Balancing Real Food and Protein Supplements for Athletic Performance
Balancing Real Food and Protein Supplements for Athletic Performance
To protein shake or not to protein shake?
Every Monday, we revisit one of the listener questions we answered in a previous episode. This has been edited for clarity and brevity, but if you want the full version, links to the full episode are below the text.
Patrick: Here’s a question in our Eat category:
I'm striving to stick to real, non-processed foods for me and my kids. I'm also new to CrossFit and developing growth and performance goals that include some mass building, which means eating A LOT of protein.
My question is: How do you balance eating real food and using protein supplements to meet your nutritional needs in relation to your performance goals?
Ben: The simple answer is to eat as much protein from whole food sources as possible and then supplement with protein shakes if you can't get enough from food alone.
Since there’s no mention from this listener about being a vegetarian or vegan, I’d say start with grass-fed red meat, free-range poultry, clean-sourced pork, wild-caught fish, and eggs. These are the cleanest, highest-quality protein sources. From there, if you need, are things like deli meats, cheese, conventionally raised meats, and the rest.
If you can't get enough protein from animal sources, that’s when you might need to supplement with something like protein shakes—especially if you’re trying to gain weight or muscle mass.
I don't recommend protein shakes as meal replacements or for people not actively trying to gain mass, though.
Most people struggle to get enough protein from food alone, so when you’re trying to achieve a caloric surplus, it can be really hard without adding something like a protein shake. That's why these products exist.
But, again, I don't believe in them as meal replacements for everybody, and I don't think we should treat them as a substitute for whole foods.
Patrick: What about protein bars? Especially the ones you can grab at, say, the gas station? Are those lower on the hierarchy still okay, or should we avoid them altogether?
Ben: I wouldn't put most protein bars at the very bottom of the hierarchy - I’d probably put something like a Big Mac at the very bottom - but they're certainly not ideal.
Some, like Quest Bars and Barebells, are of higher quality, but you have to be careful even with those. Some Quest Bars are better than others, for example.
That said, many gas station bars are essentially candy bars with some added protein, so we should try to limit them.
Patrick: To put a fine point on it, do you recommend post-workout protein shakes for someone not trying to gain weight?
Ben: I do not.
Original Episode: