Category: Diet & Nutritions

If you want to gain weight and muscle and thinking about taking a weight gainer supplement. Read these details about weight gainer.

If you’re determined to reach your muscle-building goals, there’s a very good chance that you’ve considered or are considering taking a weight gainer.

Before you purchase these products, read this information. It helps you to invest your money in supplement.
Clearly weight gainers are for those who wants to add weight, and hence are high calorie products with protein content. Weight gainers usually combine a particular quantity of protein with a much higher quantity of carbohydrate and smaller quantities of fat to pack as many calories into a serving as possible.

Means weight gainers are combination of protein + carbohydrate + fat. (vitamins and minerals added are also important. They may also contain some chromium, creatine, glutamine, amino acids and/or other metabolites aiding weight gain.)

They tend to supply at least 500 calories per serving, with as much as 1,000 calories a serving.

Composition of weight gainers

Protein-carbohydrate ratio of weight gainers may range between 1:2 and 1:5. The needs of weight gainer may vary according to the different body types. Those who easily gain fat should take with a ratio of 1:2 or lower and people who wants to gain fat and muscle fast can go with 1:3 or more. But make sure that the carbohydrates are not more than 50% sugar.

Protein source in weight gainers

Mostly people who take weight gainers are ectomorphs, that’s why a blend of proteins, especially with casein and micellar casein, is preferred due to its slow release required to counter the fast metabolism in ectomorphs.

Carbohydrates in weight gainers

Weight gainers are rich in carbohydrates which is the key of weight gain. but it’s important to know what kind of carbohydrate it have.

In weight gainers, carbohydrate could be a combination of high-glycemic sugars and low glycemic starches and glucose polymers providing sugars, complex carbohydrates and dietary fibre.

A good weight gainer is high in ‘Total Carbohydrates’, low in ‘sugars’ and supplies a small-to-moderate quantity of ‘Dietary fibre’ as given on the label.

Fat source in weight gainers

Fats are presents in smaller quantities from various sources such as certain oils. Most products provide 5-10 gm of fat. Fat is not too much of a problem as long as less than half of it is of the saturated variety. The ‘saturated fat’, ‘trans fat’ and ‘cholesterol’ content specified on the label should be low.

Some high-quality weight gainers may specifically add beneficial fats such as omega-3-fatty acids.

Here I want to say again that weight gainers are best used by strict ectomorphs, who have trouble gaining muscle and size, regardless of how much they eat. If you are an ectomorph and not using pure protein supplements and high-glycemic carbohydrates as post workout, you can use weight gainers in a post workout meal.

Before explaining how Creatine works, let me first start with the basic of creatine.
As in, what creatine is actually?

To start with, Creatine is NATURAL SUBSTANCE (Reason for highlighting Natural Substance is because it is not manufactured in lab, it is 100% natural), produced in human body and found in meat such as fish and red meat. It is just combination of three forms of amino acids, that is, Glycine, Arginine and Methionine. Creatine fuels our body tissues during exercise and strengthens muscular contractions.

Does Creatine Helps power up today’s workout or next day’s workout of another muscle?

Normally, I suggest my clients to take creatine after workout. Because the best time to consume creatine monohydrate is when muscles are more sensitive to insulin and are expected to maximally uptake glucose and creatine. The best time for maximal creatine absorption is therefore, POST-WORKOUT when the muscles are totally depleted of glycogen and is PRIMED for Glucose and Creatine uptake in quick response to insulin.

Few days back one of my client ‘Anand Saraswat’ asked me- “how does creatine power up the workout if it is taken after the workout?”

I think many of you have also heard this question earlier. The answer to the question is that taking creatine after particular workout neither fuels that particular day’s workout nor it affects the next day’s workout of a different muscles group.

