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Before I dive into why protein supplements are a waste of money, I’m going to explain a couple of things first. Your body draws energy from 3 sources:
1.
Primary source is carbs (stored in your body as glycogen)
2.
Next is Fat (stored in your body as glycerol)
3.
Last is Protein (you only use protein for energy
in extreme situations such as running marathons)
During
weight lifting your body rapidly burns through its glycogen stores.
Also
during weight lifting, you create tiny tears or abrasions in your muscles that
require protein to repair. During this process, you build muscle.
So,
after a good weight lifting session you need 2 thing:
1.
Carbs to restore your depleted glycogen stores
and
2.
Protein to repair and build your muscles.
After
a workout, your glycogen and protein synthesis levels are spiked. Therefore,
you must take in protein following your exercise session.
How
much protein do you need though to satisfy this peaked level of protein
synthesis? Ask most muscle heads at the gym and they will tell you to take in
as much as possible as soon as possible. I’ve heard guys swearing that if you
don’t take in half your body weight in grams of protein within 10 minutes of
working out, you might as well have not lifted at all.
This
is totally false!!! Studies have shown that the human body only needs 10-20g of
protein to satisfy its peaked protein synthesis levels after a lift. That’s
all… 10-20g within 45 minutes of finishing your workout.
What’s
the best/cheapest way to get this protein in your system? A simple glass of
chocolate milk. That’s all. Protein supplements are completely unnecessary and
a huge waste of money. Other good sources are yogurt with some granola mixed
in, a peanut butter and banana sandwich, or a bowl of oatmeal.
Alright
so there you have it… Don’t fall for the advertisements and the advice of the
huge guys at the gym…they’re huge not because they waste money on protein
supplements, they’re huge from genetics and hard work along with the large
amount of carbs and calories they’re most likely eating throughout the day.
Listen to the science and save a shit ton of money. 10-20g of protein is all
you need.
I’ll talk about restoring your glycogen stores
(which might be even more important than taking in protein after a workout!) in
a future post.
Deuces.