Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1757: The Truth About the Anabolic Window & Protein Timing

Episode Date: February 24, 2022

In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin cover how to choose a protein powder and when to eat protein for best results.  Protein, the magical macronutrient. (2:17) Mind Pump’s pivotal moments with protein in their early lifting careers. (4:11) Why the optimal protein intake for your goals is different than the essential amount you need to survive. (9:28) The history of protein. (10:43) The factors you should consider when buying a protein powder. (11:54) #1 – How well do you digest it. (12:51) #2 – The quality of the protein. (19:57) #3 – The flavor. (26:35) #4 – The amino acid profile. (30:57) When is the most optimal time to synthesize protein? (35:17) Related Links/Products Mentioned February Promotion: MAPS Performance and MAPS Aesthetic 50% off!! **Promo code “FEB50” at checkout** Visit PRx Performance for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! Why do we Need Protein? - Mind Pump Blog The Myth of Optimal Protein Intake – Mind Pump Blog Visit Magic Spoon for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! Visit Organifi for the exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code “MINDPUMP” at checkout** Mind Pump #1220: The 4 Best Sources Of Protein Arsenic, Lead Found in Popular Protein Supplements Examine Not All Protein Is Created Equal (PROTEIN POWDER GUIDE) - Mind Pump TV Do I Need a Protein Shake Every Time I Workout? - Mind Pump Blog Importance Of The Anabolic Window Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, please only one place to go. Mind, hop, mind, hop with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the world's number one fitness health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump, right in today's episode we talk about protein, the anabolic window, protein timing, all the factors you should consider when taking or buying a protein powder. So, these are the most important things you should consider, not a lot of stuff you're marketed to.

And, again, we know what we're talking about. Now, this episode is brought to you by our sponsor, PRX. PRX performance makes some of the best home gym equipment. You'll find anywhere. This is commercial grade home gym equipment designed to take up minimal space. So I'm talking about very sturdy squat racks, very strong sturdy squat racks with safeties and everything

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It's probably the one, I get more questions on protein, definitely more than carbs and fats. Tons of questions on protein, all kinds of questions. What's the best type? When should I take it? You know, how much should I take? All that stuff. And I get it because it's, well, first off, it's an essential macronnutrient meaning you have to eat protein in your diet in order to just to survive. Same thing with fat, carbs are not essential, but protein is very important, but also for athletic performance and muscle building, right? High protein diets have been clearly connected to faster muscle growth, better recovery, and better performance in most sports.

And it's probably one of the most, if not the most popular supplement that people would ever take. Would you say it's the most under-consumed macronutrient? Average person? Probably. Yeah, just in general, right? Like it's definitely not carbs. Carbs is definitely not the most under-consumed.

We're not out at it. It's usually the most appealing for those carbs. That's pretty good too. So I think that a lot of people get plenty of that. I think it's the most probably under eaten macronutrient that we have. Yeah, I would agree. I would say, I mean, because studies are pretty clear

that eating more protein tends to result in more satiety. So you tend to eat less calories. Now to be clear, we're really in a situation here where everybody's too much of everything. So there's just too many calories overall. But yeah, if we were to like reduce calories, then you'd have to bump. You'd want to bump protein up, right? That would help with that. But yeah, I think we should tackle protein and the most important things to consider when buying a protein powder. And talk about things like like the you know the the anabolic window and kind of you know How important or not important it is and you know things along those lines?

Yeah, and I think too. There's just a lot of misconceptions in terms of like you talked about the magical macronutrient I think that people still out there think that you know more It's better in my mics I got so nervous. Yeah, I mean, we all kind of went through that phase of just trying to get bigger. And so you think that you have to have like an enormous amount of protein to be able to make that happen. Well, we talk on the show right about, we've all shared many different times, you know,

pivotal moments in our lifting career that like that, that one tweak or that one thing you learn that completely like shifted your, your training or your physique. Hitting my protein intake was one of the single most important things that ever like came all together for me. Yeah, when do you remember the first time it really made sense? Yeah, well, I mean, I remember it was the first time I really started tracking. To be honest, I kind of assumed that I ate enough protein.

So I was buying protein shakes and bars before I was even tracking my protein. So there, you know, as a young kid who started lifting runs around 17, introduced the supplements, I took protein powders and bars like they were made for building muscle, right? You just taking those while lifting, that's supposed to, not really grasping the concept of, my body needs a certain amount of protein. Total intake, yeah, like I wasn't thinking like that.

