Whey Protein
ByWhey Protein is one of the most commonly used sports nutrition supplements.
It has a whole range of benefits that make it a no brainer that every active sports person should be taking-even endurance athletes.
It’s not only the product of choice for power athletes there is increasing evidence that protein mixed in with the usual carbohydrate energy drink can have significant benefits in endurance athletes it can help prevent muscle breakdown associated with exercise.
Whey Protein contains high levels of Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAA). In total there are 20 amino acids the building blocks of protein, 9 of these amino acids need to be ingested because they cannot be made by the body they are called essential amino acids.
The 3 BCAA’s iso-leucine, leucine and valine are all essential amino acids. The protein in your muscles is made up of 30% BCAA’s so they are a very important part of your muscle mass. When you exercise it’s the BCAA’s that are broken down first in your muscle cells, so by ensuring you have an adequate supply before you train you can preserve your muscle mass.
Whey protein is also rapidly absorbed, it’s this feature that makes it a necessary post workout beverage for any form of exercise. When it comes to purchasing whey protein you will probably come across whey protein concentrate and whey protein isolate, with the isolate version costing a bit more.
The reason for the 2 different types is that isolate is presented in smaller molecules that in theory can get into the muscle cells quicker. In practice I have not noticed any major difference when working with my athletes when using whey protein isolate exclusively compared to whey concentrate.
There are many different suppliers in the UK and I have tried a lot of brands with surprisingly mixed results. I’ve had some brands tested in the lab and what they say in the tin is not always what’s in there, some cheaper versions are padded out with milk protein.
At the moment the brand that I recommend that people start with is the Iron Tek range from Reaction Nutrition it contains whey concentrate and isolate,
You can get a 25% discount at Reaction Nutrition by filling in this form
http://sportsnutritionvlog.com/order_supplements.php
If you’ve got any questions about whey protein then post a comment here.
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21 Comments
June 29th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Hi Matt,
Reading your entry on Whey, i was curious as to whether you’ve tried the Optimum Nutrition Gold brand – i usually buy the 4.54kg bag at around £67, but if the Iron Tek range is a far superior make, i’d be happy to be buying less of a far better product.
June 29th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
that’s pretty good brand, i’ve not tried it. there’s alot of good brands out there, and alot of poor ones too. I’ll only recommend brand i’ve tested myself to see what level of protein they contain.
the key with whey is to switch brands, as like other foods and whey more so, you can become intolerant to taking the same brand too much, just like if you eat too much wheat or other foods. In china the major intolerance is to rice for instance.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Great info Matt – thanks very much! I had never considered rotating types of Whey, will give it a try.
July 1st, 2009 at 11:38 am
Hi Matt,
What are your thoughts on Synerprotein? Is this product similar to whey protein?
July 1st, 2009 at 2:42 pm
I’ve not heard of it. I think it would be worth mentioning that we’ll list the things and product type we think are the best, but we’d prefer not to answer questions on particular supplements. Unless it a general question about the merits of a particular substance as opposed to a brand name.
It’s just there are so many – it could end up taking to much time.
October 30th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Matt – you recommend on here the Iron Tek range for whey but this is different from the Myprotein whey stated in your sheet with all the supplements on them. is there any difference between the two – I have just bought the myprotein whey. thanks
October 30th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Myprotein is just as good – it’s just when we first wrote the programme we had the supplements bundled and this was using Biochem whey – it’s more expensive so you save a bit of cash on the myprotein stuff.
you’ll be just fine on the stuff you’ve bought.
November 26th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Hey thanks for post, totally agree that useful for all inc endurance athletes…
anyway, what do you think about myprotein, I have been impressed by their prices and that their cheapest whey “says” it is undenatured as well as seeming to put up fairly good contents…
http://www.myprotein.co.uk/bulk-powders/protein-powders/impact-whey-protein/
(the link isn’t a plug!)
thanks,
Scott
November 27th, 2009 at 8:30 am
My protein are good – I trust them. I dont get paid to say that!
Maximuscle do some good products as well, I make no money from recommending them.
My favourite protein though is by Kinetica – because I formulated the products – i’ve also visited the factory and I know the protein goes from grass fed cows to the pot!
I do make a small % from the kinetica stuff – but only because of my involvement with them.
all these companies drug screen which if you are a tested athlete you need.
I believe wholeheartedly in cycling proteins – to avoid allergies.
Cycle types, companies etc
January 27th, 2010 at 6:31 pm
Hi Matt
Its difficult getting impartial advice on what products are best – everything you read is biased towards certain manufacturers!
However I am lactose intolerant/allergic and have been using either egg protein powders or soy protein powders. Am I getting sinilar benefits now and do you have any recommended brands for either of these?
Cheers
Richard
March 29th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Hi Matt,
This is a really useful article as well. You mentioned the Branc Chaid Amino Acids, but didn't mention L-Glutamine. As I know this amino acid, which is most in the muscles. What's your opinion abou it?
I use BCAA powder during my trainings. I consume 5 g meanwhile I have a workout with 30g flavoured maltodextrin. Actually I'm in a gaining period and try to improve my bodyweight 1 kg in each month.
