National Shake Month on September, 2024: best type of protein shakes?

September, 2024 is National Shake Month 2024. What is National #ShakeMonth Johnny Rockets Shake Month

Protein shakes are not the answer. All you need to do is eat more food. Eat a lot of good food. If that doesn't do it, it's not going to happen unless you take up bodybuilding or anaerobics in which case the most you could expect to gain is a pound per month. Either way, protein is not the answer. Here's how to eat.

Whether you want to gain weight, lose weight, add muscle, or maintain, you should use the same diet. In other words, everyone should be eating essentially the same macro nutrients (carbs, fats, protein), micro nutrients (vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc.) barring special health or medical considerations because we all have essentially the same physiognomy and there is only one version of peak health. Here is how we should all eat according to the US National Institute of Health who are among the best health professionals in the world and the people doctors listens to in the US.

OPTIMAL INTAKE

Eat varied, wholesome, and high quality foods such that your daily caloric intake is about equal to your daily caloric burn while keeping your macro nutrient ratios at about 55/25/20 (%calories from carbs/fats/protein). Only slight changes should be made in the macro nutrient ratios to accommodate the extreme demands of special activities such as extreme athletics or inactivity due to illness.

Note: Here are the details in case you're interested:

You get to make the food choices (no supplements without a doctor's recommendation) based on your location, culture, available foods, personal preferences, personal resources, food allergies, etc. However, the words "varied", "wholesome", and "high quality" are important. And, you should consume your food in 4-6 daily meals with healthy snacks between such that you're nourishing yourself every two hours when awake.

VARIED means a variety of foods including fruits, dairy, meats, vegetables, grains, nuts, etc.

WHOLESOME means as unprocessed, unrefined, nutritious as is practical.

HIGH QUALITY means using the best ingredients, the least contaminants or fillers or unnecessary chemicals, etc.

•MAINTENANCE: If you want to maintain your weight just keep your portion size at a comfortable level which you can determine simply by weighing yourself once per week and checking your clothing fit and reflection in the mirror to ensure you're at or close to your ideal body weight.

•WEIGHT GAIN: If you want to gain weight there are only two ways to do that and they are adding fat and/or muscle.

TRACKING

Nutrient tracking is necessary to ensure you have the optimal caloric intake and macro nutrient balance. For most people, tracking is only required for fat loss because of the difficulty in cutting intake and nutrients while maintaining digestive and appetite satisfaction. Tracking makes it necessary to read labels, look up food nutrients, record data, plan meals and recipes, etc. And, as annoying as it may be to have to track, it is easier to do today than ever before with the help of website such as My Fitness Pal ---> . And, once the fat loss dieter reaches goal weight, tracking my be discontinued. Tracking will also force you into making good food choices because bad ones will either drive your caloric intake over the limit or create periods of hunger in waking hours. Ideally you want all your hunger to be while you're sleeping.

SUPPLEMENTS

Supplements should be avoided because they are not approved by the FDA, are virtually unregulated, do not have the protections afforded foods and drugs, are not recommended by the US National Institute of Health, do not require any testing, are often contaminated, may not even contain what the label says, usually contain cheap ingredients, are often over priced scams, have been known to be dangerous, and can have numerous adverse or unwanted side effects. A vitamin-mineral supplement may be taken if it the product of a major manufacturer such as Bayer or Pfizer.

You didn't give your age which would have helped. You may be an ectomorph in which case you'll be limited in your ability to gain weight by virtue of your genes and there's nothing you can do about that.

Read my answer about protein supplements here -->

Read my answer about supplements here -->

Don't get stuck wasting your money and possibly your health on supplements.

Good luck and good health!!

♠

PS: Here are some good websites you may find useful.

• NUTRITION DOT GOV

Getting buff with shakes questions?

Supplements are not approved by the FDA, are not recommended by the US National Institute of Health, do not require any testing, are often contaminated, may not even be what the label says, usually contain cheap ingredients, are often over priced scams, have been known to be dangerous, and can have numerous adverse or unwanted side effects. I would urge you to stop believe advertising copy and start paying attention to science.

Protein is the most misunderstood nutrient in bodybuilding. I don't have the space to tell you all you need to know so I'll just hit the high spots and if you need more info, you can message my Yahoo account.

