Better gainer or protein kit. Gainer or protein? We make the right choice! What is more effective for muscle growth

How to gain mass

Before moving on to a discussion of when it is better to take a protein and when a gainer, it is necessary to understand how the set muscle mass. The first step is to consume more calories than you burn. Only with a calorie surplus will you have the energy needed to gain weight. When you consume more than you burn, your body takes the extra calories and either stores them as fat or uses them to build muscle. Either way, excess calories will lead to weight gain. If your goal is to build muscle, not fat, it is important to do strength training while doing so. Without any training, you will simply turn the excess calories in your body into fat, and not into the desired muscle mass.

You can get extra calories for mass gain from two sources - protein or a gainer. The choice in favor of one of them is purely individual and is dictated by your personal goals, physique and properties of the protein itself and the gainer.

It's all about calories

The main criterion that you should pay attention to when choosing one of them is calorie content. With each of them you will get additional calories. But their quantitative and qualitative composition is not the same.

Proteins consist, as a rule, of one or more types of protein with a small proportion of simple sugars. Each serving usually contains 20-30 grams of protein and about 100-150 calories. The protein component is the usual casein, whey, egg, soy, milk proteins, either individually or in combination with each other. All so that at any time you can supply your muscles with valuable protein. Protein is good way Replenishment of stocks of amino acids in the body without extra calories. This attracts many adherents. healthy lifestyle life and athletes. When in doubt what to choose, bet on protein.

You can never go wrong as a squirrel in terms of muscle building, especially during the period of weight loss, is needed constantly. Protein is also needed to increase the efficiency and endurance of the body. during drying or diet. And he is good at this. A question appears. Why then do we need gainers? The answer is in their composition.

Gainers also contain protein. This is a plus. They also have carbohydrates. Someone will think that this is a minus. Maybe, but not for everyone. Yes, and gainers in terms of the amount of carbohydrates are different. Of course, in terms of calories, gainers are superior to proteins, but for some, this is an opportunity to simply gain weight. Yes. There are categories of people who have extremely high calorie needs. These are ectomorphs, or hardgainers. For them, gaining mass is a big problem. They can eat carbohydrate- and protein-containing foods without respite, without feeling the effect. And all because of a too fast metabolism and a lean physique.

The possibility of gaining mass for them - high carb gainers. They contain more than 1000 calories per serving, they usually contain more than 100 g of carbohydrates, and about 30 g of protein. Such an impressive portion of calories helps hardgainers easily and quickly replenish glycogen stores and energy charge after training and replace wasted calories.

Not only hardgainers need a huge amount of calories. There is a category of athletes, or rather weightlifters, who, due to their impressive weight, have calorie needs several times higher than those of an ordinary person. It follows that weightlifters for weight gain, you can also consume high-calorie gainers.

Now some may think that gainers are not needed at all if you do not belong to any of the above categories. But no! After all, there is more balanced gainers with a ratio of carbohydrates to proteins of 2:1. With each serving of such gainers, you can get up to 650 calories, about 60 g of carbohydrates and 30 g of protein. A fairly balanced composition for those who easily gain weight, while wanting to get a 2 in 1 complex, with carbohydrates necessary for energy replenishment and protein that promotes muscle growth and recovery. In addition, you can use this type of gainer as one meal replacement or simply to maintain health. After all, it contains the proteins, fats and carbohydrates necessary for the body in a good proportion, as well as vitamins and minerals. They are often included in the composition of gainers. Additional bonus.

Success from regular exercise in the gym or fitness is measured by the loss of excess fat and the formation of a relief and beautiful figure. To achieve such a result, you can not do without the use of sports nutrition. The debate about which is better - a protein or a gainer, has not faded away for many decades. Each person has the right to choose which sports supplements to take to achieve an ideal body.

What is a protein?

A protein shake is a pure protein product. It may consist of such components as:

There are two types of protein - slow and fast. The former are absorbed by the body at a slow pace. There is a slight increase in muscle mass, meanwhile, the functioning of the mechanism of muscle growth is long-term. Slow proteins - best option for the drying process. The second type, on the contrary, is rapidly absorbed, allows you to build muscle fibers as much as possible, but the action of such a protein ends very quickly. Experts recommend starting mass building with fast proteins, gradually moving to slow ones.

