With so many different types of protein powder out there, it's often very difficult to distinguish one from another and it's very easy to become sucked in by fancy marketing campaigns. Here are 6 things to look out for when purchasing your protein!
1. RIDICULOUS CLAIMS AND SEXY MARKETING
Supplement companies love to make ridiculous statements about how jacked or shredded their products are going to make you. And they also love to pay athletes to endorse their products by making big claims about how important it has been in their training and success. Don’t believe any of it. If the protein powder that you are looking at is making big promises, do yourself a favour and keep scrolling or pop it back down on the shelf. Keep things simple and go for a product from a company that has a good reputation and is consistently subject to quality testing. Companies such as Optimum Nutrition, MyProtein and Bulkpowders are probably a good place to start.
2. "DIET" PROTEIN POWDERS
Be very wary of “Diet” protein supplements as they often cost more than "non-diet" versions and while they may have fewer calories overall, they tend to achieve this by sacrificing the protein content (meaning more carbs and fat), which completely undermines the purpose of the supplement in the first place. Also, remember that protein supplements will not cause you to lose weight, even if they claim that they will. Yes, protein powder can be a useful tool for losing weight but the resultant weight ultimately comes as a result of properly controlling your calorie intake.
3. "WOMEN'S" PROTEIN POWDERS
Ladies, you do not need to take a protein powder “specifically designed for women” – the protein that is in “Women’s” protein powders is exactly the same as the protein in the “Men’s” and it does the same job. The only difference in the supplements is often the colour of the tub, the marketing spiel (“Toning” and “Shaping” vs “Muscle” and “Strength”), and any additives that may be in there. Keep things simple and aim for a product that contains lots of protein, hardly any carbs or fat and nothing else.
4. “HEALTH" OR "WHOLE FOOD" SHAKES
Be careful when looking at “Health” or “Whole food” shakes which claim to be high in protein. These products are often cleverly marketed as being full of “only natural ingredients” and tend to be more expensive than pure protein powders. While these products may well contain “all-natural” whole food ingredients, the addition of these ingredients often bump up the calorie count significantly and they end up being quite calorie dense and actually fairly low in protein.
5. WEIGHT GAINERS
If gaining weight is your goal, a protein supplement can also be very useful. But I wouldn’t necessarily reach for the “Mass Gainer” or “High Calorie” shakes. I prefer sticking to the Whey Concentrate/Isolate and adding the calories in through whole foods. Mass gainers tend to contain cheaper, lower-quality protein(s) along with large amounts of sugar in order to bump the calories up. If you’re struggling to eat enough to gain weight and want some additional “liquid calories,” you’d probably be much better off creating your own high calorie shake by using oats/nut butters/fruit.
6. PROPRIETARY BLENDS
This is a where a company creates a product that includes a combination of substances under the guise of a fancy sounding name. For example an all-in-one supplement might have creatine, caffeine and “a triple release protein formula”. The problem here is that the company is required to list the ingredients for this blended formula but not the dosages, so if you look into the ingredients, it’s not exactly clear how much of each thing you are getting. This is a sneaky way in which companies can disguise the fact that they under dose certain ingredients or bulk up the protein content using cheaper protein sources.
In almost all cases, you’re best sticking a supplement that is high in protein but low in the other two macronutrients, which leads us nicely onto Part 3 of this series which will cover Whey Protein and Micellar Casein Protein.