SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Carnosine saturation!? It may occur (if at all) only at much higher dosages / longer supplementation periods  than they're currently recommended. If you've been a faithful SuppVersity reader for the last almost 10 years, you will have noticed that my initial excitement about beta-alanine (#BA) has been fading ever since the classic meta-analysis by Hobson et el. was published in 2012. Yes, there were small benefits (2%) but only in the high(er) intensity 'long sprint' exercises... after having read the latest meta-analysis by Rezende et al. (2020), I am asking myself if this rather mediocre result could be in part due to the relatively low median dose of BA. In the studies Hobson et al. reviewed, the median amount of cumulative #BA intake was 179 g of β-alanine. Now, Rezende et al. hypothesize that "commonly used BA supplementation protocols may not come close to saturating muscle carnosine content?" Let's take a look at how a group of Brazilia...

Works, ... whether that's solely due to pH modulation is not clear. So we don't know if simply using bicarbonate as an alkalizer will do the same Let's get this straight, right away. While the authors ascribe the body weight and performance benefits they observed in their latest study solely to the pH modulating effects of their multimineral supplement, it's by no means clear that the minerals themselves do not at least contribute the effect. But before we get into the nitty-gritty of the discussion, let's first see how the mixed-sex population in the study at hand boosted their weight loss and training efforts ... The RCT was conducted by German scientists from the Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg  ( Hottenrott 2020 ). Hottenrott et al. recruited their subjects, a total of 80 healthy (40 females), normal-to-overweight subjects who were aged 20–60 years, and had been physically slightly active before the onset of the trial (1–2 h exercise/week). Miner...

You may find this supplement albeit with a less honest label at your favorite 'hardcore'-supplement store. You will have seen them pop up (and already begin to disappear again) in almost every supplement store that considers itself 'hardcore' but 'natural': laxogenin supplements. By their producers and the shops that sell them corresponding products are marketed as an agent that "can help you add muscle and shed fat", that is "not classified as a prohormone", that "doesn’t need to be cycled" and that "delivers results" and targeted at natural bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts. Read more about studies involving TRT/HRT & co on suppversity.com: What to expect from normalizing Testosterone Testosterone Gel Augments 'ur Gainz PWO T-Increases Don't Determine Your Gainz The Hormonal + Other Underpin-nings of Gainz Impressive 12% T-Boost (+20% IGF1) W/ Tribulus T +/- Exercise to Rejuvenate...

Reader's question from the SuppVersity's Instagram page: "I wonder if just having a small serving of beans before a meal would have good effects also. Red velvet, black, etc." - Johan Those of you who already follow the SuppVersity on Facebook will have seen the news item ( in the infographic section ) about the latest bean-carb-blocker study. Some may even have seen that there were a lot of comments, comments in which you repeatedly found the question whether, instead of the stupid bean extract, one wouldn't be able to simply eat a bunch of beans before or with the meal and see the same potentially weight-reducing effects that were reported in the study. Well, it turns out it is not that easy to find an answer to this question - especially not one that is workable, i.e. "eat exactly X grams of THIS type of beans at timepoint T to improve your glucose metabolism by Z and lose BETA kg of weight in GAMMA weeks." What I could come up with, however, ...