So I was buying and eating protein powder and bars for a long time before I actually tracked and realized, holy shit, even when I have a protein bar or shake every day, I'm still grossly under consuming my protein intake, and when I actually started to target the right amount, it was huge difference. I mean, I started to pack on muscle relatively quick right after that.

Yeah, that's just the same thing I did. I started taking supplements real young. I was working real young, so I had money. So I started working out at 14. So by the time 14 and a half or so, I would buy supplements and weight gainers and protein powders were always on the list. And it was always real tough to gain, right? I was a kind of your classic ectomorph.

And then there was a summer where I lived with my grandparents, because my parents went to Italy for vacation. And my grandma, I've told a story before, but she's old school Italian grandma. I asked you what you would want to eat. She'll make me whatever I want. That was her favorite thing to do, she just made me what you want.

And so I'm like, oh, steak. Yeah, I like steak. So I had steak, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She just made it for me all the time. And I remember I built so much muscle and strength in that summer. And then I started to think like, you know,

I think I'm eating high protein. What I used to consider high protein would be like, oh, I had a sandwich and I had turkey and cheese in it, right? So that's got to have protein in it. Or I had a handful of nuts. There's some protein in it. But reality, you know, I was a hundred and, probably at the time, 165 pounds, 160 pounds.

And the goal would be to eat about 160 grams of protein. I was probably consuming closer to 70, to be quite honest. So when I went back and started really paying attention, they said, okay, I need 160 grams of protein. If I'm eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I need to have like 40 grams of protein for each and then add a shake.

And then I'll hit that number. And once I started doing that, it made a huge, a huge difference. Well, even then, too. And I bring that up as like a lot of, like seeking a lot of protein. But what I was actually consuming was the majority of it was carbohydrates and fat and everything else I was putting into the shakes. So it wasn't necessarily that I was getting a lot of the quality protein that I needed to hit my daily targets.

It was just, I was consuming a whole lot of everything to try and make that happen. I found this to be true for my clients too. And I think they all fell into the similar trap as I did, which is, oh I eat sandwiches or oh I eat meat. And if I don't, I make sure I get a protein bar or a shake. And so like the way, you know know they are computing it is like, oh yeah, I'm always eating protein. I never don't, I never have a day right, don't eat

protein. I had some cheese for lunch. Right. So and then those are all like anything that had any protein in it, you were kind of counting as a protein meal. And when you, I would get them to actually start tracking. What we would find out, just like what you said, Sal is, you know, their target may be 150 to 180 grams of protein, and they're eating more like 50 to 70, like, and not realizing how many, how many think, or how many ounces of meat or how many shakes or bars they would need to consume in order to hit that target. And then they hit that target consistently, because then the next phase of this for me was,

okay, now I'm aware that I was grossly under consuming it. Now I'm going to start paying attention and tracking. And even when I was really paying attention, what I found I would do is I'd have a couple of good days and then I'd have two, three bad days in a row. And so it would be- So then your average suck. Yeah, so then my overall average, again,

once I got to a point where I was like, okay, this is gonna be, and this is also why this is, typically some of our first advice that we give to anybody, right? Is just focus on protein first, just make sure you're hitting the right amount. And this is where I see shakes and bars have tremendous value, although we're always promoting getting your protein from whole foods, which is a good goal to have.

The reality of it is, many times you're gonna come short of that, and so it helps to have these things. Even if you're like, you know, even if you're someone who's kind of, you know, let's say you're 120 pound, 130 pound woman, you know, for, and by the way, optimal protein intake for your goals is different than the essential amount that you need to survive. Right, so you don't need as much protein as we're advocating

just to be okay. There's nothing wrong with eating 60 grams of protein a day. But if your goal is to get leaner, build more muscle, faster recovery, have more satiety. So if you're cutting calories, protein is great for satiety. Then the studies are pretty clear that you wanna have about 0.7 grams of protein per body weight or what people tend to do is aim for one gram per pound of

Body weight so 120 130 pound female 100 grams of protein would be plenty for her But even that if you show 120 pound or 130 pound woman You know 30 grams of protein for breakfast lunch and dinner. Yeah, that's three That's three meals. She's eating a six-ounce chicken breast. Yeah, or who does eggs would you need to eat? Yeah, yeah 30 grams most people I will have two you need to eat? Yeah, yeah, 30 grams. Most people, I will have two eggs in the morning, right? That's 12 grams. Yeah, you need more like eight to 10.

