How To Use Protein Powder: Simple Step-By-Step Guide

Hey, what’s up, guys.

I'm going to be my simple step-by-step guide on how to use protein powder properly as part of your muscle building or your fat burning diet. A lot of people hugely over complicate this. They want to know what the best protein powder is? How much to take? When to take it? What to makes it with? When in reality it’s very, very straight forward. The mistake that most beginners make is in thinking of protein powder as being some sort of fancy supplement with special muscle building effects.

When in reality it’s literally just powdered protein, 'just like the name says. So whether it is whey or casein or egg or vegan protein, all of these powders are derived from wholefoods and they’re nothing more than just another source of protein to add to your diet. Except that they’re powdered form makes them more convenient to consume. So rather than thinking of protein powder as being supplements it’s actually more accurate to just think of them as regular food products because that’s really what they are. And so asking how to take protein powder is really not much of a different than asking how to take chicken breast or how to take salmon.

Again, it’s just a matter of convenience here. So if you prefer to get in a portion of your daily protein intake in the form of a shake or a protein powder recipe, then the use of a protein powder makes sense. However, if you prefer to just eat solid food to meet your protein needs then a protein powder won’t be necessary at all and your bottom line results will be the same either way.

So I’m just going to answer three basic questions here that is: which protein powder should you use? How much should you take? When should you take it? And again, you’re going to see that the answers here are very simple. So, in terms of protein powder selection, keep in mind that as long as you’re getting enough total protein from your for the day as a whole, somewhere between about 0,8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, it’s not actually going to make a difference results-wise which specific type of protein powder you use.

All forms of protein are ultimately broken down into their individual amino acid building blocks for use in your body. And so as long as you’re getting sufficient total protein and from a variety of sources, you’ll easily be getting enough of all the different amino acids that your body needs to max out your muscle building potential for that day. So even though on a gram-for-gram basis certain types of protein powder like whey or egg might be superior in terms of their amino acid profile in comparison to, say brown rice protein or soy, as your total protein intake increases further and further.

The differences in quality from one source to the next gradually become less and less important since your amino acid needs end up being covered one way or another, and since your body can only use so much in a given day anyway. So the type of protein powder that you use is really up to you. The most popular, of course, and my personal choice is going to be whey protein. Because it makes it easily, it taste good and has several other health benefits as well. So unless there’s some specific reasons why you can’t use whey or you don’t want to then I just recommend going with that.

Now in terms of whey protein selection the two main types you’re going to come across are whey isolate and whey concentrate. Now both are the exact same in terms of their actual protein quality on a gram-for-gram basis. The only difference is that whey isolate is a more heavily filtered form of whey, and so it’ll have a higher percentage of protein per scoop, usually about ninety percent protein by weight in comparison to concentrate which were about seventy to eighty percent. And it will have fewer carbs, less fat and it’ll be lactose free. On top of that whey isolate is also tend to makes up easier and generally be a bit better tasting as well because they’re more bland on their own. And it’ll have that typical protein taste and so it’s easier for companies to flavor them. However, given that the difference in carbs and fat is quite small, you’re basically looking at a difference of a couple grams here and there, so both are still ultimately low carb and low fat regardless.

And given that whey isolates are quite a bit more expensive per serving, my recommendation is to only buy a 100% pure whey isolate if you’re lactose intolerant or if you’re cutting and you’re on a very precise diet or you’re trying to save up every grams of carbs and fat you possibly can.

For everyone else, though, what I recommend doing is buying a product that uses a blend of both whey isolate and whey concentrate. That way you’re still getting a protein powder that will makes up easily, that taste  good, that is still very low in carbs and fat but that’s also cost-effective as well. A blend is just a good overall middle ground between the two forms. And I’ll link my recommended protein powders in the description box below for you to check out.

In terms of whey powder selection; taste, price and mix-ability are really what it mostly comes down to because there’s not going to be anything special about the actual protein content from product to product. The only other thing you want to make sure of is that your whey protein powder is not amino spiked, which is where companies add cheap free from amino acids into the powder like L-Glycine or L-Taurine and use them just as a way to bump up the protein totals. I won’t go into detail on that because I’ve talked about it before but I’ll provide a link in the description box so you can get more information on that.

Now all that said, even though whey protein is my default recommendation it’s not mandatory that you use whey. And so if you prefer to use a different form of protein powder, that’s fine too. Some other options include egg whey protein powder or casein. Or if you’re a vegan or you just prefer a plant based protein powder for some reason then you’ve got brow rice protein, pea protein, soy protein or you can also get specific vegan blends that combine a variety of different forms together. The only thing I would mention here is that for men, just to be on the side in terms of  avoiding any possible negative effects on estrogen or testosterone, I wouldn’t recommend consuming more than thirty grams of total soy protein per day. After that we have a question of how much protein powder should you use. Now like I said before, protein powders are derived from wholefoods and so asking how much protein powder you should take really isn’t any different from asking how much  chicken or how much beef you should eat.

There’s no set dosage here and it really just comes down to you and how much protein you’d prefer to eat in solid form versus how much protein you prefer to have in liquid form or in the form of protein powder recipes. That said, I do think that you should ideally be getting in a reasonable variety of protein sources throughout the day just to make that all of your individual amino acid needs are being met as well as your nutritional needs. So I would suggest going overboard and having a majority percentage of your intake come from a protein powder only. As a rough guideline, I’d say that having up to around half of your total daily protein intake in the form of protein powder is acceptable. And of course any amount of less than that is fine too. So for most people that’s going to be anywhere from one scoop per day up to three or four scoops per day depending on your body weight, and the exact amount you consume can just be decided based on you and what you find most enjoyable and most convenient for your diet. And lastly is the issue of timing.

When should you take your protein powder? I’m following the same theme here. This is also just an issue of personal preference because there’s not going to be any special benefit to taking protein powder at any one exact time of day over another. If you like using it for your pre workout meal because it’s light in your stomach, that’s fine. If you usually aren’t hungry in the morning and you’d prefer a shake at that time, that’s fine. Post workout is fine. Or if you have some sort of protein powder desert recipe that you like to have after dinner, then that’s fine too. With protein intake it’s really just going to come down to meeting your overall needs for the day as a whole from a variety of sources and ideally, spacing it out to at least three separate feedings.

As long as you’re doing that then the timing of your protein powder use is completely up to you. So that’s really all there is to it, guys. I hope that answers everything. As you can see the question of how do you use protein powder is very straight forward. Any type of protein powder is ultimately fine. But a blend of whey isolate and whey concentrate is what I personally use and recommend by default. Any amount up to about half of your total daily protein intake in the form of protein powder is fine. And just consume it at any time of day when you most prefer. And you can prepare it in any way that you like as well. Simple as that. So thanks for watching, guys. if you found this advice helpful and you want to get all the tools you need to gain muscle and lose fat as effectively as possible, the step-by-step workout plan, meal plans,