Anyone use protein powders or pills?

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I started using GNC whey powder and Mega Man vitamins. Not sure if they will make me fatter or increase my muscle size. Anyone here use protein powders and if so, do they work?

Last edited by KindofBlue on 21 Feb 2008, 8:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

GNC's Mega Men will work with exercise.

If you just take them out of the blue, don't expect anything from them. Anywhere between 6 to 8 weeks with combined exercise

I use a protein powder called Bio-Pro and its by far the best I have ever used, mixes well and doesn't taste funny. I only use it for recovery when I run which it works wonders for muscle recovery. I don't think I could bulk up if I wanted to but then again I'm not a body builder just a long distance runner.

I use protein powder. Bodybuilding/powerlifting equipment is one of the few things that's cheap in Norway.

All suplements will only work if they are used with an appropriate training regime and also if they are used as intended, as supplements.
I train hard 5-6 days a week 2 hours a time and the only supplement I take is L-Glutamine as i deplete my bodies stores of this with the type of training I do. I get enough protein from my diet to not need any extra through supplementation.
If you could list your goals and also the training you do then myself and others may be able to help you a little more then at the moment as you haven't really been specific enough. (not being rude, sorry if it sounds that way)
My training is mostly cardio based though I do a fair amount of weight lifting mixed in with everything to help increase strength. My goal is not to get bigger but to get stronger for the size that I am, drop from 13% body fat to 9% and to increase my stamina dramatically.

Hope this helps

I used to use different protein powders - whey, casien, rice etc. Each has its own purpose - they vary in bioavailablility & absorbtion rate. Id buy them in a raw unbrabranded form to save money and also avoid the chemicals (aspartame etc ) that are usually added.

I quit after discovering that they tend to be contaminated with MSG (not the 'natural' free glutamate, the other ones).

Will they add fat or muscle? Both! The rate of each depends on your calorific balance and overall training and dietary efficiency. A lot of amateur bodybuilders eat way more protein than is actually useful. www.hypertrophy-specific.com - excellent research based site that debunks a lot of common myths.

Weight loss, losing fat and gaining lean muscle mass are my goals. I've lost 35-45 pounds in the past year and a half. I did it through proper nutrition and exercise, consisting of walking 3 miles ata time, 2-4 times a week, and weightlifting, 2-3 times a week, from 45 to 2 hours a day, depending on how leisurely I'm performing my reps/sets. After initial relatively quick weight loss of 30 pounds in about 6 months, I had been stuck for the next 4-5 months. I only recently lost 5 more pounds, probably because of a three day flu I had. I am concerned that although I've lifted weights, I haven't really gotten any stronger nor as muscular as I've liked. I realize that losing weight and gaining muscle mass at the same time is very difficult, and muscle catabolism is a possibility. So now that I am about 20 pounds away from my goal weight, I am willing to gain more muscle and strength while not losing as much weight as I had initially hoped. In my improved diet, I probably ate about 50-60 grams of protein a day, which is around the RDA. Lately, before using the powders, I upped it to about 70-80 grams. So I'm willing to lose perhaps another 10 pounds in the next year while at the same time gaining more muscle mass and strength.

Read the site i posted, particularly the 'repeated bout effect' & 'strategic deconditioning' - if you try and push your max every session, your growth simply slows down. For drug free consistant and optimal gains you need to be constantlt increasing your load - which is why deconditioning and progressive loading are important.



