When you say a "good diet and a proper supplement" - do you mean only using the protein shake/supplement in conjunction with gym/training or just if for some reason you skipped a meal or haven't eaten enough that day?
I've avoided weight gainer powders for a while now. As a general rule I make my own gainer shakes by blending milk or O.J, protein powder, oats, banana & greek yogurt or peanut butter, tastes alot better than the bought stuff and I know whats in it!
For me a supplement is just that a supplement to fill diet gaps, gaps that CAN'T be filled with food, its always best to build a diet with real foods.
Ill use a protein shake after workouts because I cant stomach eating straight away Ill take about 30gram protein. I also do make my own gainer of approx 800calories to help be hit my calories for the day. I am a light weight rocket metabolism and eating 4000calories of healthy food is nearly impossible for me.
Vitamins and minerals can be helpful in certain situations ie cramps in long exercise. But again even a multivitamin can be dangerous as a general addition, some studies have shown negative effect of taking a multivitamin, its a personal need and if you do decide to take certain vitamins you should do it under instruction of a doctor.
It has been mentioned earlier in the thread a proper diet should provide you with everything you need. All the other left wing supplements produce what I believe unnatural reactions in the body. I don't think these other supplements like nitric oxide, creatine, D-aspartic acid etc are doing nothing, I have seen tests in where they do show benefits the question is are these benefits going to really matter. Most of the supplements assist in increasing something the body either gets from food or naturally produces so we should be getting adequate amounts of what we need through the bodies ability to produce it and diet. Further more many supplements in my opinion are packed with lots of crap and id question how safe they are, we know lots of new supplements have not been tested long term or they come with a fair few potential side effects minor and dangerous.
In my opinion supplement companies are brilliant marketers, they find something small lets say eg they find substance X increases performance by 2%, they then throw massive roid guys on the bottle and talk about how it increases performance. Iv rarely seen a supplement in the bodybuilding industry talk actually results or state a number ie you never see them say "40% boost in XX" on a supplement, instead they use marketing pulls "increase performance, more power, maximize workout" this help pull people in but don't actually tell you anything.
We have to also consider the usability of the supplement, some supplements we take the body cant actively use or if we have too much or its not needed it will pass through without been used. I wont go as far to say all supplements are crap but you need to do the research, most have small benefit and come with dangerous health effects and might not even be used by the body.
Protein supplements are fine in my books its nothing left field it is just protein in a form for us to mix and drink easier, its sort of like adding sugar to a drink to get in quick carbs, its just a powder form of protein. They're not crazily broken down structures and isolating certain bonds or adding anything that will raise natural levels of the bodies production etc.
I will clarify as mentioned earlier some people need supplements but these should be discussed with a doctor.
