What good cutting supplements are out there?

[KellyRene]

Hello everyone, I'm new here. I've been doing a little bit of research and having a hard time finding the answer I'm looking for lol.

My b/f suggested maybe I looking into a cutting supplement to kind of give me a boost. I'm trying to lose about 20-25 pounds by Christmas. Overall I'd like to lose 40 pounds by summer of next year.
My diet is decent, but needs improving. And I try to workout 3 times a week. I do a short full body circuit. The big draw back is I'm dealing with a sore shoulder and a bad ankle. To top it all off I will most likely be going into surgery next month for the bad ankle.
I try to eat as healthy as possible, I avoid fastfood 95% of the time, I don't eat pasta or bread and when i eat rice its brown rice. I tend to stick to fish and shrimp and everyonce in a while redmeat. I'll eat chicken, but not often because its so bland lol. But my schedule is tough, I'm a full time college student and work part-time when there is work, which lately seems to be a lot of work. So even cooking the weekly meals is hard because Its not like I can eat 3-4 times a day.

I'm 29
5'6 and weighing anywhere from 185-190 right now. I was 160 in 2013 to the beginning of 2014, but had 4 surgeries in a years time so really put a damper on me.

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated! TIA

[Bouncer]

The boring answer you don't want to hear. Diet is the single biggest factor by far. To lose weight its actually very simple. You must consume less calories then you burn. If you are not losing weight at the moment it's because you are eating more calories then you burn. It really is as simple as that, no magic here.

Second factor is cardio. The more cardio you do the more cals you burn. I'm sure this isn't news to you but sometimes people don't want to see the truth even if its right in front of them.

Cut calories by 200 per day, increase cardio by 20 minutes per day. Wait a month and evaluate. If progress is being made then continue. If not, add more cardio. Hard work and consistency.. You will easily achieve your goals.

Boring answer huh? Not as fun as taking a new supplement that will magically transform you! Truth is, supplements by in large are absolute crap. People love the idea of believing in something that will give them results without any increased effort on their part. It almost never works like that.

[Scrumhalf]

How many calories do you consume every day? Have you calculated it honestly? Have you done the BMR calculation and figured out if you are running a deficit or not? Post your daily caloric intake for the last week.

[Bouncer]

Love ya scrum but the whole " post your caloric intake" isn't going to get a response from beginners for the most part.

Gotta put yourself in a different state of mind and walk in their shoes. To them all this shit is so bewildering that the thought of trying to figure out calories from meal to meal over the course of a week simply makes them walk away.

As we've seen over the years, the response of "post your diet and cals" simply does not work for 99% of people, especially those who think they are eating well and are determined to use a supplement they are convinced is the key. We need to evolve our response and take a different approach.

[FitnessBrat]

My advice would be to hop on My Fitness Pal, and start logging everything that goes in your mouth. EVERYTHING. There is even a spot for water consumption. Usually when someone is just getting started and they say "my diet is the greatest but it's decent" they don't realize just how many changes can be done. Things like shrimp are high in fat. I didn't see any mention of cardio, but you're going to need to incorporate that.

So - start doing cardio 5 x week and start logging everything that goes in your mouth. You have to know where you're starting to know what to adjust :)

[AvidFisherman]

I had the same thought as you when I started dieting which led me to spend hundreds of dollars on suppliments like evening primrose oil, cla, ala, l-carnatine and many others. Sure I lost weight but that was because of the changes I made in my diet such as no liquid calories and very limited fast food.

Right now I just take some fish oil, Metamucil, creatine and a multivitamin, which is much cheaper than taking however many pills I was taking.

I would say if you are working out and you want to start taking something, start off with creatine. It has been studied extensively and shown to be safe and it's cheap. Not only that but it's been proven to increase lean body mass, which will drive up your metabolism.

