Latest / Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40 / 5 Supplements for Stress, Mood, and Recovery After 40 (Evidence-Based) | Ep 462

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5 Supplements for Stress, Mood, and Recovery After 40 (Evidence-Based) | Ep 462 · Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40

• 0:00
  Philip Pape: Are you feeling like you are not recovering or you are stressed in your body or your mind, or you're waking up tired, or you feel like you're working harder than results show?
• 0:09
  Philip Pape: Maybe your mood is not where it needs to be.
• 0:12
  Philip Pape: Now, whether you're doing all the things we talk about on the show, like training and dialing in your nutrition, I do want to talk about supplements occasionally, being a nutrition coach.
• 0:20
  Philip Pape: So today I'm gonna give you five specific supplements that target stress, sleep, and recovery in a way that could give you a boost to the training and the diet that you're already trying to put in place to build muscle and to burn fat.
• 0:36
  Philip Pape: And one of these on the list has actually been shown to perform as well as prescription antidepressants for moderate symptoms at a fraction of the cost with fewer side effects.
• 0:45
  Philip Pape: So we're gonna get into all of those today.
• 1:13
  Philip Pape: Okay, you get a lot of influencers telling you what to take, you get a lot of programs, a lot of high-priced products based on supplements.
• 1:21
  Philip Pape: And I hear from a lot of you that you go straight to these oftentimes, wonder why they don't work.
• 1:26
  Philip Pape: And I ask, are you lifting?
• 1:28
  Philip Pape: No.
• 1:29
  Philip Pape: Are you watching your protein?
• 1:30
  Philip Pape: No.
• 1:31
  Philip Pape: So I kind of want to put those in two different buckets.
• 1:33
  Philip Pape: In other words, you should be doing the basics and see how that goes, see what's left.
• 1:38
  Philip Pape: But supplementation can also be helpful as well.
• 1:41
  Philip Pape: There are some things on the list today I'm gonna talk about that I would recommend to anyone, no matter what.
• 1:45
  Philip Pape: And then there's other things that are really up to you to investigate, potentially talk with your healthcare provider, functional doctor, whatever, if you need to.
• 1:52
  Philip Pape: I'm not here to plug these or give you affiliate links or anything.
• 1:56
  Philip Pape: Okay.
• 1:56
  Philip Pape: I just want to talk about five compounds that have some clinical evidence behind it, which again is mixed at times, and at times it's stronger.
• 2:06
  Philip Pape: What doses have been studied, and how do the outcomes matter to you?
• 2:13
  Philip Pape: As someone who is lifting weights, you want to lose fat, you want to build muscle, but you're stressed or you've got issues with mood or things like that, which is very common in the audience that I'm speaking to.
• 2:24
  Philip Pape: If you are in your 40s, 50s, or beyond, because of hormones, because of lifestyle, there's a lot of reasons that we have these.
• 2:31
  Philip Pape: And some of you are doing all the things and you still have problems with stress, mood, sleep, et cetera.
• 2:36
  Philip Pape: And then stick around to the end because I'm gonna share a 30-second stress audit, three signs that your recovery is the thing holding you back.
• 2:45
  Philip Pape: And that can be very helpful for you.
• 2:47
  Philip Pape: I'm a big fan of those sorts of exercises.
• 2:50
  Philip Pape: So here's what we're covering today.
• 2:51
  Philip Pape: First, why stress and sleep are not luxuries.
• 2:55
  Philip Pape: They're really important to your body composition.
• 2:57
  Philip Pape: And you probably already know that, but it's good to understand why again and get refreshed on them before we then connect them to okay, here are five supplements that I might recommend, depending on the person with the form, the dose, the study behind them, and the safety concerns for each, because nuance is important.
• 3:15
  Philip Pape: One of them has been banned in a country.
• 3:17
  Philip Pape: And I want to make sure you listen all the way through the episode to get all the details.