Benefits of protein shakes

High degree of digestibility.
Stabilizes nitrogen balance.
Increases the natural protective functions of the body.
Saturates the body with essential amino acids.

Moreover, protein is a fundamental building material for gaining muscle mass.

What is a gainer?

If the protein is only the protein in the composition, then the gainer is a more complex product that is able to nourish the muscles and compensate for energy costs immediately after or during the gym.

The gainer consists of a protein-carbohydrate mixture. The percentage is as follows: the protein content is not more than 20%, the carbohydrate content is not more than 80%.

The task of the gainer is to restore strength and energy after exercising in the gym and stimulate muscle growth. Today, manufacturers are constantly experimenting, and gainers with a percentage of protein from 10% to 40%, and carbohydrates from 50% to 80% have begun to appear on the sports nutrition market. In addition to the composition, another difference between a gainer and a protein is in its constant digestibility.

Benefits of Gainers

Restores glycogen stores.
Restores spent energy resources.
Increases endurance and performance.
Restores the general condition of the body and muscle mass for a long time, even during sleep.

Before choosing a gainer, you need to consider the quality of your diet and the amount of food you eat. Only those people who train systematically and intensively in the gym (more than 2 hours a day) need a large amount of carbohydrates, namely a gainer. Otherwise, the gainer can be easily replaced with a high-carbohydrate meal. Moreover, individuals who are naturally predisposed to overweight, protein-carbohydrate shake is not recommended.

Protein or gainer: what to choose?

In order to ensure the full growth of muscle mass to the same extent, the human body needs proteins and carbohydrates. Unrecovered muscles between workouts in the gym with the help of carbohydrates will not increase. In this regard, it is better to combine protein and a gainer, or to gain muscle mass, give preference to a gainer with a high protein content (at least 35%).

Unfortunately, similar compositions are found on sale singly, and the discrepancy in price is very significant. Therefore, the ideal option is to mix the gainer and protein yourself or, better, seek the advice of a professional instructor. The specialist will give a hint in what ratio you need to create personal protein-carbohydrate mixtures. In most cases, these are proportions of 1:2 or 1:3.

Before training - a gainer.
Protein - either immediately after the end of classes, or after half an hour.
With insufficient mass, the reception begins with gainers, gradually moving to a mixture of combined mixtures.
If the situation is the opposite and overweight is present, then the intake is started immediately with protein, excluding the gainer.

Gainers should be consumed not only on training days, but preferably on rest days before meals.

If it is impossible to decide for sure which protein or gainer is better, it is advisable to figure out how these two products are similar:

The mechanism of each supplement is to build muscle mass and increase endurance.
Good and easy assimilation of both products without additional load on gastrointestinal tract.
High quality sports supplements are made from natural raw materials, when the harmfulness and side effects are reduced to a minimum.
They drink both protein and a gainer, dissolving them in a liquid: in water, juice or milk.

When choosing what to drink - a protein or a gainer, it is important to pay attention to the fact that such sports supplements cannot replace a good diet.

What results to expect?

Fictions about sports nutrition abound. However, you should not expect miracles from taking powders. So, a protein, a gainer, or better a combined scheme - the situation is purely individual. But the maximum result from drinking cocktails per month is no more than 2 or 3 kilograms. It is not recommended to resort to an increase in the permissible dosage, since unused energy will be deposited in the wrong places.

A person who is just planning to start playing sports seriously will probably think about using various kinds of sports. food additives. Many of them are really very useful - with proper training, they help to achieve better results and speed up the process of achieving them. Beginners can easily get confused in the variety offered by the manufacturer: the number of unfamiliar words can panic, so it will be useful to consult with a specialist. The most popular supplements are proteins and gainers. Let's try to figure out what is the difference between a gainer and a protein, and what is better to choose in each case.

Gainer and protein are the most common and effective supplements. Despite their usefulness, initially you need to learn as much as possible about them and figure out what each of them is intended for.

