The Top 3 Supplements For Skinny Fat People (Plus 3 You Don’t Need)

The supplement industry is enormous. According to statistics, the global supplements market was valued at $140.3 billion in 2020 and is expected to keep growing.

Supplements are everywhere today: at your local gym, on Youtube ads before videos, and on every fitness forum.

The question is, do you need to worry about supplements if you’re skinny fat, looking to build muscle, and lose fat?

Let’s discuss.

Do We Need Supplements to Build Muscle And Lose Fat?

No, you don’t. Muscle growth and fat loss are physiological processes that can occur, even simultaneously, so long as you pay attention to your:

• Sleep
• Training
• Nutrition

By definition, a supplement exists to supplement the efforts you put into more important things, like your training and nutrition. Supplements are an optional extra that can offer convenience and small benefits, but nothing major or life-changing.

Let’s take muscle growth as an example. To build muscle, your body needs an adequate calorie intake, enough protein, a stimulus (training), and recovery in the form of intelligent programming and sleep. Notice that none of the factors relate to supplements.

Fat loss is similar in many ways. To lose fat, you need to establish a calorie deficit, consume enough protein, stimulate your muscles with training, and sleep well during the night. In doing so, your body burns fat and retains more of the muscle, resulting in a lean and athletic look.

Still, certain supplements can improve some of the processes involved in building muscle and losing fat. For example, a supplement might help you sleep better, allowing you to feel more rested, burn fat more effectively, and recover better between workouts.

Another example is protein, which is crucial for muscle growth and maintenance during a diet (1). Folks often struggle to get enough protein through their nutrition alone, so a supplement can help.

The Three Supplements You Can Take to Improve Your Skinny Fat Progress

1. Protein Powder

Protein powder is one of the best supplements to consider. The supplement is great because it provides a concentrated and affordable dose of protein, allowing you to reach your daily goals more easily. For example, if you have to at 150 grams of protein daily, you can get 100 to 110 from food and 40 to 50 grams from a powder.

As far as the type goes, whey isolate is one of the best options. Isolate is nearly 100 percent protein and has almost no sugars or fats. An excellent way to determine a whey isolate’s quality would be to look at the nutritional label. Each scoop should offer at least 25 grams of protein and have 110 to 120 calories at the most.

Vegan protein is also an option if you don’t want to buy a dairy-based product. A vegan isolate product will cost a bit more to purchase, but these offer a good amount of protein per dose.

Taking a protein powder is particularly beneficial when trying to build muscle and get a stronger with a 5x5 workout program or similar.

2. Creatine Monohydrate

Creatine is one of the most popular and best-studied supplements on the market today. With research dating back to the 60s and 70s, creatine has proven itself to reliably improve our performance and offer other benefits without causing harm to our health (2).

Once saturated inside our muscles, creatine allows for better ATP resynthesis, resulting in slightly better training performance. Over time, doing slightly more work can lead to better progress in the form of muscle mass and strength.

Creatine monohydrate is your best option because:

• It is the most studied form
• It is affordable
• It isn’t inferior to fancier and more expensive creatine forms

You can take a standard dose of three to five grams daily. The timing doesn’t matter. Alternatively, you can do a loading phase where you take 20 to 25 grams of creatine daily for up to a week. In doing so, you can more quickly saturate your muscles with creatine. You can then maintain levels by taking three to five grams daily.

3. Caffeine

Caffeine is another beneficial substance shown to improve measures of strength, power, and endurance (3). As a nervous system stimulant, caffeine can also improve our mood, motivation, and concentration. Having some caffeine shortly before training can lead to better performance, allowing you to push harder and make quicker progress.

It’s important to note that caffeine can also interfere with your sleep if you take it too late in the day (4). For example, you might want to avoid caffeine before working out if you plan on doing so in the evening. Losing sleep is not worth any potential ergogenic benefits of caffeine.

Cycling caffeine is also beneficial because your body builds a tolerance to it over time. The longer you take it, the less of an impact it has on you. At some point, you might have to take caffeine to feel normal and keep withdrawal headaches at bay.

