thanks soundness...excellent point...we sometimes WANT these supplements to work so bad that we will continue to purchase stuff that hasn't really worked well in the past...I bought some cell-tech years ago and it was awesome....worked to at least harden me up a bit and the water retention made me feel bigger psychologically......but at the time I was a first time user....then I kept buying but got no effects whatsoever, so I stopped......then about three years ago I bought some Size-On..it worked good as well..but the second time I purchased it..nothing..no efffects....so I stopped buying creatine and just worked out without it.,,and you know what??...my lifting loads actually INCREASED......I was actually stronger without the creatine...that's when I realized I had been chasing my tail by buying supps....didn't really need them, but was using them as a crutch thinking they would make me into a superman in the gym..(they didn't)...all I needed was some hard work and to stop eating like a bird.....and also to sleep more.....
I bought this recent batch of creatine because it was a deal I couldn't turn down, but like soundness stated, there is always that part of me that HOPES THE SUPPS WILL WORK THIS TIME....but at least now I understand that basically they probably won't....I won't have the disappointment of buying something and then feeling like an idiot when nothing extraordinary occurs....
for many years I ACTUALLY thought I would and could look like the guys in the magazines....I never realized I was being sold a dream by the supp companies and magazines which collude with the supp companies to peddle high priced junk...THE ONLY WAY TO LOOK LIKE THOSE GUYS IS WITH DRUGS..CLEAR AND SIMPLE AND NO BULLSHIT....ZMA, L-Carnitine, Leucine, Ribose, Glutamine, and all that other stuff is ALL NONSENSE WITH NOTHING TO BACK THEIR CLAIMS..again...if these supps really worked, the U.S. Government and the FDA would be in their offices tomorrow with subpoenas forcing these companies to prove their claims....the fact that goverment continues to basically ignore these supp companies speaks to how they feel about the junk these companies are peddling...the reason why the government got involved and banned ephedra is because IT ACTUALLY WORKED....
yes some people supposedly died from it, but this happens with any drug.....the government got involved because they realized that ephedra actually works and that people were out there taking it without supervison and they didn't want any more deaths from it....the stuff that doesn't work, the government ignores because they feel if you are stupid enough to buy junk that doesn't work, then thats your business...as long as it doesn't cause deaths which would make them look bad..then they won't get involved..and the supp industry KNOWS THIS which is why they have gotten away with conning people for so long
Take a good look at the "before" pictures in some of those ads. Notice something about them? The men involved ARE ALREADY BIG AND SWOLE!! The product being advertised may have helped them out a bit, but it was NOT the primary reason for their looking the way they do.
Also keep in mind that these bodybuilders that take supplements consume WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more of these products than the average fellow. I had the same complaints you once had, regarding a popular supplement in the mid-90s, MET-Rx. Bodybuilders were swearing by this stuff; but when I tried it, nothing happened. I thought these guys were lying; but upon further review, it turned out that these guys were using MET-Rx and getting great results. But, the caveat was that they were taking at least EIGHT SERVINGS per day (That's a shade under 300 grams of protein), IN ADDITION TO their regular meals.
Since I obviously couldn't afford to do that (and didn't need that much protein, anyway), I figured the best thing to do was to figure out how much protein I needed and a more economical way to get it, which ended up being Weider's Super Mega Mass 2000.
The bodybuilders who use Nitro-Tech are likely drinking that stuff like Kool-Aid. Former MuscleTech guy, Jeramy Freeman, claimed he was taking 9 servings a day. And remember MuscleTech's initial guinea pig, Greg Kovacs? He was downing MuscleTech goodies in a manner that would require one to take a second mortgage on his home. That consumption included at least 4 servings of Meso-Tech (he even claimed to use the product unflavored, before it hit the market, which was quite bitter by his account). And, he did that to replace the 8 servings of MET-Rx he was drinking, prior to MuscleTech creating its MRP counterpart.
Once again, your words betray you. You were under the impression that taking certain supplements relieved you of the responsibility of making sure you diet was on point. Same thing goes for your training. You "ate like a bird" and coasted through some of your workouts, which means you aren't going to put on size, no matter which supplements you take. As you've found out the hard way, supplements DO NOT take the place of a high-quality and quantity diet. Nor, do they replace effort in the gym. They simply augment those things to help you glean better results.
So, it appears you're blaming the supplement companies for your laziness in the gym and lack of consistency on your diet.
