Time to talk about supplements.

I learned how to do it the right way. In the past, I was the guy who just wanted to “have more energy” and started blasting the random, cheap, “testosterone boosting” supplements you could find on amazon.

That — is not how it works.

I find the whole world of supplementation funny in a way.

It seems like there are only two camps.

You have the people who think they can take a pill and everything in their life is going to change. That one specific supplement is going to max out their testosterone, unlock all of the gains they’ve been missing out on, give them boundless energy, and make them live forever.

And it’s all because they saw an instagram reel and didn’t realize it was just some guy marketing their product.

These guys don’t know what they’re going for, they can’t structure a protocol, and don’t recognize the prerequisite of doing everything else right first (nutrition, exercise, sleep).

The placebo effect’s favorite victim.

Then you have the naturalists.

These guys believe there’s no need for supplementation at all. That everything you need should come from your environment, whether that’s food, light, water, whatever.

Since you can get everything you need from a more natural, whole source, that means there’s no benefit to supplementing, and you should find all of your energy from the prerequisites we already mentioned.

These days I’m somewhere in the middle. Let’s talk about how to build an actual supplement protocol that will help you get to where you want to go.

Use brain

I’d say I like to lean on the side of doing things naturally. The only difference is that I realize that we as humans have developed modern solutions so that we can hit our goals more efficiently.

First and foremost, lock in the prerequisites.

This means nutrition, exercise, sunlight, and sleep.

Sleep is bolded, and italicized. These are all of the same importance, but people like to ignore that last one as if it doesn’t matter because they’re still able to function.

When you don’t eat right, you feel like shit.

When you don’t exercise, you get fat.

When you don’t get sunlight, you feel depressed

But when you don’t sleep — you chug some coffee, suck it up, and keep moving. Most people would rather lose an hour of sleep and stay up watching their favorite show than just getting the right amount of sleep.

You end up running on caffeine and think you have low testosterone for some other reason — when in reality you could just fix your sleep and you’d be fine.

I’m not going to get into how to do each of these prerequisites the right way. The point is to have them locked in before thinking about supplementing, because you don’t even know what you need.

Cycle

The only thing that I take every day is creatine.

We like to think that in order to have the best effect, we have to take things every day — this is true for things like creatine — but not everything.

Just like you know with drugs, alcohol, caffeine, nicotine — our bodies get used to the things we use, and start to require more of it to get the same effect.

When you cycle everything that you use, you might not get rid of this effect altogether, but you’re at least helping.

So cycle off of your supplements a couple days a week, and then take a week off from everything every once in a while to give your system a break.

You don’t want to rely on the supplements you’re taking just to function normally. You want them to boost an already functioning system.

Have a goal

The next thing is to have a specific goal.

Once you have all of the prerequisites figured out you’re going to feel pretty good — but like everyone else — you’re going to want more. This is where you supplement.

You don’t do it to fix a problem that can be solved by just eating a little better or getting the right amount of sleep. You do it to solve a specific problem or help give you an edge to hit a specific goal.

Because believe it or not — supplements aren’t magic pills that save the day. They’re designed to work with specific mechanisms in our bodies. That means good or bad things can happen. So you have to be calculated with what you use.

My current goal is to lose weight. To burn fat. I don’t just want to have more energy. I don’t just want to increase testosterone because it might make me have more energy. It’s not vague, it’s a specific goal.

Once you have a goal, it’s time to build a protocol.

The protocol

Building the right protocol is the fun part. I think most people are just lazy and don’t care enough to research what they’re putting into their bodies.

Building a protocol means

• Finding the right supplements to take
• How much
• How often

In the end, you should have a chart that tells you exactly what to take, how much, at what time of the day, and what days of the week.

I think the best way to go is to base your protocol off of somebody else’s by looking at the results they got and then doing your own research on each.

I like to use examine and chatGPT.