• 3:22
  Philip Pape: And remember, this is not medical advice.
• 3:24
  Philip Pape: I'm not specifically recommending any of these to you.
• 3:26
  Philip Pape: I'm just sharing the information on them.
• 3:28
  Philip Pape: So before I share those supplements, I need you to understand why we're talking about this on this podcast.
• 3:35
  Philip Pape: When we this is a strength training and nutrition podcast, this is not a wellness or functional or supplement-styled podcast.
• 3:41
  Philip Pape: And there are those out there.
• 3:42
  Philip Pape: There are those.
• 3:43
  Philip Pape: I'm kind of sick of them.
• 3:44
  Philip Pape: I'm trying to have, you know, no more guests, for example, who are in that world.
• 3:49
  Philip Pape: Although I just to be fair to my guests, all the guests I've had have been amazing.
• 3:53
  Philip Pape: There is a study from 2010 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, where it was a small study, 10 participants, age 41, so probably like a lot of you, and they were on the same calorie deficit with the same food and calories, but the only difference was the sleep.
• 4:08
  Philip Pape: This is the one, the study I've mentioned quite a few times, where one group got eight and a half hours, the other group got five and a half hours.
• 4:14
  Philip Pape: Both groups lost the same weight, but the well-rested group lost a lot more fat and less lean mass.
• 4:24
  Philip Pape: And the sleep-restricted group lost a lot less fat and more lean mass.
• 4:29
  Philip Pape: And I always like to mention this study.
• 4:31
  Philip Pape: It's just a microcosm of something that's been seen time and again.
• 4:35
  Philip Pape: And I definitely see this with clients where the sleep is the one thing left holding them back.
• 4:40
  Philip Pape: They're doing all the other things, and for some reason, they still get five hours of sleep.
• 4:43
  Philip Pape: And they're asking me, why isn't it working?
• 4:45
  Philip Pape: Why is my metabolism so low?
• 4:47
  Philip Pape: Why can't I lose weight?
• 4:48
  Philip Pape: I'm like, you're getting five hours of sleep.
• 4:51
  Philip Pape: Okay, but I can't really change that.
• 4:52
  Philip Pape: What else can I do?
• 4:54
  Philip Pape: And honestly, it's worse than that because when you're chronically stressed and your cortisol is high, your body, that is the catabolic hormone where in a short burst, like post-workout, when your cortisol is up, it's great.
• 5:07
  Philip Pape: It helps clear the metabolic debris and all that.
• 5:10
  Philip Pape: But when it's chronically elevated, then it's gonna accelerate that muscle protein breakdown.
• 5:15
  Philip Pape: And it's also gonna increase the visceral fat storage in your abdomen.
• 5:19
  Philip Pape: So more belly fat.
• 5:21
  Philip Pape: And for women in perimenopause, we see we tend to see this compound because of the hormones, the declining progesterone, which is like a buffer for cortisol.
• 5:28
  Philip Pape: So now it's you have less of that.
• 5:30
  Philip Pape: But even for men with testosterone decline, that's a less anabolic environment in your body to counteract these things.
• 5:36
  Philip Pape: So if you are training hard, if you're trying to eat well, but you're chronically stressed and you're sleep deprived, it's like you got holes in the bucket.
• 5:44
  Philip Pape: It's like you got holes in the bucket.
• 5:45
  Philip Pape: You could pour more water in, more volume, more protein, whatever, but they're just gonna keep draining out on the other end.
• 5:53
  Philip Pape: So you're like, okay, Philip, but doesn't that mean I should just fix my sleep?
• 5:56
  Philip Pape: Perhaps.
• 5:57
  Philip Pape: But what if something is lacking, like a nutrient in your body that is causing it, making it harder for you to sleep?
• 6:04
  Philip Pape: Can we address these in parallel?
• 6:06
  Philip Pape: And that's kind of where I think there's a usefulness to this.
• 6:08
  Philip Pape: So let's get into the five supplements.