If you exercise for more than about 1 hour, your cortisol levels rise (this is a catabolic 'stress' hormone).
So that could be a factor, if you are doing long running/cycling etc sessions. Something bodybuilders do is use HIIT (high intensity interval training) training to get a good cardio workout and keep the fat off. Its very simple - you run (or whatever) at alternate intervals of 50% and 90% intensity - maybe 1 minute at a time. After 20 mins your done! This revs up your metabolism and it stays high whilst your recovering afterwards It burns fat efficiently by the two stages alternately getting fat to move outside of the fatcells, then burning them up in the muscle tissue - if your just jogging consistently at 50% intensity then your only doing the fitrst stage - mobilizing the fat, but then letting a lot of it go back afterwards, which is obviously inefficient if fat-loss is your goal.



dont forget to look at your overall protein/carb/fat balance. Its probably not necessary to count everything obsessively - but just check every so often to see what your rough intake is. I think a lot of bodybuilders follow this formula roughly: calculate overall calories needed - then take 0.9grams per lb of mass, 30% from fat and whatevers left over from carbs. remembering that carbs & proteins are roughly 4calories per gram whilst most fats are around 9. then you try to divide it all into 5 or preferably 6 small meals (you probably know this already though)

Last edited by psych on 20 Feb 2008, 7:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

btw if you want to 'cheat' creatine works very well for a lot of people - makes you a bit stronger & bigger by causing increased water retention in the muscles - you just have to remember to drink enough water, otherwise you get dehydrated more easy than usual.

Psych:

Looks like good info. Nevertheless, eating 5-6 small meals a days in not practical and dividing workouts into 5-10 pound increments is also not practical since I use an adjustable set at home and the variety of poundage doesn't exist.

For standing bicep dumbbell curls, i used to do two sets of 15 reps of 17.6 pounds (8 kilos) at a moderate to fast tempo. Now I can do two sets of 12-15 reps of 24lbs at the same tempo. I also interject 4-6 sets of heavier weight, 32.8 lbs, of 2-3 reps per set. I would have to purchase micro plates, say 1 pounds, to use a weight that allows me to do 5 reps max per set. I also vary my workout with not only different rep/set but also tempo. For example, yesterday, I did the bicep curls using 24lbs, super slowly, taking about 5-6 seconds to perform each rep. I was only able to perform 10 reps for the first set and only 6 reps for the second set. For the 3rd and 4th sets, I used 32.8 lbs and could perform only 2 reps per set. No momentum and I feel the soreness, which is good. Sorry for all the details, but this will give you an idea how I train.

So over the past two years, my endurance has improved, but not maximum strength, except for bent rows and shoulder presses...compound exercises. When I was obese and 40 pounds heavier, I could do 30 push ups without bouncing. Now I can barely do 25. I would think after all this weight training and loss of weight , I should be able to do a lot more. That is why I was afraid my workouts have been catabolizing muscle. I read an article in Men's Health that training for strength is optimal for also gaining muscle mass.

When I'm using a moderate tempo, I warm up with 1-2 sets of 12- 15 reps then up the poundage and do 3-4 more sets at 3-5 reps per set. I'm burning a lot of calories, and I've increased the size of my shoulders a little, but I shouldn't expect so much gain, as in looking like a football player when I'm also trying to lose a lot of weight.

My expectations are unrealistic, yet i should congratulate myself for losing weight and keeping it off, results which the vast majority of people can't accomplish. As a guy, i probably suffer from the same psychological body distortions that women have, except in the reverse direction; women want to be thinner, and guys want to be as muscular as football players. I can now fit comfortably into size 36 jeans and snugly into size 34 jeans, when i used to wear size 42-44 jeans. Yet I focus on the still existent fat around my waist instead of patting myself on the back for my improvement.

The one set per exercise sounds intriguing, except I don't know if that will burn enough calories, but at the same time, I wonder if my way of training goes after protein. After assessing the things I've done, I think I have done a pretty good job and I think upping the protein intake should help. I thin I should give HST a try by purchasing micro plates and use 2-3 pound increments.

Last edited by KindofBlue on 21 Feb 2008, 9:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Dont forget that a 'meal' could just be a snack or a drink - take a pint of milk for instance - its got carbs, fat & 'slow' protein (casien). Its not ideal, but itll keep your energy & nitrogen balance up, keeping catabolism at bay.

