Damn Ripped!
“Stacking” or “stack” is a term commonly used in the bodybuilding and health world, which is a combination of supplements that operate together to achieve the same goal.
Stacking supplements can be used for many different reasons such as burning fat, building muscle, or helping your cardiovascular system.
The dietary supplement market is massive, so there are a lot of new and different products being put on the shelves weekly.
This can make building a supplement stack for weight loss difficult because products will make extravagant claims without sufficient scientific research to back up said claims. For example, according to research by the team at Health Energy Guru, some products in the most popular supplement stack for weight loss have 0 scientific backing. These unverified products include: CLA, Glucomannan, and Garcinia Cambogia.
For this reason, it’s important to know which products actually work and which are pseudoscience. Understanding how to build a supplement stack will accelerate your results, save you money, and most importantly, help you ascend past your natural limits.
What is Supplement Stacking?
To reiterate, supplement stacking is taking multiple supplements to achieve a singular goal, whether it be health, muscle building, fat loss or weight loss. Anybody can start supplement stacking at any point in their life whether they are a seasoned pro in fitness or someone just beginning their journey.
Some supplements work synergistically together, which means they work even better together than they would alone. In addition to working with each other to amplify results, they also work with nutritious foods to further increase their effect by increasing bioavailability.
The Fattest Mistakes When Picking the Best Supplements
- Not verifying the efficacy of a supplement using a .gov or .edu source.
- Using supplements to compensate for inconsistent workout routines or lack of discipline.
- Using supplements to compensate for a poor diet.
- Taking supplements prior to eating food.
[Related Reading: 12 Best Food Tracker Apps To Help You Lose Weight!]
How to Stack Your Supplements for Weight Loss
When you are first starting to stack your supplements, you should first determine what your core supplements are so you can base your overall stack off of them.
A “base supplement” should have evidence that they are safe, don’t cause side effects, and do not get in the way of your goals. These types of supplements are ones you can always take daily and are to be used long term. An example of a base supplement is creatine, which is known to provide many benefits that match most people’s goals in fitness and has ample scientific literature backing up its efficacy and safety.
When moving onto the next step of your supplement stack, which is adding on more supplements to your base, you should consider your goals and reasoning for starting the supplement stack in the first place. For example, if you find yourself lacking energy and motivation during your workout, you should start by targeting energy related factors.
These factors could include stacking on supplements for better sleep, reduced stress, improved hormonal balance, improved mood, and directly increasing energy/stamina.
Supplements that you add to your stack should only be added if those meet your needs and get you closer to your end goals, and not because the bottle promises to turn you into SuperMan.
It would be best if you always put the time into researching about supplement stacks so you can get the most significant results possible.
To get a good idea of how to stack your supplements and what kinds are out there, here is an example of a powerful supplement stack for weight loss.
Magnesium citrate
Magnesium is a mineral that is essential for your body to perform many vital functions such as energy production and movement. The magnesium citrate supplement has been scientifically proven to access untapped energy, reduce body-wide inflammation (a problem more common than you’d imagine), improve sleep, reduce cortisol, and improve motivation.
Resveratrol
Resveratrol is well known for its powerful benefits of boosting the immune system and its anti-aging effects. Unlike many supplements, resveratrol works a bit different in providing more long term effects such as immune longevity and long-lasting cardiovascular health.
Resveratrol also promotes long-term health by helping with cardiovascular and brain health by improving alertness and a healthy functioning cardiovascular system. Additionally, Resveratrol activates genes which inhibit fat cells from growing and increases your TDEE.
Apple cider vinegar
Apple cider vinegar is perfect for combating bloat and producing detox effects. It can also be used as a natural appetite suppressant for people who are using a calorie controlled diet. Although, apple cider vinegar works to its fullest potential when combined with a healthy diet and consistent exercise routine, so people wanting to change their lifestyles will benefit the most from this supplement.
Swanson green tea
Green tea powder has active antioxidant-rich polyphenols to help reduce the number of free radicals and boost energy levels. The naturally occurring levels of caffeine in green tea help to increase your overall health and body function. Swanson green tea is also known to have very clean ingredients that are minimally processed and free of preservatives.
[Related Reading: 6 Things You Can do to Jumpstart Your Weight Loss]
Caffeine
Caffeine is a well-known component you’ve heard of in coffee or tea, but it is also beneficial as a supplement as well. Caffeine helps with mental focus and alertness without the crash felt when drinking energy drinks or coffee. They are seen as a natural energy pill that also helps when you are in the gym for overall energy but also helps you keep the focus on your goals and improve motivation.
Beta-alanine
Beta-alanine helps produce natural energy for your muscles to use during intense training and exercise. It helps boosts your intramuscular buffing, so you do not feel fatigued and able to train harder for longer. This works by preventing your muscles from being able to produce as much hydrogen ions when exercising, which ultimately lead to muscle fatigue, and instead help you recover easier.
Creatine
The supplement creatine is thought to increase strength and the production of lean muscle mass. This helps with high-intensity exercises such as heavy weight lifting or running and being able to recover quickly and perform more efficiently.
