Don’t Buy These 5 Supplements (Especially Not #3)

Key Takeaways

To be a “save your money” supplement, it must be well known and have:
- Little or no research supporting it
- Little to no positive effects
- Moderate to severe side effects
Multivitamins likely:
- Contain harmful amounts of unnecessary vitamins and minerals
- Have little to no positive effect on health outcomes
- Are not an effective way to compensate for a nutrient-poor diet
The only two situations you might benefit from BCAA supplementation is when you train fasted or eat a very low protein diet.
At best, fat burners are mildly effective. At worst, they pose a serious risk to your health.
Detox teas will not increase fat burning or help your body “expel toxins” - that’s the job of your liver, kidneys, lungs, digestive system, and skin, and they do it well.
Collagen supplementation is unlikely to:
- Help you gain muscle or strength
- Reduce joint pain
- Improve skin, nail, and hair health

Full Story

You’re a reasonable person. If you weren’t, you’d be taking health advice from quacks like Dr. Oz or Dr. Gundry instead of Solokas Focus (1-2). You’ve taken the time to make sure your source of health and fitness information - that’s me - takes the time to read the research and cite his sources. You’re well ahead of most and on the right track.

I may not know you very well, but I am sure of 2 facts about you:

You’d like to reach your goals as quickly and easily as possible
You don’t enjoy burning your money

If those two statements don’t resonate with you, go ahead and quit out of this article. However, if you prefer to spend your money wisely and have success in fitness, allow me to explain why nearly every supplement you own is better suited for your garbage can than your medicine cabinet.

Money Money Money Money, Monnn Eyyy

The worldwide supplement market is valued at 140 billion dollars (3). I’d wager that 139 billion of those dollars are wasted on products that are ineffective, unnecessary, or both.

I’d feel comfortable making the claim that “most supplements don’t work,” but we first need to define work (and Rihanna’s interpretation doesn’t give us any insight) (4).

You might expect supplements to work by:

Preventing the most deadly diseases, such as cancer or cardiovascular disease - most don’t (5, 6)
Preventing death, from any cause - most don’t (7, 8, 9)
Burning fat - most definitely don’t (10)
Increasing muscle size and strength - besides the ones we’ve discussed (creatine and MAYBE ashwagandha, beta-alanine, citrulline malate, and HMB) most don’t (11, 12)

There, now I can say it - most supplements just don’t work.

That’s not the primary problem, though. Supplementation is only harmful if you:

1. Don’t know which ones are effective and which are useless - hopefully I’ve helped you with that

2. Hear about the useless ones - blame the marketers for doing their job

3. Get convinced that they work - blame the marketers for doing their job well

4. Shell out your hard-earned cash in exchange for worse outcomes and expensive pee - now that’s a problem (13, 14).

Unless you’re Patches O'Houlihan, you’re not concerned with the vitamin and mineral content of your urine (“your urine” - try saying that three times fast!)

We could spend hours and hours taking a deep dive into the effects of every supplement in existence, but I’d rather spend that time in a more productive way - like laying on my floor and staring at the ceiling.

Instead, we’ll focus on the ones everyone thinks they should take, but shouldn’t, and the ones everyone thinks work, but don’t.

Don’t Buy These Supplements

To be a “save your money” supplement, it must be well known and have:

Little or no research supporting it
Little to no positive effects
Moderate to severe side effects

Unless you have a specific medical condition or deficiency, take these sparingly (if ever).

1. Multivitamin

What is it supposed to do?

Prevent nutritional deficiencies

Does the research support it?

Does the research support it?

I was fooled. I took my Flintstone’s gummies and my One-A-Day For Men’s for the first 18 years of my life. Maybe they were a useful supplement to my childhood diet of Oreo O’s and plain beef and cheese tacos (if they came with lettuce and tomatoes I wouldn’t even look at them), but probably not.

I’ll be honest. Before, I had thought that taking a multivitamin wasn’t a bad idea, especially if your diet lacked a wide array of fruits, vegetables, and other nutritious foods. After delving into the research, though, it appears that taking a multivitamin is flat out unnecessary for most people.

A few studies have found that taking a multivitamin might:

Slightly reduce risk of cancer (15, 16, 17)

Reduce risk of heart disease (18, 19, 20)

However, the majority of large scale studies show that taking multivitamins has no positive effect and may even result in worse health outcomes (21-31).

