Hey ,

What a wonderful gift you are giving yourself! In terms of health benefits, I believe training is one of the most powerful tools you can give yourself!

I agree with Bernadette: food is the absolute king, supplements are queen, but together they can build a kingdom.

Let me explain to you how I do it with my clients. Different goals may have different approaches. With weight loss and building strength, I aim for a protein intake of around 2 grams/kg body weight. For example, if you way 60 kg, that would mean 120 grams of protein per day.

Traditionally most trainers will advise 1.8 grams/kg. This will work fine as well, but I have a few reasons to choose 2:
• It is easier in calculations for clients
• Protein saturates and is harder to burn, so it is a good choice for losing weight and building strength.
• Most people when they start won’t get their protein requirements initially. If they aim at 2x their body weight, they still will start higher than when they aim at 1.8 gram protein/kg body weight. It gets them faster on the right track.
• When we age, protein digestion becomes harder. Having a little more protein in the diet can compensate for that.

Of course, these are people with healthy kidneys. If you are experiencing kidney issues, a high protein intake isn’t a good choice.

When you don’t want to lose weight and your focus is on strength only, you can drop your protein requirement a bit. This sounds a bit weird, but in the case of fat loss, your body uses stored energy in not only fat but other tissues (like muscles) as well. Part of the reason for that is that blood sugars need to be stable at all times.

Since carbs & sugars are less available in the diet, the body needs to produce blood sugars in a different way. The stress hormone cortisol will become a little more elevated because cortisol signals the body to use amino acids and turn them into blood sugar. A higher intake of protein will preserve tissue since more dietary protein is available.

If your goal isn’t losing fat, but it is to build strength, a protein requirement of 1.6 g/kg body weight is what I personally aim for with clients.

Creatine
There are a lot of benefits to using creatine.  Even for brain health! You might have seen earlier posts about methylation. A lot of the end product of methylation is used to make creatine. Adding creatine means the body can focus on using methylation for other needs, like protecting nerves, DNA, helping detoxification, etc.

We used to believe that creatine should be used in cycles of a few weeks. These days we know creatine can be taken daily whole year long. Again: if you don’t have kidney problems,  It is a very safe supplement to use.

BCAAs
Personally, with building strength, I won’t advise them anymore. The exception might be when people don’t take enough protein. There is one particular amino acid that starts muscle synthesis: leucine. It is one of the Branched Changed Amino Acids (BCAAs): leucine, isoleucine and valine. Leucine is the most important one of all the BCAA. We like to get at least 5 grams of leucine daily to facilitate muscle synthesis.

When you are eating enough protein, all the BCAA’s are more than enough in your diet. Adding them as a supplement won’t give you extra benefits. I rather spend my money on different supplements like:

Magnesium
You probably are already using magnesium, but magnesium is essential in muscles. It helps to relax the muscles and it is needed to build the molecule that transports energy: ATP.

If you are exercising you might use a bit more of this mineral and you might lose more in your sweat as well

All the other supplements you mentioned are great as well. If sunlight is an issue, I would add vitamin D to the list as well!

 Creatine Monohydrate is the most effective form for most people. Is the challenge to get more protein in your diet because you aren’t eating meat? Or are there other challenges?