Something like that, right? Yeah. So a lot of people just don't have that kind of understanding or concept. So, but if you eat optimal amounts of protein, the studies are pretty conclusive that you will get better and faster results. So that's kind of what we're talking about here.

Now, protein is probably one, I would say probably one of the first supplements ever sold. If I, if you go back into supplement history, some of the first supplements ever sold or marketed were either some kind of a protein powder, like a nonfat dry milk type mix, or some kind of an amino acid supplement, which is what proteins are made up. Overteen, weedier, who's first? Oh, God. There was even before that.

Oh, wow. Yeah, there were companies that were even older. And they were protein-based because even then people kind of understood, or at least people in the strength sports understood that protein was important. So because it's been around for so long as a supplement, the marketing around protein has existed for a long time. And a lot of money is poured into the marketing because you can look at protein and say,

well, 10 grams is 10 grams is 10 grams. And they said, no, there's differences, but then they went really far and talked about, how quickly this releases amino acids and whether or not this is a better one to take at night or in the morning or post workout or before you work out or and there's lots of marketing surrounding protein which only confuses people. It really does because what it does is it gets people to focus on the wrong things.

There are a few things, key things you should focus on when it comes to protein powder, not necessarily the protein from your food. If you can get it all from food, that's ideal. Okay, that's a hundred percent ideal. If you've never had to take a protein powder, that's perfect because your diet's so good. But if you're like most of us, it's hard to get the amount of protein that would be optimal for your goals. You're probably going to throw in some kind of a convenient powder, in which case, you

know, a lot of people are like, well, what's the best protein powder? Is it the cheapest? Is the one that says, is the fastest absorbing, or the one that's the slowest absorbing? This one says it's more anabolic than this one. What's the best type of protein? So what we did is we listed the factors that you should consider when buying a protein powder in order of importance.

And these are the factors that we've identified over two decades of training people. Okay, so when you're training people for a long period of time, you start to see trends and you start to realize what's really important and what's really not as important. And the first thing I have to say, that's probably the most, it's definitely the most important factor

when considering a protein powder has nothing to do with all the stuff that they market with the amino acids and how quickly it's really, you know, release on stuff. That's not nearly as important as this one thing right here, which is how well do you digest this protein? It's a massive factor. Huge.

I mean, because we can all remember the, even if it's just coming from like a shake source, like a wave protein, sometimes, you know, for some people, you know, they have like an intolerance. So that's a major thing, but they can't like physically keep that down and digest it well. So we have to eliminate that as a possibility right away.

And I know that there's a lot of different sources of protein that just don't agree with people. And so why go through the pain and suffering of it if it's not working for you. Well, I mean, a lot of people don't even realize that. Like, I mean, I was guilty this all so hard. It's so accepted, they call it protein-farts. Yeah.

I mean, and that's, it's so by the way, if you're listening to this and you don't think you have a dairy intolerance or you don't think you have any issues with way at all, but when you have like a way protein, if you're having to take a shit 15 minutes later. Well, if you fart and it's terrible. Yeah, it probably so much.

Yeah, after you have that protein shake, you're farting uncontrollably all night long. This is not just like a normal thing, but we have normalized it in the workout bodybuilding space, you know, be able to just call them protein farts. Like it's like this, it's like, when someone, when it smells like someone crawled up there and died, this is not a normal thing.

And there's probably a better protein powder for you than the one you're currently using. This took me so long to figure out because I thought this was, oh yeah, that's what happens when you eat protein powders. You sometimes get diarrhea, you sometimes fart really bad and you're so part of the process, right? So this is a problem because I don't care

how great your protein powder looks on paper. If it's affecting your digestion negatively, inflammation goes up, stress hormones go up, stress hormones counter the anabolic muscle building hormones, you're more bloated, less likely to be able to eat healthy, which causes also, by the way, bloat and digestive issues causes weird cravings. You may crave other types of foods. It's just not a conducive state of being for fitness, for muscle building, for performance, or for fat loss. Your protein powder should be, by the way, let's break this down for a second. Protein powder is protein that's been pre-digested and dried. Okay, so

it's been put into a powder form. Technically, it should be easier to digest than if it was in food form. Okay. So if the protein powder is harder for you to digest than food, it's the wrong powder for you. You should drink protein powder and feel like you drink water. That's how well you digest it. If it doesn't feel that way,

you need to find yourself another source of protein because it doesn't matter what that protein is, if your digestion is negatively affected, it is harming your gains. It is not helping your gains. It's not a side effect that has no effects. There's lots of effects from the side effect. There's all kinds of carryover from that

and then eating your follow-up meals, proceeding that, it makes everything difficult, especially if the goal is to build muscle and to stay in a surplus, is gonna make that very difficult and challenging for you if you don't have a good digestible protein source to begin with. What are the most common offenders as far as protein-wise?

