Based upon our research, tests, tasting and reviews, combined with customer feedback and industry knowledge regarding sales volumes, here is a list of our opinion of the best protein shakes available in the UK in 2011:

1. AST VP2 – 100% whey isolate, mixes easily, tastes great, over 90% protein, zero lactose and used daily by several of the staff at Promart Supplements. Unbiased university double blind studies undertaken in the USA show that supplementing with VP2, compared to a standard protein shake results in significant additional increases in muscle mass and strength compared to a standard protein shake. I agree with the findings.
2. Allmax Isoflex – a blend of whey isolate and hydrolysed whey isolate make this protein powder our most successful new product of 2011. It tastes great, is very high in BCAAs, lactose free, mixes easily and is a real contender for the top spot.
3. CNP Pro Peptide – By now I’m presuming everyone knows the benefits of Pro Peptide, but for people who don’t, Pro-Peptide is a fast and slow digesting blend of micellar casein, whey concentrate, egg albumen, etc. which means that it helps your body maintain a positive nitrogen balance, meaning that your body stays in an anabolic muscle building state for much longer between meals, compared with standard whey protein. Pro peptide is therefore a great protein shake to drink before bed and also between meals.
4. USN Pure Protein IGF-1 – An extremely popular premium protein blend manufactured by USN, originally from South Africa. Pure Protein IGF-1 consists of a precise mixture of whey protein isolate, whey protein concentrate, calcium caseinate, egg albumen and soy protein isolate supplying your muscles with everything they need for growth. Pure protein tastes great and mixes well
5. Massive Nutrition Colossal Whey – This is another new product, from a new manufacturer, which offers a lower priced whey protein concentrate / isolate blend at low cost. Colossal Whey is low in carbs and fats, mixes really easily and tastes very nice. This product is formulated for maximum bio-availability and ease of digestion and has received some very good feedback from our customers.

We only stock the best brands of supplements in the world, which is why all of the top 5 protein shakes above are available from our store with free next day delivery.

ON 100% Whey doesn’t make the top 5 list because despite it being a good protein powder, it is over priced, with better products costing less. You should know that a lot of the big companies around the world who supply supplements have affiliations with the brands they promote as being the best, where they either own the brands or get discounted wholesale prices on them for promoting them. For example, Monster Supplements own PhD, who win all of their supplements awards. Anyway, the point we are trying to make is that our top 5 list above is based on our own opinions only and is there to help our customers make the right choice.

Regards,

Brian, Promart Supplements

Nutrabolics Hemowhey is an advanced whey protein matrix comprising Ultra filtered high quality instantised whey protein concentrate; and Cross flow microfiltered whey protein isolate. Each serving provides 20g of protein and with 71 servings per tub at just £34.99 with Free Next Day UK Delivery, Hemowhey has to be one of the most cost effective protein powders available in 2011.

Nutrabolics Hemowhey Nutritional Information

Here are the supplement facts for Nutrabolics Hemowhey:

Nutrabolics Hemowhey Review

Benefits of Nutrabolics HemoWhey

1. Multi stage protein matrix
2. Low carbohydrate formula
3. Supports anabolic and anti-catabolic effects
4. Supports protein synthesis and muscle breakdown
5. Tastes very nice
6. Superior amino acid profile
7. mixes easily

Nutrabolics Hemowhey in Chocolate flavour also makes a very good tasting hot chocolate. Warm up 250ml milk, blend in one scoop of whey protein and drink! A tasty 20g of protein before bed!

We are running a special offer discount code on Hemowhey at the moment, giving an additional 10% discount. Simply enter the code ‘hemo10‘ during the checkout process and 10% will be deducted from the price. The reason for the discount is to get the word out about Hemowhey, as in our opinion, it is the most cost effective, high quality, protein supplement available. AST VP2 is our highest quality protein supplement, but it costs more (and is finally back in stock from around 20th April 2011).

Here is the product page for Nutrabolics Hemowhey.

Since the credit crunch, the manufacturing costs in many industries have risen. This year, in 2011, it’s bad news for bodybuilders as the price of whey has increased. This has resulted in an increase in the cost of whey protein supplements.

Reasons for the Whey Protein Price Rises

Our suppliers have informed us of several reasons for the price increases, generally caused by an increase in manufacturing costs. One of our suppliers went into more detail, saying the price increases are caused by the surge in demand for whey, for use in baby food products in China. Whatever the cause, its the bodybuilders, powerlifters, professional sports men, women and athletes who are suffering the higher costs for their protein supplements. To make things worse, the price of whey protein is set to increase significantly more throughout the rest of 2011!

