Rate of antioxidant excretion. Want antioxidants

Ruhl

New Member
At what rate are antioxidants excreted from the body? Knowing this could help prevent antioxidants from reducing hypertrophic response from training.
 
Quite interesting this post...

We must bear in mind that anti-oxidants (AOs) come under two categories - fat-soluble (vitamin A & E comes to mind) and water soluble (vitamin C and bioflavanoids comes to mind). There is a class of mineral-based anti-oxidants (e.g. selenium) too, and I think these can be classified as water soluble.

As for AOs impeding growth stimulus - how much do you intend to take a day? Do you already have a varied diet of fresh fruit and vegetables? If so, you'd be getting a good whack of AOs from fruit and vegetables alone, and to eliminate fruit and veg from the diet just to avoid AOs is perhaps, a very bad recipe.

I would look at this way: Get ample fresh fruit and vegetables, then decide what could be lacking. For most fat controlled diets, the fat-soluble AOs can be lacking, and so taking extra vitamin E (say, 500iu) a day is all you might have to take. Will this impede hypertrophy? Probably not.

To make sure, take your AO-type supplements before sleeping or something, but definitely not immediately before or after training. Your body can store these AOs, believe it or not, and an optimal amount is required for normal functioning so even if you miss a dose on a given day, you'd still have AOs in your body. If such were the case, take your AOs on non-lifting days then.

To answer your question in specific: The rate of AO excretion/utilization is dependent on several things. Physical activity, environmental toxins, dosage of AOs (too much gets excreted, especially the water-soluble type. Too much fat-soluble type can be toxic to the liver- think vitamin A). Do you live in a very toxic, stressful environment? Do you exercise a lot, or is your lifestyle sedentary? Is your diet full of fresh fruit and vegetables or is it all processed food?

Ponder these things for a moment, then decide what could be lacking and how such shortfall can be corrected.

Godspeed, and happy HSTing :)
 
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