Supplements I Regret Taking (and What I’d Do Now)
In a Nutshell
Dr. Mike regrets wasting money on creatine ethyl ester (ineffective due to stomach breakdown; use creatine monohydrate instead), non-stimulant fat burners (negligible effects; prioritize calorie deficit and 10k steps), leucine powder (disgusting and unnecessary with high-quality proteins), and cheap whey concentrate (gut issues from lactose; switch to whey isolate, hydrolysate, or BLG). Casein protein is useful for slow-digesting needs like pre-bed but not magical—Greek yogurt or lean meats work similarly. Stick to basics: food (95% of gains), creatine monohydrate, quality protein powder, and select vitamins/minerals; avoid exotic supplements.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
I'm a walking pharmacy and you don't want to end up like me, bald, desperate, pathetic, and addicted to masturbation. If you can't tell at all when you're very keenly paying attention, probably not doing shit. You will consume it and then it will 30 minutes later come out of your asshole. Roughly the same. Many of the supplements at the supplement store are either repackaged versions of these things or in many cases just don't have a main effect. Like they kind of do nothing to be completely honest.
Hey folks, Dr. Mike here for RP Strength. I've taken plenty of supplements over the years. While a few categories of supplements are effective, most of the rest are kind of a waste of money. Here are some of the supplements I've taken that I sort of regret and why you should consider maybe avoiding them.
My experience with creatine ethyl ester is that it didn't do anything. I couldn't feel anything. Nothing happened to my reps. Typically with creatine things definitely happen.
Creatine ethyl ester has a huge mechanistic flaw. It gets broken down in the acidic environment of the gut. It was supposed to be better than creatine monohydrate because it's more lipophilic. It's more attracted to fat globules and so it can move through your cell membrane and doesn't need the creatine transporter. So potentially you get more creatine into the cell. But in practice, this compound was found to break down quickly in the acidic environment of the stomach and convert into creatinine, which in the stomach is harmless, but it's primarily excreted.
Advice: Almost certainly pass on creatine ethyl ester. By far the most well-vetted in the research and effective type of creatine is regular old creatine monohydrate. It's the most readily available and usually the cheapest. It's a win across all things. What I use now is creatine monohydrate. It's cheap, it's effective, there's unbelievable amounts of data. It's safe. It's easy to get.
Big regret: non-stimulant fat burners. I'm really sensitive to stimulants. I almost never take them. But fat burning is a cool thing that I like. So I tried some non-stimulant fat burners back in undergrad and college. My experience: Nothing happened. I did a fat loss phase like I normally do and just couldn't tell.
These often have ingredients like berberine, capsaicin, and green tea extract. These mechanistically do help with fat burning, but they're such teeny-tiny effects that even the three of them stacked together fall way below noticeable energy or fat burning effects. Some might have some effects over the long term, but usually not much.
Feel free to try them, but in real life, it's mostly stimulants and real medications like tirzepatide that work the best for fat loss. And when tirzepatide finally gets here, holy shit, that'll be the holy grail. If you're looking for non-stimulant fat burners to give you a hypothetical theoretical edge that's immeasurable, sweet. You cost money, though. If you're looking for it to make an impact on a fat loss phase, you're looking in the wrong place.
What I use instead: Calorie deficit, 10,000 steps a day. The two best things to ever happen to fat loss. And of course tirzepatide, retatrutide, semaglutide, and growth hormone. But I'm a walking pharmacy and you don't want to end up like me. Bald, desperate, pathetic, and addicted to masturbation.
Leucine powder. I took it with multiple meals per day. It was disgusting. It's the worst thing in the world. It doesn't mix with water. So you mix it for a while with a shake. You look at it and there's just a bunch of powder floating at the top of the shake. You just choke it down.
