Are protein shakes worth it?

[jbhasban]

How long were you eating more often for? The first day or 2 you feel hungry but after that you should be fine. If you actually felt hungrier when you were eating more often than you were either doing it wrong or you didn't stick with it long enough.



I'm still skeptical. Last I heard someone who's completely natural and who has been training for a while can gain 2/5ths to 1/2 of a pound of muscle in per week with a good routine and diet. That's more than 210 grams of muscle per week or over 30g per day. I assume you need more than 1g of protein to build 1g of muscle because we're not completely efficient, so the numbers would be a lot higher than 10g of protein/day going to your muscles.

But we're going off topic. Eating more often is better for your full-body protein synthesis. You even admitted as much. So it makes sense that someone who wants to get as much as he can out of his workouts would eat meals more often.

Neazy, people are different. The multiple meals a day works for most people. It doesnt work for everyone. It doesnt work for me. I do better with IF too. I know people who cannot deal with IF. When I eat small meals a day, I always over eat.

[Neazy]

Neazy, people are different. The multiple meals a day works for most people. It doesnt work for everyone. It doesnt work for me. I do better with IF too. I know people who cannot deal with IF. When I eat small meals a day, I always over eat.

Of course people are different, but what's the point of a conversation if I don't tell you my experience?

I went through the same thing as you and mludd and I found a way around it. Eating 6 "small meals" like a lot of places recommend is stupid. You do feel hungry and it's too hard to maintain. What I do now is I eat 3 big meals with a snack 2-3 hours after each meal. These snacks always have at least 20g of protein and are things like yogurt, milk, sandwiches, etc that are easy to make and don't have a lot of fat so you don't get too full. Then, for breakfast/lunch/dinner I can eat a nice sized meal (600-900 calories) with a solid amount of fat in it to keep me full.

[Deleted]

It's a source of protein and it's generally all the same shit so don't spend a fortune on the stuff.

It's 'better' to eat your whole sources like chicken, pork, beef, salmon, tuna etc... as you'll get more protein for less calories, but shakes give you a few options outside these sources and can act like a treat.

I for example don't like eating protein in the morning so I tend to drink a whey shake then and when I'm bulking I have a Casein before I sleep. It's important though to keep an eye on the calories as they often range between 250-400 calories per drink which can have a significant impact on restricted calorie diets.

Lastly taste fucking matters. There's no point drinking something that tastes like shit when you can have a piece of chicken/pork/beef/whatever which will taste nice, often be cheaper and be better for you.

[Deleted]

Of course people are different, but what's the point of a conversation if I don't tell you my experience?

I went through the same thing as you and mludd and I found a way around it. Eating 6 "small meals" like a lot of places recommend is stupid. You do feel hungry and it's too hard to maintain. What I do now is I eat 3 big meals with a snack 2-3 hours after each meal. These snacks always have at least 20g of protein and are things like yogurt, milk, sandwiches, etc that are easy to make and don't have a lot of fat so you don't get too full. Then, for breakfast/lunch/dinner I can eat a nice sized meal (600-900 calories) with a solid amount of fat in it to keep me full.

I've experimented a lot with different approaches to eating including:
* Whenever I feel like it
* Three meals per day (the "gold standard" for most people)
* Three meals per day and an afternoon snack
* 5-6 "meals" per day
* Intermittent fasting with one meal per day
* Intermittent fasting with two meals per day
* Various minor variations on the above

And I don't mean "tried" as in "tried it for a day or two", I mean for at least a couple of weeks (5-6 meals per day until I gave up because I just kept feeling hungrier and hungrier every day).

These days I stick to two meals per day (lunch and dinner with lunch being fairly low-energy) and I haven't been able to find any recent research showing that this is in any way worse than the other approaches.

---------- Post added 2013-03-07 at 07:18 PM ----------

I for example don't like eating protein in the morning so I tend to drink a whey shake then and when I'm bulking I have a Casein before I sleep. It's important though to keep an eye on the calories as they often range between 250-400 calories per drink which can have a significant impact on restricted calorie diets.

Lastly taste fucking matters. There's no point drinking something that tastes like shit when you can have a piece of chicken/pork/beef/whatever which will taste nice, often be cheaper and be better for you.

Wow, 400 kCal for a protein shake? The whey shakes I use have 140 kCal/26g per "serving".

Also, there are a lot of protein shakes out there and some are actually delicious (while others to taste like shit, I tried one brand (Whey-80) which had a horrible taste and wouldn't dissolve in water unless you shook it for well over a minute).

