THE EMAIL POSTED BELOW IS ONE I SENT IN TO MUSCLE EVOLUTION MAGAZINE IN LATE 2005 OR EARLY 2006. WAS THE WINNING LETTER & WON QUITE A NICE PRIZE JUST SOMETHING I FEEL LIKE SHARING. Food versus Supplements
Hi Andrew. I first noticed and bought your magazine about 8 months ago.
What a revelation it has proved to be! I’m writing to appeal to all the young inexperienced guys out there to try and correct a huge misconception when trying to grow some quality muscle or mass. By the end of 2002 I weighed an “uncomfortable” 119kg. I was 19 years old and only1.83m tall. I decided to take control and change my life. Things went well and I dropped body fat pretty quickly. My old school mates don’t recognise me anymore! I’m presently 22 years and weigh 86kg at around 8% body fat. Even my six-pack is almost showing. I joined a local gym 2 years ago and made some nice but slow progress. Most of my salary went into supplements like creatine or the next product with wild and amazing claims of strength and muscle gain. I still lived with my parents so I didn’t have any overheads. I didn’t care much about my food intake. After all “supplements make you big”. Whilst I was very uninformed, I tried a cycle or two of quality but expensive pro-hormones over an 8-month period, starting Oct 2004. A little strength and size resulted but it was not the desired effect I was looking for. Little did I know I was not eating enough. Then it happened. My father passed away in July ‘05 and things started getting rough financially. I have to support my mother now. Not the other way around. No more cash for pro-hormones etc. Then your magazine made its appearance and I immediately realised I wasn’t eating enough food. So all the cash spent on creatine and pro-hormones was actually wasted and pissed down the toilet. I now have 7 - 8 meals a day and have made more gains these past 7 months than I previously did in more than a year of using pro-hormones. I know it sounds too good to be true for the inexperienced, but I can assure you that I am still learning everyday. Supplement manufacturers spend allot on advertising and marketing of their products and they’re doing a damn good job! But most of their consumers are ill informed and believe that if they use product “X” they will grow like crazy, until product “Y” appears which claims better, faster or slower absorption etc. I’m not trying to ‘knock’ the supplement industry! I still use a meal replacement and use creatine cycles every now and then. But I don’t spend half the amount on supplements as I did in the past and I’m making more gains! If taken correctly in conjunction with a good diet or eating plan (enough protein), supplements will definitely give you a boost and a competitive edge. So guys please, do your research and spend your hard earned cash wisely. And remember, you never know as much as you think you know. Keep training and keep buying ME, it’s a great source of quality and relevant information.
Regards, Mario Jordaan.
Well-said Mario! Most people do solely rely on supplements and this can inhibit progress tremendously. You simply can’t beat good food, and enough of it at that. Supplements work wonders, but only in conjunction with a rock solid eating regimen. Throughout all the pro tours I have done through South Africa, the one thing that never stop amazing me was the quantity of food that the big guys eat. They just ate and ate and then ate some more! It was round about that time that I realised how little, South African bodybuilders actually eat. But eating the right food at the right time is all about training your body. Melvin Anthony said in the latest Flex magazine “Training your body to consume all that food takes time!” and nothing could be further from the truth. Thanks for a great email. Andrew
