I’ve getting serious about my exercise over the past 8 months and now focusing more on supplementing daily with protein powder. I have been noticing a wide degree of pricing on different products but have been typically just going with what’s on sale and what is closest to 20g per single scoop and without much added sugar. I aim for 2-3 protein shakes a day between 20-30g of protein each time. Was shopping for new power today and came across these two brands. One was $14 and the other was $48. What am I missing? Is one actually better than the other? Does your body know a difference?
One is derived from soy the other from whey (animal source.) The whey will be more expensive. The whey is also isolate, the most expensive form. https://levelsprotein.com/blogs/supplements/soy-protein-vs-whey-protein you can read about the difference here. The economics are somewhat complex but suffice to say there is more demand for whey as there are more applications for milk byproducts in the West, which is fairly cost intensive to produce anyway, especially these days when it’s such a marketable commodity.
Personally I wouldn’t use the second product, I would just stick to the soy. The whey is mixed isolate and concentrate (and likely marketed as whey isolate when it’s not pure) so it has traces of lactose and is harder on digestion than pure isolate. It also is sweetened with stevia which I don’t like (very sweet)
One is soy and one is whey isolate mixed with concentrate. The whey has almost double the amount of servings. When choosing protein powders check for whey isolate which is easier to mix and digest. Also compare the amount of protein to the serving size in grams. If one scoop has 25g of protein and the serving size is 35g that means there’s 10g of fillers. You want that serving size to be as close to the protein amount as possible.
Bioscience has always taught me thst Soy in excess is detrimental to men. Some of this should be taken with grain of salt. Soy itself isn’t bad. If your in a setting like a jail where all they feed you is Soy, longterm intake could be bad. I was always taught to stick with cheap whey protein upon waking up n for post workout. I was also taught that casein protein either from powder or from Greek Yogurt or Cottage Cheese is great to eat before bed bc it’s long acting. I also learned that the average human being can usually only digest 20-35mg of protein every 2.5-3.5hours or so. Now, level of athleticism, persons body type, fat n muscle percentages, if someone is on test or HGH also will play part too.
Whey is your better option between the two for type, unless you have any dairy intolerances.
Beware of anything too cheap as you’re probably not getting what the label says you are. You can look for third party testing. Good ones will have this to ensure quality and consistency of product.
What are your goals? Trying to gain weight, gain muscle, reach a certain protein requirement? I ask because whey protein is only 18% usable by the body meaning it only utilizes that much for protein synthesis.
If you’re looking just to add calories that’s fine.
I would recommend finding a high quality EAA product using the correct amino acid profile ratios. Perfect Amino, Optimal Amino and Fortagen come to mind. It’s digested and 99% utilized by the body in 30 minutes.
Probably very minimal difference. The expensive brand probably wants you to think that they have better quality ingredients but I’m sure that’s mainly marketing. However, one is almost twice as big. You can break it down into cost per serving or cost per gram of PRO if you want to find the better deal.