Category: Nutrition

How to choose a whey protein powder?

1/23/2019

Walks into the store - "How the hell do I choose which protein, and what the hell is the difference??"

These are likely thoughts that might cross your mind the first time you seriously consider trying to buy a protein powder from a store or online. There are actually several important factors to consider in choosing your protein, and there are actually many differences between them. In this post I'll cover the basics of what you're looking for in a protein powder supp.

1. Look for "Informed Choice" or "NSF safe for sport" logo's on the bottle.

If you can't find either one of these, just put it back. The best, cleanest, and safest proteins all have this. These get tested thoroughly, and if you ever end up getting drug tested for a sport, nothing that is in the product will result in a positive test.

2. Look at the Ingredients List: (Very Important)

Ingredients are listed in order from greatest amount to the least. So if your protein has anything else other than "protein" listed as the first ingredient, you know that there is a problem with this product. This is where you will check for what type of protein they use, or blend of proteins, if they use any creamers or fillers (don't want that), if they use artificial flavors or colors (don't want that), and if they put in other weird things, you would be surprised. You want the ingredients list to be as short as possible. 5 or 6 ingredients is a great product. A product with 30 ingredients is full of crap.

You typically want the first ingredient to be one of the following: (Hydrolyzed Whey Protein Isolate, Whey Protein Isolate)
Avoid proteins that start with: (Whey Protein Concentrate, Calcium Caseinate) - lower quality proteins)

3. Look at Nutrition Facts Box:

This also tells you very important information. Look at the serving size, which is listed in grams. Say the serving size is 50 Grams of powder. Next, look at Grams of Fat per serving, the Grams of Carbs per serving, and the Grams of Protein per serving. If your protein powder has a 50 gram serving size, and within that 50 gram serving, only 25 grams is actually protein, well what the hell is the rest?? Fats and carbs are extremely easy to find and eat on their own, so why buy a bottle of "protein" when only half of it is actually protein? Find a bottle that is 80 - 90+ % high quality protein. You want the carbs and the fat grams low, so that when you a buying a "protein", that's what you are actually buying.

Once you've gotten that far, you've evaluated your choice to a much higher degree than the average consumer. This is good. Those things by themselves are enough to make a good choice, but there are still a few more things I like to check...

4. Where is this companies headquarters, and where was this product manufactured?

I love it when a company is an American company and the product is manufactured at a GMP certified facility. This, when paired with NSF or Informed Choice, gives you the highest level of confidence in the quality of the product - that what is in the bottle is what is listed on the ingredients list. If you can not find where the company is headquartered, or there is no mention of where the product is manufactured, put it back. They are hiding something. There are some very clean products I am aware of coming out of Canada and certain European countries right now but my general suggestion is to look for American Made stuff that fits all the prior criteria.

5. What is the Amino Acid Profile?

If the bottle you are holding posts the typical amino acid profile of a serving of the protein, go ahead and take a look at it and compare it to other amino acid profiles. You want to look for the ones with high levels of Leucine, Isoleucine, Valine, Glutamine, Arginine. If all other things are equal, and one bottle has 3,000 grams of leucine per serving and the other has 1,658 grams of leucine per serving, go with the one that has 3,000 grams of leucine!

I always prefer when manufacturers list the amino acid profile on the bottle, but the majority of manufacturers do not provide the entire list. They may only say it has a certain level of BCAAs or a certain level of Leucine or Glutamine, which is the most important information you are looking for anyway.

6. What manufacturing process was used?

There are more and more ways Whey Protein is made. The main things you need to know is that liquid whey is essentially a byproduct of cheese manufacturing. Now some companies have made processes that extract the whey directly from the milk, which theoretically results in the highest quality because that extraction process is the most gentle and easy, so the protein is less "denatured" than what happens when it is derived as a byproduct of cheese manufacturing.

So "Native" manufacturing processes, along with doing this with milk that is from cows that are grass fed and happy, is a great thing. This is also the most expensive method.

The next best method, is cross flow microfiltration. So if you see a product that says "cross flow microfiltration whey protein isolate" you can make the judgement that the quality of that protein is better than most. It is better than the one that says "whey protein isolate" without declaring the manufacturing process, and the one that says "ion exchange whey protein isolate / concentrate."

Ion exchange process is the cheapest and done at the highest temperature, which denatures the protein the most.
Cold temp cross flow microfiltration is more expensive but results in a higher quality protein.

Specific suggestions:
Dymatize Iso100 (no artifical colors or flavors version) (HQ in Dallas TX, Manufactured in GMP Faclities, Informed Choice Certified - Hydrolyzed Whey Isolate - (fastest absorbing whey protein there is)

RivalUs Native Pro 100 (no artificial colors or flavors version) (HQ originally Halifax Nova Scotia, now Aurora Illinois since acquired by Nutrivo) (manufacturing done in U.S. in GMP Facilities) (Informed choice and NSF) (Native Whey protein Isolate)

2 Comments

What Supplements do I take?