When you're in your experience, what protein powders do people tend to have the most issues with and which ones are the most easily digestible? Well, that's a tough one because it's very different. So some people with way, it's so easy to digest. And way has some very incredible study supporting it for gut health. Now there's a caveat here, if you can't digest dairy very well like me, it's terrible for gut health.

For me, way would be terrible. But in some case, way is high in branch human elacid's including which can also help repair the gut and feed beneficial bacteria. And so there's studies that show that way helps people with gut issues, but only if they can digest very well. Egg protein, right? Egg protein powders, by the way,

egg protein powders used to be the gold standard before way. Egg protein is incredible. I mean, some branch human elacid's in or high. It's this complete protein, right? It's supposed to be the gold standard before way. Egg protein is incredible. I mean, it's a branching in the last it's in or high. It's this complete protein, right? It's supposed to be really good. Some people digest it really well. You talk to other people taking an egg protein powder and it's the worst farts of all time.

That did not resonate well with me. I tried that for a while. It just, yeah, I was suffering and just bloat and gas like all day long. Yeah. And then there's casing, which is a type of dairy protein. Also, if you can't digest protein, excuse me, dairy, very well, it's not going to work well for you.

Soy for some people works well, for other people not so much. Bone broth proteins tend to be the most easily digestible for most people, but I'm sure there's someone out there that, so it's one of those things that you have to have to be... Isolate. Yeah, there's someone out there that, you know, so it's one of those things that you have to have beef isolate. Yeah, there's beef isolate now, right, which should be pretty easy to digest for most people, although I've had beef isolates

that didn't work very well either. So the best, here's where I would say to start. Start with your known food intolerances, and then, okay, oh, so I have an intolerance to egg or I have an intolerance to dairy, probably don't want to get a protein source, a protein powder from those sources. Start there, buy a small container of it, test it out.

And if you notice gastroall issues, okay, I gotta move on to another protein. Once you find one that works for you, that's great. But digestibility is gotta be on the top. And if you have digest, any kind of digestives you issues from your protein powder, you gotta dump it and move on to the top. Now, what's your thought?

This is a little off topic, but selfishly I wanna know. So I noticed that I can do a way protein shake. So long as that's pretty much it for the day. But if I have like, let's say, magic spoon and I have a protein powder and then maybe I do cheese or milk or something, then I have an issue. So would you say that I have a protein powder and then maybe I do cheese or milk or something. Then I have an issue.

So would you say that I have an intolerance for that or do I just have a threshold? And so long as I stay within that range, I should be fine. I have a, you have an intolerance and the way intolerance can sometimes work is there's a threshold. So like I can have some bread, but if I eat too much bread, then it's just a bothering me. Or I can have some bread, but if I eat too much bread,

then it's just a bothering me. Or I can have some dairy, and so even me with, I have a really bad and tolerance of dairy, I can do a little bit of cheese and be okay. Not nearly as much as you can. Definitely as much as just. Yeah, cheese doesn't bother me at all.

Like I have it on a pretty regular basis, but what I've noticed is if all the like cheese, magic spoon, and away protein, and let's say like a way bar or something like that, that in one day is enough to mess me up. But I seem to be able to get away with some. So what I try and do is I try and keep a, I use the organophile, vegan protein,

and then I have the way, and then I just try and, oh, depending on what you did during the day. Yeah, then I just, then I try and, because I like way better. I mean, let's be honest, way tastes better. Like most way proteins taste really good. So I prefer the way, but I also know that if I've had other way or dairy in my diet in the day,

that that shake could potentially mess my stomach up. Yeah, the next thing you should look at is the quality of the protein powder. Now, because the protein powder market is so huge, and it was already big, right? It was already the majority of the protein powder. Now because the protein powder market is so huge and it was already big, right? It was already the majority of the supplement market in the 70s, 80s, early 90s and then way protein hit the market and way was for many people, it was easy to digest, it was very inexpensive, it was easy to mix, right? If you have a good way protein powder, you can do it in a shaker cup, no clumps or whatever.