• 6:11
  Philip Pape: Supplement number one is magnesium.
• 6:13
  Philip Pape: And so I like to start with one that's super common and effective, and like I have no problem at all recommending to just about everyone.
• 6:20
  Philip Pape: And you want a bioavailable version of this?
• 6:22
  Philip Pape: This could be magnesium glycinate or L-theanate or one of the blends.
• 6:25
  Philip Pape: People always ask, what should I get?
• 6:27
  Philip Pape: Just get something that is highly bioavailable.
• 6:30
  Philip Pape: You can Google it, ask ChatGPT, is this bioavailable?
• 6:32
  Philip Pape: Whatever.
• 6:33
  Philip Pape: And the reason magnesium is important is because about half of adults don't consume enough from food.
• 6:38
  Philip Pape: And honestly, I think it's more than that that just don't get enough, especially as we get older.
• 6:43
  Philip Pape: Um, women between the ages of 51 to 70, two-thirds of them fall below the requirement.
• 6:49
  Philip Pape: And then exercise increases your need for magnesium above sedentary people.
• 6:54
  Philip Pape: So you're you're definitely short on this.
• 6:55
  Philip Pape: Like I know you're short on magnesium.
• 6:57
  Philip Pape: Most people are.
• 6:58
  Philip Pape: It's very, very hard to get enough in the modern food supply and the way most people eat, even if you're trying to eat quote unquote healthy.
• 7:04
  Philip Pape: And the cool thing is we have studies that compare magnesium intake to sleep.
• 7:08
  Philip Pape: And the largest sleep trial to date was Schuster 2025, 155 participants, and they tested magnesium bisglycinate at 250 milligrams daily for four weeks.
• 7:21
  Philip Pape: Their insomnia severity index dropped 3.9 points in the group that took the magnesium versus dropping 2.3 points for placebo, and most of it happened in the first two weeks.
• 7:33
  Philip Pape: And people who had low dietary magnesium to begin with saw the biggest intake, which makes total sense because if you're depleted of a nutrient, repletion of the nutrient works.
• 7:42
  Philip Pape: And for a lot of you who are undereating, underfueling, you probably have some form of malnutrition.
• 7:47
  Philip Pape: In fact, I know you do across many areas.
• 7:50
  Philip Pape: Now, I have notes in here with a bunch of other studies.
• 7:53
  Philip Pape: I think I'm gonna bore you to death.
• 7:54
  Philip Pape: There have been studies of the different types of magnesium that looked at these insomnia scores.
• 8:00
  Philip Pape: And just in general, they see them go down when you take magnesium.
• 8:04
  Philip Pape: We also see an improvement in depression scores and anxiety scores.
• 8:09
  Philip Pape: And again, it's within two weeks, so it's pretty quickly.
• 8:11
  Philip Pape: And I've had plenty of clients who they just started taking magnesium and they're like, wow, my migraines went away.
• 8:16
  Philip Pape: I'm feeling better, I have more energy, I can sleep better.
• 8:19
  Philip Pape: So that's why I put this first on the list.
• 8:21
  Philip Pape: I think it's a really powerful supplement.
• 8:24
  Philip Pape: And the mechanism is that magnesium increases an enzyme that converts active cortisol to inactive cortisol, which is why, even if they directly measure cortisol in the urine, they also see an improvement, right?
• 8:37
  Philip Pape: Now, again, the form matters.
• 8:39
  Philip Pape: So the cheapest one is not the one you want.
• 8:41
  Philip Pape: That's magnesium oxide, like you'll see it in Walmart or whatever.
• 8:44
  Philip Pape: I would say glycinate is the highest among the oral forms and gentlest on your stomach.
• 8:49
  Philip Pape: Feonate is the one that gets into the brain.
• 8:51
  Philip Pape: So some people buy magnesium blends because they're supposed to have all these other benefits.
