Recommendations to What I'm Taking?

Hello testosteronies.

I wanted to get a feel of what people are taking for overall health/better sex life/etc. This is what im taking and would love input on if i should take more, whats useless, what else i should be taking.

Vit C 2000mg/day
Vit D 5000mg/day
Multivitamin from Mutant
Coq10
Zinc 30mg/day
Folic Acid 1mg/day
Magnesium 400mg/day

What other things could i take to maximize my testosterone/reduce estrogen, overall health, etc.

Any and all advice would greatly be appreciated!

I feel pretty amazing and all I take is creatine and vitamine D. However, my diet is pretty much spot on and I think that is 99.2% of the equation.

1 Like

my supplement intake is a little out of control if I’m honest:

-EPA/DHA because obviously
-Curcumin because inflammation
-Vitamin K because heart
-Vitamin D because everything
-Vitamin C because immune system
-ZMA because sleep among other things
-Red Palm Oil (technically a food but I treat it like a supplement) because I don’t get much vitamin E from my diet
-Sauerkraut (again, also technically a food) because gut health

Daily
Iodine
Vit D
Vit C
Elite Mineral Support
Protein Powder

As needed
Curcumin
Plasma

Currently taking
Carbolin 19

I am not a big supplement guy, as I believe it’s better to focus on eating real, whole foods to get your nutrients. That said, I do take Fish Oil and Vitamin D. I think most Dr’s will tell you tell these are the two most important supplements to take. I have recently been taking ZMA at nights, and I do find I sleep deeper and better so I may stick with it.

First of all you always need to build your supplement regime around a first class diet. What I mean by that is make sure you are consuming no less than 9 fruits and vegetables per day. Yeah, you read that right. And preferably 6 vegetables and 3 fruits. There are nutrients in these foods that man has not yet discovered much less put into a pill. Not to mention all of the known anti-cancer nutrients in such foods.

As for supplements Why take Magnesium and zinc separately? You can get magnesium, zinc and some extra B6 in Biotest’s ZMA. In addition to that you get a great nights sleep from this product. It works like magic. I also recommend a mineral called selenium. Selenium produces more glutathione in your system and glutathione is a great free radical scavenger.

When you train (and from simply living) you create something called “free radicals” in your body. Without getting into a long explanation free radicals will harm your body as they attack stable molecules. When “attacked” the stable molecules become unstable and turn into more free radicals. There is far more to it but suffice it to say that It’s sort of a nasty domino effect which in part can be defeated. So in addition to selenium you should also take Vitamin E. Make sure that you take both forms tocotrienols and tocopherols. You can get both selenium and both forms of vitamin E from Life Extension.

Finally, if you are training hard, or even if you’re not, you definitely need to consume curcumin. This is an outstanding anti inflammatory nutrient. But please buy a high quality brand (that goes for all of your nutrients). Biotest makes a great one and since they have come out with it I dropped my other brand and started using it.

You said your goals were overall health, better sex and a better life. That means you want to make sure that in addition to the fruits and vegetables and nutrients you get 8 hours of sleep a night. I don’t care how well you eat, train or what you take in terms of supplements if you are not getting 8 good hours of sleep each night it is all for naught. One more reason to take ZMA.

Also, if you have the money and a good doctor get your vitamin D levels checked. 5000 units per day might be spot on then again it might me too much. You want your levels to fall between 40 and 60 on your blood test.

Good Luck Man

ZEB

I take zinc and magnesium separately as its cheaper then buying ZMA every month.

In terms of Vitamin E and Selenium, how much should one be taking? Circumin (tumeric?) i usually supplement with the spice/powder form and throw it on my meats and sometimes salads ( i can handle the taste)

In terms of fruit, i thought they werent optimal for someone getting into shape?

@Yogi1

Do you mind talking us through the amounts you take of each? Or the amounts you believe are optimal?

Daily Doses vary from company to company which is confusing. Thanks

I respectfully disagree with anyone who says that fruit is not exceptionally good for you. I could write 10 pages on the various fruits and why they are good for you. But, let me just take out at the knees the argument that some have regarding fruit making you fat.

We know that sugar can make us fat. And it does so in two different ways:

  1. Excessive glucose. When we eat more than we need the liver’s sugar capacity “overflows”. At that point the sugar is converted to fatty acids and stored as fat. Obviously we don’t want this happening.

  2. Too much insulin. Insulin is a hormone in the body and is released in great quantities when we eat simple carbs like bread, crackers, cookies, pretzels and fruit juice drinks like orange juice, grape juice etc. So we don’t want to spike our insulin levels do we? When we spike our insulin levels the body immediately stops burning fat and begins to burn sugar. Incidentally, a good way to burn fat only is through proper fasting but that is beyond the scope of your question.