Whey Protein Powder Buying Advice

To save money and get your whey protein cheap, I would urge you to buy in bulk as soon as possible, before the unavoidable price rises. Our most cost effective, high quality whey protein powder is Nutrabolics HemoWhey, which works out at under £0.50 per serving. CNP Whey Protein is also cost effective and is slightly cheaper per serving than HemoWhey, but for the small difference in cost, HemoWhey is worth it for the increased quality, better taste and less froth and bubbles on the top of your protein shake.

Update: Nutrabolics HemoWhey Special Offer Coupon Code

Here is a special offer coupon code for Nutrabolics HemoWhey, which gives an additional 10% discount at checkout: hemo10. We offer Free Next Day Delivery in the UK and I challenge you to find a cheaper price for this product delivered! If you find it cheaper, post a comment below saying where…

Regards,

Promart Supplements

Protein supplements are expensive to buy for most people, so it makes sense for people to use them optimally and efficiently, so here are some tips:

1. Consume at least 1g of protein per pound of body weight per day, split evenly over 6 meals, spread out evenly during the day
2. Eat a high protein diet, including milk, fish, eggs, poultry, lean meat, etc.
3. When meals contain hardly any protein, supplement with a high quality fast and slow releasing protein supplement, such as CNP Pro Peptide
4. When meals contain some protein, but not enough, top them up with protein shakes, typically a whey protein concentrate powder, as it is cheapest and provides good results.
5. Always consume a post workout shake, such as CNP Pro Recover, which is a high GI, protein powder, which can be digested super quickly, due to it’s pre-digested form as a whey hydrolysate. A cheaper alternative, which also works well is a pint of skimmed milk which provides 19g of protein, 25g sugars and virtually zero fat, making it a good second choice.
6. Remember that a bodybuilding diets’ main objective is to keep the body in an anabolic state to allow more muscle to be gained, without consuming so many calories that you also get fat, i.e. ‘Stay Hungry’. As long as your diet is varied and includes plenty of fruit, veg and animal protein and you also achieve a calorific surplus and consume adequate protein throughout the day, then in combination with a high intensity progressive training programme utilising multiple joint compound movements, you are going to get bigger and stronger quickly and progressively.
7. Avoid consuming more than 35-50g of protein per meal, i.e. more for bigger individuals, less for smaller. Anything over and above your body’s ability for digestion will be used as energy, stored as body fat, or excreted, which is a waste of money.

The most convenient and worthwhile bodybuilding supplement has got to be the meal replacement powder (MRP). When you HAVE TO eat 6-8 high protein meals per day, reducing that number by 2-4 can really make things easier. Your other meals can simply be breakfast, lunch and dinner, like ‘normal people’.

You could use a carb powder mixed with a whey protein powder, to form a cheap meal replacement, but it would not contain vitamins and minerals like meal replacements, nor would it contain a blend of fast and slow protein sources. It would also be high GI/GL, which is not good unless it is a post-workout shake.

So, going back to MRPs, use 2-4 per day and eat 3-4 normal meals per day, to ensure a minimum of 6 high protein, small meals, per day. If your normal meals are low in protein, you can easily top them up with a scoop of whey protein powder, adding around 20g of protein and less than 100 calories to the meal.

All in all, MRPs are the best bodybuilding supplement out there, because they allow the average person to achieve a perfect, high protein bodybuilders’ diet, whilst being full of vitamins, minerals, good fats and other quality ingredients that provide postive health benefits in a nice tasting, easily digestible form. One thing to remember is that the vitmain content in individual sachets of MRPs, like CNP Pro MR and EAS Myoplex does not lose quality, like it would if it were in a tub. These vitamins and minerals improve protein metabolism and other bodily functions which increase your strength training capabilites, so play an important part in your overall diet and supplement programme.

One other benefit of using 2-4 meal replacements and 2-3 whey protein shakes per day is that you will also be increasing the amount of water you drink per day, which if you are anything like me and don’t drink enough water, will help your efforts considerably.

Protein Requirements For Bodybuilders, Sports People and Athletes

There is one thing that is certain when it comes to bodybuilding, or any other form of exercise: unless you consume enough protein, regularly enough throughout the day, then your progress will hit a plateau and your results will hit a brick wall. So the question is, “how much protein is required per day and how often is it required throughout the day?”

