Liquid food

[cardiodan]

Lately Ive seen in magazines and in youtube a host of ppl blending their chicken or blending their tuna.

Here I keep reading the importance of food's thermogenic effect.

I mean how big is the thermogenic effect anyway?
Once it's chewed, isn't it as good as a protein shake?

I understand it has nutrients ok. Take a multi, eat your veggies.
But Im just wondering as it doesnt make sense.

(One day when I really* dont have time I might try that.
But storing one of those has to smell like a dead carcass.

[AdamGH]

my main reason is they are a waste of money and dont do anything different than whole food does. they are only good for convenience when in a pinch for time. here is an article as well:


Whole Foods vs Shakes For Muscle Gain


After many years of spending hundreds, and even thousands, of dollars, after getting sick on them, and after seeing NO KIND OF RESULTS from them, many have finally realized that they are WORTHLESS. Yet, many are still confused if the supplements that are sold as "Meal Replacements", "Weight Gainers", "natural supplements", and "amino acids" have some good use in substituting for some WHOLE FOODS. Surely you see them in just about every other page in every-single bodybuilding / fitness magazine. Everyone at the gym uses them. Go to any grocery store and they have them there too. Yes, even you have probably used them and / or are using them right now.........


Shakes and supplements.

Many different "meal replacement" powders and shakes, also known as RTD's, are sold as being a substitute for a real, whole food meal. The makers claim that they are "just as good, if not better, than eating a real meal". They claim to have higher amounts of protein, lower amounts of sugar, and add in ingredients such as BCAA's, Glutamine, Creatine, HMB, CLA, so on and so forth. They claim that your muscles need a high amount of this and that, and that you can't get those from just eating the right foods. .....



That's what the makers claim.

First off, no supplement that is out on the market right now will build any kind of real, permanent muscle on your body, none! Not creatine (which makes you gain nothing but "water weight"), not glutamine, not HMB, not NO2, not any one of them. If you are skeptical, perform a test on yourself: For one month, don't change anything about your training routine or your eating habits. Measure your arms, your chest, and your waist with a measuring tape and fat calipers. Take one supplement, and only one. Use it for that month. Then take your measurements again. I guarantee you that your measurements will reveal that your arms or chest didn't get any bigger or vascular, regardless of what the weight scale says. Yes, some people report gaining 8-10 pounds of weight after one week of using creatine, but are those 8-10 pounds muscle? No! They are made up of water and / or fat. The measuring tape and fat calipers will reveal that to you. So, when a meal replacement shake or powder advertises that it is better than eating whole food because it contains all of these extra "muscle building ingredients", don't be fooled. Even if it actually contains those ingredients, they don't work anyway!

Second, meal replacements claim to have a certain amount of protein grams, carb grams, and fat grams. Well, lately there have been several analysis done on many popular supplements, and it has been discovered that many of them do not contain the amount of ingredients as printed on the label!! Just a while back a report was written that a popular "protein bar", that claims to taste like Snickers, contained up to 7% less amount of protein than the label claims. And it contained much more sugar than stated. Many of these makers "skim" on the ingredients to bring the cost down of making those supplements, while lying on the nutrition labels, just to make a bigger profit!

Third, the price. A meal replacement powder can cost you up to $3.00 PER PACKET, while it would probably cost you $1.00 or less if you were to eat the same amount of calories from real food. I don't know about you, but I rather keep my money in my pocket.

Fourth, and probably the most important out of all, is that powders and shakes contain many ingredients that are down-right harmful to your internal body. In order to make these "meal replacements" into powders and to be able to be stored for long periods of time (for shipping and sitting on the store shelves), many chemicals and preservatives must be added. What do you think happens when you are constantly putting into your body foreign chemicals and preservatives, substances that are not from nature. Your body does not handle well those types of unnatural substances. Instead of making you gain muscle, all you will get is a BLOATED STOMACH, DIARRHEA, and EVEN FAT, since your body doesn't digest it well. How many times have you drunk a protein shake and 30 minutes later you start to get "gas"? That's your body's way of telling you that it cannot handle that shake. Also, "meal replacements" DON'T contain vital nutrients that are a "must-have" if you want to grow a healthy physique, such as vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, enzymes, etc. These powders don't have any of those things.


