I eat around 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, or 175 grams per day. So, in order to ingest this quantity each day, protein powder has also become an important addition to my diet and meals.
I use protein powder in many ways for cooking, even including making desserts, puddings, and smoothies – and all of these are made with enough nutrient density that they become healthy as meals.
In light of the importance protein has for me, my criteria for selecting the best protein powder is of equal importance, especially considering how many different ones are available proteine 1kg. And of course when you read the information about them, each one seems like it is the best.
This also becomes more confusing based on your needs. If you are only looking for a supplement to use before or after lifting weights, then you may choose a different protein powder then you would if you were also very concerned with its nutritional properties.
As a weight lifting supplement, you may choose whey only, because it is absorbed and used by the body the fastest. Additionally, you may want other ingredients included that may further enhance your workout, like additional branched chain amino acids and creatine.
And you may overlook some of what would be considered nutritional issues. For instance, you may not care if it had artificial flavors and sweeteners, higher amounts of cholesterol, and sugars like maltodextrin or dextrose – not if it also had the highest grams of protein per serving, along with those extra ingredients you were looking for.
Choosing My Protein Powder
To begin with, there are certainly no reasons to think that selecting a protein powder based on a nutritional criteria, will make it less effective for helping to build muscle from lifting weights.
And if I want branched chain amino acids or creatine, I would rather take it as a separate supplement. In that way, I can choose the exact supplement and quantity I want to take, instead of getting it as an extra ingredient.
I have chosen slow digesting protein blend that includes whey, instead of being 100% whey. This has been done for 4 primary reasons:
- Studies have shown that you have around 1.5 hours to absorb whey protein, and the amount in that time will be about 15 grams of protein. With a serving size of 24 grams, it is possible that a large percentage of this isn’t going to be used by your muscles.
- Along with being slower to digest, protein powder blends are time-released and can more effectively support building lean muscle mass.
- The nutrient profile of the blends can increase the overall quality and effectiveness. For instance, the micellar casein that is included is a type that I have heard referred to as the Rolls Royce of all proteins.
- Whey protein has a large impact on your insulin and blood sugar, and remember that insulin is a hormone that can increase fat storage. Now, greater insulin release may be good after working out, because it will work towards replenishing your muscle glycogen. But it can be a big problem at other times of the day – whey protein has been shown to release more insulin than white bread.
Besides choosing a time-release protein blend, I have a number of other selection criteria that are very important nutritionally, but in no way will decrease its anabolic and muscle developing benefits.
And like comparing protein absorption rates between whey only and slow digesting blends, the benefits are actually increased – here are some additional key criteria that you want to use for choosing your protein powder:
- 100% all-natural, with none of the artificial flavors or sweeteners that are very often used
- Sourced from cows that have not been given hormones like rBGH or rBST – check the label, this is important enough that it will specifically be stated if it is free of these hormones
- Relatively low in carbohydrates – like maybe 4g of net carbs, after subtracting fiber, to 24g protein
- Digestive enzymes are one extra ingredient that I want included. The whey protein is hard to digest, and these enzymes will help with this so it can better be used by the body. The protein powder I use has a special blend of digestive enzymes that new research has shown to be 40 times more effective than the enzymes in other powders.