Remember that the importance of supplementing intelligently becomes magnified when you're on a reduced calorie program.
Many individuals cut calories in an attempt to drop fat quickly. Unfortunately, these same individuals are often depriving their bodies of important nutrients for overall health and physical fitness. They're taking in less food and as a result less vitamins and minerals along with that food.
For example, a massive study of over 25,000 individuals conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture clearly demonstrated that well over half of the women who cut their fat intake below 30% of total calories did not get enough (RDA) vitamin A, vitamin E, folic acid, calcium, iron, and zinc.
These are key nutrients that should not be sacrificed for the sake of a low-fat diet.
The solution is simple: try to eat a well-rounded diet by not cutting fat intake too drastically and supplement with quality multi-vitamins/minerals and extra antioxidants.
Note: those who use Meal Replacement Powders (MRPs) and/or Sports Nutrition Bars as part of their program are much less likely to deprive themselves of these key nutrients because both are usually fortified with extra vitamins and minerals.
USE VARIATION TO INTENSIFY YOUR PROGRESS
Have your fat reduction efforts reached a plateau? It may be time to put the principle of Variation to work for you.
The body is incredibly adaptive and resourceful when it comes to adjusting to any program geared at fat loss; in a word it's downright stubborn.
The only intelligent way to combat this resourcefulness is to constantly change things up in your program, to get variation into it and not allow the body to become "comfortable" and readjust set points.
In other words, if you've been doing 40 minutes of cardio work 4 times per week for the past three months, then you may have made some great initial progress, but it's not uncommon for the rate of progress to eventually slow or stagnate altogether.
Your body has become used to this training and it's no longer having as dramatic an effect. The solution is to mix things up by 1) upping your intensity (go to level 7 rather than level 4); 2) breaking the routine (take a week off from cardio work, or shift to two 60 minute sessions, or five 20 minute sessions. Change it anyway you like, but CHANGE IT!
You should also try to apply Variation to your diet and supplement programs as well. Cycle your calorie intake, your carb intake, your protein intake, or all three.
If you've been using an ECA Stack for a while and results have slowed, vary things up by shifting to Metabolic Thyrolean and/or L-Glutamine for 3-4 weeks. Then go back to the ECA Stack and watch the results you get!
The bottom line rule is if you've hit a sticking point or plateau, the last thing you want to do is what you've been doing. Drop the routine and start making progress again.