3 Cheap Muscle Building Supplements

Losing weight and building muscle can be really expensive when you add up all of the specialty nutrition items on the market. When you also realize that every supplement out there is supposedly “essential” to your health, how are you supposed to know which are worth the while? The good news is that this doesn’t have to be the case. If you’re looking to make huge muscle gains on the cheap I’m going to reveal the only 3 supplement you’re going to need to achieve your goals.

Best Muscle Building Supplements:

1. Protein Supplements

   If you get no other supplements, protein is the absolute essential of all the muscle building supplements, and for a million reasons. One is that it is fairly cheap, the other is that it is necessary for muscle development, but don’t be fooled; not all proteins are worth the money.

   Since soy protein is a little out of the scope of this article, we’re going to focus on the two main type of protein supplements: Whey & Casein proteins.

   There is one large difference between Whey and Casein that we need to be concerned with.Supplements utilizing whey are best used right after your workouts for immediate nourishment because your body uses it very quickly.

   Casein protein burns much slower than whey, making it more suited to morning and night time use to keep your body from going catabolic while you sleep. More on that another time.

   Is one necessarily better than the other? Well, here’s the catch: they are both perfect for their different areas of expertise. The only problem is that while whey protein is dirt cheap, casein is not so much.

   So do you need both?

   Since this website is dedicated to cheap fitness the answer is of course: hell no!

   Buy the whey protein for dirt cheap and forget the casein. Use the whey when you need it and, when you need a slower burning protein before bed, combine your whey with the next essential supplement on the list.

2. Flax Seed Oil

   Most people looking to build muscle don’t even consider flax seed oil, though they should. Not only is flax seed oil ridiculously good for you, it also slowly the digestion of protein. Add some flax oil to your late night whey protein shake and it will slow down the absorption, keeping your body from going catabolic while you’re asleep.

   Does it work just as well as casein? No, but that’s okay, because casein’s pretty overrated in my opinion. Besides, getting fit cheaply is going to require some creativity, right?

   Besides, flax seed oil has a lot of other benefits, including reducing cholesterol. Not to mention that it tastes great when mixed with chocolate protein. Tastes like chocolate and peanuts. Mmmm.

   You can also add it to your food just to spice things up a bit. Just don’t cook with it. Flax oil has a really low smoke point, which means that it will lose any and nutritive quality if you cook. Think of it more as a sauce.

3. Creatine

   I talked about creatine before in my P90X: The Mistakes article and here it is again. I get asked all the time “What is creatine good for?” or “Should I be using creatine?”

   The quick answer is that creatine is a substance produced by your body to aid in the delivery of energy to nerve and muscle tissue. When you take supplemental creatine it also has the added benefit of drawing water into your muscles, making them appear larger.

   Because creatine aids in muscle energy, it also boots endurance in the gym and therefore muscle building power.

   You should be taking creatine only if you want to build muscles. If you’re goal is to cut fat, creatine isn’t going to help you.

   The really great thing about creatine is that it is perfectly safe. It has been used for the last 40 years by professional bodybuilders and has never been shown to have serious side effects. The only drawback is that since creatine draws water into muscle cells, it will dehydrate you so drink accordingly.

   Also be sure to cycle your creatine use so that your body doesn’t become to immune to it. But more on that later.

That’s it. With these three essentials and the will power to constantly push your muscles, you can make massive gains without paying massive amounts of money. Gotta love that.

Is Protein an Important Supplement?

I know, fitness can be expensive. You know as well as I do that a burger at McDonald’s costs a lot less than an organic salad from a farmer’s market. So a question I get all the time is “Do I really need to spend the money on protein?” Well, the quick answer is yes, but let’s take a harder look at the fitness world’s favorite supplement and see how it measures up.

The Upsides:

1. Protein Builds Muscles

Everybody needs to be thinking about building muscle. Everybody. I know what you may be thinking. I just want to lose fat, not have big muscles. That’s a fair response, but remember that muscle naturally burns fat! More muscle = more fat lose without exercise!Protein

2. Powders Mean Less Eating

Sure, you can get all of the protein you need from food, but you’re going to be eating a lot. And that’s fine, if you’re ready to accept all of the calories that come with that much eating. Protein powders can have as little as 100 calories per serving and you’ll get all of your protein needs in a convenient drink.

3. Meals on the Go

Don’t have time to stop for a healthy breakfast? Contemplating the quick and easy Egg Muffin? Have a protein shake instead. Put one scoop of powder into a bottle of milk or water, shake it and go. Easy. Healthy. Cheap.

4. Inexpensive

Protein is great because it is relatively cheap. A 10lb bag of whey protein will cost you about $100 and last you practically forever. Just think of it the same way you would buying groceries. You can buy a regular sized tub of protein, pay $30 and get 30 healthy, low calorie meals. How’s that for a dollar menu?

