“HOW MUCH WHEY PROTEIN SHOULD I TAKE?”

If you’re looking to gain muscle, burn fat and increase your strength as effectively as possible, a high quality whey protein powder is one of the best nutritional choices out there.

It’s convenient, tastes great and is the highest quality source of protein for supporting muscle recovery and growth.

I get a lot of supplement questions to my inbox every day, and here’s one that pops up quite often…

“How much whey protein should I take?”

The answer? There is no definite answer.

The key thing to realize is this: whey protein is not actually a “supplement”.

It’s referred to as a supplement… it’s sold in supplement stores… but in reality, whey protein is simply a natural component of dairy that is removed and isolated into powdered form.

For that reason, whey protein would be more accurately classified as a “convenient food product”.

So if you’re asking, “how much whey protein should I take?”, it’s really the same thing as asking how much chicken, steak or fish you should be eating.

There really isn’t a set “limit” for whey protein intake as long as it fits into your total daily protein totals.

All protein sources are eventually broken down into individual amino acids, and the body has no way of telling the difference between specific amino acids consumed from different foods.

I’m not recommending this, but you could, in theory, get 100% of your daily protein intake from whey if you really wanted to and cover all of your amino acid needs from that one single source.

Obviously the vast majority of people won’t want to do that though. Most will will simply derive their protein intake from a mix of typical “bodybuilding sources” like chicken, fish and eggs, along with their whey protein shakes. For that reason, the question of “how much whey protein should I take” isn’t even worth bothering with.

It really just comes down to your own personal food preference, your overall daily protein requirements (I usually recommend about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight daily) and how busy your schedule is (those on the go may benefit more from the convenience of whey protein shakes).

If you want to get 30% of your protein intake from whey, that’s fine. 50%, no problem. 75%, that’s fine too.

Personally, I consume about 200 grams of protein daily, and about half of that is derived from whey. That’s just me though, and your whey protein consumption may be higher or lower than this.

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