The most common protein supplement available and used today by people who follow a regular active lifestyle working out and exercising is Whey protein powder. Whey protein extracted from natural sources goes through processing to give it a higher shelf life so that it can meet our needs. No girls, it won’t make you fat, bulky and manly, instead it helps a regular gym goer to build lean muscles and help sustain the lean muscles in your body after workout. Both guys and girls can use the benefits of whey protein powder to their advantage only if they understand it better.
Here is why you need to use genuine protein powder regularly—
1. BV
Every protein has a BV or Biological value, which represents how much protein the body can absorb from that particular source of protein consumed. Before the onset of Whey protein powders, egg protein constituted the highest BV of 100 followed by milk protein with a BV of 91. Whey protein has a BV of 104!
2. Liquid form
Almost every natural source of food protein we can get hold of is in the solid form, where as the whey protein powder is mixed with water and consumed. Now how does this make a difference from the solid source – after workouts when you need to replenish your body’s lost lean muscles immediately (almost within one hour post workout), it is easier for the body to absorb the liquid form protein rather than breaking down the solid protein before the body can absorb it.
3. Sustainable consumption
For lean muscle building it takes consistent consumption of proteins post workouts that can be obtained from solid protein rich food sources or whey protein powder. However, carrying your solid protein rich foods to the gym and workout places is not convenient every time, but it is easy to carry and consume the protein powders. Moreover, you would need to carry more solid food than the powder as one scoop of regular whey protein powder would equal to 25-30 grams of protein, but one egg would only constitute 6 grams.
How can we pick the right protein powder—
1. Specifications
An average good Whey protein powder would contain at least 24 grams of protein per scoop and would constitute 5 grams of carbs. Any powder that can offer more than 24 grams of protein and lesser than 5 grams of carbs per scoop is considered good by industry standards. So look for these specifications on the nutritional facts on the pack.
2. Pricing
From various research done on the protein powders available in the market today, we have come to the conclusion that it would cost Rs. 5,500 on an average for a 5 pound pack and this would last for 30-40 days if you were to use one scoop a day. For an average person the requirement is almost two scoops on workout days. This could be pretty expensive for our regular protein needs, but considering the benefits, we cannot skip it altogether. However, the price of these protein powders keep varying, so always be on a look out for discounts and special offers and stock on your regular brand of whey protein when it gets cheap— it has a great shelf life.
3. Adulteration
The growing health needs today has made all the by-products associated with it to be a lucrative business. Whey protein powder is indeed one of the first among the list followed by slimming and muscle building capsules! It is quite risky picking out the right protein powder from the right seller, especially if you are beginner to protein powders. You can start by asking the nutritionist at your gym or take the recommendations of the gym trainers. Apart from this, take the advice of a regular gym member who has at least been hitting the gym regularly for three years or more and have been consuming protein powder all the while. Chances are he will be having a regular store near where he replenishes his stock of powder. However, make sure you do enough cross checking from various sources before you land up on the one! Our favorites are— Ultimate Nutrition Pro Star Whey Protein, Muscle Blaze Whey Protein and Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey Protein. Look for the flavors, taste and its mixing ability with water. Add some glucose to your water and whey protein so that your blood immediately absorbs the protein after workouts and supplies it to the worn out muscle.