• 8:55
  Philip Pape: And you may want to experiment with different ones, like take one for, say, a full month and then switch to a different one and try it out.
• 9:02
  Philip Pape: It's worth experimenting if this is a concern for you.
• 9:04
  Philip Pape: And for most people, you're gonna want to take at least two to four hundred milligrams.
• 9:08
  Philip Pape: Most pills are like three to five hundred milligrams of elemental magnesium in the evening.
• 9:14
  Philip Pape: Take it in the evening.
• 9:15
  Philip Pape: I usually take mine a couple hours before bed, so it's after dinner, but not too far after dinner.
• 9:20
  Philip Pape: If you want the cognitive and the brain benefits, you might want to target in on L3N8.
• 9:26
  Philip Pape: And all of these have elemental magnesium, but then they also have these other compounds.
• 9:30
  Philip Pape: And really, the only issue with a too high of a dose could be a GI issue, and probably that's it.
• 9:35
  Philip Pape: Again, this is not medical advice today.
• 9:36
  Philip Pape: I'm not telling you to take this, I'm not telling you what dose to take, I'm telling you what the evidence has looked at.
• 9:40
  Philip Pape: So that is number one, magnesium.
• 9:42
  Philip Pape: Please, everybody consider it.
• 9:44
  Philip Pape: And with all these supplements, it is totally up to you, you with your doctor, you with your medical professional, and your own mind and choices whether you want to experiment with these or not, because they're not FDA approved, yada, yada.
• 9:56
  Philip Pape: Okay.
• 9:57
  Philip Pape: Supplement number two is omega-3 fatty acids.
• 9:59
  Philip Pape: I didn't think, or you probably didn't think that would be on the list.
• 10:02
  Philip Pape: Maybe, maybe, maybe not.
• 10:04
  Philip Pape: Okay.
• 10:05
  Philip Pape: So you've got one of the most studied things on the list is omega-3 fatty acids, EPA, and DHA.
• 10:12
  Philip Pape: And for mood, EPA seems to be the thing that will help with your mood.
• 10:18
  Philip Pape: Um, and that's been measured through depression scores.
• 10:21
  Philip Pape: Whereas DHA seems to not have an impact on those things.
• 10:24
  Philip Pape: Now, one interesting thing is if you're healthy or if you get enough already, it doesn't make a difference and it doesn't prevent, it doesn't prevent depression necessarily.
• 10:35
  Philip Pape: It treats existing symptoms.
• 10:36
  Philip Pape: So just be aware of all these things.
• 10:37
  Philip Pape: These are important distinctions.
• 10:39
  Philip Pape: Now, inflammation, systemic inflammation in your body, this is one of the big things talked about in terms of recovery, where omega-3s can be helpful.
• 10:47
  Philip Pape: And there have been a ton of studies on how omega-3, like two to four grams per day, which is a little more than you would think.
• 10:55
  Philip Pape: Like you got to be careful when you buy this stuff because you'll see a dose might have far less than that or might not have as much EPA and DHA in there.
• 11:02
  Philip Pape: So you have to just kind of do the math and check for yourself based on your budget.
• 11:06
  Philip Pape: But they found that omega-3s reduce CRP, TNF alpha, and IL6.
• 11:10
  Philip Pape: And these are those three inflammatory markers we talk about a lot on the show that accumulate with age and that do affect a lot of things and your recovery and things like that.
• 11:19
  Philip Pape: And when I say recovery, I mean literally like delayed onset muscle soreness can be reduced because your inflammation is reduced.
• 11:26
  Philip Pape: Now you might say, well, inflammation is a natural response to the body adapting to the stressor, and that's true, but you don't want too much inflammation.
• 11:33
  Philip Pape: So you might hear something like one to two grams of combined EPA and DHA for general health, and that's probably the dose you'll see in a lot of things.
• 11:39
  Philip Pape: I would aim for probably more than that, like double that.
