Before you buy another supplement, read this

Are you focusing on the wrong things with your nutrition?

With all the information (and misinformation) out there, nutrition can start to feel complicated very quickly.

Should you be taking creatine? Do you need electrolytes? What's the ideal post-workout shake? Should you be eating at a certain time? Do you need supplements to make progress?

These are all reasonable questions - but they may not be the first questions you need to ask.

A useful way to think about nutrition is as a pyramid. The biggest section at the bottom is your food-first foundation. Above that comes fine-tuning - things like macronutrients and nutrient timing. Supplements sit right at the top.

The mistake many people make is starting at the top. And it’s easily done. Brands and influencers are incredibly good at making you feel as though their product is all you need to make progress and achieve your goals. But the reality? If you don’t have the fundamentals in place, those supplements will be of little use…

Here’s a better (and cheaper) way to approach nutrition: 

Start with food first

For most people, the vast majority of their nutritional needs can be met through food.

Before worrying about supplements or perfect meal timing, ask yourself whether the basics are in place.

Are you eating a good variety of foods across the week? Are you regularly including fruit and vegetables? Are you getting enough fibre? Are you including sources of protein, carbohydrate and healthy fats? Are you hydrated? And importantly, are you eating enough food overall?

That last point becomes particularly important if you train regularly.

If you are asking your body to run, lift, cycle, swim or take part in classes several times a week, it needs enough energy to support that work. Under-fuelling can leave you feeling tired, struggling to recover and wondering why your training is not progressing despite putting plenty of effort in.

It is also worth remembering that your requirements are individual.

Someone online telling you what they eat in a day does not tell you what you need. Your body size, activity levels, training goals, lifestyle and preferences all influence what an appropriate intake looks like.

So rather than trying to copy someone else's diet, start by looking at your own.

A simple action for this week is to ask:

“What is one thing I could improve at the bottom of the pyramid?”

That might be adding a piece of fruit to breakfast, including vegetables with your evening meal, improving your fibre intake, eating a proper lunch instead of skipping it, or making sure you are actually fuelling your training days adequately.

You do not need to overhaul everything at once.

Fine-tune

Once the foundations are fairly solid, you can start thinking more specifically about how your nutrition supports your training.

This is where macronutrients and meal timing become more useful.

For active people, carbohydrate is particularly important around training because it helps provide energy for exercise and supports recovery afterwards.

That might mean having a carbohydrate-containing meal or snack before training and including carbohydrate again afterwards to begin replacing the fuel you have used.

Protein is also important, particularly if you are trying to build or maintain muscle.

But contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to panic about consuming protein within minutes of finishing your workout. For most people, a better goal is to include high-quality protein across several meals and snacks throughout the day.

At this stage you can also start looking more closely at micronutrients and how your meals fit around your training schedule.

And importantly, you can do all of this without buying a single supplement.

Supplements come last

Once your overall diet is in a good place and you feel confident that you are fuelling your training well, there may be situations where supplements are useful.

Some have stronger evidence behind them than others - creatine is one good example - while others may be useful for particular individuals or situations.

But supplements are exactly that: supplementary.

They cannot compensate for consistently eating too little, lacking variety in your diet or struggling with the basics.

For most people, getting the lower two levels of the pyramid right most of the time will have a much greater impact than chasing the newest powder, tablet or performance product.

And “most of the time” matters here. Your diet does not need to be perfect.

If you can eat in a way that generally supports your health, your lifestyle and your training goals, you are already doing a lot of the important work.