1/14/2019

1 Comment

I often get asked about supplements:

"Which supplements do you take?" "What do you think about this or that?"

As most of you know, I spent a couple years while in school working at a Vitamin Shoppe in Los Altos. I learned a lot about what to look for in terms of supplements. I can confidently say that I wouldn't use over 90% of the stuff out there right now, and good nutrition and sleep is far more important than any supplement; but at the same time, there are supps out there that are good and can help you. I'm just going to cover some of the basics in this post:

To keep it brief (focusing on muscle building, maintenance, power, and strength)

1.) Whey Protein Isolate
2.) BCAA's
3.) Creatine (Ph Buffered)

All of the above have decades of research behind them, demonstrating both effectiveness and safety. There are some other products that I use occasionally, but these are the basics that I have on hand most often. I'm not going to get into dosing or the super fine details about each specific product but I will give an overview. These are not blanket recommendations for anybody, I am just communicating what I do and what I think.

Whey protein is a protein that is found in Dairy products, such as milk and cheese. Everytime you eat dairy, you consume some whey protein. What's great about whey protein is that it has an extremely favorable amino acid profile (very important) and it digests extremely quickly. Both of these things are important for fueling muscle growth and for taking advantage of the favorable hormonal environment (for muscle growth) that results after weightlifting.

BCAA's, Branched Chain Amino Acids, or more specifically, (Leucine, Isoleucine, Valine) are amino acids that have been found to be particularly important. BCAA's are effective anti-catabolics; that is they help prevent the loss of muscle mass, even during prolonged periods of inactivity, or extreme prolonged endurance activity such as trekking, and even during calorie restricted diets. Leucine has been found to be a stimulator of the mTOR pathway, which is an important muscle building pathway in the body. BCAA's are your friend if you are trying to minimize possible muscle loss and improve muscle growth.

Creatine is a naturally occurring substance that is composed of amino acids. It is found in animal proteins such as steak. Everytime you eat steak, you consume some creatine. Creatine use results in increased power output as well as increased max strength. Creatine is effective because it has a lot of phosphates in it. The body uses phosphates to replenish ATP, the energy for work.

Examples of products I typically have: (every one of below products has either NSF Certification, or Informed Choice certification, or both! - more on that below)

You can find the exact products through my affiliate links below to support my business :)

General Suggestions:
1.) Look for (NSF Certified for Sport) and/or (Informed Choice Trusted by sport) logo's on the bottle! These are quality assurance processes. (many supps do not have either of these logos!)

NSF means: Products do not contain any substances banned by major athletic associations, WHAT IS IN THE BOTTLE MATCHES WHAT IS ON THE LABEL, there are no unsafe levels of contaminants, and the products are manufactured at a facility that is GMP certified.

Informed Choice means: Commercial end products have gone under full manufacturing audit, and are WADA banned substance tested. The RAW materials also undergo full audit, and are WADA tested. Even the manufacturing facilities are audited and certified as well.

2.) Look for products that have NO Artificial Sweeteners, NO Artificial Colors, No Creamers or fillers, No FAKE CRAP, no PRO HORMONES and NO HARDCORE STIMULANTS.

Visit the NSF or Informed Choice websites for more info! In future posts, I'll get into why specifically each of these is an excellent product, and go into more detail about exactly what you are looking for when choosing a protein, BCAA, or creatine supplement. I'll also cover other supps that can be helpful as well in future posts :)

1 Comment

How do I manage nutrition when on vacation?

9/17/2018

1 Comment

Before I get started here, I wanted to thank every one of my clients and friends - if it weren't for you guys, I wouldn't have been able to do this trip and this wedding. The whole thing was beyond what I could have imagined. We had an absolute blast. Thanks so much for supporting me and allowing me to take the next step. We did it our way and it was amazing. :)

AND, I want to point out that yes, I still had a ton of fun and I wasn't insanely strict about nutrition to the point that I ruined the fun. That's part of the point of this post - you can enjoy yourself but at the same time have a high quanitity of healthy and delicious foods all at the same time! Travel/fun and decent nutrition aren't totally exclusive! Photographic Evidence of fun enjoying some Guinness and some Irish and Scotch Whiskey :)

But aside from that, I wanted to share some examples of the strategies I used for my nutrition on the trip. I know traveling really throws a wrench in the nutrition works for a lot of people, and I certainly didn't keep up with my exact nutrition strategy at home, but I did do pretty well and I used some simple tools that can help anyone.