[Deleted]

I'm still skeptical. Last I heard someone who's completely natural and who has been training for a while can gain 2/5ths to 1/2 of a pound of muscle in per week with a good routine and diet. That's more than 210 grams of muscle per week or over 30g per day. I assume you need more than 1g of protein to build 1g of muscle because we're not completely efficient, so the numbers would be a lot higher than 10g of protein/day going to your muscles.

But we're going off topic. Eating more often is better for your full-body protein synthesis. You even admitted as much. So it makes sense that someone who wants to get as much as he can out of his workouts would eat meals more often.

Your not going to find any experienced natural who will gain ½ a pound of lean body mass per week. Even if your juiced that will be considered good results for an extended period (your initial gains might be higher however).

If i somehow admitted that, then I've written something wrong. Your amino acid levels are still elevated 4-6 hours after a solid meal, there is no evidence to suggest more frequent meal timing has any positive results on both weight loss or muscle building. And there has been quite a lot of research on that.

[TJ]

Yes, definitely. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong, no other way to say it. They help tremendously with getting the protein you need to build muscle, and they cut down your fat intake because you'd be eating a lot of meat etc to get the protein from another source which obviously has more fat. That is just the basics as well.

If you are trying to lose weight, then don't even consider it. You drink protein shakes when you are building muscle, not losing weight.

[jbhasban]

Yes, definitely. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong, no other way to say it. They help tremendously with getting the protein you need to build muscle, and they cut down your fat intake because you'd be eating a lot of meat etc to get the protein from another source which obviously has more fat. That is just the basics as well.

If you are trying to lose weight, then don't even consider it. You drink protein shakes when you are building muscle, not losing weight.

So much stupid in this post it hurts.

[TJ]

So much stupid in this post it hurts.

So much cluelessness in this post it's unreal.

[Deleted]

So much cluelessness in this post it's unreal.

Yes, definitely. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong, no other way to say it. They help tremendously with getting the protein you need to build muscle, and they cut down your fat intake because you'd be eating a lot of meat etc to get the protein from another source which obviously has more fat. That is just the basics as well.

If you are trying to lose weight, then don't even consider it. You drink protein shakes when you are building muscle, not losing weight.

People should ask themselfes is they post, do I really have anything to add, and is it even remotely useful.

Sorry, but your basics doesn't make sense. You shouldn't cut fat in most cases, as long as it comes from healthy sources of course. If your trying to lose weight, then yes protein is beneficial. Protein has the highest Thermogenic effect (basicly increases metabolism), and makes you full longer, also aids in keeping muscle mass.

[TJ]

People should ask themselfes is they post, do I really have anything to add, and is it even remotely useful.

Sorry, but your basics doesn't make sense. You shouldn't cut fat in most cases, as long as it comes from healthy sources of course. If your trying to lose weight, then yes protein is beneficial. Protein has the highest Thermogenic effect (basicly increases metabolism), and makes you full longer, also aids in keeping muscle mass.

Oh yes, protein is beneficial. Say from a meal, but there is no need to drink a protein shake since you'll be getting what you need from your normal meals. It's only when you need to increase your protein intake (building muscle) that you'll see the real benefit of protein shakes since they will help you get to your protein goal.

If you're doing nothing but losing weight then you're just adding extra calories to your diet and this will make it harder to lose the weight. All you need is a good, well thought diet and you'll be fine.

Also, you shouldn't cut fat? What? You need to change your diet to healthier things to make losing weight possible, this means less saturated fat and calories. But I was referring to a meal replacement in my orginal comment, something like nuts would be an example.

[Neazy]

Your not going to find any experienced natural who will gain ½ a pound of lean body mass per week. Even if your juiced that will be considered good results for an extended period (your initial gains might be higher however).

If i somehow admitted that, then I've written something wrong. Your amino acid levels are still elevated 4-6 hours after a solid meal, there is no evidence to suggest more frequent meal timing has any positive results on both weight loss or muscle building. And there has been quite a lot of research on that.

Fair enough. But in regards to gaining 1/2 a lb of muscle in a week:

http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/steroids-vs-natural/

Says people on a controlled workout routine (very similar to starting strength) gained .4 lbs of muscle per week, steroid users who didn't exercise gained .7 lbs per week, and steroid users on the same routine as the non-steroid users gained 1.3 lbs per week. Obviously the people they tested weren't pro body builders but the site says that they had experience lifting weights.

[rsfarmer0928]

In my part, no.

[Realsykes]

Yeah, I'd be careful with protein. Most of them are laced with chemicals that are harmful to the body. As a former bodybuilder and former supplement whore, stay away from it. Most of it is toxic and it's best to just eat natural. Heck it's best to just eat like a vegetarian. It's still your life though. If you wanna trade 3 years of looking big and buff (which most girls laugh about anyway) for a lifetime of irreversible internal damage, go for it. YOLO.