The main criterion for performance in bodybuilding is the active burning of fat and no less active muscle building. And for this, in fact, two components are needed - proteins and carbohydrates. Proteins are the main building material for muscles. Carbohydrates, on the other hand, are a source of energy that we need for active physical exertion, which we expose ourselves to in the gym.

A gainer is a dry mix, a cocktail, which consists of 70-80% carbohydrates, 10-20% proteins. Protein is almost the same cocktail, but it almost entirely composed of proteins, and there are practically no carbohydrates and fats in it.

Although there is a widespread belief that sports nutrition is harmful, in fact both of these products are completely safe when used correctly. They are made on the basis of entirely harmless and natural raw materials. There are also versions that they cause addiction, similar to drugs, negatively affect the functioning internal organs. Many compare and confuse them with steroids, but these are fundamentally different things. All these fears are unfounded, as proven by a huge number of studies. These are essentially the same foods that we regularly eat, only in a higher concentration, which allows them to be absorbed and absorbed by the body faster. Protein thanks to protein helps to provide a clear increase in muscle mass, accelerate the processes of "building" the body. But keep in mind that it may be contraindicated in case of individual protein intolerance, as well as in case of serious kidney diseases.

A gainer that contains a lot of carbohydrates allows us to get enough energy, thereby increasing the activity in training and their duration. However, it is thanks to carbohydrates that a gainer can lead to undesirable consequences. Carbohydrates that are not wasted are transformed into fats that settle under our skin, reducing muscle relief and worsening the appearance of the figure as a whole.

What is the difference between gainer and protein

The main difference between a gainer and a protein is that the latter is a pure protein, while the former contains a large amount of carbohydrates and certain additives. Gainers advise thin people to take, having a high rate of metabolic processes, who have difficulty gaining muscle mass. Thanks to the gainers, you can dial it as soon as possible.

People who are prone to fullness and rapid weight gain are not recommended to abuse gainers. Their unprocessed carbohydrates can very quickly be deposited in fat, and then the result will be far from desired. In this case, protein will be more useful, which will help increase muscle mass, while reducing body fat.

Many supplements and cocktails, in addition to the main components, also include various vitamins and minerals. They may also contain creatine, an amino acid that has a beneficial effect on human immunity and stimulates metabolic processes in muscles. There are also gainers that include proteins and carbohydrates in proportions up to 45:45. This helps to increase the effectiveness of such additives when working "on mass". Such gainers are considered to be of higher quality and more effective, and therefore they are more expensive.

Protein shakes are divided into two types - with slow and fast proteins. Slow protein takes longer to absorb, so it gives less muscle gains, but it works for a long period. Such supplements will be ideal for those who want to reduce excess weight or make muscles more prominent, for example, on drying. Fast proteins act in the opposite way - they are absorbed rapidly, give maximum gains in muscle mass, but act for a short period of time. To build beautiful relief, bodybuilders are advised to start taking a fast protein, and then switch to a slow one.

So what is better for gaining muscle mass - gainer or protein? Gainers are useful for naturally thin athletes - carbohydrates will only be useful to them. But for people prone to being overweight, it is better to use proteins, since a carbohydrate mixture with a high glycemic index can lead to a set of extra extra pounds. It is better for such people to drink pure protein shakes. In this case, the only option for using a gainer is after a workout, when glycogen stores are completely exhausted in the body, and the metabolism is working in an accelerated mode. In this case, the gainer will help restore energy and will not provoke extra pounds. If you take a gainer during the rest period, the energy will not be fully consumed, which is hello to weight gain.

Regular intake of protein prevents the risk of gaining subcutaneous fat and has a good effect on protein metabolism. However, this excludes the receipt of additional energy, without which it is impossible to build muscle mass. You can exclude a gainer if the athlete receives enough carbohydrates from the food they eat.

Protein. Top offers for today:

Protein and gainer: how to combine

Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that everyone can choose a gainer or protein for himself individually, based on the goals pursued and the features of the constitution. If a person is thin and wants to quickly gain weight, gainers will be indispensable. When the mass is already recruited to a sufficient level, you can switch to protein.

If a person wants to lose weight, he does not need a gainer. It is better to start with protein right away: slow - for drying, or fast if you need to strengthen muscles.

