I love protein shakes! But, supplements are a divisive issue in the fitness world. Some people maintain that you can’t possibly build muscle without drinking lots of protein shakes while other people are completely against supplements altogether. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide whether you think supplements are right for you or not and we’re not going to go into that here.
If you do decide to use supplements, it’s important that you fit them into your diet in a healthy way so you can get the results that you want and protect your health. Here’s how to fit supplements into your diet.
Understand That Supplements Are Not Food Replacement
The biggest mistake that people make when using supplements is thinking of them as a replacement for a healthy diet with whole foods. That’s not what they are at all and real food has a lot of benefits over supplements. If you start using supplements in place of meals, you will lack vital nutrition, so you won’t get the results you’re looking for, your recovery times will be slower, and you put your health at risk.
Supplements are designed to do exactly what the name suggests; supplement your meals instead of replacing them. So, only use supplements as an extra on top of a healthy, varied diet to ensure that you get everything your body needs.
Buy Good Quality Products
If you want to stay healthy, you need to be careful about what you put into your body. This is especially true when it comes to supplements, so make sure that you do your research and buy from reputable sites like bare performance nutrition where you will get good quality supplements. Making sure that your protein comes from healthy sources and it doesn’t contain too many added extras is important if you want to look after your health.
Determine How Much Protein You Need
The biggest mistake that people make is thinking that protein automatically builds muscle and the more they have, the quicker they’ll bulk up. But if it was that easy, everybody would be in great shape. Protein repairs your muscles, so after an intense workout, you need it to rebuild. But if you have too much protein in your diet, it can cause you to gain weight.
The amount of protein you need in your diet is determined by the lifestyle that you lead and the kind of exercise that you do. If you don’t do any exercise and you live a fairly sedentary lifestyle, you only need around 0.75g of protein per day. But if you are trying to lose weight and build muscle, you should be aiming for 2.0g of protein each day. People that do endurance and team sports fit somewhere in the middle, needing around 1.2g to 1.5g of protein. You can also use this guide to determine your protein needs based on things like height and weight as well as activity levels. So, think about your activity levels and whether you really need protein supplements or whether you can get enough protein from food sources.
In some cases, protein supplements can fit into a healthy diet, but it’s important that you use them in the right way.