So why doesn’t fruit cause this cascade of negative consequences? One word “fiber”. The juice that is consumed with the natural fiber found in an orange for example is mostly pushed through the body with the fiber. One main reason I do not use a juicer and prefer to eat my fruit whole.

The fiber in the fruit also creates satiety (makes you feel full).

So don’t deny yourself all of the high quality vitamins, antioxidants and phytochemicals found in fruits. Eat three or four servings per day along with five or six vegetables per day and you will go along way to improving not only your training but your health as well.

Your first three supplements:

Vit C 2000mg/day
Vit D 5000mg/day
Multivitamin from Mutant

are good - the others you have are debatable if your diet is good. You’re missing EFA’s - Fish oil and GLA are essential.

I like your style brother - I’d add some evening primrose to that list for its GLA. It’s one of few supplements I’ve used where you get a ‘holy shit’ moment a few days after starting it. It performs miracles for my skin when I take enough of it

Honestly, I mostly just go by the serving suggestion on the bottle.

-EPA/DHA is 3 or 4 grams depending on how many I shake out of the bottle (each pill is a gram)
-Curcumin is 400mg
-D3 5000iu
-Vitamin C 1000iu
-Vitamin K 2700mcg
-ZMA 2100mg (which contains 438mg of magnesium and 29mg zinc)
-Red Palm Oil’s just a big spoonful added to my dinner
-Sauerkraut is like a quarter jar every day

I think because you and I are both in the UK I can probably get away with telling you I use the Life Extension brand for everything except the ZMA which is Sci Mx

It’s actually something I’ve looked into; it’s interesting stuff.

There’s another supp called Citrus Bergamot which looks pretty interesting. There’s a history of bad hearts in my family so a lot of my supplementation is geared towards that.

1 Like

Thanks, the company I buy my carb powders and whey from also do lots of the supplements you mentioned, I ordered a blend from them before and realised afterwards that it was massively under dosed per serving.

As expected the curcumin, omega 3 etc is massively under dosed also, makes it look better value when in reality I would have to take around 6 servings to get the curcumin level you mentioned.

I’m looking at ways to lower inflammation so considering trying some new supps.

dude life extension are a bad motherfucker; you should definitely check them out.

shipping to canada along with the exchange rate breaks the bank for most of the t-nation supplements which is why I opt for buying them separately (magnesium is like $10 and zinc is like $6).

what benefits do you get from vitamin e and selenium?

From Vitamin Stuff:

"What specific benefits are provided by selenium? According to Dr. Donald Lisk at Cornell University, selenium is a powerful “chemopreventive agent” which makes it a cancer fighter. Additionally, selenium intake can improve immune system strength, reduce the incidence of heart disease, keep blood vessels healthy, reduce the risk of stroke, potentially reduce anxiety and depression, and even increase fertility in men.

Selenium is an essential trace mineral that works closely with vitamin E to provide the body with powerful antioxidant protection from the free radicals that may contribute to the development of cancer, heart disease, and arthritis.

Selenium protects the body from free radical damage in two ways: It is incorporated into proteins to make selenoproteins, which are important antioxidant enzymes, and it helps the body manufacture it’s own natural antioxidant, glutathione.

What are the potential benefits of taking Selenium?

Selenium may help fight cancer. In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, selenium reduced colorectal, lung, and prostate cancer mortality in humans by 50 percent over 10 years.* Selenium may also prevent or slow tumor growth by boosting immune cell activity and suppressing development of blood vessels to the tumor."

Vitamin E

I’ve been taking allergy pills, but only as needed. I’m hoping by June I can taper off. Unlike everyone else’s advice, I usually just get the cheap stuff. No use paying more for zyrtec or bennies.

This is some useful information. Thank you so much.

In terms of the selenium and vitamin e, is there a long term negative effect if I take it everyday for months? Currently with the zinc iv read that taking 30mg or more for a prolonged period can have negative effects which is why I’m hesitant about taking even 25mg at night.

I’m also slightly confused on this whole “diet on point” or “diet is good” I keep hearing. Would that just mean eating lots of vegetables, fruits, lean proteins and healthy fats and whole foods? I ask this because iv done cutting diets and bulking diets and of course each is different and you’re limited to what you can eat and what sources you can get all the “essential vitamins” from.

I eat “clean” all the time. I do not live a bodybuilders lifestyle where there is bulking and cutting etc. You have the right idea above, fruits, vegetables, lean meats, eggs, nuts
as Jack Lalanne used to say if man makes it don’t eat it. Do you see any twinkie and cookie trees? Okay


Take Care,

ZEB