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Supplements I actually take (and the two I stopped taking)

Two supplements pass my bar: creatine monohydrate and magnesium glycinate. Everything else I've tried — pre-workout blends, BCAAs, a fat-burner — I stopped taking once I actually read the evidence instead of the label.

Creatine monohydrate — grade A​

This is the most-studied supplement in sports science, and the effect size (+5-10% strength) isn't subtle. There's no meaningful debate on whether it works; the only real questions are dosing and timing, which don't move the needle much:

  • Straight 5g/day beats a loading phase for anyone not in a hurry to see results within a week.
  • Timing relative to training doesn't matter much — same-day is what matters, not "pre" vs "post" specifically. I take mine with my pre-workout shake because that's a slot I never skip, not because the science demands it.

I don't cycle it. There's no evidence cycling does anything except make you forget to restart.

Magnesium glycinate — grade B​

The evidence here is real but thinner than creatine's: several trials show improved deep-sleep quality and reduced muscle cramping, but effect sizes vary more across studies and a chunk of the literature is small-N. I take it anyway because the downside (cost, mild) is low and the plausible upside (sleep quality) compounds with everything else in nutrient-timing — sleep is the one lever nothing else here compensates for.

Dose and exact timing depend on the rest of a night's protocol (what else is scheduled pre-sleep), so I don't fix a number here — see the food/price lookup for cost: datasets/nutrition/foods/supplements.yaml.

What I stopped taking​

  • Pre-workout blends: the only ingredient with real backing is caffeine, and I already get that from coffee. Everything else in the blend is underdosed proprietary-blend filler.
  • BCAAs: redundant if total daily protein is already adequate — see protein-and-energy. Free amino acids isolated from whole protein don't out-perform the protein itself once total intake is covered.

The counter-argument I take seriously​

"Evidence grade A" for creatine is about population-level effect size, not a guarantee for any one person — a minority of people are non-responders (don't retain intracellular water/creatine the same way). I haven't run a personal N=1 washout test to confirm I'm a responder; I'm extrapolating from the population data like everyone else who takes it without testing.