Don't believe me, read the nutrition labels.

On the contrary, whole foods are natural, they contain all of the vital nutrients that your body requires to get big and strong, they are much less in price, and they won't cause you to go running to the nearest toilet. Without a doubt, if you want to gain muscular weight, forget about those disgusting-tasting meal replacement powders and shakes, and eat real whole foods, just like our ancestors did back before the supplement industry came along with all of their lies.

http://www. submityourarticle. com/articles/Jonathan-Perez-1252/how-to-gain-weight-7768.php

[AdamGH]

another article:

Protein Shakes Vs Foods - Are Protein Shakes More Important Than Real Food in a Bodybuilding Diet?

Even though most people who are just getting started in bodybuilding think that muscle gains are impossible to achieve without protein shakes, real food is by far the most important component of a bodybuilding diet. There are so many nutrients that real food contains, many of which have not even been discovered yet, that you would be doing yourself a disservice by limiting the amount of real food that you are eating.

In addition, real food has what is called a "thermic effect". A "thermic effect" is the impact that real food has in your metabolism. Because real food requires digestion, your body burns more calories in processing it; as opposed to protein shakes which are already pre-digested.

Regardless of what the magazine ads tell you, protein shakes do not offer any muscle building benefit, nor "secret muscle building ingredient", above and beyond what real food offers you. Yes, I have read the ads too with all sorts of speedy muscle building promises, but I can assure you through experience that most of the ingredients advertised as miraculous have not been proven to work; neither by science (even though most ads of this nature usually talk about research studies that usually do not exist) nor by actual results at the gym. These miraculous products however have been proven, beyond the shadow of any scientific doubt, to shrink the size of your wallet and bank account.

What protein shakes do offer the bodybuilder and fitness enthusiast is a convenient way to ingest your protein, thus allowing you to have your five to six meals every day without having to ingest real food in all of them. In addition, the best protein shakes in the market offer a protein blend of different sources of protein, something that introduces amino acid variety into your bodybuilding diet, thus making your nutrition program more complete. However, do not ever think that protein shakes are superior to food.


http:// ezinearticles. com/?Protein-Shakes-Vs-Foods---Are-Protein-Shakes-More-Important-Than-Real-Food-in-a-Bodybuilding-Diet?&id=1586006

[cardiodan]

Adam thanks for the articles.

[jimmyinkedup]

Man dont even get me started on supplements ..the hole damn industry is based on marketing , false unsubstantiated claims , and unregulated products. I could go on forever on how they make claims based on a study where a rat taking 3x its body weight for 16 weeks and gained 1 gram of bodyweight - heres their spin : use of this product has been proven in laboratory studies to increase lean body mass. How about no regulation or testing of ingredient claims by ANY regulatory body - you could be getting vitamins for all you know. The kicker - sponsoring pro bbr's who then turn around and lie to consumers who know no better ...many teenagers.. and say they use this and that and thats how the get big,cut whatever. The best are the names - androtrenadololone(my own made up supplement name) - shit that sounds like real juice.
Then the real slimebags that create websites and plant seeds for weeks in forum threads about "new" discoveries and how great they are then viola they are selling supps with these ingredients. . but first they post this amazing diet where you NEED pro super drive meal replacement or post a bulk plan where the aforementioned androtrenadololone is required and wouldnt you know it 2 weeks later they are avail for sale on the site. *L* Damn i vented ..I just hate that shit. I use protein powder begrudgingly and only PWO and bcaa's and still wonder if they are both a waste - they are just cheap enuf im willing to use anyway in case they do something.

[cardiodan]

I use whey protein .
I don't see a problem with it. Ive been using it for a good while. I think whey is worth it.

Remember when Optimum had that r*********ary product, I think one year ago, claiming to double your bench press in 4 weeks. MANY ppl bought into it.
I know there's a lot of crap in the supp industry.

But you can't be serious about WHEY PROTEIN.
I think it's great, taste can be VERY good, and it's very convienient.

