Protein shakes – how much and how often?

christhezulu

I’ve started taking protein shakes before my gym sessions to help give me a boost and aid the repairing of muscles after a session. I tend to go 4-5 times a week, doing 10-15 mins running and then about 40-50 mins weight training.

I’ve seen guys at the gym with huge ‘portions’ of shakes and wondered, how much should someone take as a serving for a session? The packaging says a serving is 25grams with 200ml of water, but some of these guys must have 500-750ml worth of shake so I guess they double the serving size. Is there any benefit in this? I guess your body can only absorb so much protein over a given amount of time?

This morning I had a shake in the morning too, should I do this (I train at about 8pm) or should I keep to just 1 shake a day before my workout? Is there any benefit in having an extra shake at some point in the day?

Happy to hear how others take their protein shakes.

sr_erick

Use them to supplement your protein intake if you aren't getting enough through the normal foods you eat. If you are tracking what you eat, drink as much of the stuff as you want to get to your target daily caloric or macro-nutrient intake. I generally have a scoop of protein with my breakfast, a good way to start my day since I am not a big meat eater in the morning, and then before/after heavy lifting.

And yes, there is an upper limit to what your body can absorb. Lots of research and discussion around this but it generally comes down to about 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day.