5. Aids in Recovery

When you work out, you break down muscle fibers and release lactic acid. This causes soreness the next day. Muscles grow back stronger as they recover and you rest.

If you finish your workouts feeling shaky, try finishing up with a protein shake. The amino acids in most proteins will help in the synthesis of protein, helping your muscles recover faster.

Flip side of the coin:

Down-Sides

1. Finding the Right Taste

Not all protein flavors are made equal. Believe me, some flavors will make you hate your life. In my experience, I can say that staying away from most of the GNC brand flavors is a good idea.
Vitamin Shoppe’s brand of proteins are pretty good, but DO NOT BUY THE KIND SWEETENED WITH SPLENDA. Tastes like death. Seriously.
Hands-down the best flavors of protein are made by Muscle Milk and Optimum Nutrition respectively. I prefer Optimum Nutrition for value. Just me.

2. Casein and Soy

Thus far, I’ve only been talking about whey protein powders. Why? Because casein and soy powders have two things going against them:

They are expensive.
They generally taste like death on a cracker.

Sorry to all the vegan readers out there, but if you want a quality vegan protein powder you’re simply going to have to pay out the nose for it. I don’t make the rules.

In summary, protein is always a good idea. Not only is it inexpensive and good for muscle recovery, but it also helps keep you on your diet when you’re in a hurry. Plus, if you buy the right kind, they taste great. (Cookies N’ Creme Muscle Milk is all I have to say about that.)

Losing Weight with Fast Food and Freezer Meals

This website is based on the simple belief that you don’t need a gym, organic foods or any other special luxuries to be in the best shape of your life. There are a million websites out there that will tell you that you must eat “cleanly.” No processed foods, only whole, organic fruits and veggies. Prepackaged meals are out! Fast food? Don’t even think about it. If you don’t eat ?clean?, you’ll be stuck in fat-mode forever! (insert evil laugh here)

I don’t think so.

It would be great if we could all eat organic and whole foods. It would be great if we could all give up our fast foods and prepackaged meals in favor of organic veggies, but that’s not reality for most of us. Specialty foods are expensive and not at all practical for busy, budgeted people like this young college guy. So I’m here to sell you on the other way of living! I’m going to show you why you need to embrace the prepackaged meal and get back to fast food if you expect to lose weight on budgeted money and budgeted time.

1. Calories are Pre-counted -

One of the benefits of prepackaged meals is that the calories are right there in front of you. No guessing, just a black and white number. Quick and easy. Fast food restaurants make it even easier because they’ll do the adding for you online. Go to just about any fast food website and you’ll find a “Build Your Own Meal” section of their nutrition info page. You can pick and choose everything you want and see how much it’s going to cost you in calorie points. Couldn’t be easier if they fed it to you.

2. No Danger of Overeating -

This one applies to prepackaged meals more than fast food. When you’re buying things like Lean Cuisine, Stouffers or Banquet Meals you are given a reasonable portion, which is a good thing because most of us couldn’t judge a healthy portion if we had to. Portion control is one of the biggest issues when it comes to weight loss because we can’t judge, A) how much food is too much and B) how many calories are in the food we eat. This problem is solved by buying out of the freezer section.

Instead of getting fast food and buying way more than you need, freezer meals make it harder for you to go back for seconds. If you finish a Lean Cuisine and are still hungry, you have to think twice, open another package and wait five minutes for it to cook before you get your second serving. 9 times out of 10 you will decide you really are full before you even get the second package open.

3. Budget, budget, budget -

The biggest problem with eating healthily is that it is a luxury. It just costs too damn much to buy the organic stuff and that’s why most Americans don’t. That’s exactly why I shop mainly in the freezer section. The meals are reasonably cheap and (for the most part) still taste good. If you’re still not convinced try this little statistic on for size: when I go grocery shopping, I spend only $20 a week to feed myself. Can’t argue with that!

How Healthy Are Freezer Meals?

I should probably talk a little bit about the nutritional aspects of eating fast food and freezer meals all the time. First off, no, it is obviously not going to be as good for you as eating fresh fruits and vegetables and I’m certainly not saying there is anything wrong with eating those things, but in the early stages of weight loss it’s calories that we need to be primary focused on.

Sure, later on down the road you can get into macro-nutrient ratios and the like, but for right now focus simply on reducing your calorie intake. The hard truth is, if you weigh more than you should, it’s because you eat more than you should so don’t worry so much about cutting out any one thing like carbs or sugars. Yes, you should reduce your intake of sweets and other fattening foods, but focus more on getting your recommended calorie intake for the weight you want to be.

Got any other ideas for nutrition on a budget? I’d love to hear them. Remember, I’m doing this stuff right alongside you guys. I’ll take any tips I can get just the same as you. Feel free to leave a comment, or drop an email at the contact page if you’ve got something to share with the class.