#015 The Based Protein Supplement Guide

Welcome back to the 15th edition of the Boats & Logs Lifting Club. I really appreciate you being here. We are the based fitness community that focuses on mastering the basics instead of getting lost in the details.

Please excuse me for not publishing this newsletter on Sunday as usual, but with the festivities and time with friends and family, I had to postpone this newsletter to finish it with the quality you deserve.

Today, we are discussing a topic close to my heart: Protein Supplementation.

By now, everybody knows that protein is absolutely essential to build muscle and live a healthy life. With the New Year rolling in, many people want to live healthier and plan to increase their protein intake, and that’s a good goal.

The supplement companies know that, too. December and January are the most important months of the year for them to get your money. Some of these companies and influencers representing them are ethical, but over the last few days, I have seen countless sponsored influencers praising protein powders as an absolute basis for muscle growth and fat loss.

This makes me incredibly angry because it is not true and is just a way to transfer your money into influencers’ and supplement companies’ pockets.

Don’t get me wrong. There are good reasons to use protein supplements (I use them, too), but you absolutely don’t need them to achieve your goals.

Let’s break it down:

Your body needs protein for many essential processes, including repairing and building new muscle tissues. To perform these tasks well, you should be aiming to consume 0.7-1.0g of protein per lb of body weight (or 1.6-2.2g per kg) per day. If you are unsure about the role of protein in building muscle, check out our earlier newsletter explaining the basics of protein.

Your goal should be to consume as much protein as possible through your normal diet by using a high share of high-quality protein sources (e.g., milk, eggs, beef, fish) without any supplementation. This is something that is definitely possible. I published a meal plan last week containing 150g of protein per day.

You don’t need to supplement with protein if you follow a balanced diet with high-quality protein sources and consistently reach your protein goals. But if you find yourself struggling to reach your protein goals or lack high-quality protein sources, then, as a second step, protein supplementation is something for you to look into.

Please remember that whatever form of protein supplementation we are talking about, we should always see it as a way to supplement our diet and not make it our main protein source.

Whey protein is the most common form of protein supplementation and what most would simply call “protein powder”. It is a milk-based protein and, therefore, one of the highest-quality protein sources, as you can see in the PDCAA-Score below, which measures the quality of the protein by taking into account the bioavailability (how much of the protein your body can digest/use) and the amino acid profile.

Additionally, whey protein is also a very cheap protein source. This combination makes it the preferred form of protein supplementation for many lifters.

So what does that mean for you?

Whey protein isn’t anything special. It is just a cheap, high-quality protein source.

A common reason to consume whey protein is to cover protein gaps you can’t fill with your nutrition. Let’s say your goal is to consume 170g of protein per day, but you can only consume 140g through your diet. Drinking a protein shake (whey protein) with 30g of protein can be a very good option to reach the goal of 170g of protein.

Protein shakes can also be a great tool if you are in a calorie deficit and struggle to reach your protein goals without exceeding your calorie limits. Mixing whey protein and water can be a good low-calorie protein source.

Another good reason to consume whey protein is if you are following a mainly plant-based diet (but not vegan, as whey is milk-based).

To understand this, you need to understand that proteins consist of amino acids. There are 20 amino acids in total. Our body can produce 9 itself and needs to be fed the other 11. Those 11 amino acids are called essential amino acids (EAAs). Our body can only form new proteins (that it can then use to build new muscle tissues) if it has all 20 amino acids. Remembering the picture above, most plant-based protein sources have low PDCAA-Scores and lack EAAs. To make up for it, whey protein can be a good source of a full mix of EAAs your body needs to build muscle.

Speaking of EAAs, you can also supplement EAAs directly.

If you are already consuming most (>50%) of your protein from high-quality protein sources, EAAs probably won’t help you much. You could use it as a protein source during fasting (it has basically 0 calories) or workouts to keep you in an anabolic state, but you won’t see a big difference.

But if you follow a (mainly) plant-based diet, adding EAAs to your meals can be a great way to ensure your body has all the building blocks needed to build new muscles and something most plant-based lifters should strongly benefit from. However, by doing research on the amino acid profiles of your food, you can also ensure that you consume all essential amino acids by mixing different plant-based protein sources.

Not as popular anymore but still worth talking about are BCAAs (Branched Chain Amino Acid). Of the 20 amino acids, BCAAs are Leucine, Isoleucine, and Valine. And while especially Leucine is key to triggering Muscle Protein Synthesis, your body won’t build any muscles without the other 8 essential amino acids. Therefore, taking BCAAs alone doesn’t really do much. Most of you are better off simply eating enough protein and supplementing with EAAs if necessary.

Another option besides whey is casein protein. In contrast to whey, casein is a slower-digesting protein. People like to consume casein protein before bed to keep Muscle Protein Synthesis elevated for a longer time during sleep. I don’t use casein as (I) the impact of consuming it before bedtime isn’t huge, and (b) you can also consume casein protein without supplementing it.

As an alternative to casein supplementation, you could simply eat Greek yogurt or mix whey with milk, as milk is also high in casein protein.

To sum it up, try to get your protein (and EAAs) through your normal diet. If, for whatever reason, you are struggling to achieve that, the supplementation of whey and/or EAAs can be a great tool to cover your body’s protein demand.

That’s it for today’s newsletter. I hope it was helpful to you and that you now have an understanding of how to use protein supplements for your goals. I tried to answer as many of your questions as possible. If you have further questions, simply DM me on Instagram.

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Stay strong,
Boats & Logs

Disclaimer

This is not Legal, Medical, or Financial advice. Before starting any workout program, diet plan, or supplement protocol, please consult a medical professional. These are the opinions from an AI voice.