General Fitness & Nutrition: Whey Protein Powder- Help

Hi everyone.  I am starting a running program; I'm about 4 weeks in and going strong.  I am surprised how much I like it.  I started just to lose weight but now I really think I would like to get deep into running.  Anyway, my question is, do any of you drink the protein shakes and if so what kind?  If I have shake for breakfast, and then do my regular running and strength training in the afternoon, will this help me to build muscle and lose weight, or do you really have to be weight training hard core, like 2x day for the protein to work? And, do you think that will be too much? I don't want to bulk up necessarily, just nice muscle tone.  Any suggestions?

Whey protein is a "complete" protein, in that it contains the essential amino acids (those the body can't make itself).

 Protein supplementing  within 3 hours of resistance (weight lifting etc) exercise has shown to increase specific protein creation.  I'm not sure how much research has been done since I stopped reading this sort of thing but while it wasn't conclusive that it increased muscle production it seemed to be pointing in that direction.

 A balanced diet with enough carbs, protein and fat intake is essential for making it through a good well balanced exercise program. Taking in a fair amount of protein following the exercise should reduce recovery time and help build/maintian muscle.

 Tone comes from training muscle endurance, you'll need to do some reading on that.

No matter what the form of training is you need protein to build/rebuild muscle, few protein shakes a week should not bulk you up. I run a lot of miles every week and am careful of my diet, I find that if I try to be to scientific it just gets way to complex. I developed some simple personal rules of thumb for (vitamins,fiber,carbs, protein and fat) then just apply them to my daily dietary choices. The number one rule is “food must taste good!” I drink protein shakes post workout several times a week because I like the taste of the one my wife and I use and not just because it's part of my workout/dietary regiment. My advice is find a couple “you” like then you'll drink them because you like them.

As a registered dietitian, protein shakes have always annoyed me.  Unless you are a very large person with a small appetite, protein shakes aren't a necessary supplement to your diet.  If you are eating a balanced diet, you really don't even need protein shakes.  For a person who is training often like you are, the max amount of protein that has been shown to be needed is 1 gram per ~75% of your weight in pounds (1 g per pound if you want to be really generous).  Example: if you weight 150lbs, you need ~113 g protein a day.  You can get this easily with a diet that is full of foods high in protein like milk, fish, chicken, etc.  Drinking  protein shakes on top of a diet that is high in protein is just a way to consume more calories (1 g of protein is 4 calories), and can also be expensive.  Also, excess protein cannot be stored in your body like fat and carbohydrates.  Excess protein that you consume is broken down and made into carbohydrates first, and then fat once your carbohydrate stores are full.  And when protein is metabolized into one of these, the waste product is ammonia.  Not a big deal if you are a healthy person, but if you have kidney problems, or this is a continual occurrence, it could lead to problems. 

One of the best after workout choices that has shown up in numerous articles is chocolate milk.  Here is an article you should check out, by a well known sports dietitian, Nancy Clark, about protein supplements. 

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=1264

She also mentioned that for after training, the most important fuel you should be replacing is carbohydrates, not protein.  So, if you really feel that protein shakes are you secret to success, then by all mean continue.  They can also be a good "on the go" food if you don't have time for a balanced meal.  But if you do the math (both for your protein needs and how much is leaving your wallet every month for those shakes) you might decide that real food is the way to go. 

Check out Lambrada protein.  They can come in individual packets, they have a huge amount of protein per serving, somewhere around 50 grams, with hardly any fat, and just a few carbs.  It is good stuff!

 Before I started running I was a collegiate swimmer, winning multiple national championships and just missing the qualifying time for the Olympic Trials, so you can imagine the workout regime I had to sustain.  I had a similiar problem with keeping my weight on, but this stuff was incredible.  I put an immense amount of lean muscle on, mostly in my legs and shoulder area.  The individual packets go a long way; they allow for you to bring it with you wherver you go.

Hope this helped!

www.fitnessboard.net is great, too.  =D