For Example – After today’s back workout when your back muscles enter the glycogen-depleted back muscles, creatine supplement taken after work out would be stored in the back muscles and would power up back muscles that would result in high energy and greater strength during next Back workout. I hope you guys are getting my point. And yes, another important thing that I would like to mention here is- “Creatine monohydrate is highly unstable in water, if pre-mixed and kept in water for some time; it easily gets converted into creatinine, the breakdown product of creatine, resulting in our body rendering the supplement as waste. It has to be mixed JUST BEFORE CONSUMPTION.”

Being a gym owner as well as trainer in fitness and nutrition, I usually come across some of the basic mistakes made by women. Through casual conversations with women at gym and personal observations I found out various misconception women have regarding workout. Women usually join gym to look better, be it becoming leaner or acquiring curves. And the ultimate motive is to look better instead of being fit. The most common complain I hear from women is “I have been making efforts to work out and I can’t see any result”. Well, I’m about to reveal the most common five mistakes made by women during the workout. Have a look at these mistakes and see if any of these looks accustomed to you.

1. Excessive Cardio

Well, I don’t say that Cardio is bad, but as they say “Excess of everything is bad”, so is with Cardio. Cardio is good and necessary but too much of Cardio is “no weight training”. Hopping on a treadmill, stationery bikes, elliptical or stepmill for almost an hour and then heading for home, and not doing anything else is highly inefficient. Spending more time in a gym is not important; what’s more necessary is high intensity instead of long duration. And these cardio exercises are all low intensity exercises which do not affect more than half of our body muscles. And to burn fats and to gain lean and toned muscles one must lift weights. One must know that there is a place for cardio, if it’s done right but it shouldn’t be the only thing one does. There should be a proper combination of cardio and strength training.

 

2. Weight lifting with cute Dumbbells

Well you just got off the treadmill and are willing to lift weight; it won’t be of any good if the weights are too light. Until unless you are not regretting your choice of weight while weight lifting, you are actually lifting too light, just go for a heavier one. The simple principle that applies here is that your body will recruit your strength fibers only when you apply more force to it. Also, it is necessary to build muscles if you want any part of your body to be toned. Another misconception with weight lifting that women usually have is that they will start looking “Manly” or might get “Bulky” and might also lose their feminine look. Well, if you really think that pressing, squatting or curling your muscles will grow, than my dear ladies, you are wrong. Increasing weights is only going to make you more confident, stronger and you can still be graceful and feminine. Most of the women do not know their true strengths because they do not push themselves to find out.

 

3. Abs Obsession

Abs Obsession or as they call it “Absession”, is being only focused on working for the abs or the waistlines. Most of the women I come in contact at gym are obsessed with getting the flat belly. Their only aim is to get abs like Angelina Jolie. Well, let me get you straight, abs are created in the kitchen. It doesn’t matter what amount of crunches or planks you do, it won’t get you a flat tummy until unless you lookout for your diet. So as per the rule, if you are spending more than 5 minutes in abs, you are simply wasting your time. Unfortunately, any amount of crunches, twists or bends will not get you toned abs but lifting heavy weights and multi-joint functional movements (Dead-lifts, squats, pull-ups) might help in building abdominal muscles and will keep your abs engaged during the workout.

 

4. Ignoring Protein Intake and Food Fear

Not consuming the proper protein is a mistake made by both men and women alike. Protein is one of the most important nutrients that one needs to maintain for a healthy body, especially when we are exercising. It is because when someone is exercising, they are effectively tearing and breaking the muscle tissue. So how do you expect to begin the repair of muscle tissue? Well, protein does the repair part. So this is why it is necessary to consume daily protein especially post-workout. Another blunder made by women is depriving them of food. Ladies, you must know that eating is also as important as workout but in a healthy manner. One must focus on eating healthy rather than focusing on the crash diets. Eating high nutrition food in small quantity in regular intervals is a better way to stay fit.

