We all know there are a million and a half powders/premixes in just protein supplements alone. I myself have been through no less then five different brands and to my surprise all are definitely not created equal. I had always assumed one protein is as good as the next. If not stated I would take one of these twice a day 4-5 days a week for a month to see how I liked it. If you can swing it get the Natures Best Isopure. I saw this recommended by Remix on here and can't say enough good things about it. Low calorie and SIGNIFICANT muscle gains in a matter of weeks doing nothing special in the workout department. Negative? It's pricey. The big purple bag stuff from costco is a real good value but has a lot of calories. Used this for a long time and never had a bad experience. Hard to mix. Costco also has a premix that is 160 calories per 30 grams. Comes in a red and white box. Nice if you are on the go but when I used this exclusively I really felt I made little progress for the amount of work I was putting in. I don't know if this was part of the reason but when I switched I started seeing gains right away again. Muscle Milk Regular. Tastes good. Widely available. Other then that I can't stand the stuff. Very high in calories. If you are trying to lose weight and gain muscle at the same time I found this to be a disappointment. I couldn't drop an ounce of fat for a month when I started with muscle milk. My BF % didn't change in a whole month when I was drinking these. And I wasn't eating any more calories per day then normal. Just didn't agree with me I guess. Expensive. This is my experience over the past couple years. Your mileage may vary.
I just mix it up. You have to chalk it up to personal goals and genetics. Meaning what one person can handle, another may not. I tend to stay away from Muscle Milk, but in the beginning it helped me with the additional calories I needed and got my weight up. I didn't gain much fat at all from it. Just finished Prolabs and starting Dymatize Wild Berry today. I have had Allmax Isoflex and it's absolutely horrible. Great profile and actually taste "healthy" or "clean" but it tastes and after-taste is horrid. I almost threw away the bottle but decided to suck it up and finish it.
I have been seeing really good gains with CytoSport CytoGainer. I need the added carbs to be able to build any mass and so far this month I am up 3 lbs weight wise with a slightly lower bf%. I am going to run this through the remainder of the month and I am going to give the Isopure Mass a try and see what kind of gains I have with it. I'll report in after.
I have tried them all over the years. Stick with online retailers such as bb.com to keep your costs cheap. Isopure is great but costs add up. Optimum Gold Standard/ Champion Pure whey/BSN some of the top. OPtimum and BSN by far taste the best and I actually lok forward to drinking it all day. If you want to save $5-8 a jug, there are other brands such as Ultimate Nutrition/Dymatize and a few others. Costco has deals on EAS as well.
I haven't taken protein in over a month (simply because I've been too lazy to go to the store and I'm not in bulk or cut mode right now). Results are the same. There's no replacement for real food. Protein shakes are great for packing in extra calories, but I think people place way too much emphasis on what it can do for you. Same goes for all supplements to be honest.
For myself EAS Myoplex Lite. Mostly I have one at Lunch time so I am not loaded down with a full stomach at work in the afternoon.
I'm not so crazy about Muscle Milk. I use Hammer Whey/Soy depending on when I take it. I like all the flavors so far.
Yeah, agreed on the taste. The Isopure flavors leave a little to be desired. Remember, I'm a long time Met-RX user and recently switched. But the Isopure stuff - very low sugar and carbs and 50g of protein per serving is nice. The first jug of Isopure was Cookies and Cream. Eh... Second jug is chocolate...a little better. Here's what I do with it: 1.5 cups water 2 scoops Isopure 3. 1 banana 4. A few frozen strawberries -or- some strawberry yogurt 5. Ice 7. Some sweetener...I was using Splenda but now am using Truvia because it's natural. All this stuff does help the taste tremendously. Truvia is on Mrs. Remix's suggestion... http://www.truvia.com/
I like Champion Nutrition. Great product, that isn't known much. The Dymatize Wild Berry I had yesterday for the first time was great. I'm not completely convinced of the savings on bb.com. Sometimes, especially when they have their sales, you can save some cash. Once shipping is factored in you are usually at the exact same price as Vitamin Shoppee or only $1-$2 less. It is good for getting the exact flavor/brand you want (hard to find stuff), as well as free samples. Just curious as to why you add sweetener? Maybe because I'm use to not adding anything to mine, but doing the exact same concoction you do it's perfectly sweet to me.
I use ON Protein http://www.optimumnutrition.com/products/100-whey-gold-standard-p-201.html I usually have it for breakfast and sometimes as one of my in-between meals. I use 8oz of skim milk with about a scoop and a quarter with a banana and Ice. My trainer wants me to start trying Smoothie King Gladiator shakes. It is somewhere around 40 grams of protein and maybe 1-2 carbs. I don't mind the taste of ON at all so I don't want to switch but I do need more protein.
Good to see someone with the same philosophy as me. Give me two hard-boiled eggs and a pint of milk after my workout. Although maybe that's my philosophy just because I'm just too cheap to spend money on powders or pills or whatever.
Damn that's a pricey option your trainer is giving you. I love Smoothie King, but it's so expensive. For a while I was getting one once a week. A large at that. lol But damn it's good. Eat more chicken or fish if you need extra protein. I agree with it too. I just like the powder because I look at is as a treat instead of just a quick protein.
+ 1 Use same formula for breakfast. Try substituting some cut up frozen strawberries instead of the ice.
I tried the gladiator, wasnt bad at all. And I didnt find it expensive. I think it was around $4-5 for the small one. I had been spending that on sugary starbucks crap throughout the day. Ill try the strawberries in my morning shake, thanks.
How often do you guys take the Isopure? Do you take it once a day, just after workouts, or both? Thanks, Jeff
It depends on your goals/personal preference. While I don't take Isopure, I started taking a shake in the morning (one scoop) with OJ and 1.5-2 scoops after a workout in the evening. The added protein in the morning has really helped me in terms of being more awake at work.
As I progress, I become increasingly aware that protein powder is nothing more than a waste of money. I look at my size now, and my size back at my heaviest (when I was taking almost 120g/day in powder) and there isn't much of a difference. The 1 hour catabolic window has been proven to be a complete myth, and to be honest there's no replacement for real food. The only reason you should be taking protein post workout is to get something in your stomach. I cringe when I hear of people taking 3 or 4 shakes a day.