And designer, I remember designer protein was one of the first ones to come out to do that. It really blew up the market. And then you had all these people coming into the market. And protein powders even today have a really small margin. They're not super profitable because it's so competitive. And so what a lot of people do with protein powders is they look at the price because they'll say,

well, this says way, that says way, this one is cheaper. I'm going to go with that one. And they don't pay attention to the quality because they think it's all the same, right? Oh, this is egg protein. That's egg protein. It's the same. This one's cheaper. I'm going to go with that one. But we have studies now that are pretty clear that show that quality makes a huge difference. For example, it was a while ago where they discovered there was a company, which one company I discovered doing this, but lots of them were doing this. When they get their products tested,

the way you test to see what protein content is in protein powder, is you test a specific amino acid, right? So you'll test, for example, let's say, loosing, and if there's so much loosing per serving, then you extrapolate and say, well, there's so many grams of protein per this powder. Okay, it looks like you have 30 grams of protein per serving, like you say, you're all good. Well, what these companies did is they did what's called amino acid spiking. So they would put less protein than the label says. So it says

30 grams, but it's maybe 15, so they could save money. Then they throw in some cheap amino acid that they knew that was going to get tested so that the machine would then extrapolate. It's got more protein than it did. That's called, I mean, a last-a-spiking. There was a company that got caught doing that. They went out of business and other companies have been also seeing doing this as well.

So that's one way where quality makes a big difference. Another way, and this was when we first started Mind Pump, you guys remember that study that came out that tested the heavy metal study? Yeah, dude. They tested vegan sources or protein and found them to be well above the threshold of heavy metal, which is toxic and problematic,

if you're consuming that. So it's just one of those things. You gotta know that quality plays a factor in a lot more ways than you anticipate going into it. Totally. The other game, and I don't know if you're gonna relate this to quality or not, but the serving size or they manipulate that.

This was like one of the biggest hurdles I was gonna deal with clients is I had a few protein brands back in the days that I liked working with and I knew it was good quality, I knew it was high protein, and so I would recommend the clients, and at least one at every 10 clients, we come back with some generic brand that they found because they found it for half the price. And they'd be like, oh yeah, I got a protein product.

I got this one from CVS, so I got this one from the Walmart. Yeah, Walmart with that for a quarter of the price without that. And then I'd have them bring it in. And then I'd flip the jar right, and I'll have to explain to them. Like yeah, you understand this thing's only got

12 grams of protein per serving. So you've got to have two to three times the serving, just to equate to one of these servings. And then the bag's so big. Yeah, and not only that, but then when you do the math at the end of it, it's like, you literally went out of your way to save like $2 maybe. You know, and on top of that, I don't know how good

of quality this protein powder that doesn't have any sort of third party testing behind it. So all in the name of saving $3. You thought you were saving $30 because that was the difference of the jug, but you have to factor in the serving size and the amount of, you're paying for the amount of grams of protein in the serving. So you've got to pay attention to that. And some, some of these places will, will make you feel like you're getting way more, but then the serving size is only 12 grams of protein when your standard scoop is like 24 to 30 or more. Yeah, I remember you even worked in a place

that didn't you help package protein powder? Yeah, I remember it was designer. And I remember you telling me that there was no accurate measure for sure. Yeah, no, we were in high school. So we were high school kids and we worked at a, so back then like a company like designer Hershey actually went through there too,

like they pay a mixing company. And so I worked for the mixing company. So we mixed all kinds of stuff, like all different types of powders and stuff. And at that time I was working out. So I recognized the brand designer when it came. But we have a bunch of high school kids responsible for, you know, one and a half, three scoops, four scoops, you know what I'm saying?

Like we just mixed it all in there. It wasn't really, it was a high accurate. It was a lot to, and nobody was double checking our work. Yeah, it's not a regulated market. So there's some good with that. You have a lot of new products, a lot of new brands or whatever, but also places more responsibility than the consumer.

I think the most important thing, you gotta look for is third party testing for impurities, because although I would be pissed if I knew that what I was taking was 15 grams of protein instead of 30, like I thought, that wouldn't make me nearly as mad as knowing that I've been developing, you know, building up toxic levels of heavy metals, which can cause all kinds of strange effects in the body. I mean, immune issues, all kinds of things. Autoimmune issues, neurological issues, hormonal issues, cancers. And then you don't know that, oh, it's protein powder I've been taking for seven or eight

years every single day after my workout. So look for third party testing for, is it pure, are there heavy metals or are there toxins? Because like I said, they did a study and maybe we'll find it, we'll post it up, but they literally tested, I don't remember how many brands of vegan proteins. I think it was like 10 or 7, almost all of them. It wasn't like one. A lot of big name brands.