Both supplements can be combined by taking protein and a low-protein gainer in equal proportions. This will saturate the body with the necessary amount of energy, and at the same time get enough protein to build muscles. The most important thing is to choose the optimal dosage. When taking supplements at the same time, it is recommended to adhere to the following recommendations:

Consider your daily calorie intake, including supplements. If you want to lose weight, you need to spend more than you consume, if you gain, then vice versa.
Before training, it is recommended to consume a fast protein. Post workout - high-carb gainer with fast proteins in the composition. Such a mixture is suitable for closing the protein-carbohydrate window.
As a snack to increase the calorie content of the diet it is also recommended to use gainer. It is better to use a high-protein supplement, but remember that the protein rate should not exceed 2 grams per 1 kg of the athlete's weight. You can also use slow protein between meals.
You can also use fast protein in the morning., you can choose any of the two products. It is better not to use supplements at night, except for slow proteins. But keep in mind that the supplement can provoke a feeling of heaviness and not be fully absorbed, which can negatively affect the digestive system.
Athletes with experience can consume protein 3-4 times a day and a gainer 1-2 times a day.
Strength athletes are recommended to consume 7 g of carbohydrates per kg of body weight.. With insufficient body weight, the dosage can be increased to 8-9 grams per kg of body weight.
Protein norm - 2-2.5 g per kg of weight.

Among other things, it is important to remember that supplements are supplements, and they cannot replace a good diet. It is important that the usual diet includes a sufficient amount of nutrients. It is recommended to eat often and in small portions. One meal can be replaced by a gainer, but only sometimes, if it is not possible to fully eat.

Be aware of contraindications. Protein is banned kidney failure and other kidney problems. You also need to remember about the likelihood of allergies.

Moderation is key when taking any supplement. You can’t get too carried away with them, otherwise you can get indigestion and other problems with the digestive tract. Otherwise, everyone decides for himself what is better to drink: a gainer, protein, or both.

Gainer or protein: video answer

“In order for muscles to grow, you need to eat a lot of meat!” and “If you want to lose weight, you need to eat less” is The most common and harmful gym myths.

The body is a complex biomechanism, and in order for it to grow and develop normally, and then dry out without harm to health, you need to eat as much as it needs (no less and no more), and during training, damage the muscles just enough to start the hypercompensation mechanism.

At the same time, the amount of food is strictly tied to the load and is regulated by sensations - on some day of the training week, the body may need more food, on some less.

How does muscle growth happen?

The body builds muscle only in conditions of increased physical activity and only if it receives adequate nutrition. By it, he means receiving with food several thousand chemical compounds, and many must come in strictly designated quantities.

A lack of any of them will lead to a halt in muscle growth. In fact, nutrition should be as “rich” and varied as possible, because a narrow diet and not a single artificial food composition can contain all this complex of compounds at once.

Moreover, the athlete must still have a completely healthy gastrointestinal tract, capable of assimilating all these trace elements, and an overall very high percentage of food absorption.

Otherwise, the athlete simply will not be able to eat and absorb the entire amount of food needed to grow and maintain huge muscle mass with a flat press (and a flat press limits the size of the intestines and the volume of the stomach, which in a builder rarely exceeds 300-400 ml, it’s not easy for you to sit in drooping belly!).

So, the main factors in the growth of muscle mass are intense regular loads, alternating with regular and proper rest against the background of a balanced diet. chemical composition, but a little excessive in fact, 5-6 meals a day.

Novice athletes who have a limited budget for the purchase of sports nutrition often face a difficult dilemma, which is not as easy to solve correctly as it seems to them and even their more experienced comrades in the gym! Sooner or later, when an athlete realizes that the time has come to feed his body with sports supplements, he asks himself the question: “Gainer or protein, which is better?”. The correct answer depends on a number of factors - the type of metabolism, goals set for the athlete, diet, etc. In other words, the decision cannot be made spontaneously, but only after a balanced analysis of the data listed below.

Basic differences

But before analyzing the subtle nuances, you should understand the main thing - what is the difference between a gainer and a protein?

