How do you decide whether you need a protein shake?
Do you want to tone or muscle up? Use these questions to guide your decision about your protein needs:
1. What is your training goal and programme?
2. Does your baseline diet provide the overall support?
3. How does your body fat percentage rate?
Let’s work through each of these questions.
1. What is your training goal and exercise programme?
Many people consider protein shakes to be a magic bullet to help build muscle mass. However, protein from a shake does not always translate into extra muscle – if only it was that easy. A key piece of the muscle building puzzle is to consider how much training you are doing and whether it is the correct type of training to stimulate your muscles to grow. Your muscles need to be stimulated to grow through strength training and other short duration, high intensity anaerobic exercises. Without the proper training your muscles won’t grow even if you’re drinking a protein shake.
2. Does your baseline diet provide the overall support?
Enough energy to support your training
Your diet should provide energy to get you through a busy day and enough for you to train hard. Consuming sufficient energy in the form of carbs, the main muscle fuel, is very important as without the energy your muscles won’t be able to do the necessary exercise that is required to ultimately muscle up. Research has shown that having sufficient energy has a bigger impact on muscle growth compared to protein in isolation.
Optimal nutrition to maintain your health
Your diet should provide all the other dietary components to stay healthy that a protein shake cannot provide.
- If your baseline diet already provides sufficient protein, then a protein shake will have little added benefit. Protein from a shake is not magically better than protein you get from a balanced diet – research backs this.
- If your baseline diet is not optimal, then you will struggle to reach your full muscle-building potential, regardless of whether you use protein shakes or not.
- Scientific studies and surveys indicate that the majority of active individuals aiming to increase muscle mass actually already get sufficient protein from their diet alone and taking a protein shake has no added advantage, unless you are vegetarian.
- Recent scientific evidence proves that dairy, such as milk and yoghurt, can be used as an effective ‘sports shake’ as it has a powerful impact on muscle building and recovery.
If the quality of your diet is inadequate – either you don’t have time or the facilities to eat or prepare food – then a shake might be convenient. However, a more balanced shake with protein and carbs may be a better choice rather than a protein-only one. Where possible, always try and improve the quality of your diet first, before relying on shakes.
3. How does your current body fat percentage rate?
While building muscle, you should maintain a healthy body fat – not too high and not too low. If your body fat is already high then you need to guard against excess calories from drinks and shakes that may push your body fat even higher.
If you’ve addressed these questions and you still feel the need to use a protein shake then be sure to read the article on the ideal timing of protein intake – before or after exercise.
Photo by Las