Yes, it wasn't like one had too much. It was almost all of them. There's other studies, not on protein powders, but on other supplements where they went and tested, I forgot it was like 12 companies and I think like a majority of them had none of what they said they had on, nothing at all. So, you know, keep that in mind when you're, so quality makes a big difference

and price tells you something about quality usually, not everything, but usually the more expensive brand, there's a reason why it's a little bit more expensive if it's been around. But look for that third party test. And it was examin.com does a good job of like kind of rating and reviewing a lot of these brands. Or insight. That's why it's more expensive. So because it's not regulated, technically these supplement companies don't have to do third party testing. And when they do have to do third party

testing, they got to pay it an extra fee in order to do that. So that's, so right away, that's, I mean, that should be your, if it's the cheapest protein powder on the shelf, right away, I'd be concerned just because they're more than likely, they're, they're cutting corners with things like that. Yeah, I agree. All right, so the next factor that's important, and some of you're going to probably scoff, but it's definitely important is the flavor.

Hell yes. This isn't that look. I know this is coming from someone who could care less. I've been, this is going for the bone broth. I've been blending stuff. Draskuprover. Oh dude, I've been blending things and drinking things since I was a kid.

I made chicken breast smoothies and tuna fish smoothies and weird shit. And I don't care, I'll just swallow it, doesn't matter. But for my clients, if they didn't like the flavor of whatever protein powder they were taking, they wouldn't take it. It was just, it didn't matter. I don't care what else was great about it.

They just didn't take it. If you dread drinking your protein powder, because they take... How long you stick with that? You're just at that point. Yeah. I mean, it's a valid behavioral point. If you're like dreading taking this protein and implementing it into your routine. It's just one of those things

is gonna be the first thing to just cut its way out. Well, by the way, this has had a lot to do with why we ended up working with work and I too, because we know there's lots of people like Sal who can't handle way. Way typically is your best. There's not a lot of way brands that don't have good flavors.

I'd say like most companies. They've done a pretty good job of it. Yeah, they've done it, especially now. By now, there's most protein pow most. They've done a pretty good job of it. Yeah, they've done it, especially now. By now, the most protein powders that are way based are pretty good. It's hard to find a vegan based protein that tastes. Usually they taste like grass and dirt or chalk. Yes.

And that was one of the things. I mean, before I organify, I wouldn't even mess with it. I would just tough out the way I felt when I would do the way or do my best if not having to use a protein shake at all. So they were the first ones that I liked that were actually vegan powder. So nice and different. Now, when it comes to flavors, what to pick,

I'd say generally chocolate is gonna be better than other flavors. I think it's the easiest one for them to taste the best. Vanilla would be second. Vanilla is good because you could blend it with other things. Yeah, it's good to mix vanilla with just body. Now, my experience with protein powders is this. If it's any other flavor,

especially if it's a fruit flavor like strawberry, it's probably gross. I'm almost never found like a strawberry flavored protein powder that actually tastes pretty good. And I like strawberry shakes. When I was a kid, I would always take a chance and just be like, oh, it's gross. But chocolate is probably your best bet on I don't know. Do you guys?

I'm vanilla. I'm vanilla because then I mix, right? So my favorite thing to do is to get a, whether you're doing away or you're doing like a, or gain a five vegan protein, but get a, a, a vanilla flavor because it goes with just about anything. So I can make it a, either like a, a tardy, like strawberry banana type of shake or I can go like a peanut butter chocolate direction and Vanilla works great with both of those peanut butter chocolate. We're chocolate. You're not gonna mix chocolate with You know strawberries or blueberries or someone that just doesn't go very well So vanilla for me is my favorite and then I use fruit and stuff to like change You know to mix it up a little

bit so I get something different. Yeah. Now speaking of mixing it, this is actually quite important. I would here, again, this is coming from someone who could care less. I would dry scoop protein powder. There's no joke. That's a really hard thing to do, by the way. But I had, you know, clients, if they had a protein powder that didn't mix well in

a shaker cup, they wouldn't take it. And, you know, people will tell, nothing worse than drinking protein powder and hitting a clump of dry powder. Not all protein powders mix really well. Some you have to have a blender, which makes it less convenient. Remember, I think the number one factor that makes protein powders valuable is their convenience. They store for a long period of time, you can take them with you anywhere, they don't need to refrigerate or anything like that, they don't go bad for a long period of time, you can take them with you anywhere, they don't need to refrigerate or anything like that,

they don't go bad for a while, and then you just throw them in a shake or a cup of mix them up. Well, if you lose some of the convenience, you tend to lose some of the consistency when it comes to protein powders. The best mixing protein powders tend to be way, again, this is why it's so popular, I think one of the reasons why they're so popular.