• 11:43
  Philip Pape: However, here's my disclaimer high dose omega-3 is associated with a modest increase in arterial fibrillation risk, about 25% in a particular meta-analysis.
• 11:55
  Philip Pape: And if you have a history of heart issues, definitely talk to your doctor.
• 11:58
  Philip Pape: All of this stuff is not medical advice.
• 12:00
  Philip Pape: Okay.
• 12:01
  Philip Pape: Disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer.
• 12:03
  Philip Pape: Supplement number three here.
• 12:05
  Philip Pape: And a lot of you are already taking this, it's become more and more popular, and that is Ashwagandha, specifically KSM 66.
• 12:11
  Philip Pape: This is the one that seems to have this pretty massive link to cortisol, but it also has a lot of safety caveats you have to be aware of.
• 12:20
  Philip Pape: So the landmark trial on this was Chandrosikar, I think you say, 2012, 64 participants, and this was 600 milligrams a day of KSM 66.
• 12:29
  Philip Pape: That's the amount that is in something like Legion's version of Ashwagandha.
• 12:35
  Philip Pape: There's 600 milligrams, considered the like optimal clinical dose.
• 12:39
  Philip Pape: And they saw that serum cortisol in these participants dropped almost 28% versus placebo.
• 12:46
  Philip Pape: Their perceived stress scale scores dropped 44%.
• 12:50
  Philip Pape: There have been more recent meta-analysis that confirmed a reduction of cortisol.
• 12:55
  Philip Pape: And then for lifters for strength for muscle, there's a study from 2015 that saw people taking Ashwagandha had better gains in their bench press, their leg extension, their muscle size, their testosterone with lower creatine kinase levels, which suggests they had better recovery.
• 13:14
  Philip Pape: Now, these were untrained individuals, which I always have to say is a huge caveat because you know newbies often amplify the effect of any of these interventions, from what I've noticed.
• 13:25
  Philip Pape: But studies in trained individuals do still show some smaller but meaningful benefits.
• 13:30
  Philip Pape: And then we have sleep.
• 13:32
  Philip Pape: There was a study in 2019, Legade, or Langade, I should say, and they used what's called actigraphy to measure things like sleep onset latency, sleep efficiency, total sleep time in insomnia patients.
• 13:46
  Philip Pape: And the KSM66 Ashwagonda, 600 milligrams a day for 10 weeks, significantly improved all of those.
• 13:52
  Philip Pape: So that is the generally recommended dose that you can buy.
• 13:56
  Philip Pape: And some products have it in there, like the multivitamin I take from Legion has ashwagandha in there.
• 14:02
  Philip Pape: I don't think it's to that dose within the multivitamin, but that's what you would get if you bought it on itself.
• 14:07
  Philip Pape: Now, let's talk about safety here because there is some data out there that connects liver injury to ashwagandha.
• 14:17
  Philip Pape: And most of these resolved after people stopped taking it, but there were three patients with pre-existing liver disease who did die.
• 14:24
  Philip Pape: And it's typically two to 12 weeks after starting use.
• 14:27
  Philip Pape: So Denmark banned it in April 2023.
• 14:31
  Philip Pape: France, Sweden, and a few other European countries have issued warnings.
• 14:36
  Philip Pape: Now, there's no randomized trial so far that has reported serious liver events, but oftentimes they are excluding people with liver disease, of course, and they don't go for very long, you know, eight to 12 weeks.
• 14:47
  Philip Pape: So my recommendation is if you have any history of any medical issue whatsoever, including liver issues, you're not using this podcast as advice anyway, right?
• 14:55
  Philip Pape: This is just information.
• 14:56
  Philip Pape: Talk to your doctor.
• 14:58
  Philip Pape: Don't just take stuff on your own.
• 15:00
  Philip Pape: If you've got an issue, pre-existing conditions, talk to your medical professional.
• 15:04
  Philip Pape: If you are not concerned and you are trying to, you want to see how it works, consider cycling it like eight to 12 weeks on, four weeks off.
