muscle milk can make you fat???

If you eat too many calories, you will get fat. If you don't eat enough calories, you will lose weight. Calories in/calories out. Your PT is probably thinking you're going to add the protein shake without cutting out cal's elsewhere.

It's just food. Really very little diff between a protein shake and a can of tuna,,,

From what I've read, protein is good to help you stay satiated. A lot of studies also have data showing how it effects various hormones relating to hunger. There was a British study about 6 years ago that showed that increased protein intake helped people maintain weightloss, and sex didn't matter.

I wouldn't just eat how you have been and toss in a protein shake then expect the weight to fall off. It'll help you not feel as hungry and perhaps replace some of the no so good for you things. So, ditto to your first responder.

Look at kaitlinj - who drinks a protein shake everyday after she works out - and tell me it makes you gain weight.

:blushing:

I've heard the talk about protein powder making women gain weight and I don't understand it myself.

Bodybuilders and thin guys wanting to bulk up and gain muscle typically drink protein shakes to help them add/maintain their muscle mass. However, during a "bulking phase" they also have to eat at a calorie SURPLUS, meaning they need to eat more than they are burning everyday and try to get those extra calories to be stored as muscle and not fat. They do this by lifting a lot of heavy weight and they are helped along by their hormones which, for most men, make it easier to put on muscle mass than it would be for most women.

So, as Casper mentioned, if you were to just ADD protein shakes to your already full diet with no regard for the calories involved and if those extra calories meant that you would be eating more than you were burning (calorie surplus) then, YES, it could be stored as fat because, as your PT mentioned, women don't have the same hormones that would cause us to "bulk up" with muscle. But eating ANY kind of calories at a surplus will cause us to gain weight.

To me it sounds like your PT might not have understood and was only think about protein shakes in terms of how they can be used to bulk up.

I haven't had trouble losing weight while using protein shakes. I drink them post-workout (whey) and occasionally as a meal replacement (casein) because I find that getting 30% of my calories from protein each day helps keep me satiated and helps reduce my cravings for junk carbs. But that's a lot of protein and there are only so many chicken breasts and cans of tuna I can choke down, you know?

I agree with those who refute the notion that protein shakes will make you fat. Balance is the key. However, I'd be careful which protein shake you choose. It is scary to me the ingredients the FDA allows in products. For example, here is the ingredient list of the Special K Protein Shake in chocolate:

WATER, PROTEIN BLEND (WATER, NONFAT MILK, WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE), SUGAR, MALTODEXTRIN, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF POLYDEXTROSE, CANOLA OIL, COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, MAGNESIUM PHOSPHATE, TRICALCIUM PHOSPHATE, GELLAN GUM, CELLULOSE GUM, SOY LECITHIN, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, POTASSIUM CITRATE, ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C), SALT, POTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, CARRAGEENAN, SUCRALOSE, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, VITAMIN E ACETATE, VITAMIN K1, ACESULFAME POTASSIUM, NIACINAMIDE, VITAMIN D3, CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE, VITAMIN B12, ZINC SULFATE, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, FERRIC PYROPHOSPHATE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), MANGANESE SULFATE, THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), POTASSIUM IODIDE, FOLIC ACID, BIOTIN, CHROMIUM CHLORIDE, SODIUM MOLYBDATE, SODIUM SELENITE. SWEETENED WITH NUTRITIVE SWEETENERS AND NONNUTRITIVE SWEETENERS.

First off, one of the top ingredients is sugar giving the product 18 grams of sugar! That's a lot! Then, there's the other ingredients like corn syrup solids and sucralose, gellan gum and cellulose gum (these are thickeners and stabilizers also found in hair products!) and then there are nutritive sweeteners and nonnutritive sweeteners. More sugar. Great. IMHO this and many other mass market produced health drinks are chemicals in a bottle that are not healthy for us at all. They are cheap to make and therefore inexpensive for consumers. That does not make them healthy.

I drink Shakeology which has whey protein and numerous other ingredients my body can use, like probiotics and superfoods. And there are plenty of whey protein powders on the market that are healthy that you can mix with your own milk or whatever if you don't want the other ingredients listed in Special K.

If this post sounds irritated, its because I am annoyed with the food industry that is contributing to the weight problem we have in this country by making products with chemicals and non nutritious ingredients and tricking people into thinking they are doing something healthy for themselves.