Vegan protein powders a little bit more difficult, although, or can't fight again,'s so popular. I think one of the reasons why it's so popular. Vegan protein powders a little bit more difficult, although, we're gonna fight again. Not so bad. Egg protein doesn't really mix super well. Casing typically you need a blender. Casing I noticed when I mixed that without a blender. It's thick. Yeah, I guess really thick.

It's interesting to see to how, you know, it's evolved in trying to, you know, improve that with those little spongy balls that they put in there until shake and mix or other innovations in that direction. But at the end of the day, there are protein powders that just don't tend to blend well. I don't know, I can't. Not at all.

And this next one is kind of last, but it's important, but it's last for a reason. It's because the other stuff that we just talked about really is a stronger determinant and whether or not somebody will use a protein consistently and gain benefit from it. This last one is what people think is gonna be the most important for them.

And that's the amino acid profile or the score, you know, is it how bioavailable is it? This protein has got more loose scene than this protein or this one's got more branch human acids. This one's got more glutamine. This one's going to be better for building muscle and a study had to had comparison 15 grams of this protein. Spike protein synthesis is 15% more than this one. Here's why that doesn't matter that much. It does matter, but not that much. It doesn't matter that much when your protein intake is really high. So when they do studies on protein, and they compare them head to head,

if protein intake is below that threshold that we talked about earlier in the episode, you know, that 0.7 to 1 gram per pound of body weight, if your protein intake is low, then the amino acid score makes a big difference. Right? If you're only eating 60 grams of protein a day, then it makes a difference if it's coming from way or is it coming from soy, for example. The way is going to kick the crap out of the soy right animal sources tend to be much better But if your protein intake is high if you're eating a gram of protein per pound of body weight You're getting so much of the amino acids that you need the score doesn't make that big of a difference

And then you see that it kind of negates it well Remember how we started this conversation. I mean that this was this was the most pivotal thing that I ever did, was just hit my intake. But I couldn't even tell you what protein powder or bar I was using at that time. I think the most important thing to focus on, because you're right, this is the marketing side. This is what they, because it is so competitive, this is how protein powders will try

and separate themselves from their peers. But the truth is, you just hitting your protein intake every day, like that should be the main focus, whether you do it through whole foods or you use a protein shake or not, you check off that box, then all this other stuff is splitting hair. Yeah, totally. So now, if your protein intake isn't super high, then this starts to make more of a difference, right? Animal sources are superior to plant sources, mainly because they have a more favorable amino acid profile. They don't lack any essential amino acid, so when you look at protein, it's made up of amino acids, and the essential amino acids are called essential because your body can't

make them. So if it lacks an essential amino acid, well, then you're limited to how much of that protein you can use based off of that limiting factor. Vegan sources, singular vegan sources, sometimes don't have very good amino acid profiles. This is why if you go with a vegan source of protein, combinations tend to be best. So if you look at the back, you'll see,

oh, it's got some pea protein, it's got some quinoa protein, it's got some soy, it's got some whatever. A combination usually means that there's complimentary amino acid profiles from each of these different sources, giving you a more complete type of protein. With the animal sources, you don't need that, right? I can have just the way, or just a, or just beef, or just casing, and I'm going to have pretty decent amino acid profile.

I don't have to worry too much about combining, you know, the different types of proteins. So even that being said, this is still kind of splitting hairs, right? I mean, as far as the difference, like even, let's say we are a low protein. Let's say my body, I'm only consuming 90 grams and I'm going to go to 220 pounds. Yeah, right. So it's half, right? Half of what I should probably be eating. And I have the option of a vegan protein or a way. Yes, it's better to go away, but is it like how detrimental are we talking about? It actually makes a pretty big difference. And when it's low like that. Yeah, when it's low, it makes a pretty big difference. So you'll see in studies, like they'll show a difference

in strength and muscle. Now, is it like, you know, 10 pounds of Mono, but over the course of a year, two years, it does make a difference. So this is why, so when I would have clients that were vegan, for example, and I would have them supplement, I'd have them supplement with them, essential amino acids. So because some of them had low protein and they had no interest in bumping their protein up anymore, even if I talk to them, they're like, I don't care, Sal, I'm getting enough, I feel fine. So let's say, hey, why don't you take these essentially amino acid pills with your vegan meals?

