I often get asked if protein powder is a necessity in a well-balanced diet. Keep on reading, here's my answer.

Do you actually need protein powder? If so, when and how much?

In my many years as a gym rat, I've consumed a fair amount of supplements in the
attempt to make my body more "efficient". Whey was and still is one of my
all-time-favourites.

I often get asked if protein powder is a necessity in a well-balanced diet. Keep
on reading, here's my answer.

What is whey made of?


Whey is a byproduct of milk, or to be more specific, of the cheese making
process. Basically, it's a leftover from the fluid once the cheese has been
extracted from the milk. This is the reason why whey is considered a food rather
than a supplement.

Protein powders are classified into these categories:

 * Whey protein concentrate: Less filtering, hence the protein is less pure. It
   contains a higher amount of lactose, fat, carbs and undenatured protein.
   Protein content can be anywhere between 30-80%.
 * Whey protein isolate: The purest form of protein and much easier to digest.
   Protein content is >90%, containing minimal amounts of lactose and basically
   no fat.
 * Whey protein hydrolysate: Pre-digested high-grade whey. Meaning it's broken
   down into smaller fragments for an even faster digestion and absorption.
   Protein content >90%.
 * Casein protein: Very slow digesting protein.

How much protein do I actually need?
In general, aim for roughly 2g per kg of body weight or 1g per pound of body
weight per day. Going a little bit higher than that could be necessary to
protect muscles even more, depending on your genetics. But don't do 300g protein
diets like some bodybuilders do!

Study after study has shown, that a diet high in protein will lead to better
results across the board when it comes to weight loss [/protein-myths/]. Even
when consumed calories are equal.

This, in part, comes down to the thermic effect of food. To keep it short,
20-30% of the calories you consume from protein are needed to digest the food.
Therefore 200g of protein will increase your daily expenditure by 160-240 kcal.
Fat has basically no thermic effect and does not increase your expenditure.

Calories in, calories out still hold true though!
[/truth-about-body-fat-reduction/] But by consuming higher amounts of protein,
your overall deficit becomes bigger due to higher caloric expenditure. Simple
math.

The higher amount of protein will also spare muscle on a fat loss diet
[/calorie-underestimation/], which means you'll not lose as much muscle on a cut
as you would on a diet low in protein (your body will not only burn fat on a
deficit but muscle too!).

Is protein powder necessary


The truth is, it's not necessary for building muscle or losing fat. However,
eating enough protein on a daily basis is necessary for both.

Even though protein powders are easy to absorb, protein-rich whole foods should
always be preferred. They not only provide you with more vitamins and minerals
but digest more slowly and keep you full for longer.

An optimal diet doesn't mean to live mainly on supplements or powders. Rather
choose a wide variety of fresh foods and add powders only if you have problems
hitting your daily macro-nutrient target.

However, there are some advantages of protein powders:

 * They're perfect for on-the-go.
 * They're perfect when you're craving something sweet.
   [/protein-chocolate-cheesecake/] Simply spice up your yogurt with some
   flavoured whey.
 * They're perfect to hit your protein needs easily.
 * They're the cheapest high quality protein source out ther
   [/cheapest-protein-sources/]e - even cheaper than frozen chicken!

Protein as post workout
I'm pretty sure you heard this one before: Eat your protein as PWO immediately
after you finished your workout to get dramatic improvements. Yep, this is one
of the typical bro-science approaches. But how long is the anabolic window or
"the window of opportunity"? Or is there even an anabolic window?

It's claimed, that during the "window of opportunity", your muscles are primed
to use nutrients that can stimulate muscle repair and muscle growth.

This theory is based on the fact, that after lifting weights you have depleted
glycogen stores and damaged muscles. So far so good, that's true.

And it's also true, that eating carbs will replenish the body's glycogen and
provide the body with energy while eating protein repairs the damaged muscle
tissue.

However, what's not true is that you have to get your PWO in immediately after
your workout or that the "window of opportunity" closes after 45 minutes.

A study shows [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8563679], that protein
synthesis is elevated for up to 25 hours after your workout. Keep calm, there's
no need to break the speed limit while driving home to get your shake in.

Another theory suggests, that you have to eat right after your workout to
prevent muscle breakdown. False claim, again! This study shows
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9252485], that you have at least 3 hours
after working out that your body is in a state where it builds muscle rather
than breaking it down.

Plus, the "anabolic window", should only concern you, if you train fasted. 
Training completely fasted makes a proper PWO quite beneficial. Meaning, there
is no need to have a PWO unless you've trained fasted. If that's the case, eat
something within 2-3 hours after your training, because the muscle breakdown
rate is significantly increased.

Bottom line
Protein supplements should always be considered as just that - supplements. They
should never be used as a replacement for a healthy diet. So if you can reach
your daily protein requirements by consuming high protein foods, you don't need
protein powder. Period.

What are your favourites protein powder flavours? Let me know in the comments
below!

Everyone who has at least some very basic knowledge of nutrition and weight
lifting knows, that the media is often times misleading, poorly researched (if
at all) or sometimes just downright lying when it comes to those topics. Hunting
for views and reads rather than educating their audience.

The German ‘newspaper’ Zeit lately published such an article. You can find a
Google-translated version here
[https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zeit.de%2F2016%2F49%2Fmuskelaufbau-praeparate-gefahren-internet-werbung-social-media&edit-text=]
. In this post I want to address a few of their claims and straighten things
out, so you know the whole picture. This is relevant beyond the Zeit article of
course and suits as a general guidance.