Should you try leucine powder if you're eating non-meat and lower quality proteins? Often times the only thing they're lacking is enough leucine. If you put 3 grams of leucine into every not-so-high quality protein meal with a quick swig and it's disgusting, you actually may be able to trigger a substantial amount of muscle growth and that's actually really cool.
But if your proteins are usually meat products or high quality proteins (soy, egg, whey, milk protein, etc.), then you're probably wasting your money and being in a substantial amount of disgust misery at the same time.
What I use: Just high quality whey derivative protein or any other kind of complete protein. I haven't used leucine in years. Don't miss it. Would not recommend out of 10.
Casein protein is the slow digesting part of milk. Milk protein is whey protein and casein protein. Casein digests way longer. It keeps you fuller for longer and can titrate amino acids out to the bloodstream and is awesome for a few different things.
My experience: I loved it. I still love it and I still use it. But for a long time I thought I needed to have it before bed because it does magic bed things.
Should you try casein? If you need something quick to get into your body pre-bedtime or before a very long interval between meals where you won't be able to eat and you need some slow digesting protein, then casein is great. If you don't want to pee every hour in the night time, you don't want a big shake before bed. Making casein into a pudding is awesome because the pudding, if you're dieting, tastes pretty good. It is a much better consistency than whey. So casein pudding is actually goals out of 10.
But things like Greek yogurt, lean meat, and any other low-fat, high protein source of good high quality protein is probably just about as good pre-bed. So casein isn't magical. It's just awesome.
What I use: I'll still often use a casein or casein whey combo. A lot of times I like the one from Transparent Labs. It's really delicious. Or just go to protein bars, yogurts, or meats on most days. So I'm no longer a casein addict like I used to be.
Very cheap whey concentrate powder. I've tried all kinds of proteins from very high carb and high-fat kind of grocery store brand that later gets sued for not having any protein in it. All the way up to Optimum Nutrition's Platinum Hydrowhey, which is whey hydrolysate, super ultra high quality and has nothing in there except for protein. And I've had BLG (beta-lactoglobulin), and everything in between.
For me, concentrate worked just fine, though the macros aren't that great. And though drinking it during workouts is weird because it has a milky thickness. It can be a bit much in a workout shake. So it's cool for meal replacement, but sometimes not the best during workouts where things like BLG and hydro just do way better and isolate for sure.
Concentrate has more shit in it than everything else. Isolate has less and hydros has very little and BLG potentially has nothing but protein in it.
Should you try or continue to consume low-quality whey concentrate protein? If protein messes with your gut at all or if you're lactose intolerant at all or if you're dairy intolerant at all, do not try concentrate. You will consume it and then it will 30 minutes later come out of your asshole. Roughly the same.
If you are any of those things and you've abandoned whey protein cuz it's the whey that's bad cuz it's from milk try BLG beta-lactoglobulin and try whey hydro hydrolysate because then you can see is it really the whey or is it really just the fact that there was other extra gunk in there like lactose and all this other stuff because whey hydro and BLG often times even people who just don't consume whey protein anymore because they're like oh I can't do this they will be totally fine. And these are incredibly high quality protein sources.
What I use today: Regular whey isolate from loads of companies. And I will 100% use the Genius brand BLG drive proteins when I have access to such rich people things.
TLDR: Food is 95% of this thing of stuff that goes into your body to make you jacked and lean. Some creatine, some protein powder, vitamin or mineral supps, maybe some stimulants if you're into that sort of thing, and just a few other things are what you need. This means that many of the supplements at the supplement store are either repackaged versions of these things or in many cases just don't have a main effect. Like they kind of do nothing to be completely honest.
Good news, by sticking to the basic supplements and sticking to food and not spending money on all these exotic supplements, you can have more money left over for the RP Diet Coach app and the RP Hypertrophy app, but also diligent saving and investing.
I'm going to go buy a fancy car and then crash it while wearing expensive clothing. And hopefully the car lights on fire, lighting my clothes on fire and being a giant disaster. I'll see you guys next time, but with burns.
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