Gainer - what is it and what is it eaten with

A gainer is usually called a powder mixture containing proteins, fats and carbohydrates, where the amount of carbohydrates exceeds the amount of protein. Often gainers contain in their composition a noticeably larger proportion of carbohydrates than proteins. This is required to compensate for the energy balance of muscle cells and replenish glycogen stores in them after training.

The main purpose of a gainer is to gain muscle mass by an athlete. Indeed, to achieve this goal, not only building elements in the form of protein are needed, but also a huge amount of energy. The synthesis of muscle tissue from incoming amino acids is a very resource-intensive process that cannot be fully carried out without carbohydrates.

For this reason, so many athletes never gain muscle mass if they do not get enough carbohydrates, despite the huge portions of protein they absorb - the body simply does not have the resources to absorb all this mass and convert it into muscle tissue.

However, gainers are also different. And the product that is suitable for some athletes will be completely unacceptable for others!

Gainers for athletes with a fast and slow type of metabolism

Hardgainer mixes are products with a strong predominance of carbohydrates in their composition. Only in this way athletes with a fast metabolism will be able to create a sufficiently high concentration of glycogen in their cells to force them to synthesize all the incoming amino acids into the proteins of the future tissue.
Mixtures for overweight people - these gainers, on the contrary, have a reduced carbohydrate component in their composition, and carbohydrates here should be presented in the form of slowly digestible ones. This approach eliminates the formation and accumulation of excess sugar in the blood, which leads to the appearance of body fat.

Protein - feeding the body with building materials

Protein is usually called a powder mixture, which is dominated by protein (or protein, pardon the tautology).

After studying the above information, it may seem to someone that the question of which is better - a protein or a gainer, is redundant. Indeed, why use protein when you can be safe with a low carb gainer while getting protein and energy at the same time?

But there are a number of situations where the use of a gainer with any amount of carbohydrates can harm the athlete's plans:

The athlete adheres to a strict diet and conducts fat-burning workouts, where every gram of carbohydrates can slow down this progress.
A person receives an insufficient amount of protein from food, but a normal amount of carbohydrates. In this case, taking a gainer will only upset the correct balance of nutrients.
The athlete is preparing for a carbohydrate “load”, before which carbohydrates are completely excluded from the diet for a while.

The minimal presence or even complete absence of carbohydrates - this is what distinguishes a protein from a gainer! Depending on the degree of refinement and the type of protein used, a protein product often contains no more than a few grams of carbohydrate per serving. This makes protein shakes ideal for addressing the lack of muscle building materials.

Athletes can use protein blends throughout the day to make up for the lack of protein in regular meals without the fear of over-consuming carbs or fat!

Proteins are most actively used by athletes not only to compensate for the lack of protein in food, but also to prevent muscle catabolism caused by an insufficiently rapid supply of amino acids to the blood. Many of the protein shakes contain ultra-fast types of proteins (isolates and hydrolysates) that deliver building materials to muscle cells in a matter of minutes, which no food or gainer is capable of!

Gainer or protein - which is better for specific purposes

Theoretically, both products can be taken to achieve a wide variety of sports goals, but their profile thoughtful application will give results much faster!

Protein intake is essential for:

Uniform intake of sufficient portions of protein in the body during the day. To get 30 grams of protein, you no longer have to consume half a kilogram of food several times a day, overloading your digestive tract - just one shaker with a serving of a cocktail is enough!
Special slow protein types can continue to feed muscle cells with amino acids even during the entire night's sleep, without threatening the formation of excess fat.
Restraining the catabolic processes of the muscles during the period of fat-burning workouts, when excess nutrition is unacceptable and the body is always deficient in protein.

Gainer intake is necessary for:

Forced set of muscle mass with minimal formation of fat in the body, supplying building materials and energy to it.
Replenishment of energy reserves after prolonged training, when the level of glycogen in the blood drops to a critical level and does not allow metabolic processes to be carried out in the volume necessary for the athlete, slowing down his recovery.
Those situations when it is not possible to fully eat and the body begins to experience a lack of nutrients, which leads to catabolism. Instead of a missed meal, you need to drink a gainer.

When choosing a gainer or protein, you need to remember not only your goals, but also the characteristics of your own body (metabolic rate, specific diet, etc.). Only a thorough analysis of all these factors will help you choose the ideal product for each specific situation!