And what that would do is potentially supplement the amino acids that they may not be getting from the vegan source, and they got great benefits from that. But if the protein is high, it really doesn't make... Now in terms of what a lot of people consider as well as the timing of everything. Yeah. They get it right after my workout,

she'll get first thing in the morning, like when's the most optimal time to synthesize, pro? There is a benefit to taking protein post workout, but it's not what you think, okay? So is there this magical, anabolic muscle building window where if I take 30 grams of protein post workout, it's going to build more muscle than if I took that same 30 grams later in the day or earlier in the day. And they've done a meta analysis on this and the answer is no. It does not make a difference whether you take it right after or you take it later. But I still see a benefit post workout in this sense.

If we're talking about the average person who tends to struggle getting protein intake in, it's a great way to ritualize an additional 30 grams of protein. It's consistent and it's usually not a meal time. So it's usually in between lunch and dinner or after dinner or before they eat breakfast. So rather than them having to add more protein to their meals, which can sometimes be hard, if I, what I would tell clients is,

hey, right after your workout, it's really convenient, it's in your gym bag, shake up, 30 grams of protein, and it just became an additional 30 grams of protein that they would have throughout the day. That would be the benefit that I was gonna do. So if you've listened to the show long enough, you probably remember me talking about that.

When we first addressed the end of block window, I shared how I would do this, but my intentions were what you just said. And it would always be when I'm in a bulk, when I'm on a cut, I'm not really worried about. In fact, when I'm on a cut, I would take advantage of trying not to eat right after a workout and actually string that out longer.

So I was eating less calories. But when I was trying to increase calories and increase my protein intake, that helped because right after a workout, I could shake it up, I could drink it on the drive home. By the time I got home, I showered, I was already ready for like a big meal and I'd be okay. So then I just got that shuttled that 30 grams of protein in

right before I have another 30 to 40 gram protein meal, which helped me hit my protein intake. That's where I see value with timing there. That's about that type of person who's struggling to get there. The only other place I see the most value with protein shakes is at the end of the day. At the end of the day, assessing,

did I get enough protein in the day? Making up the difference. Yeah, there's this mistake that I made as a kid that many clients have made also this idea that taking a protein shaker bar, there's something about it that builds muscle or it's not that at all. And it's not, just because you're on a routine,

like, oh, I'm starting my workout routine. Also, I just start taking a shaker bar. It's kind of a silly way to use it. What you should do is first assess, where is my protein intake at? What does a normal day look like for me? And then go, oh, wow, I tend to fall around this much. I need this much.

And then, again, even knowing that, my goal for clients always is let's try and get that through whole foods, but I know and understand, because I've gone through this myself, which sometimes it's still tough to do that, and then that's where I would pile it on at the end of the night. Like, oh wow, I'm still 30 grams short of my daily intake, and so then I'd be mixing up a shake. 100% and I see more benefit to people struggling to hit calories and protein than anything

else. But yeah, you see a lot of the marketing where they're like, you know, this protein digest faster, therefore take it post workout, this one digest slower, take it right before you go to bed. I remember when they sold that with casing, casing is a slow release protein, take it before bed so your muscles have protein all night long.

One of the worst times to eat, by the way, is right before you go to bed, even whether it's a shake or food. So that's just out the way, whatever benefit where there is none, by the way, but let's just you go to bed, whether it's a shake or food. So that's just out the way, whatever benefit where there is none, by the way, but let's just say there was a tiny benefit is gone because the interrupting your sleep, it decreases the quality of your sleep

and sleep is extremely important to building muscle and burning body fat and all that stuff. So forget the timing and the digit, which one releases amino acids faster and this and that and the other, no, no, no. The stuff we just listed is literally the most important stuff to pay attention to. And still, if you can get all your protein

from whole natural foods, you're gonna be better off, 100%. Look, if you like our information, head over to mindpumpfree.com and check out our guides. We have guides that can help you with almost any fitness or health goal. You can also find all of us on social media. So Justin is on Instagram at Mind Pump Justin.

Adam is on Instagram at Mind Pump Adam and I'm on Twitter at Mind Pump Sal. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at MindPumpMedia.com The RGB Superbundle includes maps and a ballac, maps performance and maps aesthetic.

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