Recovery shakes: Whey or Soy?

It is pointless to get in an argument about protein with a vegetarian. Many vegetarians make themselves sick because their diet's are not balanced. I would only take advice from people that actually track their protein, carbs, and sodium intake.

Complete 30 push-ups and we can continue this conversation.

I'm extremely healthy, actually. Thank you. At least, my last physical found that to be the case. And, seriously? I didn't insult anyone in this thread. I offered well-researched advice. Was it really necessary to attack me?

Anyway, as I said, my information is straight from the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic. I'm not making it up.

I also know people who have permanant health problems from drinking those protein shakes.

The bottom line is, the body absorbs protein from real food better than from the shakes and no matter how much weight lifting or other exercise you do, the body is only able to absorb a limited amount of protein and the rest is filtered through the kidneys and liver. The high amount of low-quality protein in those shakes gets mostly filtered out, which can cause serious health problems.

And while it's impressive that you can do 30 pushups, I burned 1,200 calories yesterday with energy to spare -- 1,400 on Saturday. If you want to compare fitness levels.

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I prefer whey protein. I use EAS in chocolate.

It is pointless to get in an argument about protein with a vegetarian. Many vegetarians make themselves sick because their diet's are not balanced. I would only take advice from people that actually track their protein, carbs, and sodium intake.

Complete 30 push-ups and we can continue this conversation.

I agree!

It is pointless to get in an argument about protein with a vegetarian. Many vegetarians make themselves sick because their diet's are not balanced. I would only take advice from people that actually track their protein, carbs, and sodium intake.

Complete 30 push-ups and we can continue this conversation.

I agree!

I just did!

I prefer whey protein. I use EAS in chocolate.

Me too! Try mixing it with a teaspoon of cocoa. It's only 15 extra calories and YUMMY.

Whey protein is much better than soy protein. Casein is good as well (if you want a slower release). I put a scoop of Optimum Nutrition vanilla whey and a scoop of Optimum Nutrition vanilla casein in my post-workout smoothies.

And for whoever said you don't need protein powders, you are absolutely correct. You don't NEED them. However, they are VERY helpful for of us shooting for lots of protein in our diets. Besides, there aren't many other sources of protein that will give you 24 grams of protein with only 3 grams of carbs and 1 gram of fat. You can certainly meet your protein needs without the use of protein powder, but it's harder to do (and usually results in higher calorie intake).

I'm a vegetarian. I ate 1,500 calories yesterday and got 82 grams of protein -- eating food.

That's great...and it also doesn't change anything I said.

No, but my point was it's not necessary. You can get plenty of protein from your diet without significantly upping your calories.

And, FYI, I just took the 30-pushup-challenge and did met it with flying colors. Just sayin'.

And I'll add again that my advice is based on research from some pretty good sources. I'm not here to insult anyone. But if you all get off on doing so, have fun.

If your point was that it's not necessary then I refer back to my first comment where I said you are absolutely correct. It's not necessary. It IS helpful for people on high protein diets though. Take me, for instance, with my 190 pound lean body mass. I try to get 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass. Sure, I could get that by eating only solid food, but that's a LOT of food. And typically it will have some undesirables to go along with it (namely fat). I eat plenty of lean meats, lots of fruits and veggies, dairy, nuts, whole grain products, etc., but I also put a couple of scoops of protein powder into my post-workout breakfast smoothie. Why? Well, because it tastes awesome with that vanilla flavor and because it starts my day off with 24 grams of quick release protein and 24 grams of slow release protein to help maximize the effects of my workout. It's not necessary, but it is helpful.

I don't remember ever insulting you in anything I said, but if I did then please accept my apologies. That was never my intent.

I prefer whey protein. I use EAS in chocolate.

Me too! Try mixing it with a teaspoon of cocoa. It's only 15 extra calories and YUMMY.

Oooh Will have to try that...

I was talking to my trainer last night...and trust me i'm not an olympic athelete...he said that 1 scoop of whey with water and a 1/4 of fruit in a blender, right after i go to the gym is sufficient. You can track your protein intake on this site to see if you're way below or way over...my 1 scoop is only 70 calories so i don't worry about that part, i know i worked it off the first 10 minutes of my cardio...but i'm also lactose intolerant and i find that soy didn't help me much (i usually had a cup of it in my cereal). If you're really sore, and you're working your butt off, try 1 scoop to begin with and see how you feel. I for one feel great. If you want some other whey shake recipes there's tons on the net. I'm just lazy and mix mine with water lol

OK, I'm not going to argue this on my own. Here:

http://my.clevelandclinic.org/sports_health/nutrition/protein.aspx

An athlete requires 1.1 to 2 grams of protein per kilogram of ideal body weight each day, depending on the type and intensity of the sport he or she is involved in.

For example, a 150-pound athlete (150 divided by 2.2 = 68 kilograms) requires 75-136 grams of protein each day (68 x 1.1 = 75 grams; 68 x 2.0 = 136 grams).

Did you read your own post the amount of protein you would have to eat in order to have extra protein? Here is an example using that same site a 150 lb adult would have to eat 24oz of steak in a day to be over their protein limit. I dont know about you but thats a lot of steak or protein in general.

Protein is needed in the diet to build and repair damaged muscles. However, eating a high protein diet (more than 2 grams per kilogram of body weight) does not necessarily lead to larger muscles. In fact, if you eat more protein than you need, your body will simply use it as an energy source or store it as fat.

Are protein or amino acid supplements needed?
No. You do not need to spend money on protein powders, pills or special supplements to add protein to your diet. Protein supplements simply provide extra calories – they do not provide a "magical formula" to increase muscle strength. Regular foods can provide protein more economically than protein supplements.

Amino acid supplements do not help you gain muscle and they can actually cause an amino acid imbalance in your body. Amino acids (the building blocks of protein) are naturally found in foods in balanced amounts.

The amount of protein or amino acid in expensive powders and pills is less than the amount you might easily get from food. For example, you have to eat 5 tablespoons of one popular protein powder to get the same amount of protein in 3 1/2 ounces of tuna.



And from Rice University: http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/caryn/protein.html

There is so much information, misinformation, fad diets and nutrition "quackery" available, it is hard to know what to believe. If you go to a health food/vitamin store, a vitamin "expert" (i.e. untrained, non-licensed sales clerk) will convince you to purchase hundreds of dollars of protein powders and protein supplements. These powders and supplements merely amount to very expensive urine.