Day 73: Protein Powder

The last several weeks I’ve really been concentrating on what I need to do to get bigger. I’ve increased the amount of each meal a little bit, which has resulted in a total of 3 pounds gained in the last 3 weeks, which is good. But what do I need to do to really gain more muscle?

The other night I was laying in bed and couldn’t sleep. I got up and shuffled upstairs to my office and sat down in front of my beloved iMac. Staring at a blank Google page, I started searching to see if there is anything else that I need to do in order to gain more muscle. As I mentioned on Day 43, it is important to get protein immediately in your body following a workout. Since then I have been taking a protein bar with me to the gym and consuming right after my workout is complete. As I continued to read, the protein is definitely important, but I also learned that you want a protein that is absorbed quickly right after a workout, namely Whey Protein. I’ve decided to switch to a protein shake right after a workout and not count it as one of my 6 meals. What kind of protein should I buy? There are so many options out there. I used to workout with a friend in LA several years ago and he had recommended Gold Standard. I did a search on some of the top protein powders and one website had it listed in the top 5. The others were more expensive, but Gold Standard was quite reasonably priced – so I decided to go with it. I ordered it on Amazon and was excited when it arrived today.

Now, you’re probably wondering why I have two tubs of protein powder. The larger one is what I will be drinking right after a workout. The smaller one is Casein protein. I’m going to start drinking a casein protein shake right before bed. Casein is a protein which is harder for your body to break down, so your body works longer on it. You’re supposed to have some before bed and it helps to continue the building of muscle throughout the night with it’s slow release formula. The regular stuff you want immediately following a workout because it is absorbed quickly. I think I’m going to make this change for a while and see how it works out. Each protein powder has 24g of protein and 120 calories. I picked them up on Amazon – below are the links to them on Amazon for your reference. They both have a bunch of flavors. I got the 5 pound tub for the post-workout powder and the 2 pound tub for the before bed shakes.

Mixing up the powder is super easy if you have a shaker bottle with a round wire thingy in it. I tried it today and put the powder into the bottle, dropped the wire mixer in, and carried it with me to the gym dry. After working out I added cold water from the water fountain at the gym and shook it up. The wire ball does an amazing job of mixing it up. It eliminates 100% of all clumps. Literally, there were zero. I picked up this mixer a few years ago at GNC and love, love, love it.

So the next question I had was how much should I consume? Some websites say 20g of protein, others 20-30, and some say 30-40. I decided to do 1.5 scoops of the Whey protein after a workout, which clocks in at 36g of protein post workout. At night, I will just do one scoop of the Casein protein before bed – another 24g or protein.

Now, my diet is not switching to just protein powders. From everything else I read it is important for your other meals to eat regular healthy foods like chicken, fish, lean meat, and vegetables. You shouldn’t rely on the powder for the main source of nutrition, but rather as a supplement to help encourage muscle growth. I’ll be keeping you updated as I journey through this adventure. I’ve really only got about 2 weeks left in my 90 days – wow! Time sure flies.

UPDATE: Thanks to Suki for pointing out that Gold Standard makes a natural protein powder without any artificial sweeteners in it. You can get the natural gold standard on amazon here. Next time I restock I’ll definitely pick up the natural.