Protein powder or a waste of money. Your body can get everything it needs without supplements.
What's up, guys? Jeff Cavaliere, Athleanx.com. Look, there's no issue that gets people's blood
boiling more than supplementation. Because you got people like him who think it's just
not worth the money or your time. And of course, you got guys like this, who,
let's just say, are in support of supplementation.
And of all the supplements out there, there tends to be one that dominates the discussion,
and that's protein powder. And for good reason, because it's the most purchased supplement on the
market. Well, I'm going to jump into the fray, and I promise you that by the end of this video,
I'm going to help you to understand whether or not protein powder is worth your money. And even
though I sell a protein powder myself, you can get my promise that I am dedicated to getting
you the unbiased answer so you can decide for yourself. And it starts over at the board.
And one thing I think we all can agree on is that you're going to need protein in some form if you
at least want to maintain a healthy life. And for that, we're talking about a bare minimum of
.36g per pound of body weight. Which would give you 65g in a day at 180 pounds. For those people
looking to actually build muscle, those numbers go up substantially. Now into a range of 0.7g to
1.2g per pound of body weight. That is now 126g to 216g per day at that same 180-pound bodyweight.
And it's definitely going to take a concerted effort to get this much protein. Keep in mind,
it ain't going to come for free. You see, in a world where fries can be free and even
double stuffed isn't enough, it's obvious that carbs are cheap, and protein comes
at a premium. And whether you know it or you don't, you've been paying for it all along. So,
if protein powder hasn't made the budget because it's too expensive, I kind of have a little
revelation for you here that's going to help you. Because we have a formula that will generalize
the cost across various protein sources, so you know what you're actually spending. So,
if you took something like chicken, right, and you went out and bought a pound of it for $6.99, well,
how many servings did I get? Well, let's say four four-ounce servings. So, there's 29g of protein
per serving. So that means for that $6.99, you just bought a total of 116g of protein, 29 times
four. Well, if you want to find out what the real cost of that protein is, you have to find out how
much you're paying per gram. So, you would divide $6.99 by 116 and you get 6 cents per gram. Well,
we could apply that to other protein sources. How do they compare Lean Ground? Beef is a little less
protein for four ounces, a little bit less on the cost too. But overall, it comes out
to a little bit more at 6.8 cents per gram. If took top sirloin a little better cut of meat,
$8.10, same 23g of protein, it's 8.6 cents per gram. And if I went to the fish side of things,
I have 23g and four ounces at $9.80, so this is getting a little bit more expensive at 10.6 cents
per gram. But if I wanted to just kind of dial it back and say, what about just a simple egg? Well,
an egg is going to be 6g of protein in the egg, of course, for a dozen eggs, $5.20,
thank you, inflation, it's at 7.25 cents per gram, so it's still around the same cost.
Maybe you go for the peanut butter route, and we'll go with a good natural peanut butter
here. 8g per two tablespoons, 14 servings in a jar at $4.39. You're a little bit cheaper here
at 4 cents per gram. But keep in mind, you're not just getting peanut butter here, you're getting
some additional sugar, a little bit, but also more additional fats that may not fit into your routine
or your diet plan right now. Then we could go to, let's say, the other vegetarian or vegan choices,
which would be tofu, 10g for a half a cup, three and a half servings at $2.56 is going to
be 7.3 cents per gram. Again, pretty familiar price. And of course, we can go with lentils,
a protein powerhouse at 24g per half a cup, 2.3 servings at $3.19, 5.7 cents per gram.
The fact is you're paying for your protein. What's your issue with protein powder again? So, let's
talk protein. Now, I promised I wouldn't turn this into a commercial, but I do have the most
familiarity with my own brand, so I'm going to use that as an example. But before we do, can we get
one thing straight first, can we stop referring to protein powder as a supplement? Because it's not.
It's a food. An alternative protein source, just like all of these that preceded it,
that helps people that use it to achieve their daily protein goals. And if your argument is that
what makes it a supplement is that you're adding it into your regular whole food protein choices,
I would counter that by saying the fish that you have when you go out to dinner every two weeks
with Aunt Mimi is probably more supplemental to what you normally eat than the protein shake that
I have every single day. So, how's this formula shake out when we actually apply it to our protein
powder example? Well, very much the same way you might be in for a shock. Again, focus on
the price $54.99. And again, people actually make a giant mistake when they're shopping for protein
powders because they focus only on the price, and they think that's how they should value shop. Not
so fast, because you also want to know how many servings you're getting and also how
much you're getting per serving. The same three factors that mattered in the last equation.
And what comes out is 6.5 cents per gram. So it puts you right in that sweet spot again for where
you want to be. People who focus only on either the price of the bottle or in some cases the price
per serving are making a giant mistake. Because price per serving doesn't tell you anything. What
if there's 5g of protein in one serving and 35g of protein in the other serving? The price per
serving is not going to match up or help you at all. You need to know what the price per
gram is to really know the value of the protein you're about to buy. So how would it stack up to,
let's say, your favorite protein? Well, I went to Amazon.com and I got the top six most popular
protein powders, and we ran the same exercise across the board. And what's interesting is when
you look at the overall cost per gram, they're all, again, pretty similar, 6.5 cents, 6.5 cents,
7 cents, 6.8 cents, 7 cents. There are a couple here on the bottom that seem to be a little bit
unusually cheap. We'll get back to them in a second. But what you want to also compare is
how much protein are you getting per serving? Because most of the time they're going to come
in under the threshold. We call it the mTOR signaling threshold, which is 29g,
which gives you 3g of leucine, which is enough to stimulate the muscle protein synthesis
that we get through the mTOR pathway. A lot of these are insufficient. I get it,
you could be mixing them with milk or you might want to throw something else in that
could boost the total. But Athlean-X PRO-30g was created with a full 30g per serving in order to
exceed that threshold and not have you rely on something else. Others might say, Well, Jeff,
I'll just have one of those 6g of protein eggs to go with my optimum nutrition, protein, Whatever
you decide to choose here, you're going to pay for every gram. Remember that egg costs 7.25 cents per
gram, you add that in here, it's actually more expensive to go that route. And I would argue
it's a lot more inconvenient to have to now prepare the egg and the protein shake together
when you're short on time. And I mentioned these cheaper proteins down here. Remember, guys,
the easiest way to find out whether or not you should even be buying one or not is to look for
the first source of protein on the label. If you see whey protein, concentrate, they're cheaping
out for a reason and there's a reason why it comes in at such a lower cost. But listen, if that's all
you can afford, go for it. If you remember nothing else other than this in this video,
when it comes to protein, guys, you get what you pay for and you will pay for every single gram.
You know, maybe protein doesn't seem like such a bad idea after all.
Brooooo! Brooooo! Broooooo! Broooooo! Brooooo?
Let's go deadlift. Brooooooo! Whooooooo!
So, if you're like our friend here who had a change of heart, then I invite you to re-invite
protein powder back into your diet. And what the hell, while you're at it, Athlean-RX available
over at Athleanx.com If you haven't done so, guys, make sure you subscribe to our channel and click
on Notifications, so you never miss a video when we put one out. All right, guys, see you soon.
Yeah,
oh, the taste in my mouth.