A quick & simple way to get started with progressive loading, with your current equipment would be to repeat the load for several sessions - eg. instead of a 5% increase 3 times per week (every session) you could just repeat the same workout 3 times then increase 10-15% the next week. It might not be quite as efficient (the last workout in the week wont be quite as effective as the first) but youll still be able to benefit from it. Repeating loads is inevitable on small loads anyway (in a way thats good cos itll encourage people to ditch the less efficient isolation sets). Some people actually 'stagger' loads (end up going temporarily backwards) and still claim to make good gains, arguing that their overall loading is going up over the cycle - although its not something id feel confident doing personally.



Its good you mentioned tempo, because this is a really useful factor that was completely overlooked when the 'template' HST program was first put together. Theres another approach called max-stim i think, that is a different hypertrophy specific program, following the same principles but making the most of the advantages of varied tempo, rest time. I think the max-stim guy posts on the HST forum. Im out the loop now, so i cant really talk in much depth about any of this, but i left with the impression that a hybrid of HST & max-stim would give you the most efficient program possible.

Only good thing i can say about the powders they are easy to measure. And eat more fuel foods the whole protein thing i think is a scam to make you pay alot for food.

When I started trying to build up my body by using various weights someone advised me to use creatine. I used it for a while. I was told it was suppose to give me more energy, increase proteins and increase my strength. When I used it for a period of time it did not help me. Eventually I gave up on it and just stopped working out. I also tried something called Me-Flex (I think that's how you spell it). That did not help me too much either. Keep in mind this was a number of years when I tried these things.

Another aspie friend pointed me to the www.hypertrophy-specific.com website - lots of awesome information. Most of the people I show it to at the gym just shrug their shoulders.

I found that for a female, it is very hard to increase my load. Most weights go up in 5lb increments. Once I get high enough, 5lbs can mean the difference between I can lift it and waaaaaay too heavy. I.E. I can lift 15lbs but give me 20 and it's too much. Nobody makes 1lb increments! I also don't seem to gain muscle weight but my eating habits and supliment habits aren't what one probably needs to gain muscle either. (I rarely eat meat and most of my diet consists of low fat carbs)

On the other hand I'd just love to lose about 10lbs of body fat. I find I go nowhere fast with that as well. I guess I'm doing the cardio wrong or my diet kills it. I take it about 1500-1800 calories a day and by the end of the week I'm exactly the same. I workout 4-5 times a week (monday wed fri - weights + 20min cardio/tues and thursday - 45min cardio). It takes me what seems is months to lose 2lbs. It helps to drastically change my workout of course but I can't always do that. Plus I hate drastic change LOL

There exists mini-weights called micro weights that come in as light as quarter pound increments, but they are expensive. I've seen some web sights which describe how one can make inexpensive home-made ones from chains and even pennies. Unfortunately, as you stated, health clubs normally increase in minimum increments of 5 pounds. Another solution would be magnets, which you could probably take with you to the gym.

Here is the pennies version: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=3032501

Chains: http://www.davedraper.com/fusionbb/show ... post/last/

Here is a link to a company called Platemates, which makes magnets that one attaches to weights :http://www.theplatemate.com/

If you do a net search, you might find other companies which sell portable micro-weights/magnets.

centinela: i also only found small increments with those light ken-and-barbie dumbbells, and i honestly dont know if there is any viable use for them at all.

what kinds of weights workout do you do? if you are using free weights, its quite easy to build up to the next weight - doing negatives, supplemental exercises etcetera... with machines, thats a bit harder.
a few days ago, i read about a guy who bought a heavier kettlebell (the next size up from his old kettlebell was 50% more weight) and couldnt overhead press it at all. he built up muscle by starting all the beginning exercises with the new heaveier bell, swings and all, and after a while, worked up enough to be able to start practising presses - either you do womething like that or you start putting some exercises in place to target the weak links that hinder you practising with the next 5lb increment.

re your cardio and fat loss:
http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/392/ on high intensity interval training and
http://www.t-nation.com/article/perform ... ata_method for a very torturous variant of the same, the tabata protocol (that can be applied to running).
maybe thats worth a consideration.