The preaching of protein, that’s pretty much what PictureFit has been all about for
a few years now.
And no doubt you’ll always have me touting protein’s importance for virtually all types
of fitness goals.
If you wanna get stronger, build muscle, or even burn fat, having more protein is almost
always a good idea.
But, as some of you can profess, it might be tough to get all of our protein just from
the food we eat.
That’s where the good ol protein supplements come into play.
One of the only handful of fitness supplements that I deem worthy of your money.
And if you ask around, most will tell you the right “whey” to supplement protein
is with WHEY protein, a protein source naturally found in milk.
However, once you do dive into the world of whey protein supplements, you might bump into
one common issue: Which whey protein should you choose: whey
concentrate or whey isolate?
In this video, we’re gonna break down the differences between these two types of whey
Whey concentrate, as you might guess, is made by “concentrating” the milk proteins in
whey.
After processing steps like microfiltration, whey concentrate will typically yield 80%
protein by weight with the other 20% consisting of milk sugars, fats, and flavoring ingredients.
Double chocolate is my personal favorite.
But the most important thing to take note here is one of the milk sugars, the infamous
lactose.
Then, there is whey isolate, which ISOLATES the milk proteins even further through processes
like ion exchange filtration and ultrafiltration.
This leads to a spicy yield of 90% or greater protein by weight, higher than concentrate’s
80%.
The extra filtration also removes virtually all the fat, but more importantly, it gets
rid of most if not all of the remaining lactose.
Other than that, there’s really no other significant difference between whey concentrate
and whey isolate.
Both share the same amino acid profile and both have extremely high levels of absorption
and digestibility.
Both have the same immunoglobulins and lactoferrins that are good for general health.
In terms of fitness, both whey protein variants, and protein in general, can aid in exercise
recovery with no data showing one being better than the other.
In terms of body composition, well, unfortunately, we don’t have much research comparing the
two directly to one another.
What we do have is plenty of data looking at each separately and comparing them to isocaloric
controls.
And when it comes to this, again, both seem to get the job done just as good as the other.
In essence, they are still what they are, protein.
Total protein intake, be it from whey concentrate, isolate, or just whole foods, is what matters
most.
Now, a systematic review just released this year, 2019, did find that, after investigating
8 different whey protein studies, for fat loss, whey concentrate actually had an upper
hand.
But, the researchers did make it clear that these studies had a very high risk of bias
due to low methodological quality.
Simply, they were saying that these studies might have unintentionally implemented experimental
practices that would have jeopardized objective results.
So, we should take the findings of greater fat loss from whey concentrate with a very
big grain of salt.
Now to answer the question: Which whey, concentrate or isolate, should YOU take?
When we take everything into consideration, whey concentrate makes the most sense for
most people.
It provides virtually the same fitness benefits as isolate, both in recovery and muscle growth,
while having a potentially greater benefit in fat loss, keyword POTENTIALLY.
But most importantly, it’s usually less expensive.
Now, there are still cases where whey isolate makes more sense.
Remember, whey isolate has little to no lactose, which is perfect for those dealing with any
degree of lactose intolerance.
Whey isolate also has more protein per serving.
For those, especially athletes, that need to meticulously account for every gram of
protein in their supplements, then whey isolate is the better choice.
Just be aware that you will have to spend a bit of a premium for these small differences.
For everyone else, again, concentrate should work just fine.
Let me know what you think about whey concentrate and isolate.
Is there one that you personally prefer?
Shoot your answer in the comments.
If you enjoyed this video, please give it a whey big thumbs up and share it with your
concentrate loving friends.
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As always, thank you for watching, and GET YOUR PROTEIN.