From May I'm starting my diet and try to loose roughly 5 kg bodyfat by July. During this diet I'd like to consume more protein (around 2,5-3g/body kg), including more BCAA. My BCAA plan is 10 g after waking up on empty stomach with 5g L-Glutamineand have a 40 mins cardio training (fast walking with around 110-120 heart bpm). And afternoon also 10g BCAA with 5g Glutamine during the weight workout. Is it sounds good, or you would change something?
I'm also interested in, what is your opinion about Nutrisport products, proteins? Have you ever tried them?
Thanks,
Csaba
May 11th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
I use Whey protein a lot before and after my bodybuilding routines. Whey helps a lot in building muscles.-”‘
May 28th, 2010 at 5:37 am
Hey.
I will email u my clients plan as soon as I have a copy. Thanks for the email the other day.
Can I ask you a question regarding protein.
I just read that whey protein (denatured) is of no use due to all the growth factors and amino acid cysteine being destroyed in the heat process. So therefore whey protein (undenatured) is a better option for athletes.
What's ur view on that? And is hydrolised whey(undenatured) a better option than whey protein undenatured.
Lasty did I read somewhere that you find casein n whey to have no difference to athletes in practice. When would you use casein over whey?
There is so much conflicting information,I just hoped you would share your opinion.
Thanks
Manda.
Did my first 50kilo squats yesterday…bring it on! I love this crossfit !
May 28th, 2010 at 5:40 am
'basically if whey has been heat treated it's rubbish it has to be cold filtered'
All milk is heat treated including pre whey / curds –
The best milk is raw
The use of milk proteins such as whey do offer health benefits but they must be properly and appropriately treated -
Cheap whey sucks – it'll make you fat and unhealthy –
January 4th, 2011 at 12:26 pm
Thanks for the advice Matt: I hadn’t thought of cycling whey brands (though I do cycle whey types). The Kinetica looks good (as it is from grass fed cows) but I do have some worries about it regarding artificial sweeteners. Specifically, Kinetica whey vanilla contains sucralose and carboxmethylcellulose (check spelling) and I am concerned about the effects of these things on my body they are both ‘E numbered’ additives.
In the UK, however, it is difficult to find whey and casein without arificial sweetners. The only ones I can spot are the myprotein UNFLAVOURED options, the UNFLAVOURED options from Bulk discount supplements, Solgar’s whey-to-go (Vanilla flavour), and Reflex natural whey. Now I do not know whether any of these brands are from grass fed cows not treated with antibiotics. Indeed, the Solgar is from USA cows (which have not been treated with growth hormones) but who (presumably) may not have been grass fed and may have been treated by antibiotics. The solgar is prohibitively expensive and the reflex contains 4-6 times saturated fat as the solgar, which results in only the unflavoured whey at myprotein and bulk discount supplements being an affordable and decent option for me. This situation makes it difficult for me to cycle brands to a great extent.
January 4th, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Hi mate, there’s a few things in there which need addressing.
solgar is expensive but a great company and product – but for those relying on whey for their protein the cost can be too high.
myprotein is an affordable option – but you do have potential issues – which I dont know the answer to as to where the whey comes from cow’s wise as you mentioned.
third thing is the taste of sucralose and other natural flavours actually makes drinking whey pleasant whick ever company you use.
sucralose isnt ideal and in a clean world we’d not take any artificial sweeteners but it remains the safest artificial sweetener –
other great sweeteners include glycine, xylitol and stevia the later of which will be available and I think kinetica are switching in april as soon as it’s legal –
overall I think you have to balance intake of very small levels of some less natural substances with adherence and taste requirements.
so I would cycle – solgar, myprotein, kinetica – and probably a few other good quality companies out there who do decent whey which is the best quality and avoid cheap gainers and cheaper whey which will just be glorified milk powder.
finally the enumbers are not all bad the other item in the whey is a gum to add thickness – so nothing too bad in that. vitamin C has an enumber.
thanks for your comments keep them coming in….
January 10th, 2011 at 10:50 am
Thanks for your comments Matt, I have found them very helpful.
Some UK companies have started selling Goat Whey protein powders, I’m interested in hearing what you think about that product?
Would you recommend cycling other diary products e.g. switching brands of organic yoghurt, cottage cheese, etc.?
Thanks again for your comments!
January 10th, 2011 at 11:15 am
I reckon that goats stuff would be a great idea.
I tend to switch yes mate – brands and stuff – trying to stick to organic – sometimes though you settle on a decent brand and go back for more.
one decent way to rotate brands is to shop in different super markets – they often have different suppliers especially for meats –
alot of their own brand stuff will be from the same place though for things like baked beans.
some stuff you need a specialist health food store for.
January 14th, 2011 at 5:50 pm
excellent stuff. Do you have a RSS feed? And would it be cool if I put in your feed to a blog of mine? I have a site that pulls content out of RSS feeds by a couple of websites and I’d like to add yours, a lot of folks really don’t mind because I link back and everything but I like to get authorization 1st. Anyway let me know if you can, thank you.
January 30th, 2011 at 11:49 am
Herbalife do a protein powder with Soy protein isolate 75 % and milk whey protein concentrate 24.5% is this a good combination for adding to post workout drinks please for endurance events?
May 30th, 2011 at 5:48 pm
Matt, I notice a lot of supplement companies add BCAAs to their Whey Protein powder. Are there performance benefits from this strategy or is it just for marketing purposes!?