“For example, 100-120g of meat or fish usually yields 20-25g of protein and a typical protein shake contains around the same.” “A protein shake is a tool to add into your nutritional toolbox on a training day, or on non-training days if you don’t have a whole food protein source readily available, in order to meet your needs,” says Gardner.
#BEST PROTEIN POWDER BRANDS 2016 PORTABLE#
(The actual composition doesn’t matter so much as the quantity and frequency – whatever fits your lifestyle.) Despite how they’re marketed, shakes are not adequate meal replacements, but they can be a handy, portable way of keeping the “gain train” on track until the next helping of food, or topping up the protein content of a meal that’s lacking in said macronutrient. But three meals and one or two high-protein snacks, say, might be more feasible and palatable. You probably don’t want to eat six meals a day either. Meanwhile another study in the Journal of Applied Physiology showed that subjects who consumed 20g of protein six times a day added muscle and lost fat – whether they trained or not. A 2014 study in the Journal of Nutrition showed that protein synthesis was 25 percent higher in subjects who hit 30g of protein at each of their three daily meals, compared to participants who ate the same total amount but the lion’s share of it at dinner. While nobody wants to be that guy, spreading your protein throughout the day does have advantages: namely, ensuring a steady supply of muscle-building nutrients, without which your body will down tools. Not least because you’ll probably find it difficult initially to consume that much protein if you’re in not already in the habit of carrying Tupperware containers of chicken, rice and broccoli at all times. “There’s research on going higher, but for the average person, that’s a good place to start,” adds Gardner. But as a rule of thumb, aim for the higher end of that scale. The optimal amount of protein for building muscle, on the other hand, is furiously debated in scientific circles and men’s fitness forums. “‘Protein’ comes from the Greek word proteins meaning ‘primary’, and you could argue in the case of an exercising individual that having enough protein is the primary goal,” says performance nutritionist Matt Gardner.“There’s growing agreement that higher protein intake supports performance, with evidenced-based guidelines of 1.4-2g protein per kilogram of body weight per day recommended.” Where they can come in useful is when your protein need is elevated – for example, in order to recover from intense exercise, build muscle or both – and you struggle to meet it with food.
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If you’re already meeting your protein needs from food, then powders will be superfluous. And protein powders can also work out more expensive than food.
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Most studies compare protein powders to other powders, carbs or placebos, not food. Onboarding pretty much any quality protein source after your workout will do much the same trick. “It’s simply a matter of convenience and people liking to make shakes more and more as the years go by.”
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“I haven’t seen any compelling evidence at all that protein powders are better for muscle gain than food is,” says Kamal Patel, director of, an independent website that assesses nutrition and supplement research. Among others, a 2007 study in the journal Amino Acids (more on those later) showed that subjects who consumed whey protein before and after lifting weights increased size and strength over 10 weeks more than participants who took a placebo.Īt the same time though, protein powders are not magic.
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There’s more scientific proof for the efficacy of protein powders than you can shake a shaker at.