Don't listen to muscleheads, gym rats, bodybuilders, personal trainers, and even coaches about protein. Most of them believe what decades and $$$$millions in supplement advertising have been telling them...that they need a lot of protein to build muscle. Not true. Here's how much you need according to the best minds in the world at the US CDC, the people our doctors (in the US) listen to. --> You can easily get that amount of protein with a glass of milk and a chicken breast or piece of meat per day. If you consume more protein, you'll only excrete it or burn it and both are a waste.

Bodybuilders don't work as hard as they would like to believe. Construction workers, migrant field hands, movers, UPS drivers, etc. all work much harder every week. And none of those people worry about protein or take supplements for their jobs. They just eat a good diet and their bodies adapt with no problem. A bodybuilder can only work out 10 hours a week at the most because of the recovery time required by the muscles. Marathon runners, boxers, Olympic athletes, Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, etc. all train much harder and they do it without supplements.

Most protein supplements are scams. According to the US National Institute of Health, you should use supplements only when recommended by a doctor. ---> That's good advice because the government does not require testing so you won't be protected by the FDA as you are with food and drugs. Also, many supplements have been found to be contaminated and dangerous.

Check out this list of over 60 dangerous supplement products sold with bogus advertising claims which scam-site bodybuilding.com was forced to recall and take off the market --> .

Check this link to see how Muscle Milk was busted for false advertising -->

All you need to make the gains you can is food. There is an abundance of information to prove this point. So, I will give you examples and cite references in the space I have left. Just be sure to ask yourself if you ever saw any good scientific evidence suggesting you need 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight or more. The answer will be no. That's a huge myth. And, all the naysayers who disagree with me will not have any good science for you. All they'll have are ads, phony reviews, bogus testimonials, false scientific sounding white papers, bad blogs, scam sites, etc. all paid for by scammers like this one. --->

Here’s a white paper which debunks the myth of the protein supplement. Note the following excerpt...“At present there is no evidence to suggest that supplements are required for optimal muscle growth or strength gain.”

Ref:

Here's one more study to read. Note the excerpt..."Consumption of a recovery drink (whey protein, amino acids, creatine, and carbohydrate) after strength training workouts did not promote greater gains in FFM (Fat free muscle) compared with consumption of a carbohydrate-only drink.”

Ref:

Here’s another from Live Science. Note the excerpt…“Medical researchers have advised against protein supplements for years for the average person. But many sports trainers continue to push them on amateur athletes simply because they don't know any better.”

Ref:

Here's what Consumer Reports had to say ---> Ref:

If you have any doubts about the citations and references above, talk to the person who understands best how your body works....your doctor.

Watch this video -->

There's plenty more but I'm out of room.

Good luck and good health!!

♠

Safe to use shake weights/exercise with carpal tunnel?

shake weights do not work

the Shake Weight is alleged to give users, “lean, sculpted arms and shoulders.”

Despite the fact that the muscles of the arms, chest, shoulders and back are not moving through a range of motion the makers of the Shake Weight claim to be able to deliver muscle and strength building results. This flies in the face of just about every bit of existing legitimate scientific data on the subject of muscle and strength building.

Furthermore, the muscles of the biceps and triceps are among the smallest muscles of the body, and “exercising” them provides very little stimulus – metabolic or strength/muscle building. There is a lot to learn from the advertisement’s claim that users will, “feel it instantly.”

Just because you may “feel” something doesn’t mean that this something is beneficial or will result in a beneficial outcome, strength/muscle building or otherwise. For example, bend your index finger back as far as possible towards the back of your hand and hold it there. You feel that, don’t you? Does that “feeling” mean that you will derive a benefit from the action? Nope.

The users of the Shake Weight do not provide any of the so-called independent scientific research that is responsible for the creation of this gimmicky gadget. If this research is such a home run and illustrates that the Shake Weight is better than using dumbbells, the makers of this product should be featuring this information on their web site. I did not find any research on dynamic inertia in the vast, online databases of the National Strength and Conditioning Association or American College of Sports Medicine.

Dynamic inertia is a great example of what I call, “Vapor Research;” research touted as proof of effectiveness by an equipment huckster that isn’t provided and cannot be found.

Keeping the upper body in an isometric contraction for any length of time, while holding any implement, is going to induce fatigue. Squeeze the steering wheel of your car while you sit in traffic and your entire body will feel the effects before too long. And this is NOT a good thing.

The submaximal isometric contraction needed to hold the Shake Weight has no dynamic or functional strength building benefits. Furthermore, isometric contraction training only provides benefits to the muscle at the specific angle in which the contraction is held.