Supplements are perhaps the most controversial aspect of modern nutrition. But despite the alarmism that you sometimes hear in the headlines, more people use supplements these days than don't use them—even if they don't always call them by that name. They call them vitamins, protein, probiotics, or any of thousands of other titles.

Where do supplements fit in with a foundational approach to nutrition? They're a tiny addition to an adequate, nutrient-rich diet—not a replacement for that diet. When you're prioritizing exercise or training, or chasing a physical goal, they can help you optimize performance, or recover just a little better between workouts, so you can do it again tomorrow.



If you're wondering where to start with supplements, you're not alone. Watch this video from Bodybuilding.com's Foundations of Fitness Nutrition Course, our new nine-video course designed to give you a simple, sustainable approach to both nutrition and supplementation. The video also provides four science-backed recommendations for supps where the existing research speaks loud and clear.

Bodybuilding.com's Foundations of Fitness Nutrition

We worked with two registered dieticians, Douglas Kalman, Ph.D. and Susan Hewlings, Ph.D., to create this comprehensive but applicable course. It's meant to be the course they should have given you in school, but probably didn't, about how to eat for health, performance, and to meet your physique goals.

The course doesn't advocate one particular dietary approach, but rather, outlines principles that can make any diet work better. The videos include:

  1. Food as Fuel: The Nutrition Mindset
  2. Everything You Need to Know About Calories and Food Labels
  3. Protein: How Much, When, and From Where?
  4. Carbs: Fitness Friend or Fuel?
  5. Fats: Seeing Through the Mixed Messages
  6. How to Eat to Lose Weight
  7. How to Eat to Gain Weight
  8. Exercise and Nutrition: Fine Tuning a Good Thing
  9. Supplements: Where They Fit and a Few to Consider

Taught by experts who work with athletes and are athletes themselves, this is the course you've been telling us you want for years. Check it out on Bodybuilding.com BodyFit Elite.

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Bodybuilding.com’s authors consist of accredited coaches, doctors, dietitians and athletes across the world.

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