So when I'm on a trip, the way I frame it is this: When you're traveling for 2+ weeks, can your health and fitness really afford to eat out for 3 meals a day for like 16 days?? The obvious answer for me is no, even if I'm being careful with my ordering. So the answer:

1. Keep healthy snacks!
I'd keep these with me to prevent myself from getting to the point where I'm starving, which is when I always make the worst decisions. Examples: Clif Builder Bar's - Nuts and Seeds - Water - Fruits - Jerky - Peanut Butter

2. Go to the local market and buy some fresh meats, veggies, and fruits!
Make some of your own meals. I'd typically cook a healthy breakfast when I was staying at an Airbnb, which was the majority of the time. Example: Chicken - Grass Fed Beef - Spinach - Salads - Sausage - Apples

These are simple but they were indispensable tools for keeping some control over what was going on.

A couple examples of meals I made:
1. Grass Fed Beef with local Cheddar Cheese + fresh greens, carrots, grape tomatoes, and cucumbers - this was delicious by the way - at our AirBnB in Edinburgh, this one was a late lunch before going out in Edinburgh
2. Red and Green Grapes and Blueberries + Fresh no nitrite/nitrate pork sausage and tea - this was also surprisingly good! This was a breakfast before going out as well.

As far as goes eating out: It's lucky because in Ireland and Scotland, when you eat at a pub, all the veggies and meats are locally sourced, and I mean very locally sourced. The beef is grass fed from a cow down the way, and the veggies were grown and picked very close as well. All allergen information is listed on the menu's, and often the exact source of the food is listed on the menu. Everything is extremely fresh. It's actually fantastic, and you can do a great job. It can be tough to avoid an overload of potatoes, but it could be a lot worse. You can see all the grass fed beef, greens, slaw, and potatoes in the photos. They are more than willing to do lettuce wraps for you, and if you don't eat the fries, you've done extremely well. You've also got a ton of options at a nice restaurant or steakhouse - Fresh seafood and Risotto, or a T - Bone to share, Scallops Bacon and Veggies :)

In France, it was harder to do as good a job eating out. Everything is bread and grain based, so it's tough not to over do it on the carbs. It was especially important for me to cook at least 1 meal each day while I was there and to have snacks while out exploring. Although I did manage to find chicken and veggies and lots of Mussels :)

If you're at a hotel in Ireland, they'll most likely offer a full Irish breakfast, which can include sausage, eggs, bacon, fruit, tomatoes, beans, and toast. If you stick with the proteins, fruit, and tomatoes, and skip the beans and toast, I'd say that's pretty good for a breakfast. I never stayed in a hotel while in France, so I couldn't say what the breakfast there would have been like.

Just think to yourself about how you're going to get some good quality protein and veggies during a meal, and then try to figure out a way to not go totally overboard with the carbs, like going with the lettuce wrap or not eating all the fries, and not ordering all the breaded fried foods. And easy on the desserts and no Soda's.

If you follow some of these tips, you'll still love traveling and you'll get to enjoy the local food, but it'll also be healthy, and you'll have a lot less catching up to do when you finally get back home. It'll be much faster getting back into a healthy routine than it would be if you were starting from a place of total self indulgence. Don't be the person that puts on 5 - 10 lbs on a trip and then says they'll lose it when they get back and never does!!

1 Comment

How to choose a whey protein powder?

Walks into the store - "How the hell do I choose which protein, and what the hell is the difference??"

2. Look at the Ingredients List: (Very Important)

3. Look at Nutrition Facts Box:

4. Where is this companies headquarters, and where was this product manufactured?

5. What is the Amino Acid Profile?

6. What manufacturing process was used?

What Supplements do I take?

"Which supplements do you take?" "What do you think about this or that?"

1.) Whey Protein Isolate
2.) BCAA's
3.) Creatine (Ph Buffered)

How do I manage nutrition when on vacation?

Author

Archives

Categories

How to choose a whey protein powder?

**Walks into the store** - "How the hell do I choose which protein, and what the hell is the difference??"

2. Look at the Ingredients List: (Very Important)

3. Look at Nutrition Facts Box:

4. Where is this companies headquarters, and where was this product manufactured?

5. What is the Amino Acid Profile?

6. What manufacturing process was used?

What Supplements do I take?

"Which supplements do you take?" "What do you think about this or that?"

1.) Whey Protein Isolate 2.) BCAA's ​3.) Creatine (Ph Buffered)

How do I manage nutrition when on vacation?

Author

Archives

Categories

Walks into the store - "How the hell do I choose which protein, and what the hell is the difference??"

1.) Whey Protein Isolate
2.) BCAA's
3.) Creatine (Ph Buffered)