If you have a specific nutrient deficiency (such as Vitamin D, K, C, magnesium, calcium, potassium, or folate), you’re better off consuming more whole foods rich in the specific nutrient or taking an individual supplement (i.e. Vitamin D3 alone, as opposed to a multivitamin containing it).

Multivitamins likely:

Contain harmful amounts of unnecessary vitamins and minerals
Have little to no positive effect on health outcomes
Are not an effective way to compensate for a nutrient-poor diet

Most people, especially if they eat a nutritious diet, will not benefit from taking a multivitamin.

Final Grade - Do not take a multivitamin (unless otherwise specified by your doctor)

2. BCAA’s

What is it supposed to do?

Improve muscle growth
Decrease soreness
Reduce fatigue

Does the research support it?

Branched chain amino acids (BCAA’s) or leucine, isoleucine, and valine, specifically, wins the prize for “flashiest marketing, slightest effects.” If you trust the magazine ads or your local bodybuilder lugging around a gallon of windshield cleaner blue liquid, BCAA’s are your secret ticket to muscle and strength gains. If you trust the science, they're just a colorful and expensive water enhancer.

Research has shown that supplementing with BCAA’s:

Increases muscle growth (32)

Preserve muscle mass during a diet (33)
Reduces fatigue (34)

Boosts immune function (35)

Reduces soreness (36)

…but nearly every study that shows these benefits included only subjects that were consuming inadequate amounts of protein. Yet another example of research findings not telling the whole story.

In other words, supplementing with amino acid supplements is useless as long as you consume enough protein (37, 38).

That being said, the only two situations you might benefit from amino acid supplementation is when:

You train fasted (even then, you’d be better off drinking a protein shake instead) (39-42).
You consume a very low protein diet (remember, all of the above studies that found a benefit of supplementing with BCAA’s were in those consuming inadequate amounts of protein).

In general, you probably won’t experience any benefit from taking BCAA’s.

Final grade - Don’t bother, unless you train fasted or don’t eat enough protein.

3. Fat Burners

What is it supposed to do?

Improve fat burning

Does the research support it?

A pill that burns up all your fat while you just lounge on the couch watching Schitt’s Creek? Not so fast.

If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Although single compounds have been shown to make it easier to lose fat - stimulants such as caffeine and yohimbine come to mind - there is zero evidence that fat burners will directly cause fat loss (43). Most fat burners are not regulated by the FDA and some have even been linked to serious illness and death (44, 45).

Steve Bechler was a pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles in 2003. While participating in conditioning drills one February practice, he collapsed on the field, was rushed to the hospital, and died the next day. After taking a dose of ephedra, a weight loss drug that has since been banned, his body temperature rose to 108 degrees F, his liver stopped functioning, and his blood pressure rose to deadly levels (46).

Belcher’s story is rare, but death by diet pills is more common than you might think (47, 48).

At best, fat burners are mildly effective - for a breakdown of the few compounds that might facilitate fat burning, check out this article from Mike Matthews (49). At worst, they pose a serious risk to your health.

As long as the laws of thermodynamics hold true, there is only one effective way to lose fat and it doesn’t require popping magic fat burning pills. The answer to your weight loss problems is, and always will be, consuming fewer calories than you burn over time.

Final Grade -

4. Detox Teas

What is it supposed to do?

Lose fat
Eliminate toxins

Does the research support it?

If it sounds too good to be true, it is. The law of repetition tells us that repeating a statement makes it more powerful, so I’ll type it again, in bold, all caps, and big letters →

IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT IS.

This is true for pyramid schemes, zero calorie peanut butter, fat burners, of course, and it’s especially true for detox teas (50). Drinking a detox tea will not automatically make you lose fat, eliminate toxins, or do anything beneficial for your health (51).

If you drink it and it does result in weight loss, it’s because:

You consumed more fluids, felt less hungry, and ate fewer calories
It contained caffeine or other stimulants that reduced hunger and you ate fewer calories
It made you feel healthy, influenced your food choices, and you ate fewer calories
For any other reason in the world, it caused you to eat fewer calories
(Repetition, work your magic!)
OR
It contained diuretics or laxatives that resulted in temporary water loss in the form or more frequent bathroom trips of the #1 and or #2 variety (52).

In short, you can expect three outcomes after drinking a detox tea:

It will do absolutely nothing (most likely)
It results in excessive water loss and temporary weight loss
It causes you to consume fewer calories than you burn and you lose weight

Just like fat burners, drinking detox teas is ineffective at best and harmful at worst (53). Side effects of detox teas include:

Diarrhea
Bloating, gas, and other G.I. distress
Jitters and anxiety
Sleep disturbances
Electrolyte imbalances (54)

Please, don’t believe the marketing. Detox teas will not help your body “expel toxins” - that’s the job of your liver, kidneys, lungs, digestive system, and skin, and they do it well.

