Do you really need protein shakes?

The window is closer to 48hours, not a matter of minutes, as long as you get your cals and protein in daily timing will make very little if any difference. usually matters for the top bodybuilders and can be the difference in finishing first or fourth, for the general public and even most athletes you wont notice a thing.

Well, since the window could be that long, that brings up a different question: Do you need to be eating every 3-4 hours to keep your body in an anabolic state?

Not eating every 3-4 hours doesn't magically send you into catabolism. The fact is your body is always metabolically active - storing and burning calories. It isn't an on/off switch. Net consumption of calories and nutrients is more important than timing or meal frequency.

You don't really need protein shakes, my go to refuel after a workout is chocolate milk. The optimum balance to replace what is lost. The act of chewing is as much about eating as the calories going in. Having said that while you are consuming the calories the brain has not registered it as eating, which can lead to the feeling that you are still hungary. I learned that about myself a long time ago. So the option is this first you are consuming way to many calories that way in a shake. If you do that twice a day you are talking 1400 calories just reserved for replenishment. I would suggest scaling down the shake a lot if you want to still do it and maybe combining it with a small something to eat. For example combine some liquid protein if you want to stick with the shake idea and add a food item to eat. This should help feed that need. There are a number of awesome drink receipes on runnersworld.com and clean eating magazine online.

... I could be eating much more protein found in cheaper real food with less calories ... Can't buy protein powder either due to family ...

You don't like shakes because you're doing them wrong. The point of a protein shake is to reach your protein macro *cheaply* and without the excess calories. If you can do that some other way, do it.

(I'm puzzled how your family prevents you from buying protein powder, but am afraid to ask.)

It all comes down to personal preference. Most people opt for protein shakes because they're easier and more convenient, but if you can hit your protein requirements by eating real food (and your prefer that) then go for it.

Need em? No. Handy in filling your daily protein quota? Yes

I will fall back on my pat answer.... save up your money and see a nutritionist, prefferably one that deals in sports training. Their trained where most of us give it our best college try Yes, they cost a bit, but they also knock down your learning curve and will eventually save you money when you learn the ropes. Mine has helped me drop my body fat while starting to put on muscle. No brainer for my goals.

Currently I drink a cup of Kefir Cultured Milk (liquid yogurt) with a scoop of protein powder in it within 15 minutes after my workouts. Maybe an old wives tale, but I have been told doing so gives all the latic acid something to chew on and I won't get as sore. Don't know if its true or in my mind, but I don't get near as sore once I started doing the drink within 15 minutes.

260 calories/ 29 grams protein in 1 cup

As a competitive BB, for me..the answer is yes.

Two reasons:

First, I drink 2 shakes during off season and 3-4 shakes during prep time. The ones I use give me 21-33 grams of protein for between 100-160 calories. So high dose of protein for low cals. Only thing somewhat similar is egg white and I eat a ton off egg "snots" as well.

Secondly, whey protein shakes are used to get into my system quickly either during or after a workout. While I use casine at night for a long and steady shot of protein. Could I get this will say milk (whey) and beef (casine) probably...but for convience sake this is my choice.

So for me it's necessary, but if you get your daily proteins macro elsewhere and still meet your calorie goal...no one could fault you.

I dont use them or need them even with hi intensity workouts, I just eat real food.

As a 175 pounds guy, do I really need to get 175 grams of protein? I really have a hard time with this because:

1- I am skinny fat ..skinny arms with very little muscle tone. I do not carry much lean body mass, out of my 175 lbs, I'm sure at least 14-15% of that is fat so, do I really need all that protein to grow?

2- I eat eggs, fava beans, lentils, chicken and/or tuna (among other stuff) on a daily basis, and end up with around 105 grams of protein max. I mean. What else can I do? I'm eating a lot!

3- I still have a bit of body fat to lose so I don't really wanna be eating like a pig. And I'm still a beginner that's just starting out.

4- My body says I'm comfortably full! Is it really wise to be just stuffing myself even though I ate breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks + drank over 3 liters of water for the whole day? I just don't get it.

I do my research and try my best to find out the information but every single piece of info in the fitness world seem to have a completely opposite antagonist to it..

I am so glad I found this thread, it has been really informative. I feel I am in a pretty similar situation to you (except I'm female), feel like I'm doing all I can to eat protein but finding it hard to stay within my calorie limit/not feel absolutely stuffed and sick all the time and still only just hitting 80-100g on a good day.

At the moment I am using Pulsin Soya protein isolate to bump my numbers. It isn't a 'bodybuilding MAX whey/creatine/BULKBULKBULK' style product, but is a supplement designed for vegans to help them reach their protein needs if they need a boost. I mix a spoonful into my porridge, and another one into a smoothie with berries and low fat yoghurt. It doesn't LOOK like one of those scary protein shakes (comes in a small earthy looking pouch haha if your family are anti those supplements - I know my housemates would freak out if I came home with a 10 kilo barrel of whey protein shake), but gives me 9g of protein for 37 calories, and they have pea and hemp varieties if you're not crazy about soy (some people aren't). Maybe check them out?

Otherwise it looks like the advice here (which I'm also taking on board) is to chill out about all the immensely confusing information and give yourself time to try different strategies. I know this is tricky though if you're like me and want to see improvements fast!

Also, if you do want to hit that mythical/magical (who knows....) window maybe take a tub of very low fat cottage cheese and a couple of rye crackers in a cool tub with you to the gym, and just chow on that on the way home? I just looked it up and you can get 36g of protein for just over 200cals if you eat a 300g tub of low fat cottage cheese. It's a lot, and pretty filling, but the only way you'll get a much higher protein/amount ratio is if you use shakes.

Best of luck! Also feel free to add me as another somewhat confused newbie to this whole shebang.

That is why protein powder is so popular. You get alot of protein without the unwanted carbs or fat. With meat, you get alot of protein but it comes with fat that u don't want.

Why would you not want fat?

So eat a few hundred more

Protein shakes are a waste in my opinion.
And people who sell supplements make it sound too hard to get the necessary nutrition from merely eating right.
The protein shell game is just like that with marketing that includes roided up models hocking magic powder that will fulfill your dreams. It's a rip-off, but to each his own.
I prefer whole foods that do the job quite well.

Your muscles wont atrophy while walking 2 mins home and waiting 10 mins to prepare some food.

Please xplain this to me as a relative newbie, thanks in advance

Just eat good food.

Food > shakes

I did exactly the same workout for 3 months without protein shakes and then with protein shakes after taking 6 months off. My muscles are WAY more defined with the Protein shakes (2 times a day), I look huge but I'm actually about 9 pounds lighter than when I was on just "real food".

I think that I will go with solely food based protein in the future but keep making smoothies with crazy ingredients because that's really been the fun part, 5 berry beet goji vanilla....banana, spinach, avocado, chocolate. YEEEHAH! Shakes are fun but when I make them into little meals I slack on my real food...