Well, it makes sense that as your muscles are mainly made up of protein and water, then the more muscle you gain, the more protein you need in your diet to retain it and build more muscle. 1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight is therefore about right for a decent level bodybuilder, when between 3% and 10% body fat, in my opinion. However, for someone who has only been training a couple of weeks and is 30% body fat, then 1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight would be excessive. To account for body fat and muscle development when working out your protein requirements, I would therefore use the following formula.

Protein Requirements Per Day

Protein per day = Z x (1.5W – 0.015FW), where:

• W is your weight in pounds (lbs);
• F is your approximate bodyfat percentage; and
• Z takes account of your current muscle development and is 0.8 for non-trained individuals, 0.9 for intermediate gym go’ers and 1.0 for advanced athletes and bodybuilders.

• Example 1: a bodybuilder weighing 200lbs with 7% body fat requires 1.0 x ((1.5 x 200) – (0.015 x 200 x 7)) = 300 – 21 = 279g of protein per day.
• Example 2: a new gym go’er weighing 200lbs with 25% body fat requires 0.8 x ((1.5 x 200) – (0.015 x 200 x 25)) = 0.8 x (300 – 75) = 180g of protein per day.

If you struggle to reach your daily protein requirements with normal food, then you could consider using whey protein shakes. They aren’t vital, but they make life much easier, as getting a carton out of the fridge, or blending some powder is a lot quicker and cheaper than cooking some chicken, eggs or other high protein food source.

Optimum Protein Consumption During The Day

Equally important to total protein consumption per day, is the regularity of protein consumption. Your body doesn’t store protein, it is either used as energy (through a process called gluconeogenesis) or it used for protein biosynthsis (which includes muscle building). It is therefore important that you consume as much protein per meal as will be used for muscle growth as possible, but not so much that it used as energy or worse still, stored as fat. The amount of protein that can be biosynthesised per meal will vary by individual, diet, lifestyle, age, exercise and many other factors, but 40g seems to be an upper limit every 2-3 hours.

I personally think that 20-25g every 2 hours is a better solution and is more in line with recent studies which say 9g of protein per hour is the maximum that the body can metabolise. Further, I think people could get much better results in the gym from consuming 8 smaller meals per day, so that their calories and protein are spread out more. Your body would use protein more efficiently for muscle building and you would probably be able to reduce the amount of protein you consume per day by regulating protein consumption in this way. Of course the supplements manufacturers wouldn’t want you to know this! See the Wikipedia whey protein article for more information.

The following advice, if followed 100% will result in muscle mass gains of around 14 pounds in about 7 weeks for people who are new to bodybuilding. If you have been training a while, then you could still gain 7 pounds of muscle. However, it should be noted that following the advice 95% will not give nowhere near as good results.

1. Consume 20 calories per day for every pound of bodyweight
2. Use Allmax Quickmass twice per day
3. Consume 1.5g of protein for every pound of bodyweight
4. Spread meals and protein out evenly every 2-3 hours throuhout the day (6-8 meal per day is recommended)
5. Drink 8-10 glasses of water per day
6. Include plenty of fruit and vegetables in your diet
7. Never miss one single meal
8. For breakfast, blend 1 cup of fine milled oats, 1 scoop of whey protein, 1 banana and a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds in 500ml of water and drink. p.s. the fine milled oats don’t need as much chewing as normal oats and can be drank easier.
9. Drink a pint of milk with 2 slices of wholemeal toast & peanut butter before bed
10. Perform 4 High Intensity Training Sessions per week, using only multiple joint movements such as Squats, Deadlifts, Pullups, Rows and Presses
11. Do a part split routine of upper body on Mondays and Thursdays & lower body Tuesdays and Fridays. Concentrate more on chest and shoulders Mondays and more on your back and triceps Thursdays. Similarly, more on your quads Tuesdays and more on your hams and calves Fridays.
12. Follow every training session with your Allmax Quickmass shake.
13. Training has to be progressively higher intensity, using slow, controlled, smooth reps for full range. Intensity is relative to the individual, but personally for me, a set only begins when I reach failure. Supersets, dropsets and pre-exhaustions are the norm for a typical training session.
14. Try and get 12-14 work sets completed in 50 minutes, then get out of the gym! More is less.
15. Rest as much as possible the rest of the week
16. Don’t drink alcohol
17. Sleep 9 hours per night at the same times every night. Nap through the day if you get chance.
18. Avoid stressful situations.

Let me know how you get on!

Brian.

