Happiness Experiment 23: High Protein Shakes Conclusions

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May 062012
 

Well, it’s been a vanilla week, but not in the usual way you’d hear that expression.

This week, I’ve been drinking vanilla bean flavoured high protein shakes to see if they have any positive impacts on my health, happiness, or anything else.

If you want to see how this experiment started, take a peek at day 1 of High Protein Shakes.

My final day of the high protein shakes experiment

So, 7 days later, I’m at the point of stating my conclusions. However, if you missed my last discover, check out day 6 of high protein shakes.

High Protein Shakes Experiment Conclusions

While the conclusions on this experiment aren’t particularly profound, I’ve discovered quite a bit over the course of the last week.

Firstly, you need to mix this whey protein powder up REALLY well for it to taste half decent. If you manage that much though, it can actually grow on you.

Secondly, I hurt less in my recovery period after exercise when I was using the protein powder. I suppose that it’s possible I was just working less hard, but I don’t believe I was. Given the intensity of my exercise, and how long it had been since I had last gone to hot yoga, I would have been entirely within my rights to hurt like hell. I didn’t. Ergo, this is a pretty interesting discovery. I wish I had known this on my HIIT Training experiment!

Thirdly, if I drink the protein shake first thing in the morning and I don’t have any additional breakfast with it, I’m not hungry until lunch. This might explain why people drink protein shakes as part of weight loss regimes. It doesn’t reduce my cravings for food when I drink it in addition to my normal diet, but it seems like it CAN replace breakfast without any consequences for me.

A lot of small pieces of information that can be powerful. I’m still contemplating if next week will be a week of Tabatas Training, but if it is, you’ll see many of the things I learned this week brought into use!

Happiness Experiment 23: High Protein Shakes Day 6

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May 052012
 

In case you missed it, you can check out what happened yesterday in my high protein shakes experiment.

High Protein Shakes Day 6

I’ve already established from the last few days that protein shakes would be perfect for moderating the pain of HIIT Training or Tabatas Training.

However, in the spirit of science I’ve been playing around with the individual circumstances and seeing if I an get a greater benefit.

Today, when I drank the whey protein shake in the morning, and skipped breakfast otherwise. It turns out, I made it through to lunch without any hunger pangs for less than 200 calories and a whackload of protein.

Perhaps, the diet benefits from protein shakes come from lowering calories by not feeling hungry between breakfast and lunch even though you had a tiny breakfast!

Happiness Experiment 23: High Protein Shakes Day 5

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May 042012
 

If you’re just jumping in joining me today, or want to refresh yourself on what happened yesterday, take a peek at day 4 of the high protein shakes experiment.

High Protein Shakes Day 4

Well, I’ve been keeping track of how I’ve felt today because I know that muscle aches typically hit me worst two days after I exercise.

Two days ago, I did hot yoga for the first time in ages. I expected to feel like I got hit by a truck. However, it seems that thanks to these whey protein shakes I’ve been drinking, I seem to have escaped with just a bit of tenderness in my joints.

While these whey protein shakes are not themselves seeming to create any fundamental changes in how I feel on their own, they might be the solution to the muscle recovery issues I was feeling in my HIIT Training experiment. I do think that this will be something I work into a subsequent experiment in combination with tabatas training.

Happiness Experiment 23: High Protein Shakes Day 4

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May 032012
 

I’ve decided to skip adding the milk to my high protein shakes. I must admit, it’s taken a few days, but this vanilla bean whey protein flavour is actually growing on me.

If you’re just joining me, or want to refresh yourself on what happened yesterday, take a peek at day 3 of the high protein shakes experiment.

High Protein Shakes Day 4

So far in this experiment, I haven’t noticed a substantial change in my energy levels, craving levels, or anything else since I started consuming these high protein shakes.

So, yesterday I put the shakes to the test when I went to my hot yoga class after a few weeks off due to a head cold.

When I come back to an exercise like hot yoga after a few weeks off, there’s always pain. I’m not a naturally flexible person, so pushing my body for that flexibility requires me to stretch my muscles, and that pain I feel the next day is them healing.

