Source of Protein/Shakes

[New154]

Just wondering whats some imput on shakes...

What is some good ingredients? Milk? Protein Powders? Fruits? Bannana's Strawberries Blueberries?

Muscle Milk Vanilla Creme Cytosport..Is this Good? Bad?

 

[Vegas]

What purpose would you be using the shakes for? Pre-workout, post-workout, as a meal replacement?

 

[GymLift]

...or, do you want the shakes to help you get in the large amounts of protein required for optimal muscle building? That's my primary reason.

 

[New154]

answers

I want the protein to assit me in getting more muscle mass and to cut my body fat down ...it may replace meals, and ill use it post and pre work out if it will benefit me...

 

[GymLift]

I want the protein to assit me in getting more muscle mass and to cut my body fat down ...it may replace meals, and ill use it post and pre work out if it will benefit me...

Don't use it to replace meals. It is only a supplement. Use it with meals, between meals, preworkout and postworkout only.

'Whey protein' shakes are what you are looking for. And not 'whey protein/weight gainer' shakes.

Popular brands include allthewhey.com, Optimum Nutrition (chocolate only, maybe chocolate mint. DO NOT buy their vanilla), and TrueProtein.com (discount code available in Easto's avatar).

There is whey protein concentrate, whey protein isolate and mixes of the two. Whey protein isolate has more protein in it and less carbs and other stuff (sometimes referred to as ash) but it is more expensive. There are different technologies used to purify whey protein concentrate into whey protein isolate but I don't know much about them. I think that cold filtration is popular.

If you are bulking, then you can mix with whey protein with milk or even juice. If you aren't bulking, then you typically mix the whey with water. Some people aren't very happy with the taste when mixing with water; I know I wasn't. But not I do it all the time and I don't mind it at all.

There are also other kinds of protein. Stay away from soy protein. Egg and caisen protein are good but slower absorbing. Just stick with the whey protein for now, but don't depend on it for all of your protein intake. You should try and get perhaps half of your protein from real food (meat).

Not sure about your specific situation, but gaining muscle and loosing fat is difficult to do. At the least, muscle gains will be significantly limited. When I come to this board, I wasn't fat, except for a little bit of abdominal fat. But I learned that to gain muscle, I needed to eat big. So I changed my strategy and instead of restricting my calories, I eat lots of protein and complex carbs. I gained substantial muscle mass and I look MUCH better.

 

[luquillo78]

Oatmeal is a good source of carbs and you can throw it in a shake.