 

5. Setting unrealistic Expectations/ Expecting Results too soon

There is a famous proverb that perfectly fits the situation-Rome wasn’t built in a day, so were your bulky hips and belly. It is necessary to set small goals for yourself and keep patience to get the end results. It doesn’t matter what they say, you cannot transform you body in a week or overnight. It takes time and it will. Make a change in lifestyle and you will get to see the results. Cook healthy, eat healthy and do something good to keep yourself healthy.

 

At the end I would just say that, “Strong women are beautiful women”. Go forth and just do the things right and see the transformation in you. You will be more confident and more empowered.

If you would like to share your story with us, do drop us a comment or email us at [email protected].

Beware of fake bodybuilding powder and supplements

Fake supplements are now part of our life. They are getting sold in market. Reason behind selling them is to make big profit as they do not contain good quality ingredients and sometimes not even those ingredients which are written on the jar & labels.

How to spot a fake protein powder ?

1. Label and packaging – Fake supplement sellers use low quality labels, take a closer look at the label and you can judge its fake or real.
2. Poor quality jar – They use poor quality jar and text also on labels
3. Color and smell – Color and smell of same flavour will definitely will be different.
4. Protection seal – Every company has a protective seal on the neck of supplement container. They are good enough to protect it from air and moisture. If its not present, better not to purchase that supplement.
5. Taste Of supplement – Of course, this is a very simple test as everybody remembers the taste of there favorite supplement. You can identify, if the taste is not same as earlier one. Most fake supplements come only in one flavor and that is “Chocolate”. Try other flavors also, they also have great taste.
6. Heavy density of the power inside (it is nothing but dextrose plus soy plus some cheap steroid.
7. If the seller or your gym instructor tries hard to sell you something, especially open secret powders or particular brands, then you should be aware that these could be fakes.
8. Fake sellers always target Top brands – Of course, this is the best way to sell the fake supplements, if someone comes up with a famous brand supplement (fake one), its so easy to convince some one to purchase it.

Near about all top brands are getting targeted, but the most famous one is the most selling brand, ON (Optimum Nutrition) other brands like –

• Optimum Nutrition (Serious Mass)
• Optimum Nutrition (100% Whey)
• Dymatize Nutrition
• Dymatize Nutrition (Elite Whey)
• GNC (100% Whey)
• Natures Best (ISOPURE)
• Universal Nutrition (Ultra Whey Pro)

What to Do

Now if you want Solution of this problem ,Take care of all the points listed above and follow the given steps so you can be assure about real supplements

1. Always purchase a supplement with bill (They can’t be fake)
2. Always purchase a supplement from trusted shops.
3. Never purchase a supplement with a broken seal.

Lately, there are a lot of fake protein powders and weight gainers selling around in the nutritional supplements market. Beware of fake powders.

It doesn’t matter whether you have purchased a real or fake supplement, they will charge same for both, then why not to purchase real supplements. The aim of this blog is not to create fear in your mind but to educate you to choose supplement wisely.

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Let’s Detect Yourself

Few months back one of our clients bought a jar of Dymatize Nutrition’s Elite 100% Whey Protein. After reading our blog regarding “How to detect fake supplements” he brought that jar to me to check if it was fake or authentic. After having a look at the jar I informed him that it was completely fake. Below mentioned are things that I noticed about that jar of fake supplement.

1) No information about the manufacturer or importer

The label of the jar didn’t have any information regarding the importer. There was neither contact detail nor the name of the importing company. Genuine products always have the name of the importers as well as the manufacturer along with the contact details.

 

2) Wrong information regarding weight

According to standard weight conversion 1 LBS is equal to 453.592 grams. So according to the net weight mentioned in jar 6 LBS should be equal to 2721.552 grams whereas it is mentioned on the jar that 6 LBS (2,270 g). These types of statistical mistake are most commonly found in fake products as the companies are least bothered about their reputation. While a reputed company will never aver make such a blunder.

 

3) Spelling Mistakes

In the above image we could clearly see that the spelling of PROTEIN has been misspelled as PROTIEN. Any respected company would never do such silly mistakes as it would ruin their repo in the supplement market.