• 15:12
  Philip Pape: I think I've seen anecdotally, sometimes people get tolerant of it and it helps to do that anyway.
• 15:18
  Philip Pape: But there, who knows what the side effects are with something like this, an adaptogen, right?
• 15:22
  Philip Pape: We've heard it can potentially stimulate thyroid function.
• 15:25
  Philip Pape: So I give you this not to scare you, but because you have to make an informed decision.
• 15:29
  Philip Pape: So speaking of making informed decisions, this is the kind of thing we love to do inside Eat More Lift Heavy.
• 15:36
  Philip Pape: Eat More Lift Heavy is my 26-week coached program.
• 15:39
  Philip Pape: Two coaches in there, Coach Carol and myself, designed to build every skill you need for lasting body composition change.
• 15:46
  Philip Pape: You want to lose fat, you want to build muscle and do it in a structured way.
• 15:51
  Philip Pape: Each week we'll do that.
• 15:52
  Philip Pape: Week six, especially in the program, is just dedicated to sleep stress and recovery, where you learn to use your own biofeedback data to identify, hey, what is limiting my progress?
• 16:04
  Philip Pape: And then week 16 is the supplements and micronutrient review, and we're gonna help you audit your stack of supplements against the evidence so you can make personalized changes for yourself.
• 16:15
  Philip Pape: So if you're tired of all the guesswork, if you want structured coaching to address the whole picture, not just macros, not just training, those are like 5% in the equation.
• 16:22
  Philip Pape: Go to eatmoreliftheavy.com.
• 16:24
  Philip Pape: I'll drop the link in the show notes.
• 16:26
  Philip Pape: That is eatmoreliftheavy.com.
• 16:28
  Philip Pape: All right, let's get back to the list.
• 16:30
  Philip Pape: We've got supplement number four is saffron extract.
• 16:34
  Philip Pape: Now, a lot of people haven't heard of this, and it's not for everyone.
• 16:38
  Philip Pape: But there was a study in 2019 of it was a meta analysis of 23 trials, randomized controlled trials, and they compared it to placebo, and it significantly improved depression and anxiety.
• 16:52
  Philip Pape: And then there have been some trials that tested saffron directly against SSRIs, and it actually found that it was similar to several SSRIs.
• 17:01
  Philip Pape: Fluxetine is one in particular, and they found that they were statistically equivalent to SSRIs for depression and anxiety with fewer adverse events.
• 17:13
  Philip Pape: Now, I want to be clear here this applies to mild to moderate symptoms.
• 17:16
  Philip Pape: Saffron is definitely not a treatment for severe major depression.
• 17:20
  Philip Pape: Most of these are small trials.
• 17:22
  Philip Pape: Who knows how good the methodology is?
• 17:25
  Philip Pape: But the most recent one from 2025, Lepresti, had 202 participants.
• 17:30
  Philip Pape: It used 28 milligrams a day of standardized saffron extract and an improved depression scores.
• 17:36
  Philip Pape: And we think this works because saffron contains crocin and saffronol.
• 17:42
  Philip Pape: Crocin inhibits the re-uptake of serotonin, dopamine, and neuro or norepinephrine.
• 17:50
  Philip Pape: You probably recognize those.
• 17:51
  Philip Pape: And so SSRIs target only serotonin.
• 17:55
  Philip Pape: Whereas the saffronol, right, the saffron extract compound, it binds to your GABA A receptors, and that is the same target as benzodiazepines, but at a much milder intensity.
• 18:06
  Philip Pape: So you get this multi-target mechanism from one compound.
• 18:09
  Philip Pape: So I hope I don't, I'm not losing you there.
• 18:11
  Philip Pape: I went a little technical.
• 18:12
  Philip Pape: I had to write that down to say it the right way.
• 18:16
  Philip Pape: But it's kind of crazy.
• 18:18
  Philip Pape: And for the women in our audience, I know a lot of women who take this.
