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The 5 Most Useless Workout Supplements

  • Writer: Alice L Young
    Alice L Young
  • Apr 1, 2021
  • 6 min read

Updated: Apr 4, 2021

It is like a supplement minefield out there. For every one supplement that actually works, there's probably four of five that are just useless chemicals in a bag (don't quote me on that statistic, I made it up to get my point across).


(Psssst... If you find this post useful, drop me a DM on Instagram - @alicelyoung - and let me know!)



Supplement companies would sell ice to an eskimo, and they are definitely not afraid to sell you utter rubbish. A lot of these companies just want your money and don't care whether their products live up to the big claims encompassing them.


That's the thing. How could anyone possibly know which supplements are worth spending money on, when the claims that are made about them are so alluring? Well, that's where our old pal science comes in.


Now, I know most people don't have the time nor the patience to go sifting through scientific articles, trying to decipher if the BCAAs their favourite fitness influencer is promoting are actually £30 worth of nothing. To make your life easier, I've put together a list of the five fitness supplements I believe should receive the award for the most useless.


1. BCAAs (FOR MUSCLE BUILDING)


Even though these are in no particular order, BCAAs had to be at the top of my list. It is 2021 at the time of writing this, and BCAAs are definitely having a moment. Don't get me wrong, they will definitely die out soon enough and be remembered as yet another fad in the fitness industry.


Before we get into why these little buggers don't work as promised (for the great majority of people), let's explore what they actually are and why they are having such a moment.


BCAAs (Branched-Chain Amino Acids) are three essential amino acids (EAAs) - leucine, isoleucine and valine. EAAs are amino acids that your body cannot make by itself; there are nine of them in total. Leucine and isoleucine are particularly important for muscle building, which is why they have such a hype surrounding them right now.


On the surface, it sounds like shoving loads of these amino acids into our bodies could accelerate our muscle growth. BUT if we look a little deeper.... maybe not.


According to Examine (1), as long as we are chowing down sufficiently high protein in our diets (which, if you're reading this I assume you are) then supplementing with BCAAs is basically pointless for muscle building purposes. The protein we get from our diets (and protein powder if that's what floats your boat) provides us with sufficient amounts of BCAAs. Unfortunately, building muscle quicker isn't as easy as downing a blueberry BCAA drink before your glute workout. If it was, we would all have the peachy booty we oh so desire.


It is important to note that BCAAs can help reduce fatigue that builds up during a workout, and may be useful for fasted workouts, so if you want to give them a go for that then feel free. The reason I have such a problem with them is because supplement companies generally tout them for muscle building, not fatigue management, and the majority of us are getting enough BCAAs through our diets anyway.



2. GLUTAMINE (FOR MUSCLE BUILDING)


This one isn't as popular as BCAAs, I have to say, but I do see it showing it's face quite regularly on fitness supplement websites.


I won't go into masses of detail on this one as it's the same kind of deal as with the BCAAs. Glutamine is amino acid that is proclaimed by supplement companies as a muscle builder. Surprise, surprise... it doesn't have any magical muscle building properties in healthy folk (2).


The individuals who can benefit from enhanced muscle building by supplementing with glutamine are those who are suffering from physical trauma (such as knife wounds or burns) or who have a disease that causes the muscle to waste away e.g., AIDS. I'm going to go ahead and guess that you don't fall into either of those categories.


There is a small amount of evidence that suggests supplementing with glutamine could help with strength recovery and muscle soreness. Like with the BCAAs, feel free to give it a go for that, but don't expect any miraculous muscle growth (3).


3. OVER-THE-COUNTER WEIGHT LOSS PILLS


Talking strictly over-the-counter here, not the prescription stuff.


There are tonnes of different pills and potions out there all professing to make you drop the pounds quicker than you can say raspberry ketones. The thing is, the scientific evidence supporting these is very limited. I'm not going to go through every weight loss pill on the market; I'm sure you'll get bored reading a long list of complicated sounding names with 'no evidence to support this' next to each and every one.


Instead, here are a few that are currently popular, and that I would suggest avoiding:


Raspberry Ketones: There is actually evidence to support that raspberry ketones increase the breakdown of fat.... in rats and mice (e.g., 4, 5). The last time I checked, we certainly aren't rats or mice, and the research looking into the use of raspberry ketones for weight loss in humans in seriously lacking. To make matters even worse, it appears there could be some safety concerns with taking these at the doses recommended by supplement companies (6). My advice? Run a mile. It will probably have a bigger affect on your weight loss.


Glucomannan: This is a fibre that is meant to absorb water and form a gel like substance (gross) in your gut leading to feelings of fullness. The evidence for this one is mixed (7, 8, 9). If you want my opinion, the consensus is probably leaning towards it not meeting its claims. And, if it does work? The effects are probably modest at best and, it would need to be combined with a healthy diet and regular exercise for it to make an impact.


That's just two as an example, but I'm sure you get the gist. Put it this way; if losing weight was as easy as popping a pill that you can grab in your local Boots, wouldn't everyone be lean?


4. SKINNY/DETOX TEAS


I don't know how these things are even still around. Thank goodness they seem to be slowly losing their popularity. They can't be the Regina George of the supplement world forever.


They come in pretty boxes, with BIG weight loss/detox claims, taste like stale water, and guess what? There is no scientific evidence backing these bags of dried plant (10).


Unfortunately, stewing a mixture of herbs in boiling water, then sipping it whilst holding your nose to try and hide the yucky taste most likely does not 'detox' your body. Your liver takes care of that perfectly well by itself, thank you very much. And, the 5 lbs of weight that seemingly dropped off over night? Water weight. These teas tend to contain laxatives and/or diuretics. Not exactly the kind of weight loss you're going for, I bet.


5. COLLAGEN (FOR MUSCLE BUILDING)


Collagen taken for skin and possibly joint health can have some benefits. For muscle building though? Useless (11).


We talked briefly about EAAs earlier on, but we are going to circle back round and dive in a little deeper, as EAAs are the reason that collagen offers next to no muscle building benefit.


For a protein to be deemed 'high' quality in terms of muscle building, it needs to have sufficient amounts of all nine EAAs. Without all nine EAAs, our body won't be able to build muscle optimally. Collagen is low on ALL NINE. Yes, you read that right. All nine. So, why it's marketed as a supplement that enhances muscle growth is beyond me. Steer clear.



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