Hey everybody this is Chance and Heather with All Steele Fitness and today we want to go over and address a question that we’re getting a lot from our clients and we have in the past, and we had some questions on our website about the difference between protein shakes and the meal replacement shakes. We’ll start with kind of talking about the differences, and also what we’d recommend.
The difference between a protein shake and a meal replacement shake is basically what’s inside the shake. A strict whey protein or protein shake is just going to have primarily protein. It’s going to be a little bit lower in calories, it’s going to be low in sugar, depending on which one that your purchase. The one that we recommend, one scoop and one serving is going to be about 20 grams of protein, it’s going to have 1 gram of sugar, 4 grams of carbs and it’s going to be very low in vitamins or things that you need to have a full meals. With a meal replacement shake, it’s going to be higher in calories, it’s going to have more carbohydrates, most of them will have a higher fibre count, it’ll also have lots of different vitamins and minerals in it. That’s going to be your main difference between the 2. As for our recommendations and other things about the difference in the 2, Heather’s going to go over those.
Hi, how’s it going. First of all for the whey protein, so like Chance has said, it’s just protein. There’s not going to be the vitamins, minerals, fibre, and carbohydrates that you need to sustain your energy throughout the period of 3 or 4 hours (which is what we recommend for a meal). So when you should be taking the whey protein shake first and foremost would be directly after a workout. I tell my clients all the time, “listen, get your meal within 30 — 45 minutes after a workout” and they thought “well, I haven’t even cooked dinner yet” or “hey I’ve got to do some running around” so that is the perfect optimum time to get your protein in. You just carry your shaker around, put a scoop in there, throw some water in. Sometimes some ice or maybe put it in a blender and shake it up — that tastes really good, especially when it’s warm out. And why you want to have it directly after is because you just tore up your muscle doing your workout. Whatever type of workout it is, even just cardio, you are working those muscles. So you want to get those amino acids that come in the protein, right after. You’re still going to want to have your meal within 3 or 4 hours after you work out, but you need that protein right away. And just digesting alone is going to take about 30 — 45 minutes without even prepping, so that’s why this is the quickest and easiest way to get it in. The other time that you want to do it is before bed. When we sleep is primarily the biggest muscle repairing time because we’re not active. As long as you’re moving that muscle, it’s not able to repair. That’s why when you break a leg, you’ve got to put it in a cast because it needs to repair — so you’re not moving it. That’s when your muscle is going to repair, when you’re sleeping. I recommend as your last snack, when you’re really wanting ice cream or cookies, or something like that (I like ice cream), you can have a shake then instead of that. Tastes like chocolate or vanilla, strawberry, whatever kind you like, and then you’re able to repair your muscle really good while you’re sleeping with all the amino acids which are called the building blocks.
