The first supplement I ever took was something called Conjugated Linoleic Acid, better known as ‘CLA’.
This is before I ever stepped foot into a gym.
I did a quick internet search of what pill or powder I needed for weight loss, somehow found CLA, pushed my chair away from my desk at the advertising agency, walked my ass across the street to the Vitamin Shop and bought a big ol’ bottle.
It didn’t work. Clearly I needed something stronger.
After more research and another trip to the Vitamin Shop I landed on something called “Ripped Fuel”. And given the more promising name as well as the fact that the dose made me nauseous as shit I knew I was on the right path.
And while the nausea did suppress my appetite, it did not leave me ripped which I fully thought was a case of false advertising. How could these fitness magazines be lying to me?!?
I’ve told the story of how I lost over 60lbs in about 5 months in preparation for my wedding and then started weight training to get the physique I wanted multiple times so I will spare you that here.
However, during that journey I have ingested what seems like everything. From hydrolyzed whey to mass gainers. From fish oil to fat burners. From test boosters to appetite suppressants.
And one thing is abundantly clear, very few supplements work (in a clinical sense) when it comes to directly improving your body composition and performance.
For every creatine, caffeine and citrulline that actually provide repeatable and statistically significant results, there are thousands of more proprietary blends, branch chain amino acids, exotic root extracts and Dr. Oz endorsed miracles that don’t do shit.
However, just because something doesn’t work doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. Allow me to explain.
About 10 years ago I started studying something called BioSignature Modulation. What BioSig aimed to do was determine what vitamins, minerals and amino acids a person was deficient in based on skinfold readings across the body.
Carry a lot of fat in your chest? Your androgens are off and you could use zinc to boost them. Large skinfold at your belly button meant that your cortisol levels were too high.
For every site there was a recommended supplement protocol meant to balance your hormones, allowing you to be leaner and healthier.
This is actually a vast simplification of the BioSig process (ratio of the sites to each other, digestive status and nutritional strategies were all part of it as well) but the method did rely on you taking a relatively large number of supplements of questionable scientific efficacy.
Yet a way higher percentage of my clients who I had on the BioSig protocols got accelerated results when compared to other clients. So what the hell was going on?
The answer is buy-in.
You can think of buy-in as the placebo effect’s step-brother.
The placebo effect is the beneficial effect of a substance which cannot be attributed to the substance itself. It relies on a level of belief that the substance (a pill, a procedure, a protocol) is doing what someone is saying it’s going to do.
Buy-in is similar but I define it less by the belief that the substance is producing the effect directly and more by the concept that it’s not the substance itself that is producing effect but rather leads to a cascade of other behaviors which, in aggregate, result in the desired goal.
That’s a lot of words right there. Let me give you an example.
A world-renowned doctor gives you a pill saying it’s going to cure your acid reflux. And, even though it’s just a sugar pill, your acid reflux improves. The key here is that you have no idea that what you are taking is bogus, you think it’s the real deal. And that this doctor knows what he is talking about and, of course, is giving you some cutting edge meds that have to work.
While we don’t have an exact understanding of how the placebo effect works we do know one thing for sure - it works. Simply having belief does often provide results.
With buy-in, you may be suspicious of whether the pill works or not. You’ve read a bunch of conflicting research and you have some skepticism. But you are desperate for something to work so you give it a try. Turns out the acid reflux pills cost $200 for a weekly dose so, to give it the best chance of working, you change your diet to the recommended “low acid reflux” nutrition that your dietician recommended. You also invest in an elevated pillow that an article mentioned would reduce your reflux while you are laying down which is typically when it’s the worst.
And, not-so-surprisingly, your reflux improves. But was it the pill, the pillow, or the lack of coffee and chocolate in your diet that made the difference?
My answer is, who cares?
As long as you get the desired effect and the investment to get that effect is worth it to you from a financial, effort and time-spent perspective, you are good to go.
This is what I believe happened with my BioSig clients.
They were investing in supplements. This led them to be more consistent with their training and their nutrition. They knew that they were getting their body-fat tested every four weeks and that level of accountability also played into the result.
And while I don’t think they thought the supplements were outright bullshit (and, for the record, neither did I) I think it was the entire approach that they believed in. The supps were just the catalyst to get it all rolling.
The key to harnessing the power of buy-in is to find the one keystone habit that sets all the others in motion. In the case of BioSig, it was starting on the supplement protocol. The real magic of that was it was a very simple thing to do (I recommended, ordered and supplied the supplements to them and told them how much and when to take each) but included a financial investment. This combo of easy-to-execute but with a level of financial pain works really well.
How many of you have said to yourself something like this: “I just trained my ass off at the gym so I’m not going to blow it by eating pizza tonight”?
This is also an example of buy-in. You spent time and energy and effort working out and that led to other positive decisions.
Spending money on a trainer so you don’t skip the gym. Downloading an app that tells you how many days in a row you managed to meditate for 10 minutes. Using your vacation days to attend a seminar that helps you develop a new skill.
These are all solid buy-in strategies. You sacrifice something (money, time, vacation) in order to drive the desired behavior. It’s not complex but it is effective.
One note of caution. Setting keystone habits in order to drive buy-in is not permission to be delusional. Following the Celery Juice Diet may help you lose weight and improve your daily step count, but it’s not a harmless catalyst to get the body you want. Rather it’s a super-low calorie diet devoid of nutrition and is bound to lead to massive weight gain after you finally hit your limit on how much celery juice you are willing to ingest.
Without question it can be tough to tell the difference between harmless momentum starter and false trend that is setting you up for long term failure. My advice on this is to make sure that whatever you are doing passes the common sense test and, if you are unsure, ask someone with more experience than you.
Finally, possibly a worse trap than gullibility may be rampant pessimism. When you believe in absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing will work.
You need to take the first step forward.
I just wouldn’t make that step toward the Ripped Fuel at your local Vitamin Shop.