For the best muscle building results from using whey protein powder, follow the 10 tips below:

1. Calculate your daily protein intake, i.e. 1.5g per day for every pound of bodyweight. Divide this number by the number of meals you eat per day (6 or more is recommended) and this is how much protein you need to consume per meal, no more, no less. If you need more than 40g of protein per meal, consider eating more meals per day, to spread the protein out better. Whenever your meals contain less protein than required, boost the protein content with a whey protein powder.
2. Remember that calories dictate whether you gain weight or lose weight. Consume 10 calories per pound of bodyweight per day to lose weight and 15-20 calories per pound of bodyweight per day to gain weight (15 = slow metabolism, 20 = fast metabolism). But remember, like protein, calories need to be spread evenly throughout the day over 6 or more meals, to regulate insulin levels, which are associated with energy levels and fat loss. Also, eating small meals regularly throughout the day boosts your metabolism.
3. Keep well hydrated by drinking 8-10 glasses fo water per day, every day. Proper hydration is very important for many processes in the body and ultimately results in increased or decreased performance at the gym.
4. High intensity training is a must for anyone wanting to improve their physical performance and appearance, whether you want to lose weight or gain weight (remember weight is controlled mainly by calories). High intensity training has a knock on effect upon hormone levels within the body, which help fat loss and boost metabolism. The higher the intensity, the better. Fifty minutes appears to be the optimum time in the gym, lifting weights and should be repeated 2-4 times per week, depending upon your requirements.
5. Low to medium intensity cardiovascular training, such as a brisk walk or a steady jog are good for increasing fat loss, without affecting muscle mass, when performed for the right duration at the right times. Forty minutes, first thing on a morning, before breakfast, performed 3-4 times per week will boost results significantly. An extra tip is to have a black coffee, or a cup of green tea before exercising. Have your protein shakes immediately after you return from your jog, to ensure no lean muscle is lost as a result of the jogging.
6. Follow all high intensity training sessions with a post workout shake. For weight loss, have whey protein powder in water, with a few raisins. For weight gain, mix your protein powder in skimmed milk for extra protein and 27g of sugar, which is one of the few times when sugar is a good thing in your diet.
7. Avoid lack of sleep, stressful situations and overtraining as they can result in the release of a stress related hormone called Cortisol, which is associated with muscle loss and the accumulation of body fat.
8. Eat plenty of fruit and veg in your diet, as the vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients found (or not found yet) in these foods allow for optimum performance of your bodily functions, such as improving protein synthesis and increasing energy. You don’t see what these foods do, but they have a massive positive effect upon your overall routine.
9. Make sure your normal meals are low GI and low GL, to avoid insulin spikes. Your body can only store up to 150g or so of glycogen and if you eat a large sugary meal, the extra will either be excreted or will result in additional fat gain. Note: on a morning and after lifting weights, your glycogen levels are depleted, so your instant energy source is gone, meaning you need to use your fat stores as energy for any form of exercise, hence the early morning slow jog. If you do anything higher intensity, the Cortisol is going to kick in, so don’t overdo it on a morning. Similarly for after lifting weights.
10. With reagrds whey protein supplements, if you are lactose intolerant, use whey isolate as it does not contain lactose. Otherwise, I would recommend using AST Whey Protein for everyone else.

Regards,

Gareth

Why Do I Need A High Protein Diet?

If you have started a weight training programme and you want to get the best results possible, then you need to provide your body with the nutrients required for muscular growth. As muscle is mainly made up of protein and water, it makes sense that you need more protein in your diet to gain more muscle. But, as your body needs protein every 2-3 hours, you need to consume protein every 2-3 hours, to stop your body from breaking down your muscles. You should note that during every second of every day your body is either gaining muscle (anabolic state or anabolism, equivalent to having a positive nitrogen balance) or losing muscle (catabolic state or catabolism, equivalent to having a negative nitrogen balance). You can control this somewhat with your diet and this is why EVERY successful athlete, bodybuilder or sports person eats at least 5-6 highly nutritional, high protein meals per day.

So How Much Protein Do I Need To Consume Per Day?

There has been lots of debate about this subject, but the general consensus is that you need between 1 and 1.5 grams of protein for every pound of bodyweight per day, EVERY day, to keep your body in an anabolic, muscle building state. For example if you weigh 180lbs, you need between 180g and 240g of protein per day. Our macronutrient calculator provides more guidnace on this subject.

Why Do I Need To Use Protein Supplements?

