The Student Room Group

Protein shakes

Right I'm 21 and weigh 8 st. I am thin and have learnt to live with it I am happy but wouldn’t mind a change. I have started my workout at the gym and am looking to start on the protein shakes, 'Extreme XXL' is one shake I have come across it offers the following:

* Serving size (g): 276
* Energy (kcal): 1040
* Protein (g): 42
* Total Carbohydrates (g): 208
* Sugars (g): 17
* Total Fat (g): 4
* Saturated Fat (g): 2
* Dietary Fibre (g): 0
* Sodium (mg): 360

I tend to eat four good size meals a day but I am a bit awestruck regarding the energy intake of '1040'. Will the extra 1040 calories help me? I don't know what to do because I have been trying to put weight on for 3 years but to this day it hasn't worked.

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
Are you male?
Reply 2
well yes!
Reply 3
What does protein actually shake then?
Reply 4
That's not a protein shake, it's a weight gainer. It has protein and high quality carbohydrate in, both of which are needed to gain weight.

And yes, the extra calories will help you. Gaining weight is a matter of a simple energy equation: calories in > calories out. For some people the calories in will need to be 2500, for some they will need to be 3000, for some they will need to be as many as 5000.

At the moment you are not eating enough and you quite probably have a very fast metabolic rate, so the amount of calories you're eating is less than or equal to the amount of calories your body is burning. Obviously a weight gain drink will help you add those much needed calories into your diet, and combined with working out, you should start packing on some muscle. As long as you make sure you get enough carbohydrate, fat and protein from the rest of your diet you should find yourself gaining weight.

Although personally I don't see why weight gain drinks are necessary. I don't know anybody who needs to eat more than 5000 calories a day to gain weight, and if your metabolism is that fast then you don't have to worry about getting fat, just eat a couple of pizzas on top of the normal 3000 calories a day. Hell, if you're concerned about your health then boil up 250 grams of wholemeal pasta and cover it in fat free cheese and you've got well over 1000 calories right there. Oats and rice are also very calorie dense sources of quality carbohydrate, have yourself a really, really big bowl of ready brek or porridge with a load of sultanas and it will easily be as much as, or more than, 1000 calories.

In conclusion, the weight gain drink will help, but make sure the rest of your diet is in line first. Work out, and remember, above all, if you're not gaining weight, then quite simply you're not eating enough, so eat more carbohydrates and more protein (shoot for at least 180 grams of protein a day. At your weight, that should be enough).
Reply 5
Anonymous
Right I'm 21 and weigh 8 st. I am thin and have learnt to live with it I am happy but wouldn’t mind a change. I have started my workout at the gym and am looking to start on the protein shakes, 'Extreme XXL' is one shake I have come across it offers the following:

* Serving size (g): 276
* Energy (kcal): 1040
* Protein (g): 42
* Total Carbohydrates (g): 208
* Sugars (g): 17
* Total Fat (g): 4
* Saturated Fat (g): 2
* Dietary Fibre (g): 0
* Sodium (mg): 360

I tend to eat four good size meals a day but I am a bit awestruck regarding the energy intake of '1040'. Will the extra 1040 calories help me? I don't know what to do because I have been trying to put weight on for 3 years but to this day it hasn't worked.


How tall are you?
Reply 6
If you just want to boost your protein intake, it is better to do that with real foods. It's more healthy. Low cal high protein can be found in seafood. Prawns ar especially good. Seafood can be eaten raw if you wish as well.

If you want a wieght gainer try eating four balanced meals.
Reply 7
There's nothing more inherently healthy about eating whole food than having a protein shake. The amounts of lactose and fat in whey protein are miniscule, and many branded protein shakes have vitamins and nutrients added. In fact, you get equal amounts of lactose and protein in milk, so whey protein is healthier in terms of not having anywhere near the amount of insulinogenic lactose that milk would contain to obtain the same amount of protein, and casein protein has pretty much no lactose and no fat in it, so in that respect it is healthier than milk. The only thing which is possibly unhealthier is the artificial flavourings, which are in very small amounts. Protein shakes are basically pure, clean protein.
Reply 8
throw away "weight gainers" .. cheap sugar and probably cheap protein to a high price.

Just start eating like an animal and you will gain weight, then reduce a bit until it's
not only fat you gain. Try to eat healthy and distributed over the day.
Reply 9
chonky
throw away "weight gainers" .. cheap sugar and probably cheap protein to a high price.

Just start eating like an animal and you will gain weight, then reduce a bit until it's
not only fat you gain. Try to eat healthy and distributed over the day.


Weight-gainers work.

Like the OP, I am a classic 'ectomorph'. I only found that I put on weight after I started using a weight gainer (Prolab N Large 2 in case you want to know).

