When dieting or bulking up it is not only important to get the proper nutrition and exercise but you also need to make sure that you’re getting some much needed supplementation.

Supplements (noun) as defined by Webster’s dictionary is “something added, especially to make up for a lack” and defined by dictionary.com as “something added to complete a thing, supply a deficiency, or reinforce or extend a whole.

Supplementation is the act of adding to an incomplete thing or a needed item in order to decrease the need for it. In the way of weight loss supplementation is used in order to replenish your body’s lost vitamins and minerals that were lost through exercise, and everyday living.

What happens is that throughout the day and during your exercise periods you’re body uses up its vitamin and other nutrient reserves in order to feed it. Normally you can replenish a lot of these nutrients from food and beverages you eat and drink throughout the day. However foods are only replenish a part of what you lose, and only replenishes certain nutrients.

Other factors that affect the loss of our body’s nutrients are the pollution in the environment around us, stress of work or everyday life, smoking, drinking, drugs, certain medications, ailments that prevent the absorption of certain vitamins, etc. These are all things that cause us to lose those valuable vitamins and nutrients that our body needs to function. (When it comes to ailments that prevent the absorption however you will have to seek a doctors advice on what to do as medication, is sometimes necessary.)

This is where supplementation comes into play. When it comes to replenishing a wide range of nutrients and vitamins for your body, probably the best supplementation for you is a good multi-vitamin. As the name states it has multiple vitamins and nutrients, in specific quantities that has one goal, and that is to re-stock your body’s reserves.

When it comes to supplementation, for the most part both men and women lose a lot of the same vitamins and nutrients, however there are some vitamins and minerals that men lose a lot more of then women and vice versa. For this reason they have made multi-vitamins that have been catered for both men and women.

Before going any further I want to make a note that when I talk about supplementation I’m talking about vitamins, and minerals that your body needs and uses. I say this because I’m not talking about weight loss pills, supplements, or products of any kind as I don’t personally trust the health aspect of them. This is discussed in my article “A look at dieting supplements”

So what happens if we don’t get enough vitamins and nutrients for our bodies?

Basically put if our bodies are unable to get some of the nutrients and vitamins it needs it becomes deficient in it. This cause our bodies to work less efficiently, and in the long run can cause us to develop certain ailments such as anemia from lack of iron, night blindness from a lack of vitamin A, scurvy from a lack of vitamin C and many others. When our body is unable to do what it needs to in order to keep us healthy it also allows our body’s to be more susceptible to sickness, like colds, the flu, etc.