My theory was that the high protein shakes would supply me with more protein and help moderate the pain. Protein is what your muscles use to heal themselves. If I wasn’t getting enough protein, then I would likely hurt more than I needed to.

Well, as of yet, my aches and pains are minimal at most. Somehow, even after missing a few weeks of hot yoga classes, I’m not hurting as much as I normally would.

This suggest that the protein shakes have a beneficial effect, and could definitely have a positive impact when it comes to things that cause a LOT of muscle strain, like HIIT Training or Tabatas Training.

This definitely has me thinking about doing that Tabatas Training experiment I mentioned in the past. In theory, with a more intensive workout set, I should hurt MORE than I did in the HIIT Training experiment, but these whey protein shakes might be a critical component to making the experiment work without feeling like I lost a fight with a Mack Truck.

Happiness Experiment 23: High Protein Shakes Day 3

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May 022012
 

Lesson to be learned, the perfect plan to make a whey protein shake with milk doesn’t work well if you don’t have milk.

If you’re just joining me, or want to refresh yourself on what happened yesterday, take a peek at day 2 of the high protein shakes experiment.

High Protein Shakes Experiment – Day 3

As I mentioned, I was out of milk, so I had to mix the whey protein with water again. However, as I mentioned earlier, mixing it REALLY well helps make it far more palatable.

I’m still not really seeing much of an impact with the protein powder. However, perhaps the next couple of days will tell a different story. I’ve missed Hot Yoga for a few weeks because I’ve had a head cold, but I’ll be going back for the late class tonight. I anticipate hurting… a lot. If these high protein shakes will have any impact at reducing muscle pain, I should see an indication of that soon! If it does help, I’ll think about combining the whey protein shakes with tabatas training of HIIT Training in a future experiment.

Happiness Experiment 23: High Protein Shakes Day 2

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May 012012
 

Well, the taste of the high protein shakes is still not spectacular, but when I mixed it up thoroughly, the taste was at least a lot more tolerable.

If you want to see why I’m drinking whey protein shakes this week, take a look at the explanation behind my high protein shakes experiment.

High Protein Shakes Experiment – Day 2

I think as this experiment progresses, I’ll need to play around a bit with the mixture. It says to mix with water, but I’ve seen some that say to mix with milk, and this whey protein shake mix might taste a bit better with some milk instead of water.

I haven’t felt much of a difference in two days of drinking protein shakes yet. It’s possible that this experiment would have a much greater impact if I were to be doing HIIT Training like in my previous experiment. Perhaps I’ll bring out some protein powder if I do tabatas training

Happiness Experiment 23: High Protein Shakes

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Apr 302012
 

Judging from the number of high protein shakes that I see when I go to the local drug store, I’m pretty much the last person in the world to get on the protein shakes train.

High Protein Shakes

To start off with, let’s show you what I drank today and will be drinking for the next 6 days:

Whey Protein Shake Mix

The high protein shakes I will be drinking for this experiment.

Yes, that picture doesn’t lie. The next 7 days will be in the flavour country that is manufactured French Vanilla Bean. Well, at least it’s not fake chocolate flavour, right?

Why am I drinking protein shakes this week?

Well, quoting straight from the LiveStrong website regarding the daily requirements for Protein:

The National Strength and Conditioning Association states that the average adult should consume 0.8g of protein per 1kg of body weight. Due to increased muscle breakdown and repair, athletes and strength training individuals may require up to 1.5 to 2g of protein per 1kg of body weight daily. Although the average American diet provides adequate protein, vegetarians may require extra effort to maintain protein levels.

Based on my weight of 235 pounds at the end of the last experiment, that says my daily recommended protein intake is 85.6g.

While I don’t think I run into any major shortages of protein in my daily diet, I don’t think I hit that recommended protein intake on a regular basis.

Also, I’ve noticed I’m back on the path of random snacking, and since protein is supposed to help you feel full (and my experience in other experiments helped prove this out) then a protein shake each day should help me cut down my cravings.

So, out of this experiment, I’m looking to reduce food cravings, increase energy, and reduce my aches and pains from training as these high protein shakes give my muscles the materials to rebuild.

As this is the first day in, I can’t draw any conclusions yet, except perhaps that I need to work on mixing the high protein shakes better! We’ll see how it goes!