Strength / Weight Training

Recommend me a protien shake that isn't sickly sweet please. I'd prefer strawberry.

Bulk powders unflavoured with a few strawberries blended in .... Haven't found anything flavoured that isn't way too sweet

Yeah, as above. I buy bags of frozen fruit and put them in a blender with the unflavoured whey.

Quite a good article on the Protein industry.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/sep/15/muscles-and-methane-how-protein-became-the-food-industrys-biggest-craze

It mentions that the human body can only process 30 to 50g of protein intake in one go, with the rest being excreted in urine.

Looking at my myfitnesspal logs from a little while ago, I average about 40g of protein in my normal diet. Does that mean I'd have less to gain from a protein supplement? I assume it does.

40g per sitting? Or 40g per day?

It would be dependant on what you're synthesising. If all you needed was 40g a day, then you were getting optimal amount. Anything over that would be a waste.

If you were "bodybuilding" (large muscle hypertrophy) you may have needed more. (obv not the sport of bodybuilding but rather the act of...)

But you know all this.

The current belief is 1g/lb of bodyweight... I'm hesitant about this as it seems to be pushed by people clearly on the sauce. If someone is on a mass builder like vitamin S, I'd give yourself all it wants and then some so as not to waste the cycle but for mere mortals, maybe less is fine

40g per sitting? Or 40g per day?

It would be dependant on what you're synthesising. If all you needed was 40g a day, then you were getting optimal amount. Anything over that would be a waste.

If you were "bodybuilding" (large muscle hypertrophy) you may have needed more. (obv not the sport of bodybuilding but rather the act of...)

But you know all this.

I know none of this. I have no idea how I know so little about strength training nutrition! ITs amazing that the coaching courses I did (nearly 20 years ago) didn't even mention nutrition.

Just wondering about bumping up my protein a little to see what happens.

I think it’s pretty well accepted that more protein is better up to a certain point, where your body can’t synthesise more at any given time.

Bodybuilders have spent decades eating 6-8 times a day, setting timers for 3am for a protein shake to get more protein in their systems.

Not much use if you’re sat on the couch, but if you need 3500 calories to maintain your body weight and do 1000 calories worth of training a day, then getting lots of protein in makes sense.

150g-180g of protein in a day (1g per lb of body weight) with healthy foods isn’t actually that easy, and most people wouldn’t be able to make it without protein shakes or supplementation.

As a relatable example, that’s the equivalent of the following:

5-6 chicken breasts a day.
Or
30 large eggs
Or
6 protein shakes
Or
5 litres of milk
Or
700g of cheese.

If you’re getting 40g daily, and your doing weight/strength training, I think you need to increase your protein intake massively.

In my view 40g is barely enough to maintain muscle mass, let alone increase it.

Does that mean I'd have less to gain from a protein supplement? I assume it does.

When you say less to gain, again, is this per day or per sitting? If its daily, you sure about that figure? I know you, and you are known to point out occasionally our physisques are too dissimilar, so i doubt youre on 40gs per day.

Here is an article about 30gs of protein in various food items.
4ounces of steak or chicken is 113g of 'meat' is about 30g of protein

Im in agreement with @Acliff

without protein shakes or supplementation.

at the same time, adding an addition egg to your 3 egg breakfast, or 2 more rashes of bacon, or another slice of chicken at dinner all adds up (and very easy to do).

but yes, protein supplimentation is one of the best supplimentations you can make to your diet. Adding creatine is another.

Listen to this podcast

https://pca.st/episode/c5e7cbac-ff3b-42cd-b92b-e209c94c992c

The Real Science of Sport Podcast
S3 E19: The Science of Nutrition in Sport

Good discussion on protien with an actual expert. Not bro science stuff.

The Real Science of Sport Podcast is excellent all round.

Agree with that.
Though with a typical cereal/toast breakfast which is pretty low in protein, that leaves maybe 140g to eat during lunch and dinner.
With 30-40g max being digested in one go, you still have 60g of protein to get in your system at other times.

Adding more protein to breakfast, which typically is the hardest to eat protein at On a daily basis, and adding a protein shake should improve your protein intake by 40-50g, which should make a differencex

Also, if you're scared of to many cals (I think you said previously cause of gaining dead weight) protein has less energy per gram than fat or alcohol and more readily available for muscle synthesis so less likely to be used for energy storage (when compared to carbs) .

Guysguysguys, just drink 4l of full fat milk a days.......

In my view 40g is barely enough to maintain muscle mass, let alone increase it.

Totally agree with everything else you said but wanted to point out that I've lost ~25kg of fat and gained 10kg+ of muscle while eating 40g protein per day and without reducing fat or sugar intake. It depends on what your goals are and how you approach them.

That said, I've stalled. And too little protein is looking like the likely cause.

Good point. Yes, that's a concern for me as power to weight ratio is ultimately what I'm trying to improve.

Its more that I'm terrible at managing my diet, which is now my focus after successfully establishing a good exercise routine.

Hmmm, just realised that my 40g per day figure is utter nonsense. Have been logging my diet incorrectly. Either way, I do eat a fair amount of meat but not a crazy unusual amount.

The professor on the podcast I sent talks about 1.5g per kg of protien. That will be for athletes so expect they have low body fat % so for 20%body fat like me you can knock a bit off too I reckon.

So I'm 81kg. I reckon 110-120g per day is prob good. More importantly it is much more achievable than 160g so I'm more likely to stick to it.

Interesting. I'm somewhere betweeen 16% an 18% as far as I can estimate and weigh 95kg.

Might try 100g per day and see if I notice anything.

Going back and looking at my eating diary, i've been eating roughly 70g of Protein a day on average. Might see how I get on with 70g-ish of whey protein a day and see if that helps with my stalling.

I know this is silly, but also keep in mind some ppl use pounds others kgs... I've noticed that a lot of ppl including experts get this confused.

A common recommendation in the fitness and bodybuilding community is 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight or 2.2 grams of protein per kg.

Again probably on the high side.

Does anyone have a free program that can extrapolate meaningful results from the data from gym sessions?

I used to track my sessions religiously when i was younger, but havent for years and suspect im losing out on some gainz. I found that the tracking lead to nothing really. I could find out what my last sessions workout looked like, or what my PB was but Ive found that i can remember that shit (or think i can).

I've now gone out and bought a log book.

For managing my diet and easy extra protein I find huel really useful. I think all of the protein is from peas in it so it's not "complete" possibly? A possible downside but worth considering it.

I think that’s a good plan, not much extra mental load, and an extra 300-350 calories a day, which is fairly easy to work into a routine.

You might find the extra protein has the effect of satiation so you snack less, or eat less during the main meals.

Reactive Training Systems have a pretty good system. Can run reports on it for analysis and pretty quick to log sessions too.