Examine is a site that summarizes studies for you. It doesn’t use AI. It’s real people looking at real studies who summarize the methods and results so that idiots like you and me can understand what’s happening. This is what Huberman recommends.

ChatGPT is great, but if you don’t have a lot of experience with prompting it, I would keep it to just building the protocol around your life instead of doing the research with it.

ChatGPT needs a lot of context to be useful when it comes to the actual research, but if you know what you’re doing when it comes to prompting it’s awesome.

You can ask it about the benefits, the negatives, and how each supplement works mechanistically — meaning you can have it figure out effects that may happen that people aren’t aware of based on the mechanisms the supplement is involved in — which is great.

From there, it’s great for building the actual protocol. You give it the supplements, how much, how often, and tell it your routine and it can build out a protocol in seconds — which is also awesome.

We’re supplementing for efficiency, so we might as well be efficient in building the protocol.

When you start a supplement stack, start by taking one thing at a time. Don’t just blast your system with 6 new supplements. Take something for a week and see how you feel. If you’re good then add the next thing in, and keep going.

When you start to have a negative effect you’ll be able to pinpoint exactly what it is.

My stack

For those interested, here’s my current protocol for weight loss and tendon repair post surgery.

Keep in mind this tailored to exactly my goals, routine, diet and life. Your supplement stack would not look exactly like this. So like the whole point of this video — if you’re going to use this — do your own research and build your own protocol based off of this.

Taurine, B1, and L-Carnitine are the foundation of this stack.

Put simply:

• B1 helps your mitochondria burn carbs (glucose) more efficiently.
• L-Carnitine helps shuttle fatty acids into the mitochondria to be used instead of stored.
• Taurine helps with insulin sensitivity so that you get better glucose and fatty acid use, helping the system from getting overloaded.
• I take garlic with L-Carnitine because it reduces TMAO buildup.

TMAO is basically a by-product created when certain bacteria in your gut break down L-Carnitine and red meat (which I have a lot of). And TMAO buildup over a long period of time is linked to plaque buildup.

• Black ginger is the metabolic up regulator. It helps with insulin sensitivity, glucose shuttling, and making your mitochondria overall “hungrier”.
• I take BPC-157 for tendon repair (Taurine also helps with this)
• And then creatine is creatine. Cognitive benefits, enhances recovery, protects muscles while I’m on a cut.

🧠 TUES–THURS (Full Training + Work Days)

🕔 5:00 AM – Wake

• 2g Taurine
• 500mcg BPC-157
• 100mg B1
• 300mg Black Ginger (AM only)

🕡 5:30 AM (After Fruit Starts)

• Optional: Creatine (if not taking later)

🕓 4:30 PM – Pre-Workout

• 1–2g L-Carnitine
• 600mg Garlic
• 100mg B1 ❌ No more Black Ginger here

🕖 6:30 PM – Post-Workout

• 5g Creatine
• 500mcg BPC-157

⚡ FRIDAY (Fasting Day)

🕔 5:00 AM – Wake (No Food)

• 2g Taurine
• 500mcg BPC-157
• 100mg B1
• 300mg Black Ginger
• Water, tea, electrolytes all day

🕡 6:30 PM – Break Fast

• 1g L-Carnitine
• 600mg Garlic
• 100mg B1
• 5g Creatine
• 500mcg BPC-157

🍳 SAT / SUN / MON (Weekend + Recovery)

SAT / MON (Active Days)

🕖 7:00 AM – Wake

• 2g Taurine
• 500mcg BPC-157
• 100mg B1 ❌ No Black Ginger

🕒 2:30 PM – Pre-Workout (Optional)

• 1–2g L-Carnitine
• 600mg Garlic
• 100mg B1

🕕 6:30 PM – Dinner

• 5g Creatine
• 500mcg BPC-157

SUNDAY (Full Rest Day)

🕖 7:00 AM – Wake

• Multivitamin (methylated)
• 5g Creatine❌ No BPC-157, Taurine, L-Carnitine, or Black Ginger

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