The short, boring list of sports supplements that work

A new client once brought a shopping bag to our first call and tipped it out on the desk: seven tubs, four of them half empty, most bought because a coach, a teammate, or an ad said they worked. She trained five days a week, ate a little less than she needed, slept badly, and spent real money every month on sports supplements she could not quite explain the point of. That bag is the most common thing I see. The supplement aisle is built to sell you certainty, and most of it never earns the money.

Most of what sits on that shelf does nothing you can feel. A handful of them do earn their place, and even those add a small margin to training you have already done well, not instead of it. Here is how to tell the difference before you pay for another tub.

TL;DR: Most sports supplements have little or no evidence behind them. For everyday athletes, only a handful do anything worth the money: creatine and caffeine most reliably, with protein powder as convenient food. Get your eating, sleep, and training consistent first, then add one or two proven options and skip the rest.

How to tell a real supplement from an expensive one

The Australian Institute of Sport grades every sports supplement by how much evidence stands behind it, and its top tier is short. For actual performance, that tier holds caffeine, creatine, beetroot juice (nitrate), beta-alanine, and sodium bicarbonate (AIS Sports Supplement Framework, 2022). Everything else sits lower, in groups where the science is thin, mixed, or missing. So when a label promises more energy, faster recovery, and less fat all at once, you are almost always looking at a product from the lower groups wearing the language of the top one.

There is a second catch that the marketing never mentions. The proven supplements were mostly tested on elite athletes chasing the final one or two percent, and the benefits land in that range for most tasks (IOC consensus statement, 2018). If you sleep six hours and eat below what your training needs, buying a one-percent supplement is polishing a car that has no engine. The gain is real. It is also small, and it was measured on people who had already got everything else right.

The short list worth your money

Two supplements clear the bar for almost everyone, and one more counts as food. "Creatine monohydrate is the most effective ergogenic nutritional supplement currently available to athletes," according to the International Society of Sports Nutrition (2017). It is cheap, one of the most studied supplements there is, safe in healthy people at three to five grams a day, and it helps strength, power, and repeated hard efforts. If you lift or do anything with sprints and intervals, it is the one I would try first.

Caffeine is the other. Three to six milligrams per kilo of body weight, taken about an hour before training, reliably helps endurance and high-intensity work (Maughan et al., 2018). Protein powder belongs in a different category: it is not magic, it is food that is easy to carry. It earns a place only when you struggle to reach your protein from meals, not as a default. Vitamin D and iron are worth taking when a blood test shows you are low, and that is a gap you confirm with bloodwork, never a tub you buy on the off chance.

The popular ones you can stop buying

Some of the best-selling products on the shelf have no meaningful evidence behind them for a healthy, well-fed athlete. The AIS puts BCAAs, glutamine, HMB, and magnesium taken for performance in its lowest evidence group, alongside most "fat burners" (AIS, 2022). If you already eat enough protein, BCAAs are the clearest example of paying for something your food gives you for free.

I see this every week. A runner arrives eating around a gram of protein per kilo, well under what training asks for, with a tub of BCAAs on the counter that costs more than the extra eggs and yoghurt that would fix the actual problem. Cutting these from your basket is not deprivation. It is the point. The money was buying the feeling of doing something, and the feeling is the only thing it delivered.

What "food first" actually means

Sports nutrition researchers have a phrase for this: "food first, not food only" (2025). Get the eating right, then let a proven supplement add its small margin on top. Calculating what to add is the easy part. The harder and more valuable work is a plate you will actually eat on a Tuesday when you are tired and the fridge is half empty.

That work is unglamorous and it is where the results live: enough total food for your training, protein spread across the day, sleep you protect, and sessions you keep showing up for. A supplement can add a few percent to work you have already done. It cannot do the work. No scoop rescues a plan you quit in three weeks, which is why I would rather fix your dinner than sell you a stack.

Four questions before you buy

You do not need a nutrition degree to sort the shelf. Run any product past these before it goes in the basket.

• Is my eating, sleep, and training actually consistent? If not, that is the supplement. Fix it first and you may not need anything else.
• Does it sit in the top evidence tier? Creatine, caffeine, and a short list of others clear it. If you cannot find real evidence, you are buying hope.
• Is it third-party tested? Supplements are not checked for safety or accuracy before they go on sale (NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, 2023), so look for Informed Sport or NSF Certified for Sport on the label.
• Would this money do more as real food? More often than not, the answer is yes.

Frequently asked questions

Do everyday athletes need supplements?

Mostly no. If your food, sleep, and training are consistent, you get the large majority of the result from those. A couple of proven options like creatine can add a small margin, but they are optional, not a requirement, and they never replace the basics.

Is creatine worth it if I just lift or run recreationally?

For most people who train regularly, yes. Creatine at three to five grams a day is cheap, well studied, and safe in healthy people, and it helps strength, power, and repeated hard efforts. It is one of the few supplements with a strong case for recreational athletes.

Do runners need protein powder?

Not automatically. Protein powder is convenient food, useful when you struggle to hit your protein target from meals around training or travel. If you already reach it with normal food, powder adds convenience, not performance.

Are sports supplements safe?

The proven ones are safe for healthy people at sensible doses, but supplements are not checked before sale, so contamination and mislabelling happen. Buy third-party tested products, and talk to a professional before adding anything if you have a health condition or take medication.

The shelf is long and the list that works is short. Get your food, sleep, and training right, add creatine or caffeine if they suit your training, and keep the rest of your money for real food. If you would rather have a plan built around what you actually eat than another tub forgotten at the back of a cupboard, book an online consultation and we will start with your plate. Message Bela on WhatsApp to book, and we will begin with your food, not a supplement stack.

This article is educational and is not a substitute for individual medical or nutritional advice.