I guess you fell for the hype huh...that's why youre venting?
LOL.......at least now youre more knowledgeable

[TheJuicer]

I've been using Creatine on and off since it was introduced in the early 90's and I love the stuff. I've lifted with and without it and it does what it says it does. It allows you to do just 1 or 2 more reps that you wouldnt have been able to do without it. Water or no water, creatine helps me with my strength.

[cardiodan]

Creatine gets me bloated.
I fell for much of the hype too when I was younger.
Cell tech (that overpriced garbage)...

I think I get bloated and at the same time Im a non responder....didn't do much for my muscles.

But yeah I have friends that have used creatine with positive results.
Ill stick with whey+oats+chicken+flax+broccolli+sweet potato

I think that's all I eat

[jimmyinkedup]

I use whey protein .
I don't see a problem with it. Ive been using it for a good while. I think whey is worth it.

Remember when Optimum had that r*********ary product, I think one year ago, claiming to double your bench press in 4 weeks. MANY ppl bought into it.
I know there's a lot of crap in the supp industry.

But you can't be serious about WHEY PROTEIN.
I think it's great, taste can be VERY good, and it's very convienient. -I said above i use it.... begrudgingly ..but i use it.

I guess you fell for the hype huh...that's why youre venting?
LOL.......at least now youre more knowledgeable

*L* I can see where you might assume that, but no. I learned early on that the real thing is what really works (if u know what i mean) but i worked at a gym for just under 10 years and watched i dont know how many young people waste so much $$$ ,and they would always ask me ..what do u think of this supplement and that supplement ...just bothers me seeing them mislead ...and believing wholeheartedly what they read or what Mr Olympia runner up said he uses in a paid 4 page advertisement in muscle and fitness.

[cardiodan]

*L* I can see where you might assume that, but no. I learned early on that the real thing is what really works (if u know what i mean) but i worked at a gym for just under 10 years and watched i dont know how many young people waste so much $$$ ,and they would always ask me ..what do u think of this supplement and that supplement ...just bothers me seeing them mislead ...and believing wholeheartedly what they read or what Mr Olympia runner up said he uses in a paid 4 page advertisement in muscle and fitness.

I need to go to a roid user gym There I can avoid having to hear the conversations of every skinny person (Im taking the vanilla thermogenic or this nox explode product etc)
Thats it when it comes to talks in my gyms. The latest hot product.

But you can't blame them though man. I mean how are you supposed to know?
Gotta try it....or at least research it. But with so much misinformation and clever marketing tactics (6 page ads) its quite hard to not fall for it as a beginner - don't you think?

[jimmyinkedup]

I need to go to a roid user gym There I can avoid having to hear the conversations of every skinny person (Im taking the vanilla thermogenic or this nox explode product etc)
Thats it when it comes to talks in my gyms. The latest hot product.

But you can't blame them though man. I mean how are you supposed to know?
Gotta try it....or at least research it. But with so much misinformation and clever marketing tactics (6 page ads) its quite hard to not fall for it as a beginner - don't you think?

I agree 100% - you picked up my frustration correctly the first post - it is totally with the supplement manufacturers and the scumbags that own the companies who do the BS claims and marketing. Hell I dont even blame the pro BB'rs that lie about using products that much, if they didnt have supplement manufacturers as sponsors they wouldnt have a shot financially. I totally understand the plight of the beginner reading the mags and the ads and the hype and dont blame them one bit. When asked by them I try my best to educate them ..and not on steroids..on diet , rest , and workouts and on what a waste 99% of the supplements are. BTW _ Just my opinion guys ..if u are using a supplement that really works for you ...by all means have at it. Most beginners dont get diet, training ,and rest in order well enough to try a supplement to see if it really works in the first place. Especailly since most guys asking me were ages 17-22 maybe 23. The exact age range where you dont need any supps..your hormone levels are naturally at a lifetime high for building lean body mass. If u eat well , train right and rest you will grow ...rapidly. Again - my opinion.
ps- sorry I got this thread Off Topic...i'll shut up *L*