The problem with 'eating like an animal' is that in order for an ectomorph like myself, and the original poster by the looks of it to gain weight; we have to eat A LOT. I found that I had to consume at least 3k+ calories in order to gain a couple of pounds. Without a weight gainer, this would be the equivilent of 5 meals which is just not feasible for me, as I don't have that much money to spend on food a week. So a weight gainer works out cheaper. Plus at uni, there is the question of time; I don't have time to be preparing big meals throughout the day, so in this scienario a weight gainer is better.

I gained two stones through taking the above weight gainer in the space of 6 months. I am off it now, and just maintain the weight I have gained by eating sensibly.
Reply 10
I don't understand how you people can have such small appetites. I could easily cane 15K calories or more in a day, no problem.

Then again, people say I have the biggest appetite they're ever seen on anybody.
Reply 11
Try pints of lager. Just as effective at putting weight on and you can get drunk at the same time. It's a win-win. :biggrin:
Mr.God
I don't understand how you people can have such small appetites. I could easily cane 15K calories or more in a day, no problem.

Then again, people say I have the biggest appetite they're ever seen on anybody.


It is very time consuming eating so much food. Expensive too and a pain to prepare. Plus not to mention, eating so so so much food is just sickening after a while.
majorraja
Try pints of lager. Just as effective at putting weight on and you can get drunk at the same time. It's a win-win. :biggrin:


Tried that, didn't work. Rather it makes me lose weight; binge drinking that is.
Reply 14
Expensive? Not if you buy Tesco Value pasta, rice, oats and whatnot. That's next to nothing. You can get a kilo of oats for like 40p or something, and pasta is even less than that. Doesn't take long to prepare either, just boil up a couple of bags of pasta every few days while you're sitting and doing your work and you're gold.

I agree about chucking the weight gainer away though. If you're a true ectomorph, then why bother shelling out for expensive weight gainer when you can just buy an assload of caster sugar for next to nothing and add in a bit of Nesquik for flavour and a scoop of decent whey protein. It would be so much cheaper, and nutritionally there would be very little difference between that and many weight gainers (although many decent weight gainers use maltodextrin, I believe, which is obviously leagues better than caster sugar).

Or am I thinking of cane sugar? Whatever it is that you put in tea and coffee, it's sucrose, but I don't know what the layman's term for it is.
whats the name of the shake you speak of?
Mr.God
Expensive? Not if you buy Tesco Value pasta, rice, oats and whatnot. That's next to nothing. You can get a kilo of oats for like 40p or something, and pasta is even less than that. Doesn't take long to prepare either, just boil up a couple of bags of pasta every few days while you're sitting and doing your work and you're gold.

I agree about chucking the weight gainer away though. If you're a true ectomorph, then why bother shelling out for expensive weight gainer when you can just buy an assload of caster sugar for next to nothing and add in a bit of Nesquik for flavour and a scoop of decent whey protein. It would be so much cheaper, and nutritionally there would be very little difference between that and many weight gainers (although many decent weight gainers use maltodextrin, I believe, which is obviously leagues better than caster sugar).

Or am I thinking of cane sugar? Whatever it is that you put in tea and coffee, it's sucrose, but I don't know what the layman's term for it is.


Well it works, not had any problem with it.
Reply 17
Of course it works, you're eating a huge amount of powdered carbohydrate and getting an extraordinary amount of calories from what is a few scoops of powder.

I'm just saying that getting a tub of Nesquik and some table sugar from Tesco would be so much cheaper and would work just as well. Hell, you wouldn't even need the Nesquik, sugar on its own in milk would be pretty nice, I reckon.

P.S: I do not work for Tesco.
Mr.God
Of course it works, you're eating a huge amount of powdered carbohydrate and getting an extraordinary amount of calories from what is a few scoops of powder.

I'm just saying that getting a tub of Nesquik and some table sugar from Tesco would be so much cheaper and would work just as well. Hell, you wouldn't even need the Nesquik, sugar on its own in milk would be pretty nice, I reckon.

P.S: I do not work for Tesco.


lol well it looks like I will be getting diabeties anytime soon :smile:
Reply 19
xyz2k

Weight-gainers work.

Like the OP, I am a classic 'ectomorph'. I only found that I put on weight after I started using a weight gainer (Prolab N Large 2 in case you want to know).
Plus at uni, there is the question of time; I don't have time to be preparing big meals throughout the day, so in this scienario a weight gainer is better.

I gained two stones through taking the above weight gainer in the space of 6 months. I am off it now, and just maintain the weight I have gained by eating sensibly.


Of course they do. Never said the contrary .. it's just not very high quality food to a high price. I just don't understand, like Mr. God, how it's hard to eat alot and thus gain, for any body type.

My guess on ektos is that they simply don't know what it means to eat alot.
If you don't gain with the 'normal' food you eat during the day then just add more :smile:.