What is the Best Protein Powder???

Be careful of cheap protein powders like Bodyfortress. They are known to amino spike meaning the label may say 30 grams of protein but you are really only getting 15 or 20 grams. The rest is coming from BCAA which are not complete proteins. If you see Leucine, Valine and Isoleucine, in the ingredients then it's amino spiked.

Good to know. Thanks. What brands do you recommend?

Leucine, Valine and Isoleucine are essential amino acids. A protien source without them would be considered an incomplete protien. Cheap protien powders do spike their product with cheaper amino acids so that a higher protien content content can be recorded during a basic nitrogen test. Usually they were higher amounts of taurine and glycine, and even creatine at one time when it was cheap(er), etc. This isn't to say that they are bad, just not as good as you might need and may have a substantial amount of non-essential amino acids.

I use EAS 100% Whey mostly because I can get it dirt cheap. Occasionally I'll get a bag of Whey Isolate in bulk becasue its too cheap to pass up. Also, as with everthing else nutrition and excersie related, your results will vary.

I always try to chew most of my protien sources whenever possible.

I know these are essential amino acids but companies will list some sore of whey protein as the first ingredient and then a BCAA complex as on of the next few ingredients. I also know about taurine and creatine spiking nitrogen test results.

As far as brands go, I use true nutrition. You are can mix different proteins , e.g., whey Isolate with egg white or milk with whey concentrate and there are numerous flavors. http://www.truenutrition.com/

Another vote for ON here

ON Whey for pretty good protein and cost per scoop.

Check out bodybuilding.com for the deals and prices for that kind of thing. You're likely going to have to go with chocolate or vanilla for the deals but they're nice to liven up some quaker oats and stuff too.

If you're having trouble building muscle make sure you're eating enough (I'd carb with the protein after as well, like a fruit of choice). Hit close to muscle failure without hurting yourself, eat and rest. You got it.

Cipher's protein powder round-up:

ON Double chocolate and Extreme chocolate are... okay. You'll be sick of them before the tubs are empty. Mixes well in water, milk, and almond milk.

Dymatize Elite Fudge Brownie is godly. Mixed with everything, but tends to be thicker than any of the others.

Wheytech Protech 24 banana & chocolate are both kind of weak flavors and suitable prety much for blending. The banana is great with orange juice, yogurts, oatmeal, and puddings.

Body Fortress vanilla - the worst of the lot. It has a gritty texture that'll never go away no matter what you do with it. Very obvious artificial flavor.

I use Pro5 from Nutri Shoppe. It's 145 cal, 32 gm protein, 2 gm carbs. I tried Body Fortress once 170 cal, 30 gms protein, 7 gm carbs, but compared to the higher quality proteins, it seems thinner and doesn't fare well as a meal replacement. And I've used Cellucor 120 cal, 25 gm protein, 3 gm carbs. I prefer the Pro5 overall.

I eat Paleo and finding protein that is not whey or soy can be tricky...I use Vega Protein....90 cal, 15 - 20g plant protein per scoop, 1-4g sugar. I mix with 1 cup almond or coconut milk (unsweetened) and 1 c water (as i don't like it to be too thick)

Several flavours to choose from...can be mixed in a blender cup, or used in a real blender smoothie.

As others have said be careful about "cheap" whey. Often times the nutritional profile is not that good for cheaper wheys. Once you find a few flavors you like just keep an eye out for sales and load up a bunch, most whey lasts at least 12 months at a time.

I do shakes with my whey (with skim milk) so keep that in mind for my opinions below. I've never done baking with whey or made "sludge", but I might mess around with that in the near future.

The Cellucor whey is pretty much the best tasting stuff I've tried all around and has a pretty good profile. My favorite is Cinnamon Swirl, but I also quite like Molten Chocolate for small shakes. I've tried Whipped Vanilla as well and it's ok (best vanilla whey I've tried, but still not that great). I've ordered the cake batter and red velvet flavors to try next.

I tried Musclepharm Cookies and Cream and it's a bit too sweet for me, plus it doesn't mix very well.

I originally started years ago with the GNC Lean Muscle Meal (Vanilla) and that tastes terrible to me now. I do use the GNC Natural Whey as a mix in with some of the other flavored wheys I use to cut their sweetness and I find that works well (there are very few unflavored wheys out there). GNC stuff is very expensive though so if you're on a budget I'd avoid it.

I don't want to spend a bunch on protein, but I don't want to be throwing my money away either.

Start a garden and forget that protein powder BS. Free protein comes from your back yard.

My personal favourite is Pure Whey Isolate 90 from BulkPowders.

I'm using myprotein impact whey protein

i LOOOOOOVEEE proto-whey double chocolate flavour, not only do i use it as protein but when i feel like having something chocolatey, it taste amazing with water and when you mix it with milk its just like drinking an epically tasty chocolate milk with a load of protein in it.

Syntrax Mattrix and Muscle Milk are good choices.

here's what i've tried:

GNC 100% whey protein
- overpriced ($35 for 1lbs)
- only 20g of protein
- taste is good
- only bought it cause there's a GNC store near me and i wanted to start taking protein shakes on the first day of insanity

DYMATIZE elite whey (cookies and cream flavor)
- reasonably priced (around $60 for 5lbs in my country)
- cookies and cream is really delicious specially with frozen bananas and/or strawberries
- 25g of protein

I use Jay Robb!! It's good quality and taste great!!!




Herb

I have been using Beverly Nutrition UMP for years.
http://www.beverlyinternational.com/
Good quality. Great company. No GI issues.
I cook with it more than use it as a meal replacement.
I'm an addict.