[Scrumhalf]

I would say lay off all supplements other than a multivitamin. There's no need for even creatine to start off. People ALWAYS underestimate calories. They think they are eating well when in fact they are over their limit and that means game over. That's why you HAVE to log everything you eat for a couple of weeks to baseline your intake. I can guranatee you'll be shocked if you do this honestly. Once you get your baseline, you'll have a good feel for what you need to eat to stay under the limit. I don't keep track of calories any more because I know to within a couple of hundred calories exactly what my intake is.

[TrapsBrah]

Ephedrine/brokaid is the best supplement ever for cutting it kills your appetite completely.

[jack tors]

Unfortunately for women the diet needs to be very strict for shedding BF. Women tend to hold more bf than men by nature and benefit from low fat high fiber diets.

I don't think ppl really understand what "eating clean" is all about. They think there eating good bc they dropped mcdonalds and ice cream. Here is a example below to work from. Any deviation from this type of diet is a compromise. Resist urge to binge and eat crap. It takes 500 burpee's to burn off 1 small McDonalds fry.

Example (for women):
Meal one: 4 whites, 1 whole egg. 1/2 c cooked oats, 1 c fruit, 1 c black coffee

Meal two: 4 oz breast, 4 oz sweet potato

Meal three: 4 oz breast, 1/2 c cooked parboiled rice or brown rice, 1 c greens of your choice

Meal four: 4 oz tilapia, 1 c greens of your choice

Meal five: 5 whites

Meal six: 5 oz lean ground turkey, 6 oz extra lean red meat ( alternate every other day)

16oz of water at every meal. You can add a little more carbs to each meal from brown rice, sweet potato, oats.

If you can maintain this diet for 6-months come back and we can re-visit anabolic's/supplements. She hasn't responded because we didn't give her the answer she wanted to hear. Maybe someone else reading this will. I would allow yourself to have 1 cheat meal a week basically eat whatever you one for that meal.

[jack tors]

I would say lay off all supplements other than a multivitamin. There's no need for even creatine to start off. People ALWAYS underestimate calories. They think they are eating well when in fact they are over their limit and that means game over. That's why you HAVE to log everything you eat for a couple of weeks to baseline your intake. I can guranatee you'll be shocked if you do this honestly. Once you get your baseline, you'll have a good feel for what you need to eat to stay under the limit. I don't keep track of calories any more because I know to within a couple of hundred calories exactly what my intake is.

I agree with most of this ...

fish oil or omega3 supplement
multi-v
5g of creatine is fine on workout days
pre-workout such as C4 for women
BCAA's
Green Tea
Protein shakes - if you diet is strict these are only for convenience they wont keep you full.
- these all will aid in the process of strength, lbm and energy.

[Bouncer]

She hasn't responded because we didn't give her the answer she wanted to hear.

Sadly probably true. What's worse is that she will most likely continue to search for the answer she wants to hear until she gets it. Lets hope we're wrong.

[jack tors]

Training needs to be intense as well.
– Add cardio after each workout for 30 minutes in normal speed
– Work out in 20 reps range with less than 1 minute rest between sets

Example routine
Pre-contest Weight Training Workout for a Bikini Model

[Bouncer]

Jack, same thing I said to scrum.. Your just going to push her further away. Talking about how strict and intense her diet and training needs to be. This is not the approach that will work for the average girl trying to drop weight. Shame but true.

[jack tors]

Jack, same thing I said to scrum.. Your just going to push her further away. Talking about how strict and intense her diet and training needs to be. This is not the approach that will work for the average girl trying to drop weight. Shame but true.

agreed my brother... good point

[Bouncer]

your advice is absolutely correct. and it would absolutely work for people that live this life.

the disconnect here is that the average person is very far away from "this life". they are simply not willing to make those sacrifices.

what we need to try and do is find the balance for them. give them advice they are more likely to actually succeed with. i'm still trying to find that balance myself when i give advice. obviously my first post seems to have scared her away and I thought I was being pretty relaxed and clear about things. lol