Now you know how much protein you need per day. Next step, divide that number by the number of meals you eat per day, usually 6 and this is the amount of protein you need per meal. So, again, if you weigh 180lbs, you need 180/6= 30g to 240/6= 40g of protein per meal. So, you would aim to consume about 35g of protein every 2 to 3 hours of every day, i.e. 6am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm 6pm and 9pm. So how are you going to get all of that protein, without consuming a massive amount of calories and getting fat? Well, you could either live off chicken, tuna and cottage cheese, whilst spending your life in the kitchen, or you could follow a diet like the one below:

• 6am: 2 scrambled eggs, 2 slice of wholemeal toast, whey protein shake
• 9am: Meal Replacement Shake
• 12pm: Lunch, whey protein shake
• 3pm: Meal Replacement Shake
• 6pm: Evening Meal + whey protein, if meal lacking in protein
• 9pm: Micellar Casein Shake, 1 slice of wholemeal toast with peanut butter

Whey Protein, Micellar Casein & Meal Replacements – Optimum Usage

As already mentioned, you want to keep your body anabolic, so that you are continuously gaining muscle. So, first thing on a morning, you want some fast releasing protein with your breakfast, i.e. whey protein – whey protein concentrate, isolate, or hydrolysate are all effective on a morning – hydrolysate is slightly better, than isolate, which is slightly better than concentrate, but it doesn’t matter much at this time.

During the day, between regular meals, consume a meal replacement shake as they contain about 40g of fast, medium and slow releasing proteins, are low sugar, low fat and also contain most of your recommended daily allowance (RDA) of vitamins and minerals, which improve your overall health and performance. With regular meals, if they don’t contain your 30g to 40g of protein required per meal, then top them up with a scoop of whey protein.

Before bed, you want a protein that provides a slow release and digests slowly, to keep your body in an anabolic state for as long as possible. Micellar Casein is ideal, as it has been shown in trials retain a positive nitrogen balance in individuals for up to 7 hours.

Nearly forgot… you also need to make sure that as well as your protein, your calories need to be spread out evenly throughout the day to increase energy levels, regulate insulin levels and maximise absorption of nutrients. Another rule of thumb is to consume between 15 and 20 calories per day for every pound of bodyweight. Also, drink 8-10 glasses of water per day to keep hydrated – it will allow you to lift more!

Now You Are Anabolic, Get To The Gym!

Now your body is in the perfect environment for muscle growth, you need to stimulate that muscle growth by going to the gym and lifting heavy weights 2-4 times per week, depending upon the individual. I can get away with 2 sessions, but I train to an extremely high intensity which has taken over 10 years to make perfect. If you are fairly new to the gym or you are young and recover quickly, 3 or 4 sessions per week is okay. Research HIT style routines, Ellington Darden style training, Braun series of books by Stuart McRobert and Dorian Yates style training. This will give you all the tools to you need to set up your own perfect routine, that gives progressive results week after week, year after year.

Regards,

Martin Procter
Promart Supplements

What is Whey Protein?

Whey protein is made from milk and is a by-product of the cheese making process. It is freeze dried and put through various treatments to remove lactose and fat, with natural and/or artificial colours and flavours added for taste and appearance. Drinking whey protein shakes is better than drinking milk, as milk contains a lot of sugar and fat, which means for every 20g of protein from whey protein powder, you would need to drink over a pint of milk, at 2-4 times the calories depending upon whether you use skimmed, semi-skimmed or whole milk. The extra calories from the sugars and fats in milk are likely to lead to the accumulation of unwanted body fat.

How Is Whey Protein Used Efficiently?

To gain lean muscle, when weight training, it is recommended that you consume at least 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day, split over 6 meals. For a 12 stone (168 pound) individual, following a weight training programme, requiring 168g of protein per day, results can be massively improved by supplementing with whey protein. Each meal would need to include 28g of protein and as you cannot eat tuna or chicken 6 times per day, you basically supplement the low protein meals with 20g of whey protein, to reach your daily target. You could literally consume a whey protein shake with every meal, as long as you are still eating a complete diet with plenty of fruit, veg, wholemeal bread, rice, cereal, etc.

The mistake that many people make is that they supplement with 40g of whey protein at a time, which can be wasteful, as 20g of whey protein is the optimum amount in terms of digestion and absorption (subject to genetics), not to mention that consuming too much protein de-sensitises the body to protein and provides additional calories.

The Cost of Supplementing with Whey Protein

A 25g scoop of whey protein generally provides 20g or protein, with a very small amount of carbs and fat and based upon the cost of CNP Whey Protein, which is a high quality and affordable whey protein supplement. Each serving costs just £0.35, which works out to be less than 2 pence per gram of protein, meaning that it is the cheapest (and best) source of protein available, whether from normal food or supplements, whilst providing positive health benefits, such as boosting the immune system.