Essentially, fat loss is burning more calories than you intake. If you're burning more calories than your intake even with a shake, go for it.
I take 3 shakes a day religiously. One with my breakfast, one after my training, and one about an hour before bed. And I'm in my cutting phase at the moment. My rest day is Sunday so I may have only one or two on those days.
The thing about losing weight/fat loss/cutting is that you want to lower your body fat percentage whilst maintaining your muscle size. You can achieve this through diet alone by eating enough protein rich food like lean meats, fish, nuts and legumes, etc. Personally, I find it easier to have a shake. Less hassle making it, and faster acting (that's my subjective opinion, don't know if it's true). I still have my six meals a day, but shakes are just extra protein, om nom.
If you want to get protein shakes, make sure you get the right one. Some are designed for building size and strength, and others for a lean definition.
Regarding the aches - how often are you working out? How many days rest do you have? How do you split your workouts up throughout the week, if you split muscle groups?
Personally I wouldn't take creatine yet. Creatine is designed to help and encourage muscle growth and size by taking water into your muscles, and building extra muscle when you workout. It's not much use using it if you're not on a building diet since you're not getting enough food/protein to stimulate the growth. Essentially, it's nigh impossible to do proper building and cutting at the same time, so I'd focus on cutting first and then build when you're satisfied.
Take a recovery drink or as someone mentionned a chocolate milkshake. After working out the good ratio to take in is 4:1 carbs to protein. Therefore a chocolate milk is very good for that + a multivitamin helps too as your body will be craving for them.
I use the p90x recovery drink: https://extranet.securefreedom.com/M...ers&AddToCart=
Also you can subscribe for free on www.beachbody.com and ask your questions there plenty of nice people who tried lot's of stuff and already a million forum posts with plenty of answers to your questions.
Alos I don't know what you are doing, but I recommend p90x, amazing program.
As seen you will get a lot of misinformation from a MMO oriented website, some useful and some just bogus. What I would do if I were you is create a bodybuilding.com login and check out their forums and maybe even make a bodyspace page. They have a great community with lots of informed people that could help you out.
The ONLY way to lose "fat" (losing weight is a bad term in the fitness world) is to consume less calories than your body uses. A protein shake has calories in it, but so does a chicken breast or any other food.
Taking a whey protein shake is an easy way to get some fast nutrients to your body after breaking it down in the gym. It is in no way different than eating a chicken breast after a work out. Most people just go with a protein shake because it's quick an easy and if you're like me as soon as you get home you want to just crash on the couch for a bit.
I have been weight lifting for about 7 years now if you have any other questions.
Actually, drinking a shake is different than eating a chicken breast. The reason being is that foods break down as a certain pace. Chicken breaks down much slower than a liquid drink engineered to deliver fast protien into your system.
For example: Eggs take 3 hours to fully digest, while a protien shake only lasts in your system for 30 mins (unless that protien shake has casienates, slowrer bruning protien).
And dont tell people that you cant find good tips on a WoW website. There is no reason to put people down. The cold hard facts are most people are wrong about a lot of things. And what works for me might not work for you. Ya, go to a workout website and have some twig telling you how to pack on muscle. Like at my Gym this Twig of a personal trainer was trying to sign me up. Why on earth am I going to listen to a guy and take instruction from a 30 year old guy with a horrible physique?
I avoid cardio like the plague. Thats what works for me, because I want to huge. I dont want to be slim. That isnt my goal. Cardio burns muscle. The only heart-conditioning I do is sprints, both swimming and running. Sprints release testostorone. Thats why Sprinters like Michael Johnson are jaced out and marathon sports guys like Lance Armstrong are skinny.
Last edited by Sunslayer; 2011-06-02 at 11:00 PM.
i dunno if u have it where u are, but when i was hitting the gym more often i was drinking lucozade recovery drinks after my work out, which isnt a muscle building protein shake, but enuf protein and carbs to keep your tired muscles happy, before i was using that i'd hit the gym a few times a week and ache like a bitch for a couple of days, witht he lucozade recovery powder I never ached the following day! unfortunately i had to choose between gym and jujitsu because of work, due to the lack of a 24 hour gym and me being too lazy to do gym like stuff at home once i'm back from work/jujtisu >_<
Your making it more complicated than I intended. I know there is a difference in proteins that could take up a whole page, but when it comes down to fat loss it's all about calories and calories are calories no matter where they come from.
Not saying you CAN'T find good tips on a gaming website; there is just much more work that goes into separating the good info from the junk.
Shakes only really add an extra bit of protein to help building muscles. They won't aid in losing weight.
If weight loss is you goal, don't drink them.
If building muscles is your goal, then they might help a little.
But honestly, the are mostly unnecassary as our modern diets contain more than enough protein to build even the biggest muscles.
