another highly usable form that is energizing due to thethe malic acid (malate) part of many of the enzymes that provide just the energy.
• Glycinate- One of the best forms, magnesium is represented in the chelate bond between the twoma amino acids referred to as glycine, unlike the previous two, it is not energizing but relaxing.

If you want to save on magnesium at all costs and choose a low quality product, you will probably get one of these two forms:

• Magnesium Sulfate- Originally used for its laxative effects, recovery around 5%.
• Magnesium Oxide- Most commonly found in low quality supplements from the pharmacy (ironically), unfortunately it is excreted faster than it can be absorbed. This leaves roughly 4% in the body.

So, when you decide to invest in a multivitamin, make sure you pay attention to the quality. If you're worried that you won't recognize a quality supplement, our selection guide can help you comparison of the best multivitamins on the marketwhere we've objectively ranked and compared the best supplements against each other.

2. "Revolutionary" forms of creatine

Creatine monohydrate is undoubtedly one of the most effective supplements in strength sports. However, along with its growing popularity, "revolutionary" forms have also started to appear. Today, you can choose from dozens of different types - from cre-alkaline to creatine ethyl ester to creatine citrate. While they all promise to be "more concentrated, more effective and better," in reality, the body's most of them convert very quickly to creatinine (an ineffective metabolite of creatine), rendering the entire supplement ineffective.

From my own experience I can only and only recommend creatine monohydrate, as well as a large number of scientificstudies have confirmed its effectiveness, so I see no reason to keep trying to find a better variant.

A dose of 3g is sufficient for the desired effect, because expert knowledge has shown that at this dosage, athletes have achieved the same results as at a much higher dosage. Therefore, considering the price per dose, creatine monohydrate is not only very effective, but also an extremely cheap supplement that is worth investing in.

TIP: A selection of the 10 best creatine monohydrates on the market!

3. Fat burners

Fat burners are supplements that face a really big popularity, as many people put a lot of trust in them when trying to lose weight. But the truth is that no legal fat burner will give you the confidence you need in your efforts tofat burner is not going to make your efforts much easier and hence, we consider it an unnecessary investment. Illegal fat burners such as ephedrine, clenbuterol, T3 and others are something else entirely.but their effects are completely unnecessary to mention for the needs of the average exerciser.

What fat burners can really give you is the mental support that is important in dieting. From my point of view, though, these are still supplements that offer minimal effect for a high price. A great example might be the popular l-carnitine, which manufacturers tout as the best fat burner on the market. But the fact is that the body has enough of it and stored fats flow through the mitochondria even without supplementation with this supplement. Although the scientific evidence varies widely (while some studies have reported a difference of up to 3kg of fat lost between the l-carnitine and placebo groups, others have seen absolutely no effect), in my personal experience I consider carnitine to be a waste of money.

4. Poor quality gainers

What kind of article about supplements that you waste money on if it didn't include a gainer. Personally, I didn't believe that the nutritional values of these supplements were so bad until I started looking for quality gainers for our comparison of the best carbohydrate supplements on the market. That's when I learned that finding a quality gainer is really difficult. But that doesn't mean they don't exist. For example, such One Stop Xtreme from Reflex, which was the winner of the above-mentionedranking, contains only 1.3g of simple sugars per 100g and its overall composition is really good.

But this is one of the really few gainers that would be worth investing in. The others are best avoided out of hand. They contain unnecessarily high amounts of simple sugars and are completely useless for gaining muscle mass. Even people who have a lot of trouble gaining mass should beshould be able to put on weight from a normal diet if they eat enough.

A suitable alternative to poor quality commercial gainers may be a home-made gainer, which is cheapercheaper, tasty and, most importantly, contains only high quality ingredients that you can adjust to your own preferences. If you're wondering how to make it quickly and easily, be sure to watch the following video from our YouTube channel:

5. Testosterone boosters

The last supplement worth mentioning at least briefly in today's article is testosterone boosters. These are also supplements that absolutely do not work and serve only to extract money from gullible customers. They may have their justification in people over 40, when their natural testosterone level is very low indeed, but they absolutely do not work on young people at all. A typical example of testosterone boosters is the ground anchor (tribulus terrestris). The latter can bring a whole spectrum of significant effects (e.g.for example, a healthy liver), but do not expect a testosterone boost from it.

That's it for this article, and we hope you never invest in these five dysfunctional supplements again. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments, we'd be happy to answer them.

TIP: Which 5 supplements, on the other hand, are a good investment?

Which supplements are you throwing money out the window for? (Video):