Protein for beginners?

jess_purple412

Hey fit fam! I want to start using protein and I don't even know where to start... My goal is weightloss and I've never used protein. Ive heard negative things about whey, but any suggestions as to what I should try? Any advice would help!

DeguelloTex

All I use is whey.

If you need more protein than you can otherwise easily get from regular food, it's easy to add the powder to yogurt, or a smoothie, or oatmeal or whatever.

It's helpful to me mostly on days when I can't get enough protein from other stuff without going over on fat or carbs.

cwolfman13

First off, why do you want to start using a protein supplement? There's nothing magical about whey or any other protein supplement...it's just a supplement to help you hit your protein targets; nothing more, nothing less. If you can hit your protein targets without supplementation then do that...no need to supplement if you can otherwise hit your targets.

There's nothing wrong with whey so I'm not really sure what you heard...it is the most prominent protein supplement out there. I use Optimum Nutrition Whey Isolate in chocolate flavor.

lynn_glenmont

There is no need to use protein (I assume you mean a protein powder, or protein shakes and bars) just to lose weight. You can get plenty of tasty, varied protein from whole foods, often for a lower cost than protein supplements. Protein powders are for supplementing if you can't get enough protein from your food. They will not lead to weight loss. An overall consumption of total calories that are below the level your body needs for maintenance (a.k.a. a "deficit") leads to weight loss.

That said, I keep a plain whey protein on hand to boost protein in smoothies and oatmeal when I'm not getting as much I would like from foods. Mine is made by Bob's Red Mill, which makes products for baking, and it only contains whey protein (concentrated from milk) and lecithin derived from sunflowers (which helps the whey dissolve in liquids). I don't want one of the flavored powders, because I want to be able to use it in different foods with their own flavor profiles. If I want chocolate, I'll just add cocoa or chocolate chips or something to whatever I'm making. If I want vanilla, I'll add vanilla extract. And so on.

When I was comparison shopping, it seemed like the Bob's Red Mill product, perhaps because it's aimed at bakers, not bulkers, or perhaps because it doesn't have a lot of other ingredients, was less expensive. I got four 12-oz. packages (for a total of about 1000 grams of protein) for around $50 on Amazon. I guess if you're comparison shopping, figuring out the price per gram of protein would be the way to go. Mine was about 5 cents a gram, which is roughly comparable to what I pay for the protein in eggs (I tend to buy the cage-free, high omega-3 eggs) or the protein in milk (again, I tend to go for the pricey organic milk or for local farm milk, so you could get cheaper protein from standard eggs and milk). The family pack of frozen salmon that I bought recently works out to about 10 cents per gram of protein, so the whey is actually cheaper. But of course, those whole foods offer things beside protein that my body also needs, and they taste better than whey powder. My whey powder doesn't taste bad, just kind of meh.

erikgoya

Basically all of that stuff^

Figure out your macros, see if you can hit your protein macro with whole foods first. If you're off by 20 or 30 grams each day, go ahead and buy some. A lot of vegetarians tend to use protein supplements just cause they don't have as many protein options.

maasha81

Is it that you are not getting enough protein from foods? What did you hear about whey?