Are fitness gainers healthy?

[Rasheed]

Are fitness gainers healthy? 

[John Paul]

Leo recommends you do not consume any food that is in the form of powder because they are almost certain to contain high amounts of heavy metals which can cause you subtle yet brutal long-term health effects that you don't want. No protein powders bro... he said in general to not take any supplements that you don't really need because of toxins. It's best to go for whole foods bro. Are you trying to gain weight?? is it for bodybuilding??

 

[Michael569]

Depends on what they are based on. Usually, it is a combination of some concentrated carbs  and some whey protein and some sweeteners, at least this is what gainers used to be in the past. But now I've seen gainers based on ground oats  which sounds alright although I'd still just eat regular porridge.

If you struggle with meeting your caloric demands with regular meals, I'd still play around with things like smoothies or maybe adding one more meal somewhere in there rather than chugging down dextrose and maltose-based powders containing god knows that ingredients. 

 

[John Paul]

@Michael569

thanks for sharing your expertise all the time

[Michael569]

@John Paul it's more like a past experience unfortunately with this  The number of gainers, proteins, pre workouts and fat burners I have consumed as a teenager was quite something. Back then I had no regard for what's in the box and some of those fat burners contained like 30+ ingredients , most of them synthetic. 

[Yarco]

If you want to live as long as possible and be as healthy as possible, I think the optimal body type is more of a runner or cyclist.

Even if you do a completely clean bulk, eating grass-fed chicken breasts and organic broccoli, it's not just the eating that is a problem.

Whether it's fat or muscle, carrying any significant amount of extra weight around is harder on your heart, your lungs, and your whole circulatory system. If you're eating tons of food it's going to be hard on your digestive system and wear out your kidney / liver and all other organs faster even if it's clean.

Sure lots of bodybuilders are dying early from steroid use and other problems, but I have a feeling that they'd be statistically more at risk just based on the fact they're 250 lbs, even if they ate completely clean.

[John Paul]

@Yarco

you got the study or something you can link and does it say what the healthiest weight and muscle/fat that there is for humans?

[hamedsf]

98% of supplement companies and supplement products are full of shit trying to make money off of a product that is made from cheap material like mass gainer supplement is a huge waste of money.
if any of you here want to waste money in this way, you'd better transfer that money to my account and then I'll send you loaves of bread and a sack of potato. 

[Yarco]

10 hours ago, John Paul said:

@Yarco

you got the study or something you can link and does it say what the healthiest weight and muscle/fat that there is for humans?

"In both sexes, mortality was lowest at about 22·5–25 kg/m2.

 each 5 kg/m2 higher BMI was on average associated with about 30% higher overall mortality (hazard ratio per 5 kg/m2 

40% for vascular mortality
60–120% for diabetic, renal, and hepatic mortality
10% for neoplastic mortality
20% for respiratory and for all other mortality
Below the range 22·5–25 kg/m2, BMI was associated inversely with overall mortality, mainly because of strong inverse associations with respiratory disease and lung cancer."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2662372/
Sample size: 900,000

"All-cause mortality was minimal at 20·0–25·0 kg/m2 (HR 1·00, 95% CI 0·98–1·02 for BMI 20·0–<22·5 kg/m2; 1·00, 0·99–1·01 for BMI 22·5–<25·0 kg/m2), and increased significantly both just below this range (1·13, 1·09–1·17 for BMI 18·5–<20·0 kg/m2; 1·51, 1·43–1·59 for BMI 15·0–<18·5) and throughout the overweight range (1·07, 1·07–1·08 for BMI 25·0–<27·5 kg/m2; 1·20, 1·18–1·22 for BMI 27·5–<30·0 kg/m2)."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4995441/
Sample size: 10,625,411

https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k2575

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(18)30288-2/fulltext

BMI is BMI. Fat is worse, but too much muscle is still bad as well.

Edited February 15, 2022 by Yarco

[RendHeaven]

On 2/15/2022 at 2:13 PM, Knowledge Hoarder said:

Yes. (NO!!) Don't let anyone talk you out of building good looking, ripped physique. The positive effect that would have on your life is not just physical, but also mental - which is even more important.

Someone here mentioned shorter life expectancy. I have some doubts about that, life expectancy can only be estimated, not known. But even if you lived shorter life, it's a life better lived than one without muscles in my opinion.

Make sure majority of your calories come from healthy sources, make sure you eat all the macros and micros you need. Do not take too many supplements, limit it to whey proteine, and maybe creatine. (Right on!!)

"Fitness gainer" here IS a (sus) supplement, so the answer should rather be "no"

[Michael569]

On 14/02/2022 at 8:56 PM, Yarco said:

If you want to live as long as possible and be as healthy as possible, I think the optimal body type is more of a runner or cyclist.

I duno about this. When you look at the faces of marathon runners what you see are men & women aged way beyond their natural age. Extreme endurance sports deplete antioxidants and actually accelerate ageing and telomere shortening. 

Agreed with what you posted below but I think we need to make a difference between whether the body mass is made of lean tissue or fat. As a guy, carrying some muscle protects you from a variety of health conditions including osteoporosis later in life (hip fractures are one of the leading cause of disability and death in senior citizens), it also protects your testosterone levels which in turn protects you from heart disease. Not to mention having that extra tissue means you have more mitochondrial density so your body can produce more natural energy and it also means having more insulin receptors and easier time balancing any blood sugar spikes. And finally, loss of muscle mass in older people (sarcopenia) has been associated with cognitive decline, drop of BDNF levels and risk of dementia so keeping that lean tissue up is super important for both men and women especially once we pass 50s 

Lot of endurance athletes end up with osteoarthritis and a rapid loss of lean muscle mass which isn't necessarily good for longevity and definitely not good for joints. 

Most of those studies focus on high BMI achieved by high body fat. They specifically target obesity in those articles. Ofcourse obesity is a risk factor for all cause mortality. But BMI elevated due to extra lean muscle tissue is not a risk factor (ofcourse you don't want to be jacked like  guys competing on IFBB or power lifters and take anabolic steroids) but maintenance of some basic muscle density to older age and keeping up with some strength training along some cardio training will prolong your life and to a degree serve a protection from dementia & CVD