Getting enough protein in your daily diet is critical for every goal, from building muscle and losing fat to maintaining metabolism as we get older. But what kind of protein is really best?
Why Protein?
Protein is one of the three macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fats) and it should be a central part of everyone’s daily diet. As a basic cornerstone of nutrition, protein supports muscle growth, helps retain healthy lean tissue, keeps us stronger, and even supports our metabolic rate – which is important as we get older. Getting enough protein can also make the difference between being hungry, and feeling full and satiated by the meals you eat.
How Much Protein Is Enough?
Whilst there’s no need to go overboard, you do need to keep an eye on your protein intake. Active people should aim for between 0.7g and 1g of protein per pound of body weight. Remember, that’s a gram of the macronutrient itself, not a gram of the food weight. For example, 100g chicken breast contains about 30g of protein.
So, a 150lb female would aim for 100-150g of protein per day and a 180lb male would be looking at approximately 125-180g of protein.
Match Your Protein To Your Goals
So, now you’ve worked out how much protein to eat every day for your body weight, size, activity levels and goals, it’s time to look at where you’ll get that protein from. It is useful to plan main meals to include lean meat, poultry, red meat or game, eggs, dairy, fish and seafood. But what about quick snacks, pre and post-workout options, and bedtime protein? Here are some of our favourites.
Choose your goal:
Boost your protein intake using quality protein with minimal fat/carbs
Choose: Pure Whey Protein™
Low in fat and carbs, with 82% whey protein concentrate, this is our most popular whey protein. It comes in 18 flavours (more to come in time!) making it a great choice for drinking as a shake, adding to oats or using in your protein cooking experiments.
Avoid lactose by using a very pure protein
Choose: Pure Whey Isolate™
Our whey isolate delivers 97g of protein per 100g, with 0g of carbs and only trace fats. The process of making whey isolate removes all the lactose, making it a great choice for anyone who struggles with dairy or needs to avoid lactose altogether.
A post-workout protein plus quality ingredients
Choose: Aftermath Post Workout Recovery™
This incredible post-workout protein contains whey protein isolate (the purest form of whey), creatine, and a host of other ingredients aimed at helping optimise recovery. It is the only all-in-one on the market which uses the sports-performance carbohydrate Vitargo®.
Extra calories in your protein to help you gain mass
Choose: Informed Mass Gainer™
This premium mass gainer uses only top-quality ingredients (no fillers or cheap ingredients here!) You’ll get protein from whey concentrate and isolate, and carbs from oats. But you’ll also get leucine, HMB and creatine, plus probiotics and digestive enzymes to help you actually absorb nutrients.
Added ingredients in your protein to help you with your weight loss goal
Choose: Cutting Edge™ Protein
Our premium weight loss protein formulation, which uses the same exclusive mTOR Protein Complex™ as Informed Whey, comes with added glucomannan (one of the hottest diet ingredients on the supplement scene), MCT’s, green coffee extract, cinnamon extract, choline bitartrate, and some quality probiotics in the form of DigeZyme® and LactoSpore®. This all adds up to the most advanced weight loss protein formula on the market.
The absolute best whey protein supplement, with added digestion support
Choose: Informed Whey Protein
Informed Whey Protein goes through the Informed Sport testing programme, so you can have total confidence in every ingredient and every batch. Absolutely no compromises. It delivers a whopping 24.3g protein per serving from premium protein sources! We’ve also added ingredients to support your digestion and help you absorb more of the nutrition.
A protein powder for your Paleo diet
Choose: Beef Protein Isolate™
Beef protein isolate is in fact a great choice for anyone who wants to completely avoid whey, lactose, dairy, or milk sugars. It’s a pure protein (like all isolates) delivering 97% protein content. And no it doesn’t taste like beef at all, promise.
In The Protein Pantry
Stock your kitchen shelves with protein-packed snack options like liquid egg whites (they keep for a while, and you can freeze the bottles to extend the shelf-life), nut butters, seed butters, and our delicious combination butters, chia seeds, chia protein granola, and your favourite protein bar or protein flapjack.
With all these options available, you’ll never struggle to hit your protein requirements again.
About the Author
Nicola Joyce has been writing for (and about) sport, fitness, nutrition and healthy living since 2004. She’s also a keen sportswoman: her background is in endurance sport but she now competes as a natural bodybuilder, most recently winning a world title with the INBF. When she’s not writing content, she can be found blogging. Follow her here www.nicolajoyce.co.uk and on Facebook & Twitter (@thefitwriter) too.