• 18:22
  Philip Pape: I know there have been some studies, specifically with women, that showed it it helped with PMS severity, for example.
• 18:28
  Philip Pape: And there are supplements that combine saffron extract with magnesium, with I think L-theanine, which is amino acid, that also is shown to help with stress and also helps with performance, like in the gym.
• 18:39
  Philip Pape: So you gotta look it up and find the right thing.
• 18:42
  Philip Pape: There is, you know, the safety margin you have to think about, the supplement dose, the toxicity thresholds, all that stuff.
• 18:48
  Philip Pape: And please, please, please look into it yourself.
• 18:50
  Philip Pape: But I wanted to put it on your radar.
• 18:51
  Philip Pape: That's saffron extract.
• 18:53
  Philip Pape: Supplement number five is Ltheanine, which is what I just mentioned.
• 18:56
  Philip Pape: And I'll say it's probably the gentlest supplement on the list, probably the safest based on the evidence.
• 19:01
  Philip Pape: Again, I'm saying probably as a disclaimer, it's an amino acid.
• 19:04
  Philip Pape: It's found in tea.
• 19:06
  Philip Pape: Its effects are documented on something like EEG because it increases your alpha brain wave activity.
• 19:12
  Philip Pape: And that's associated with alertness or relaxed alertness.
• 19:16
  Philip Pape: So that's like your the state between full wakefulness and drowsiness.
• 19:20
  Philip Pape: So it's like you get relaxed but without getting sedate, getting sedated, which is weird because I also see it recommended for performance in the gym.
• 19:28
  Philip Pape: So it's like it helps you focus and get relaxed, but it doesn't make you tired, right?
• 19:33
  Philip Pape: Like magnesium or you know, magnesium could actually make you a little bit tired or drowsy.
• 19:39
  Philip Pape: So these alpha wave increases that happen pretty quickly after you ingest it, something like 45 minutes, can then do like reduce your cortisol and make you feel more relaxed.
• 19:50
  Philip Pape: And then when we look at sleep, there's some moderate improvements in sleep quality as well, and daytime dysfunction, as they call it.
• 19:58
  Philip Pape: So it's more of a sleep quality thing, not a sleep quantity thing.
• 20:01
  Philip Pape: And apparently there's a really good synergy with caffeine, where when you take it with caffeine, you can improve your speed and accuracy on attention tasks, get less distracted compared to caffeine alone.
• 20:13
  Philip Pape: Caffeine only improves accuracy, but with L-theanine, it seems to also improve speed and attention or speed and lower distraction.
• 20:22
  Philip Pape: It also seems to blunt the jitteriness of caffeine, but preserve or enhance the cognitive benefits.
• 20:28
  Philip Pape: So it's kind of interesting.
• 20:29
  Philip Pape: Again, look into it yourself.
• 20:31
  Philip Pape: There on the on the downside, it doesn't seem to affect people with more severe symptoms of anxiety, you know, like generalized anxiety disorder.
• 20:38
  Philip Pape: So again, this is more for everyday stress, not clinical use.
• 20:42
  Philip Pape: And I think the dosage on here is the sweet spots like 200 milligrams.
• 20:46
  Philip Pape: By the way, the saffron extract, I think it was 28 or 30.
• 20:49
  Philip Pape: So this is 200.
• 20:51
  Philip Pape: And it's also generally recognized as safe, GRAS status with the FDA.
• 20:55
  Philip Pape: It's been approved for unlimited food use in Japan since 1964.
• 21:00
  Philip Pape: And they've looked at doses up to 900 milligrams with no adverse events in trials.
• 21:05
  Philip Pape: So it sounds like a pretty safe supplement and one more to look at.
• 21:08
  Philip Pape: All right, now remember, I promised you a 30-second stress audit at the end.
• 21:11
  Philip Pape: Three signs that your recovery might be the bottleneck coming up in just a second.
