Protein Shake Concerns

good question, bump for answers!

I can't advise on protein pwders, as I avoid anything "false" like that.

From your stats, I'd say you should be looking to take in 100-120g protein per day. That's not impossible using real sources such as chicken breast, tuna, eggs etc.

My dietician told me that protein shakes are not necessary and it's better to get protein from real food. I know there are many opinions to the contrary but she's been right about everything else she's told me.:). Could you put some Greek yogurt in a healthy smoothie instead? There's loads of protein in Greek yogurt.

Don't worry so much. :flowerforyou:

We use Biochem protein powder here in our home since we don't like to use anything with sucralose or other chemical sweeteners. I use it only after a hard workout to supplement my protein intake as I eat primarily a vegetarian diet. I originally purchased it at Whole Foods but found it much cheaper on Amazon with free shipping. We've used the vanilla and chocolate 100% whey formula.

Bump!

I use the Visalus Body by Vi protein shakes. They are a non-GMO product, and it has a sweet cream flavor to it. It tastes amazing if you add a banana to it, or you can also add in some Ovaltine if you like chocolate milk. It's what my personal trainer recommended to me, so that's why I use it. For 1 a day it's like $55 per month (30 day supply). Some might think it's pricey, but then again you get what you pay for so if you're worried about taste, quality, and safety it's better to splurge a little for those things.

You said the MFP's default levels are low, that's not true in my case. I'm set at 113 grams which goes up depending on the type of exercise I do that day. Yesterday needed to consumed 207 grams of protein an impossible task.

Hi there, I just went to my nutritionist and she said if I was needing protein, that I could use a protein shake. She stated I could use a whey protein powder, add greek yogurt, and do fruit or even avocado (mild taste). She stated no more than 25 grams of protein though per serving (? forgot to ask why). She also said to add flax seed to it. I'm curious to try this concoction.

Try to look into herbalife shakes they are made from natural ingredients and I did not find in mercury on the label!!!!!

I can see the arguments that (in an ideal world) you can get your protein requirements from food rather than a supplement. This is something that I attempt in my daily life. But sometimes I mess up with the planning and I don't have (or can't be bothered to make) a real food protein hit.

In this instance I fall back on a Protein shake or two and I don't feel guilty about it.

As for the amount of protein to consume I've seen a few different calculations from 1g per LB of Lean Mass to 1.5-2g per total mass. As you can imagine the Protein values vary considerably depending on these calculations. To make matters worse there is a mass of conflicting data about when to load up on Protein. Some advocate spreading it through the day, some prefer the end of the day and others say that it depends upon your work out times!

My advice: Get your cals right and an exercise regime that you love and works for you first. Then work towards getting your macros right with about 1g - 1.5g of protein per lean mass LB, if doing this means that you need to use protein shakes so-be-it. Only when you have those two things in place should you worry about dropping the shakes in favour of "real" food. Finally tweak the Cals and exercise to maintain progress, if you feel you are putting on fat, drop the cals. If you feel that you are getting burnt out raise them (note: don't skimp on the fat or sleep when trying to increase strength).

Best wishes

I think the protein limits per serving are because protein can be hard on the liver to process. :-)

there is a limit to what your body can process but it doesnt hurt you, you just flush it out

Personally, i like to get my protein from whole foods. I do take protein shakes if i'm not getting enough protein from food otherwise, I drop the protein shake for the day.