One option is to take caffeine only before your most strenuous workouts to keep tolerance low. Alternatively, take caffeine for a few weeks and have the periodic break from the substance for an entire week or two.

Optional: Beta-Alanine

Beta-alanine is an organic amino acid that supports carnosine production. The molecule serves as a buffer to hydrogen ions, allowing for a slower pH drop during exercise. In other words, muscle acidity rises more slowly, which means we can train longer before the burning sensation in our muscles forces us to stop.

A meta-analysis examining beta-alanine’s effects on physical performance suggested that the amino acid had the most significant impact in the 60 to 240-second range (one to three minutes), which makes sense (5).

The standard dose is two to five grams daily. I recommend starting on the low end and not worrying about timing it. Like creatine, beta-alanine seems to work best as it saturates inside your body.

Optional: Citrulline

Citrulline is a non-essential amino acid that appears to improve our training performance. Once ingested, some citrulline gets converted into arginine. In turn, arginine generates nitric oxide molecules, which cause vasodilation (widening of blood vessels).

Interestingly, supplementing with citrulline appears to raise arginine levels more than taking arginine as a supplement. The effect is due to the body’s way of absorbing and metabolizing arginine and citrulline.

Mixed research suggests that taking citrulline can have favorable effects on strength, endurance, and overall work capacity (6). If you’re interested, take four to ten grams of citrulline malate (the most common form) an hour before training. Start on the low end to see how you feel, and gradually increase the dose.

What Supplements You Don’t Need As A Skinny Fat Person

1. Branched-Chain Amino Acids

Branched-chain amino acids, also known as BCAAs, are popular supplements touted for their ability to help us:

• Build more muscle
• Get stronger
• Recover better between workouts

While such products can be helpful in some scenarios (such as if you train fasted in the morning or don’t eat enough protein), I don’t recommend spending money on a BCAA. Sure, these products contain three essential amino acids, the most powerful being leucine. But you can also get these amino acids from food and protein powders. So long as you get enough protein, BCAAs won’t deliver any extra benefits (7).

So, instead of spending unnecessary money on BCAAs, focus on getting enough protein each day - around 0.8 grams per pound of body weight (8).

2. Testosterone Boosters

Testosterone boosters have lost some of their popularity in recent years, but they are still around and refuse to go away. These days, you can come across dozens of compounds touted for their ability to boost testosterone levels, leading to more strength, muscle growth, and fat loss.

At first glance, these benefits sound great. You pay $50-70 per month, pop a couple of tablets daily, and watch as your testosterone skyrockets, leading to fantastic fitness results. One would say that it sounds too good.

Adequate testosterone levels are essential, especially for men. But improving levels of the hormone is more complicated than taking a testosterone booster. Such supplements sound good on paper but fail to deliver any benefits. For example, Tribulus Terrestris is often touted as an amazing T-booster. But research disagrees (9):

Evidence to date suggests that TT is ineffective for increasing testosterone levels in humans, thus marketing claims are unsubstantiated.

Much better ways to raise your testosterone are to sleep enough, exercise regularly, eat a balanced diet, and control stress as best as you can. Read more about boosting your testosterone as a skinny fat man here.

3. Weight Gainers

Weight gainers, also known as mass gainers, are supplements designed to help you gain weight and muscle mass. Like protein powders, you mix a scoop or two with water or milk and chug it down.

What makes weight gainers effective is the high number of calories you get per serving. Most such products on the market offer 800, 1000, even 1200+ calories per serving. The problem is that most of these supplements are full of sugars and fats with little to no protein. Sure, you might gain weight, but you are more likely to put on fat instead of building any muscle.

Instead of buying weight gainers, eat more calorie-dense foods, such as:

• Nuts and nut butter
• Seed
• Fatty fish
• Full-fat milk and yogurt
• Rice
• Red meat
• Dried fruit

You can also make healthy weight gainer shakes. For example, mix oats, a banana, protein powder, full-fat milk, a bit of peanut butter, and some dried fruits. Blend everything up and enjoy a nutritious shake.