You have got to be kidding me.

OP, do NOT listen to this guy, there's no way in hell this dude was a former bodybuilder, they would never talk down protein. Some supplements yes, but protein powder???

If you have any questions about losing weight, gaining muscle, or anything fitness related, PM me. You can also find me at bodybuilding.com as Shreddedshark.

---------- Post added 2013-03-08 at 03:04 AM ----------

Yes, definitely. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong, no other way to say it. They help tremendously with getting the protein you need to build muscle, and they cut down your fat intake because you'd be eating a lot of meat etc to get the protein from another source which obviously has more fat. That is just the basics as well.

If you are trying to lose weight, then don't even consider it. You drink protein shakes when you are building muscle, not losing weight.

It's not a necessity. Protein shakes are for people who want to optimize their gains or losses, particularly gains. Fat is not bad, if you're still stuck in that mindset, then you don't have the place to talk.

IIFYM. If It Fits Your Macros. True through and through. That's why I can't eat whatever I want (to an extent), be 5'11, 172, 7% BF.

[Souichirou]

It's a source of protein and it's generally all the same shit so don't spend a fortune on the stuff.

It's 'better' to eat your whole sources like chicken, pork, beef, salmon, tuna etc... as you'll get more protein for less calories, but shakes give you a few options outside these sources and can act like a treat.

I for example don't like eating protein in the morning so I tend to drink a whey shake then and when I'm bulking I have a Casein before I sleep. It's important though to keep an eye on the calories as they often range between 250-400 calories per drink which can have a significant impact on restricted calorie diets.

Lastly taste fucking matters. There's no point drinking something that tastes like shit when you can have a piece of chicken/pork/beef/whatever which will taste nice, often be cheaper and be better for you.

First, Unless your only eating tuna for protein the calories of a protein shake is far less then everything else you listed. Chicken equivalent of a shake is roughly 270 calories along with additional fat, steak around 280-300 calories and pork around 300-350 depending along with more fat. So your point of shakes having more calories is false.

Also I have no idea what casein protein your taking since mine only has 120 calories. Finally taste most protein shakes taste great UNLESS your cheaping out and getting something that's mostly whey concentrates, and for cost ? your kidding right ? meat per serving is vastly more then the cost of protein powder, 10lb of optimum nutrition whey protein $99 with 155 servings that translates to about 0.60 cents per serving.

[Bonkura]

If you are trying to lose weight, then don't even consider it. You drink protein shakes when you are building muscle, not losing weight.

That depends if by losing weight you want to lose fat or muscles. It's very simple really.

[TJ]

It's not a necessity. Protein shakes are for people who want to optimize their gains or losses, particularly gains. Fat is not bad, if you're still stuck in that mindset, then you don't have the place to talk.

IIFYM. If It Fits Your Macros. True through and through. That's why I can't eat whatever I want (to an extent), be 5'11, 172, 7% BF.

Anyone who takes bodybuilding seriously well tell you it is. Sure, if someone just wants to go to the gym to get a bit stronger then it's not needed. But when you want to seriously get to a high level then it is, that's what I was referring to. I didn't make that clear in my post, though, I will agree.

I never said fat was bad in that comment either, do people read what they want on these forums to try and start arguments?

---------- Post added 2013-03-08 at 11:10 AM ----------

That depends if by losing weight you want to lose fat or muscles. It's very simple really.

You won't burn muscle.. Unless you are physically drained until the point that you are in actual medical danger (assuming a proper diet).

http://scoobysworkshop.com/does-cardio-burn-muscle/

[Bonkura]

You won't burn muscle.. Unless you are physically drained until the point that you are in actual medical danger.

So basically what you're saying is that if I'm on a diet where I for example eat 2000 kcal a day it doesn't matter if I eat 50g fat/200g carbs/200g protein or 100g fat/280g carbs/20g protein because the net bodyfat/muscle loss will be the same? I've never seen anyone claim this before.

[TJ]

So basically what you're saying is that if I'm on a diet where I for example eat 2000 kcal a day it doesn't matter if I eat 50g fat/200g carbs/200g protein or 100g fat/280g carbs/20g protein because the net bodyfat/muscle loss will be the same? I've never seen anyone claim this before.

I would like to know how you got that from what I wrote.

[Deleted]

You need 1½ g of protein for each kilo of body weight. Most likely you won't get that trough your daily intake, therefore it's sort of needed if you wan't maximize your training.

[Bonkura]

I would like to know how you got that from what I wrote.

Because you said you shouldn't drink protein shakes when trying to lose weight. This just says protein doesn't matter or suggests whey protein would be a bad source for the protein we do need.