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Muscle Building Protein Powder | Whey, Rice, Casein, Soy Protein

The Best Times to Take Protein Supplements:
A Guideline

You can use the following schedule
as a guideline for protein intake while trying to increase muscle mass:

6 AM
20 grams Whey
20 grams Casein
Protein Shake

7 AM- 8 AM
20-30 grams of protein from meat or eggs with breakfast

10 AM
20-30 grams of protein from cottage cheese, tuna or Whey
protein shake.
(I like to add a scoop or two of strawberry Whey powder to my
Dannon Light Yogurt)

Noon
30-40 grams of protein from
light lunch meat such as turkey, ham or chicken breast. Tuna  
egg salad, or precooked chicken breast.

2 PM
20-30 grams of protein from
cottage cheese, tuna, yogurt, or Whey protein shake.

5 PM- 6 PM
30-40 grams of protein from chicken, turkey, beef, fish with
dinner.

PRE-Workout
10-20 grams Whey protein powder with a high quality preworkout supplement with
Creatine, glutamine and NO booster. (I use BSN NO-Xplode)

POST-Workout
40-50 grams of Whey Protein along with 5 grams of Creatine
and 5 grams of glutamine. This is the most important time
to take a fast-digesting protein.

Before Bed
30- 40 grams of Casein Protein.

2 AM- 3 AM
20-30 grams of Whey and Casein protein mixture. (optional, but powerful!)

This plan basically comes down to taking in protein every 2-3 hours whenever possible.

Muscle Building Protein Powder

As every bodybuilder should know, getting enough protein in your daily diet is an absolute must.  While it is certainly possible to get enough protein by eating whole foods, most bodybuilders use a combination of red meat, chicken, fish and protein powder supplements.
Protein powder supplements are extremely popular for several reasons.  Let's look at a typical 200 pound bodybuilder.  Our bodybuilder must consume 1 to 1.5 g of high quality protein per pound of body weight each day.  This means he should average 250 g of protein each day.  This protein intake should be divided into 5 or 6 meals to be consumed throughout the day.  At six meals per day, our bodybuilder needs to consume an average of about 40 g of protein at each meal.  

Let's look at the protein content of some common bodybuilding foods:
        

 Protein Food  Protein Fat
 8 ounces of various steaks 45 g 10 g
 1 Large Egg  6 g  3 g
 6 ounces chicken breast  40 g  2 g
 6 ounces Turkey breast   30 g  1 g
 8 ounces pork chop  30 g  6 g
 4 ounces hamburger (90%)   15 g  10 g
 1 can chunk light tuna (6.25 oz)  40 g  1 g
 ½ cup cottage cheese   12 g  2 g
                

Using a combination of these excellent foods, you can easily meet your requirements for 3 or 4 of your 6 meals each day.  However, you can imagine how much time it would take to prepare and eat six meals every day using these foods, not to mention extremely expensive!

This is where protein powder supplements enter the picture.  They provide you with a quick, convenient, and relatively inexpensive way to add those extra 2 or 3 protein servings each day.  As an added bonus, high quality protein powders taste excellent!

Protein Powder Types

Protein powder supplements come in many different types, formulations, and flavors.  Protein is made up of building blocks called amino acids.  There are 22 amino acids, some of which the body can make on it’s own, and some that must be provided in the diet.  The combination of the different amino acid is called the amino acid profile.  Each type of protein has a different amino acid profile.  This is why it is best to eat a variety of protein sources as well as use a variety of protein powder supplements.  

The most popular types of protein powders are whey, casein, egg, and soy.

Whey Protein Powder

 

Whey protein is generally considered the best muscle building protein and is by far the most popular and most heavily used protein supplement.  It is cheaper per gram than most other types of protein.  It is absorbed very quickly by the digestive system and reaches the muscles fast.  Whey protein is best used as the first meal of the day because your body has not had any protein for many hours during the night and you want to get it in your bloodstream quickly.  Use whey protein immediately following a workout because this is the most important time to take can a large quantity of protein and you want to get to your muscles as soon as possible.

Casein Protein Powder

Casein protein is a bit more expensive than whey protein, but is absorbed at a much slower rate.  This fact makes it the supplement of choice right before bedtime.  A generous serving can provide your muscles with a steady supply of protein for 5 to 6 hours as opposed to 1 or 2 hours for whey protein.  Casein protein is also an excellent choice if you think it may be a long time before your next protein serving.

Egg Protein Powder

Egg protein is not nearly as popular as whey or casein mostly because of its cost.  It is, however an excellent protein supplement with a high BV (Biological Value is used to indicate how much of the protein is actually used by the body) and excellent amino acid profile.  I would recommend using egg protein to mix with your whey protein or occasionally substitute for your whey protein.

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