Whey Protein: Intake & Dosage

Content:

• How should you take Whey Protein for the best effect?
• The correct dosage when taking Whey Protein
• How often should you take your Whey Protein?
• When is the right time to take Whey Protein?
• How long should you take Whey Protein?
• What are your options when taking Whey Protein?
• Conclusion: What you should consider when taking Whey Protein

How should you take Whey Protein for the optimal effect?

Whether muscle building, muscle maintenance, diet or strength training: Whey protein is an essential part of the daily diet for most athletes. No wonder, because the protein powder can support your body in many ways to build muscle and break down fat. But there are still many myths and unanswered questions about the preparation, dosage and timing of Whey Protein: When is the right time to take Whey Protein, how should you take it and what is the right dosage? Here you will find the answers and learn everything important about intake, dosage and daily requirement.

A lot helps a lot - the right dosage when taking Whey Protein

A lot helps a lot, the more the better: This is really not the right approach when taking protein powder. Because in order for you to see success, the right dosage of Whey protein is important. How much Whey you should take also depends on your personal goals. Depending on whether you want to build muscle, maintain muscle or take it during a diet, the daily protein intake should also be adjusted. If you ask for the appropriate amount of protein powder per application - e.g. for a shake - then 30 grams of powder are given as ideal. This also corresponds to our recommendation for the dosage of ESN Designer Whey.

However, the total amount of Whey protein you should take in a day depends on your physical activity. We have summarized the daily amount recommendations for Whey dosage for you[¹][²]:

• Minimum requirement for predominantly sedentary work without sports: 0.8 g / kg body weight.
• Optimum with little activity: 1.2 - 1.8 g / kg body weight
• Requirement for sport and muscle maintenance: 1.4 - 2.0 g / kg body weight
• Fordiet or muscle building: 1.6 - 2.4 g / kg body weight

By the way, exceeding these amounts will not provide your body with any added value and will not have a positive impact on your weight loss or training progress. A long-term intake of more than 3 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight can even lead to stomach pain, bloating or skin blemishes. While this is not dangerous, it is of course unpleasant and should be avoided. You may be wondering why the recommended amounts differ from the German Nutrition Society's ( DGE)recommendation of 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.[³] and fear an overdose. This is simply because the recommendation of the DGE just covers the minimum requirement for less active people and is not sufficient for most people according to current scientific findings.[⁴] Basically, you should also take into account the other protein sources that you consume throughout the day.

How often should you take your Whey Protein?

If you are currently in a strength and muscle building phase, then you can take 30 grams of protein powder two to three times a day to meet your protein needs and help your body build muscle. Whether as a shake or in another form, you can choose.

How often and in what quantity you should take Whey Protein depends entirely on your personal goals. If you want to maintain your muscles, then one portion of protein powder per day may be sufficient. For athletes or during a diet, the right amount must of course be individually adjusted depending on activity and training.

When is the right time to take Whey Protein?

The great advantage of Whey Protein is its quick availability. If you drink a shake with Whey protein powder after training, your body can use the amino acids directly for muscle building and thus keep the muscle protein synthesis going.

Since not only athletes, but also people during a diet naturally want to achieve the best possible results, many ask with Whey protein the question of when you should ideally take it. Whether in the morning or in the evening, before or after training - for a long time there were different opinions on these questions. However, current scientific findings indicate that it is not relevant foryour body and your muscles whether you take the proteins before or after training.[⁵]. The only thing that matters is that you meet your protein requirements - adapted to your physical activity - sufficiently so that your muscles have all the important amino acids at their disposal.

By the way, this also makes it not so important whether you prefer to drink your protein shake in the morning after getting up, at noon or in the evening. So if you are one of those people who don't like a shake in the morning and right before your workout, you don't have to worry about any disadvantages.

How long should you take Whey protein?

Protein powders with Whey are often used in targeted phases of (strength) training or during a diet. In principle, however, there is nothing to stop you from taking Whey protein afterwards as well and considering it a permanent part of your diet. In this way, you can not only cover your protein needs, but also maintain your muscles. However, you should also make sure that your daily protein intake does not exceed your protein requirements. For example, if you consume curd cheese, Skyr or other products with a high protein content every day, you should adjust your Whey protein intake so as not to exceed the recommended daily dose. Otherwise, your body may react with side effects such as abdominal pain.

What are your options when taking Whey Protein?

You're probably also wondering: How should I take Whey protein? The great advantage of Whey is that you can integrate it into your diet and everyday life in many ways. This is also due to the particularly good solubility, because high-quality Whey protein is offered in instant quality. To produce protein powder, the protein is concentrated from milk or whey through various filtration processes. Depending on how exactly and in which way the protein is filtered out, different variants of protein powder are created. When buying protein powder, you will probably encounter the terms Whey Concentrate and Isolate. In protein concentrate, your protein powder contains 60 to 80 percent protein, with the rest being fat, carbohydrates and water. To produce Whey Isolate, the concentrate is further filtered to completely isolate the protein and also filter out fat and carbohydrates. Therefore, the protein content of Whey Isolate is even higher at 90 to 95 percent.

Apart from the protein content, however, it really doesn't matter whether you choose isolate or concentrate for high-quality protein powders, because they are both easily soluble. If you prefer to drink your shake with water, then isolate can be an advantage because it contains more protein. If you mix your protein powder with milk, you automatically have additional proteins from the milk in your shake. Whether you take milk or water when taking Whey Protein is ultimately a matter of taste. But it does not always have to be the classic protein shake. You can also use your Whey Protein as a supplement to yogurt, quark or desserts. With the different flavors of ESN you will not be bored guaranteed and you can cover your protein needs in a delicious and varied way every day.

By the way: You can also use Whey Protein for baking without any problems and thus easily turn delicious cakes or pastries into a source of protein.

Conclusion: What you should consider when taking Whey Protein

As you can see, it is not that complicated to take and dose Whey Protein correctly. Because used correctly, you can integrate the protein powder in your everyday diet in a delicious and versatile way - whether to build muscle, during a diet or to maintain muscle. Ideally, however, you should not only pay attention to the intake and dosage of Whey protein, but also to a good quality, because high-quality protein powder not only convinces with a high protein content and a good profile of amino acids, but is also easier to process and can be better absorbed by the body.

So that you can always achieve the optimal effect, you will find the right Whey Protein for each of your goals at ESN. Convince yourself and just try it out!

Sources:

[1] https://examine.com/guides/protein-intake/#how-much-protein-do-you-need-per-day

[2] Hudson JL, Wang Y, Bergia Iii RE, Campbell WW. Protein Intake Greater than the RDA Differentially Influences Whole-Body Lean Mass Responses to Purposeful Catabolic and Anabolic Stressors: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Adv Nutr. 2020 May 1;11(3):548-558. doi: 10.1093/advances/nmz106. PMID: 31794597; PMCID: PMC7231581.

[3] https://www.dge.de/presse/pm/wie-viel-protein-brauchen-wir/

[4] Hudson JL, Wang Y, Bergia Iii RE, Campbell WW. Protein Intake Greater than the RDA Differentially Influences Whole-Body Lean Mass Responses to Purposeful Catabolic and Anabolic Stressors: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Adv Nutr. 2020 May 1;11(3):548-558. doi: 10.1093/advances/nmz106. PMID: 31794597; PMCID: PMC7231581.

[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5214805/