• 21:15
  Philip Pape: But if this episode made you realize, hey, my approach to body composition needs to be more complete.
• 21:21
  Philip Pape: Maybe I'm not thinking about the recovery in stress or the supplementation.
• 21:24
  Philip Pape: Maybe I'm not lifting weights.
• 21:25
  Philip Pape: Maybe my nutrition isn't dialed in.
• 21:27
  Philip Pape: That is why we have eat more lift heavy.
• 21:29
  Philip Pape: That is why I made this 26-week coach program.
• 21:32
  Philip Pape: We walk you through not just nutrition and training, but sleep, stress, biofeedback, supplements, everything else that determines whether the work that you're putting in actually shows up on your body.
• 21:42
  Philip Pape: We do not sell supplements.
• 21:44
  Philip Pape: We don't.
• 21:45
  Philip Pape: We teach you how to make smart decisions about them based on your data.
• 21:49
  Philip Pape: Go to eatmoreliftheavy.com to learn more and join us.
• 21:53
  Philip Pape: The link is in the show notes.
• 21:54
  Philip Pape: That's eatmoreliftheavy.com.
• 21:57
  Philip Pape: Okay, here's the stress audit that I wanted to share with you.
• 22:00
  Philip Pape: Three signs that your recovery is the bottleneck.
• 22:02
  Philip Pape: Sign number one is that your training performance is declining or stalling, even though it's the same program and your nutrition is on point.
• 22:12
  Philip Pape: All right.
• 22:12
  Philip Pape: And this assumes you're not in a diet, guys.
• 22:15
  Philip Pape: Okay.
• 22:15
  Philip Pape: Because if you're on a diet, that alone is causing the issue.
• 22:18
  Philip Pape: I promise you.
• 22:19
  Philip Pape: All right.
• 22:20
  Philip Pape: So if you were hitting the weights, but now you're stalling, there is some problem with recovery.
• 22:25
  Philip Pape: Now, food is recovery.
• 22:26
  Philip Pape: So if it's just that, it's that.
• 22:28
  Philip Pape: But it could be another issue.
• 22:29
  Philip Pape: Sign number two is you're waking up more tired, regardless of how many hours you slept in bed.
• 22:34
  Philip Pape: Like even if you sleep seven to eight hours and then you feel like you haven't slept, there is a recovery issue there.
• 22:41
  Philip Pape: Okay.
• 22:41
  Philip Pape: And then sign number three is that you're holding on to water and your weight is bouncing around more than usual, especially around your midsection.
• 22:49
  Philip Pape: So this is a relative thing.
• 22:51
  Philip Pape: You need to compare before and after.
• 22:52
  Philip Pape: You're holding on more water than usual and your weight is bouncing around more than usual, especially around your midsection.
• 22:58
  Philip Pape: This could be that you are more stressed and because of the higher cortisol, you're increasing your water retention and visceral fat storage.
• 23:06
  Philip Pape: You may not see this over days.
• 23:07
  Philip Pape: This may take weeks or months to see it, but if you're measuring things, if your scale is erratic, your waistline feels puffy, even in a deficit, could have to do with stress.
• 23:15
  Philip Pape: It's a good sign.
• 23:16
  Philip Pape: So if you said yes to two out of those three, then recovery could be and is probably your constraint.
• 23:22
  Philip Pape: It's not necessarily training volume, it's not necessarily calories, but it is if you're underfed, let's just put it that way.
• 23:31
  Philip Pape: It's really some form of recovery.
• 23:34
  Philip Pape: And hopefully this episode was helpful at least for one tiny piece of that in the supplement world.
• 23:39
  Philip Pape: Okay, until next time, keep using your wits, lifting those weights, and remember that the supplements themselves do not do the work.
• 23:45
  Philip Pape: They clear some of the constraints or obstacles to the work you're already doing to help you out as tools.
• 23:52
  Philip Pape: I'm Philip Hape, and I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights podcast.