Whey is garbage
Well, of course whey protein is a byproduct of cheese manufacturing. Which makes
it, on a protein-per-dollar-basis, one of the cheapest proteins to buy while
also being very high in important amino acids like Leucine. Only legumes are
cheaper, but have a worse amino acid profile on their own.

So in my opinion it’s nice that we have a very good protein source that is cheap
because it’s a byproduct, rather than relying on more expensive options — after
all protein is by far the most expensive macro nutrient
[/the-basics-what-are-macros-and-micros].

Plus, if you don’t like whey or you are lactose intolerant, there are plenty of
vegan options available as well, mainly rice, pea and soy protein powder.

Lastly to wrap this point up: of course you don’t need whey or any other protein
powder to be healthy and grow muscle. But it tastes nice and is cheap, so why
not. And by the way: whey is actually considered a food, rather than a
supplement. Or would you say cheese is a supplement as well?

Whey is for bodybuilder
To make this one short: as explained in the above paragraph, whey is cheap and
therefore even more interesting for ‘normal’ people who just want to consume
more protein and generally don’t spend a lot of money on food (e.g. students).

Most people eat not enough protein to be even healthy, especially on weight loss
diets. Latest studies show that the current daily recommendation for protein
might be as much as half of what is actually healthy. Unfortunately, laws take a
long time to be changed.

So no, everyone can benefit from whey.

Boosters are evil
First things first: if you are not training very serious, but rather just to be
a bit more healthy and fit: you do not need a booster, period.

However, if you think you need one: it’s true, there are some shady ones out
there, unless you live in Europe where supplements are quite regulated.

Caffeine being the main ingredient, the Zeit says 3g have the same amount of
caffeine as 14 cups of coffee. Obviously stupid.

But let’s put the Zeit’s claims to the test:

One cup of coffee has on average 80mg caffeine. Most people will actually have
more in there because the ‘real average coffee’ is stronger than that. Who brews
a weak coffee on purpose, right?!

But let’s cut them some slack. This means 3g of booster would have to have 1.1g
of pure caffeine per 3g in order to contain 14 cups’ worth. Which would not be
allowed in any regulated market, not even the States. Plus the manufacturer
would have a time hard to squeeze more ingredients in there, if more than a
third is taken by caffeine already…

The booster they target in particular (Tunnelblick) does have a lot of caffeine
indeed. Pretty much every booster has less, often just half. But again, let’s
give them the benefit of the doubt and check the facts:

Tunnelblick is produced in Germany which means it’s super regulated and the
label is very likely correct. The label states 400mg of caffeine per 18g! Yes
that’s 5 ‘cups’ of coffee per shot, a lot, but not even close to 14.

Furthermore, 18g is the maximum dose. Most people should take half of it (which
is one scoop or 2.5 cups of coffee/200mg caffeine). Guess what else has 200mg of
caffeine? Starbuck’s cold brew. Just saying…

Now I get the point, it’s dangerous if a 16 years old spaghetti boy takes 4
scoops. But he might as well drink 10 cups of coffee and 10 cans of Red Bull and
would be worse off. Are those not as bad? Plus, since there’s a label, you
actually know how much caffeine is in there. Not so with coffee!

Booster was illegal and taken down
True, Tunnelblick was taken off the market because of a certain ingredient. So
were other products. But the ingredient was made illegal after the product was
already on the market. That’s a huge difference. Plus in most other countries,
this ingredient is still fine to include. And it’s not like you’d actually
become ill from it. But the media likes to exaggerate, doesn’t it.

The industry can just ‘put together’ powders as they wish
Nope, not really. The market is quite regulated in Europe. Remember that time
your local supermarket had to throw away food products because the manufacturer
found out that a particular batch of something had pieces of metal or other
potentially deadly things in there?

Happens all the time. But nobody writes about it much, because it’s not a sub
culture and the big food corps don’t like it, when papers write about them. Not
to mention your local kebab shop with rats in the kitchen :)

Some products have dangerous ingredients
Again, in Europe not a problem. If you live in the US and really want to buy
something like a booster, just go with the highly rated products and buy them
directly from the manufacturer’s websites if possible. If you buy a supplement
or protein powder from a local store or GNC, it will be much more expensive or
have the same price with less useful ingredients.

Creatine is bad for your kidneys
Jesus fucking christ. Creatine is by far the most researched supplement of the
last 20 years. It’s freaking safe! People are taking it for decades without
issues.

Yes, too much creatine in your blood means you very likely have a kidney issue.
But what people miss is the concentration. The difference between taking
creatine and having a real kidney problem is literally 10x!

By the way, guess what, red meat has creatine in it as well! Just 2 pounds of
steak or fish have the same amount of creatine as a supplement would have (BBQ
anyone?). Didn’t say anything about that, did they?

And for the people who want to build muscle: yes, creatine helps you build
muscle faster, but just very little. It’s not like taking steroids! You might
notice a very small difference. But maybe not. Furthermore, some people are
non-responders and creatine just does nothing for them. Keep that in mind. Don’t
expect to grow like Arnold. And don’t even consider it unless your goal is
strength and muscle growth and you want to spend money on supplements.

Conclusion
As mentioned in the beginning of the article — don’t listen to mainstream media
when it comes to diet, nutrition and weight training. As one would assume, given
the current ‘level’ of journalism. But this article was so bad that I had to
jump in.

If you really want to dig into those kind of things, start to read real studies
and books based on those, not some random bullshit somebody came up between 10
and lunch, just to get the article out the door and hit their quota.

If you have questions about supplements, nutrition and training, let us know in
the comments!

Nutrition, diet and workout advise. Competition journals of a female vegetarian bodybuilder. Free tips and recipes.

Do you actually need protein powder? If so, when and how much?

Bodybuilding myths in the media