Find out what’s the best protein shake to drink at different times of the day to keep you in an anabolic state to gain muscle mass!
The key to a diet with the aim of gaining muscle mass is to maintain a positive nitrogen balance throughout the day. Maintaining a positive nitrogen balance day-by-day and week-by-week along with adequate calories in the diet will result in muscle growth.
With this in mind, you should know that the best way to maintain a positive nitrogen balance is to consume high in protein meals every 2-3 hours.
The protein in each meal should be of a high biological value (BV) to ensure the muscles of the body repair and grow as well as they can.
Whey protein is the best protein shake to consume as it has the highest quality of protein in it gram for gram. Even more so than eggs, chicken or steak!.
Importance of Protein Supplements
For those of you who train often especially weight training it can be very difficult to get the recommended dose of protein from whole foods in the diet alone. It is for this reason why supplementing the daily diet with 2-4 protein shakes is so important.
For example, a 200lbs individual who trains regularly would require about 300grams of protein every day.
This is worked out at 1.5 grams per pound of bodyweight.
If this person eats the recommended amount of meals which is six and has protein (i.e. chicken breast or a steak) with every meal then his/she would expect to be consuming roughly 25 grams of protein per meal which works out at only 150grams of protein per day.
This is half the protein intake required for optimum growth. This makes it obvious why protein supplementation is so important.
Pre/Post Workout
Personally, I’m not much for pre-workout shakes. Quite frankly I’d much rather a solid hot meal 1-2 hours prior to my gym routine.
However this is a matter of preference, I can only give you my opinion you might find it’s better to use a pre-workout shake if so then this is the way to go (it wouldn’t be a very interesting world if we where all the same)
What I would never debate over is a post workout protein shake which is vital to initiate healing the micro tears in the muscle tissue caused by intense contraction of the muscle during resistance training.
If your workout is very intense (which it should be!) and you are feeling fatigued then it would be advisable to include some dextrose in your protein shake to replenish lost electrolytes.
Morning Protein Shake For Breakfast
It may come as a shock to you that we actually fast every day.
During the night we can be without food for anywhere from 8-12 hours. That’s a long time to go without food and puts a great emphasize on how important the first meal of the day is.
A whey protein shake first in morning prior to consuming any food is essential if you’re serious about maintaining and building muscle mass.
Try and opt for a whey protein isolate for best quality and absorption. Simply mix it with water and have it first thing before your breakfast to provide the muscles of the body with an instant hit of muscle building protein.
Fruity Carbohydrate High Protein Shake
1 banana
4-6 strawberries
1/2 cup low fat yogurt
1 cup orange or pineapple juice
2 scoops whey protein
High Energy Shake
10 oz pure water
10 strawberries (Fresh or Frozen)
1 tblsp flax seed oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 scp whey protein
2 tblsp Sugar
2-3 ice cubes (optional)
Home-made Protein Shake
3 scoops vanilla whey protein powder
16 oz. skim milk
2 cups low fat cottage cheese
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
3 packets of splenda
Protein Shakes For Lunch And During The Day
Eating every 2-3 hours can be quite time consuming as a result of preparing meals all the time.
This is where a protein shake can alleviate this problem in the form of a meal replacement.
If you are opting for a meal replacement shake during the day then throw in some pro-biotic yoghurt and quick oats and eat with a banana. Try to make it as much of a whole meal as possible.
Best Protein Shake Ever
2 scoops chocolate protein powder
12 oz. fat free milk
2 tblsp vanilla yogurt
1 tblsp low fat peanut butter
2 tblsp hazelnut coffee
2 tblsp caramel ice cream topping
Peanut Butter And Banana Shake
2 scoops vanilla protein powder
80g almond flakes
1 tblsp peanut butter
500ml skim milk
Small banana
1 table spoon honey
Simply Strawberry
4 scoops vanilla protein powder
8 fluid ounces water
1 strawberry yogurt
3 frozen strawberries
1 tsp flax seed oil
Evening Protein Shakes Before Bed
Surprisingly, most muscle growth occurs during the night when you’re counting Zs. Therefore you should look at the long 8-12 hours without food as a time to prepare your muscles for growth.
The foods that you require at this stage of the day are ones which slowly release protein right throughout the night.
The best protein shake to carry out this task is casein protein mixed with milk. If you only have whey protein like me and could be bothered with the expense of buying casein protein on top of whey protein then the whey protein mixed with milk will do just fine.
Banana Almond Creme
1 Banana
12 Cup milk
10 Almonds
1 Scp Protein
Ice Weight Gainer
14 oz. water
2 bananas
3 tblsp. peanut butter
Splenda
2 scoops protein
The Slimmer
8 oz. pure water
1 tblsp flax seed oil
1/2 peach
6 frozen strawberries
1 heaping scoop
(1 oz) of of protein of choice