“ALL DAY YOU MAY” BY 5% NUTRITION: NO B.S REVIEW
“Whatever it takes!”
This is the main catchphrase behind Rich Piana’s “5% Nutrition” supplement line.
After reviewing most of his actual products in detail though, I have to wonder if this slogan is in reference to turning a profit rather than building muscle. After all, there are plenty of ways that supplement companies are ripping you off.
No, the size of one’s biceps are not in direct correlation to their supplement-formulating abilities, and in today’s post I’ll be giving an honest, science-based breakdown of Piana’s flagship product “All Day You May.”
Most of the All Day You May reviews I’ve come across online seem to be put out by Rich’s fans and followers who are just aimlessly recommending it without giving an objective breakdown of the ingredients and dosages.
For that reason I wanted to do a real, no B.S review here for those who just want the true supplement science without any bias or marketing hype attached.
Let’s jump into it…
5% Nutrition “All Day You May” Review
The first thing to note is that the majority of the All Day You May formula is based off of a collection of various “proprietary blends“.
This immediately raises a huge red flag since you really have no way of knowing exactly what’s in the actual product to begin with.
All you’re given is a list of ingredients along with the total gram amount for all of them combined, but NOT the individual dosages per ingredient.
When it comes to effective bodybuilding supplementation, proper dosing is absolutely critical.
It doesn’t matter how effective a given muscle building compound might be; if it isn’t present in its research-backed potency, its benefits will either be hugely reduced or eliminated altogether.
The use of proprietary blends allows the company to list off a large collection of recognizable ingredients on the label (making it sound very appealing to the average consumer), but then intentionally under-dose them in order to reduce production costs.
Most people buying these supplements are simply responding to the marketing and “star power” behind them, without realizing that they’re only receiving a fraction of the ingredient doses needed to derive real benefits.
In my opinion this is reason enough to avoid “All Day U May” and spend your money elsewhere.
There’s just no excuse for the use of proprietary blends in 2017, and if a supplement company’s product truly was properly dosed, there’d be no reason to hide the individual ingredient amounts.
If that’s not convincing enough though, let’s break down the specific All Day You May ingredients further in order to get a clearer picture of what’s really going on here…
All Day You May Ingredients Breakdown
BCAA Blend
The core ingredient in the All Day You May formula is 6 grams of branched chain amino acids.
Although BCAA’s remain as one of the most popular bodybuilding supplements being sold today, the basic fact remains that they’re simply unnecessary for the vast majority of trainees in most situations.
This is because as long as you’re consuming sufficient protein from your regular diet (around 0.8-1 gram per pound of body weight daily), you’re already getting in more than enough BCAA’s to max out their benefits. [Suggested Reading: Are BCAA’s Worth It?].
Typical high protein bodybuilding food sources already contain around 15-25% BCAA’s per gram, yielding somewhere around 4-6 grams for every standard sized serving you eat.
Keep in mind that just because some BCAA’s are good doesn’t automatically mean that more is better, since your body can only utilize so much in a given day.
Excess amounts in supplemental form are not going to magically increase your muscle gains; all they’ll do is increase your credit card bill.
BCAA’s might have some minor benefits for those who are training fasted and want to preserve as much muscle as they possibly can during those periods, but for everyone else, they’re just not a necessary investment.
It should also be noted that All Day U May uses a BCAA ratio of 10:1:1, meaning you’re getting 10 parts leucine to 1 part isoleucine and 1 part valine.
Supplement companies using these higher ratios will claim that it’s because leucine is the most “anabolic” of the 3 BCAA’s.
In reality, it’s because leucine is the cheapest of the 3 and thus represents yet another opportunity to drive down production costs.
The purpose behind branched chain amino acid supplementation is to mimic the ratio found in muscle tissue, which is 2:1:1.
At 10:1:1, you might as well just be supplementing with pure leucine.
Conditionally Essential Amino Acid Blend
This next proprietary blend delivers a combination of l-glutamine, l-carnitine l-tartrate and n-acetyl cysteine.
Just like with BCAA’s though, sufficient daily dietary protein already provides all of the glutamine needed to optimize muscle recovery and growth. [Suggested Reading: The Benefits Of Glutamine Debunked].
In addition, most orally consumed glutamine in supplemental form (around 65%) never even makes it into the bloodstream in the first place and is instead used up by the intestines for energy.
None of that even matters anyway, since All Day You May only provides a 2.8 gram dosage for the glutamine plus two other ingredients combined.
The standard glutamine dosage for bodybuilding purposes would be in the range of 5-10g+, and so even if glutamine were a useful supplement you still wouldn’t be getting nearly enough here to see any real benefit.
Essential Amino Acid Blend + Conditionally Essential Amino Acid Blend
These next two blends provide a combination of various essential amino acids, which are the building blocks of protein used to facilitate muscle growth.
While the list of 9 different aminos looks good on paper, a quick glance at the dosage shows an amount so small (around 1 gram for all 9 combined) that it might as well not even be included in the first place.
Your regular protein intake will provide ample amounts of all of these amino acids throughout the day, and in far higher amounts.
Intra-Cellular Buffer Blend
Next up is a combination of creatinol o-phosphate and beta alanine at a total amount of 1.5g per scoop.
Most of the research on creatinol o-phosphate is a few decades old (note that creatinol o-phosphate and creatine are not the same thing) and primarily examined its effects as a cardio-protective drug.
In addition, the studies were conducted using direct injections into the muscle rather than oral consumption. It’s not even known at this point whether creatinol o-phosphate is bio-available in humans when consumed orally and what its specific effects would be.
So, I’m not even sure why this compound is included to begin with.
And while beta alanine might have some minor benefits to squeeze out a bit more work on those higher rep sets, the minimum dosage needed for a clear performance boost is at least 3.2g daily.
Since All Day You May only provides 1.5g for the creatinol o-phosphate and beta alanine combined, you already know you’re being significantly short-changed here.
Joint Support Blend
Lastly is a joint support blend providing 600mg of glucosamine sulfate and MSM.
The research on these two compounds is fairly mixed, and most of their joint alleviating benefits are likely only reserved for those suffering from osteoarthritis rather than those with weight training induced aches and pains.
In any case, following the same theme here, both of these ingredients are hugely under-dosed anyway since glucosamine is typically taken at around 1500mg per day and MSM at around 3000mg.
“All Day You May” by 5% Nutrition: The Bottom Line
If you’re a fan of Rich Piana and are purchasing All Day You May as a way of supporting 5% Nutrition and his YouTube channel, then by all means go ahead.
However, if you’re wanting to make your supplement purchasing decisions based off of what will genuinely enhance your results, this is one supplement I’d highly suggest leaving on the shelf.
In no way does it hold up to any objective scientific scrutiny, and as long as you’re ingesting enough total protein for the day it’s almost certainly not going to noticeably improve your gains.
5% Nutrition’s All Day You May is really nothing more than a collection of ingredients that are either moderately effective but insufficiently dosed, or that are flat-out ineffective to begin with.
My advice is to take the $450 per year you’d otherwise be spending on this and use it for the things in your fitness program that actually matter, such as your gym membership, grocery bill or the few supplement “basics” (such as protein powder, creatine, fish oil, vitamins/minerals, basic pre-workout compounds) that actually work.
Check out my other supplement reviews of Kali Muscle’s Hyphy Mud and Athlean-X’s line of products.
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