As thousands of people begin new keep-fit ventures at the start of the year, it's almost impossible to miss the array of health and fitness products being promoted by supermarkets and local stores looking to cash in on the trend. However, to avoid wasting your hard earned money you need to take a few seconds to establish what you're actually looking for.
One of the biggest misunderstandings in the health and fitness industry is the importance played by dietary supplements. If you are to believe everything you read on the packaging, you'll undoubtedly begin feeling as if you need to be taking dozens of products in order to achieve any results. This is far from the truth.
Despite the fact that it may appear overly scientific at first, the basics behind the nutritional information on a protein product are quite simple. Much like the foundations of building a more muscular body in the gym, nothing much has changed over the last couple of decades when you get down to the fine details of it all.
The three items below will help you to decipher whether a product is as 'essential' as it claims to be.
* Which blend of whey is listed as the first ingredient in the product you're looking at?
* How much protein is provided in each serving?
* As well as the protein content, take a look at the carbohydrate count.
Understanding the three points above will go a very long way to helping you skip past the hype surrounding the products you'll see in your local supermarket and online. Firstly, which blend of protein is the first item listed in the ingredients?
There are 3 main blends in this category and understanding them is very easy. Hydrolized is the quickest digesting form of whey, closely followed by isolate and concentrate. For this reason, hydrolized products are usually the most expensive. However, the differences in the speed of digestion are not huge and certainly don't warrant the often crazy differences in prices, so if you can only afford a product which is made from concentrate you needn't worry.
How much protein is provided by each shake? Science tells us that our body can only handle between 20 and 30 grams in any one sitting, so all of those products which boast about hitting you with 40-50 grams tend to lead to unwanted fat gain.
The carbohydrate content of a product will tell you whether it's designed for somebody trying to bulk up or get leaner. If your product has a large carbohydrate content you can expect to put on size relatively quickly, whereas if it stays under the 10 gram mark it's designed with lean muscle in mind.
Now that you have taken the time to understand the three main rules behind muscle building supplements, you'll be able to assess which whey protein is best for you to use and get around the hype surrounding most products on the market.