Nutrition questions

Protein shakes are controversial - nutrionists seem to indicate they aren't particlularly useful or needed despite all the claims by the companies that make them. Protein is essential to properly recover after a workout, but you can easly obtain the needed proteins and fats from a meal of natural foods. Some concerns about protein shakes were included in a article from Consumer Reports on this forum and referenced a few weeks back (search for it)::worms: Some shakes have been found to contain heavy metals that would not be good if consumed over time. Shake supplements can range in protein levels up to as much as 100g per serving. Your body can only digest 5-9 grams of protein per hour. The rest is then burned to produce glycogen, stored as fat, or excreted. The shakes add unaccounted for calories to your diet at such high levels of protein and much of the protein maybe wasted. Proteins and fats slow digestion and thus slow glycogen repalcement before, during and immediately after workouts. You may want to avoid protein until after the critical glycogen and electrolyte replacement is complete and then get the protein at meals from good lean sources - Salo's book on conditioning indicates about 6-20 g at the next recovery meal. Good lean sources of protein in natural foods are much less expensive - milk, yogurt, eggs, chicken, lean game meat, and range fed beef for instance. You can also get it from veggies, but need to be sure you get all of the required protein amino acids. These supplements are not controlled by the FDA like normal food an drink, there is a real need to carefully research and checkout what your are putting in your body, and you can't rely on the claims of the seller. Caveat emptor. Think the main benefit of protein shakes is it is the easiest way to get high amounts of protein with little overall calories and contrary to hints at it in this thread, calorie deficit is the key to weight loss. I recommend to those who are interested to research bodybuilding diets and cutting cycles. These people are basically 'competitive dieters' They all count calories, they all eat high protein diets, and they all feel lethargic, weaker, etc. after several weeks of dieting. Someone with very poor dietary habits who is very overweight can likely lose significant weight by just eating 'healthy foods' and not counting calories but this is unsustainable and given most people reading this thread are probably already active/health concious to some extent, the reality is, calorie deficit = fat loss, and calorie deficit = less energy, body entering a catabolic state, etc. etc. etc. obviously composing those calories out of quality nutritious foods is helpful but it is not the key to fat loss. calorie restriction is. Period.

Protein shakes are controversial - nutrionists seem to indicate they aren't particlularly useful or needed despite all the claims by the companies that make them. Protein is essential to properly recover after a workout, but you can easly obtain the needed proteins and fats from a meal of natural foods. Some concerns about protein shakes were included in a article from Consumer Reports on this forum and referenced a few weeks back (search for it)::worms: Some shakes have been found to contain heavy metals that would not be good if consumed over time. Shake supplements can range in protein levels up to as much as 100g per serving. Your body can only digest 5-9 grams of protein per hour. The rest is then burned to produce glycogen, stored as fat, or excreted. The shakes add unaccounted for calories to your diet at such high levels of protein and much of the protein maybe wasted. Proteins and fats slow digestion and thus slow glycogen repalcement before, during and immediately after workouts. You may want to avoid protein until after the critical glycogen and electrolyte replacement is complete and then get the protein at meals from good lean sources - Salo's book on conditioning indicates about 6-20 g at the next recovery meal. Good lean sources of protein in natural foods are much less expensive - milk, yogurt, eggs, chicken, lean game meat, and range fed beef for instance. You can also get it from veggies, but need to be sure you get all of the required protein amino acids. These supplements are not controlled by the FDA like normal food an drink, there is a real need to carefully research and checkout what your are putting in your body, and you can't rely on the claims of the seller. Caveat emptor. Think the main benefit of protein shakes is it is the easiest way to get high amounts of protein with little overall calories and contrary to hints at it in this thread, calorie deficit is the key to weight loss. I recommend to those who are interested to research bodybuilding diets and cutting cycles. These people are basically 'competitive dieters' They all count calories, they all eat high protein diets, and they all feel lethargic, weaker, etc. after several weeks of dieting. Someone with very poor dietary habits who is very overweight can likely lose significant weight by just eating 'healthy foods' and not counting calories but this is unsustainable and given most people reading this thread are probably already active/health concious to some extent, the reality is, calorie deficit = fat loss, and calorie deficit = less energy, body entering a catabolic state, etc. etc. etc. obviously composing those calories out of quality nutritious foods is helpful but it is not the key to fat loss. calorie restriction is. Period.