Do those supplement drinks really work or is it a gimick?

[tulog]

The issue is not supplements (products do not 'build muscle'), but inadequacy of training or diet.

Have you considered doing a linear progression of compound barbell exercises? Barbell exercises are done over a full range of motion in sets of five, increasing in a linear fashion from training session to training session. Train the squat, deadlift, bench press, and press. All barbells exercises, and skip the machines entirely. The result is an increase in strength and accompanying musculature triggered by the hormonal response and CNS improvements from barbell training. This type of training is harder work; but gives serious results. Plus it is awesome to actually be strong, rather than merely look and appear strong. See the program Starting Strength (book and web site of the same name) for the exercises, and the book Practical Programming for Strength Training for an understanding of the physiology of strength training.

Skip supplements, and eat quality foods at a calorie surplus to gain weight and muscle.

If you are training effectively, and still not gaining weight or strength, the issue is not eating enough calories over maintenance (calorie surplus). In that case, increase calorie surplus during the linear progression portion of your training (3-7 months in barbell linear progression). Once you have exhausted the linear progression, and can only make weekly progress as an intermediate, adjust your diet to have a smaller surplus.

[Esozh]

It works

I take 3 scoops of protein powder in a smoothie every day. I usually make put 2 bananas, 8 oz of coconut milk, 4 oz of strawberries, and 4 oz of pineapple in a blender with my 3 scoops of powder. The powder is 450 calories, the coconut milk is 90 calories. The bananas are 210 calories total, then the strawberries are 20 calories, and the pineapple is another 20 calories - so a total of 790 calories a day in the shake. I drink this as a replacement to breakfast Monday through Friday, and just take it with whatever else I eat on weekends. My lunch is almost always from the salad bar in the work cafe, and once in a while I'll get some chicken instead - which is usually 800-1100 calories, depending on how hungry I am. My dinner is usually around 1,000 calories, give or take. So any given day, I take in close to 3,000 calories. Every Friday, I eat whatever I want. That really just means I have cookies and milk after I eat dinner, or maybe some ice cream. I do roughly 10 hours a week of exercise.

I started this routine in May of 2012. At the time, I was 336 pounds, and 170 pounds was muscle. Today, I am 288 pounds, and 233 pounds are muscle. I've gone from wearing a 48-50 inch waist to wearing a 40-42 inch waist. I've gone from 3x-4x shirts to XL on a 6'4 frame. When I was active duty army, at the best shape of my life, I was 180 pounds muscle, 204 pounds total, wearing Large shirts and a 36 inch waist. Right now, my goal is to keep this up for another 6-8 months, and drop down to 260, and hit 235-240 muscle. I live an active lifestyle and walk as part of my job, and am allowed to work out while on the job in the company gym.

[cougs4bcs]

Eating healthy and exercising works. You are better of spending that money on fruits, veggies and other unprocessed foods. But than there is not much profit to be made off you.

errr you realize he is asking about PROTEINS. Nothing you listed has any protein in it. Fruits and veggies will not make you get "fit." Yes, they are healthy. I take 1-2 protein shakes a day, and it makes it a million times easier to meet all of my macronutrient goals each day.

Also for the amount of protein you get in a shake, it is a whole lot cheaper to get protein from this source than eating an endless amount of meat each day. Get your facts straight before you spew nonsense.

[~bs]

I think protein supplements is a healthier source of protein than eating meats, steak, chicken, pork simply because there's alot of fats, sodium, and other crap that normally comes with eating meat. Fish & chicken is healthier, but chicken meat is often pumped full of hormones. You can get high levels of protein with a vegan diet as well, but it's not easy at all. I also think carbs are an important part of the diet, and often overlooked. Also think it's pretty easy for people to overdo the protein supplement thing. Long story short, is you CAN have a proper diet that will allow you to stay healthy and build muscle, just like you CAN get all the vitamins and minerals daily without resorting to multivitamins with committment, but it's a hell of a lot harder than using supplements to augment your diet.

Bench press isn't the end all, but just an example,in my early college years, I was 5'9" 135 and could press over 300 lbs. Now I weigh around 180, still in decent shape, but can press maybe only 240. If you seen me now and back then, you'd swear that I;m stronger now. But size doesn't necessarily mean strength, nor fitness, as I was in far better shape, WAY stronger all around, much better endurance, and had a better diet back then. Nowadays due to time constraints, I merely exercise to attempt to maintain the status quo. Could I now compensate the lack of exercise and focus with supplements? Of course not, it would just be wasted money. So yes, I think supplements work, but only in combination with proper exercise and diet. Otherwise it's wasted.

[bUU]

errr you realize he is asking about PROTEINS. Nothing you listed has any protein in it.

[http://twicsy.com/i/5tzCmc]

[cougs4bcs]

Your #1 on your list is spinach. Look up how much protein is in 1 cup of spinach. 1 WHOLE GRAM. YAYYYYY!!!!

[alternativegirl]

Supplement drinks

I agree. Plus a waste of money. Water with a little lemon works well and eating right like you said.

.... is vastly inferior than actually doing what we know is required to do those things (eat better and less, work out in the weight room, etc)

[moneymaker23]

It works but ofcourse you should not depend on it. if you want to be slim, you need to take slimming capsule everyday and get some exercise regularly.

[dunnrobert700]

I doubt it. Food, real food, is complex and isolating out certain chemicals (vitamins, minerals, proteins) probably doesn't get you anything that's better for you or even useful at all in many cases. The complex formulations of "real food" are what our bodies were evolved to run on and thrive on not any specific part. It's like saying your getting hydrogen and oxygen...but you're still thirsty because that's not water.

If you want to be fit, stay away from chemical formulations including processed foods. The more basic the better. Raw vegetables and lean meats being the ideals.