Incorrect. A lot of you look at everything as "What it does right now!" Getting in shape isnt instant. Drinking a protien shake is very good after a wortkout as it gives your body a much-needed protien boost. If you didnt know when you lift weights you are actually damaging your muscles. When your body repairs anything it makes it stronger than it was before. Like a broken bone, your body stacks loads of calcium deposits around the injury making it much stronger than it ever was before.
Look at it this way.
1)You work out.
2) You hurt your muscles
3) You intake protien to give your body the resource needed to repair those muscles.
4) You newly repaired muscle burns more calories.
Did you know that you will burn much more calories the more dense muscle you have? Same as a race car/ Which uses more fuel? A Dragster or a Pinto?
The only is, watch which protien shake you buy. Read the label, it matters. Only buy shakes without sugar. Your protien shake has no business needing sugar.
^^^^ No...
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=123915821
I posted this in the other thread, but I wanted to make sure the OP here was able to read this link.
Way to dig up some obscure post, posted by some nobody using the biggest words humanly possible to confuse people. If you understood what that guy even said, kudos.
Seems like he said you need eat all the time? I did understand that he said you stay in a "fed" state not a fasted "state"? In other words, always stay fed when working out. Or, did you miss what he was saying?
Try and find some actual research. Not a closed post that doesnt allow responses and discussion (always concerns me when people post and dont allow feedback). This post is by some world renown nutritionist?
That guy in the post is a douchebag too. Seriously? He called attention to the "sticky" and didn't allow replies? So cool.
It sounds really...stupid. Timing is a distant second to just having the total? Did he say more than that buried in that post, or was he saying that if you basically just ate 2000 calories in one meal with the right macronutrients, you were good?
It's wrong, if that's what he's saying.
Or you can stretch properly, warm up and down properly depending on your respective exercise and follow it up with use of creatine and protein shakes and it's not hard at all. Drink protein shakes if you are lifting weights, there's no real reason to not. They can easily be delicious and substitute for a meal any time.
---------- Post added 2011-06-04 at 04:47 AM ----------
The amount of calories you burn per day per extra pound of muscle vs. fat isn't nearly as much as you'd think. yes it adds up to alot over say a years time, or if youre exceptionally muscley, but if you wanted to burn more calories you might as well just change all your drinks to water and youll save infinintely more calories.
Yeah, I'll second the advice of others and recommend you ask these kinds of questions on a forum where people know a little more.
The bodybuilding.com link above, translated:
It doesn't matter when you get your nutrients in a day, it just matters that you get them.
If you're trying to bulk up and you need x calories every day to maintain a caloric excess, who gives a fuck whether you have 500 of those calories in the 30 mins prior or the 30 mins after a workout. Sip your shake between squats if you like, not going to matter.
To answer your original question, a protein shake by itself will neither help nor hinder fat loss. What is important is whether your caloric intake is greater than or less than your daily caloric requirements. If you're in deficit...you'll lose weight...if you're in excess...you'll put on weight. Simple as that.
Ilam - <Gardian> | Wiping with Benefits - Frostmourne US - armory
If "nobody" means well respected person in the nutrition field, then yes. If you'd like I can find actual research, like in the other thread I posted in regards to creatine cycling. What I linked was more so directed to the average person who doesn't have the time to go thru all that information, & want it put into simpler terms.
---------- Post added 2011-06-04 at 07:02 PM ----------
It's been discussed to death on that board, if you actually bothered to check(grats). The post above mine, Ilam pretty much hit it right on.
Last edited by Shik Valentine; 2011-06-04 at 07:03 PM.
Obviously if all you want to do is gain weight then eat whenever you want. What I'm saying (and just about every reliable expert in nutrition or exercise says) is that it does matter how you eat around your workout if you want actual results other than just gaining some weight. It isn't rocket science, so if you're saying that to gain weight you just need all your calories then I agree with you. Otherwise, no, it does matter when. Maybe not as much as some like to think, but there is a "better" way to eat.
Gaining/losing weight isn't determined by the time you eat; you can eat once a day, twenty times a day, it does not matter. Ok, then please provide some recent studies/articles. Better way? It's all personal preference. Hit your calorie needs depending on if you're cutting/bulking/maintenance, & hit your macronutrients by the end of the day.
Last edited by Radux; 2011-06-06 at 03:05 PM. Reason: meme removed.
LOL
This message is too short........
Ilam - <Gardian> | Wiping with Benefits - Frostmourne US - armory
A protein shake with simple carbs is an essential part of working out.In fact, if you don't have proper Post Work Out nutrition, your body will stay in a catabolic state and will destroy all that hard work you did in the gym.It's not just for people trying to muscle up. I have lost 24 pounds since Jan 1 doing this.