Save your money or use it to enlist the help of a coach that will metaphorically slap the box of detox tea out of your hands as soon as you even consider picking it up.

Final Grade - Do not drink detox teas.

5. Collagen Protein

What is it supposed to do?

Improve skin, hair, and nail health
Reduce joint pain
Increase muscle mass

Does the research support it?

Collagen protein is a relatively new supplement and the research supporting its benefits is shoddy.

Collagen supplementation won’t help you gain muscle or strength. It is a low quality source of protein that does not contain an adequate amount of amino acids to support muscle building (specifically, it’s severely lacking in leucine, the most important muscle building amino acid). Whole foods are always best, and, as far as supplements go, whey, casein, and vegan powders are superior (55).

What’s more, collagen supplementation is unlikely to reduce joint pain. Most of the research supporting this claim suffer from significant methodological flaws that render the results useless (56-58).

Despite the results of these unconvincing studies, common sense and physiological principles tell us that collagen probably has little to no effect on joint health. You see, all proteins are broken down into amino acids in the body.

That’s right, whether you slug down a protein shake, polish off a rack of ribs, or drink your questionable collagen supplement, once the proteins are digested and the amino acids enter your bloodstream, the raw materials are indistinguishable from one another.

So, eating more collagen protein doesn’t contribute to stronger joints any more so than eating protein from a Quest bar or some egg whites. The amount of collagen in your body is dependent on your age, genetics, and exercise history/habits and is less likely to be impacted significantly by the amount of collagen in your diet (59).

One type of collagen, undenatured type II collagen, might have positive effects on joint health (60). But:

There’s not much research on it
The significance of the effect is questionable
It’s expensive and not found in most collagen supplements (61)

For stronger and healthier joints, there are more beneficial lifestyle and exercise decisions you can make than supplementing with collagen (62).

Finally, collagen supplementation is unlikely to improve skin, nail, and hair health and evidence of any positive effect is weak, and weaker (63, 64).

As we touched on before, there’s no reason to believe that collagen protein would improve the appearance of your skin, nails, or hair more than any other source protein. In fact, no reliable studies have even shown collagen protein to have such effects.

Final Grade - Save your money, spend it on high quality sources of protein, profit.

Wrap Up

Remember, supplementation is the least important component of the muscle and strength hierarchy.

Whatever your goal, success in health and fitness is primarily the result of:

Overall lifestyle choices
Exercise habits
Adherence to proper nutrition principles (in order of the pyramid)
Stress management
Recovery and sleep quality

Supplements are just…

Why Even Take Supplements?

If supplements matter so little, then why did I spend a lot of hours writing 4 articles covering the most important ones? Because when you want something really, really bad, every percent makes a difference.

You know deep down that supplements won’t make or break your progress. However, you still fall for the “lose fat 20% faster with this trick” and “take this to build 2x as much muscle” clickbait, hoping to discover a quick fix. You’re not alone.

I don’t blame you for seeking out shortcuts - gaining muscle, losing fat, and staying healthy is difficult:

First, you need to resist the strong biological urges to sit around and eat Girl Scout Cookies all day.
Then, you must conjure up the willpower to exercise (no, not just once - a few times a week, every week, for the rest of your life).
On top of all that, for the best results, you need to know how much and what to eat, how much and what to do for activity, and how to keep yourself from throwing down the dumbbell, picking up the box of Thin Mints, and calling it a day - day after day after day.

The right supplements make it slightly easier to see progress slightly quicker, but success still comes down to basics: putting in the work day in and day out to establish sustainable, healthy habits.

If you’re stuck, tired, or in a rut and would like expert help to finally achieve your muscle building, fat loss, or Thin Mint moderation goals, I can help you with my 1 on 1 online coaching service. You can fill out an application form below⤵️

No rush - I’ve helped many around the world reach their fitness goals, and I’ll continue to do so for the next 40 or so years. Whenever you’re ready, I’ll be here.

In the meantime - please don’t let me catch you messing around with any fat burners or detox teas.

Sources:

GIF Sources: Burning Money Patches Daryl and Nellie Bill Nye Moira Michael Toxins Boo Jessica Ron Burgundy Cherry

(giphy.com)