Ok ! Finally I have a little bit of time for this question which I think many would like to know my answer too.
I understand your concern when you've paid your hard-earned $$$ ( especially Nitro-Tech is not cheap when you compare with other brand, more than double the price of Scivation Whey in this case) thinking that you would get what you thought you would be getting.
Well If you buy Nitro-Tech because of what you see and read from advertisements in the magazines ( gaining 6-8 lb of muscle in a week)thinking that you would achieve that aim easily ( using nitro-tech alone) you will be DISAPPOINTED to say the least. MuscleTech does not guarantee that you make that gain. In fact, who does? Has anyone notice what it says at the bottom of its advertisement in very tiny words?? “RESULT VARIES INDIVIDUALLY” and that probably explains everything. Believe me, you’re NOT the only one facing this. A lot of my friends and customers bought it thinking that they would be happy to gain 3-4lb of muscles in a week, if they couldn't get 8lb ( which according to its ads). Well! They didn’t. Imaging this,just by drinking few of its shakes a day, you’d gain 6-8lb ? Please don’t be fooled by those ads again. To gain solid muscle,you need to do more than that.
To understand the " equation of bodybuilding " better, Gaining muscle mass is not about whey protein only, let alone certain brand of protein.....Taking ENOUGH protein is far far far more important than...say....what brand of protein...what flavor, what favor or how good it taste. Let me explain further. To build bigger muscle mass, calories is the MOST important factor. Even if you eat all your calories from protein ( the growing food) but you are on a defecit (calories minus), you won't grow either. Total calories intake must exceed total calories expenditure to grow. Meaning that you have to eat (calories input) more than you burn/use (calories output). If your input is less than output, you have a deficit, you lose weight (water, muscle and or fat weight ? depends!). If you eat more than you burn/use, you have an extra, so you’ll gain weight ( water, muscle or fat weight. Again it depends!) Depends on what ???? Well depends on what your calories deprive from. Read on…
So now, you want to gain muscle mass!! You need to eat more calories. Right? Absolutely correct BUT… calories from WHAT ? Having more/ surplus/extra calories is NOT good enough. You must make sure that a lot of your extra calories come from PROTEIN source ( the building food ). Therefore I am telling everyone here that whether you gain muscles or fat depends on what your extra calories come from. If they are from protein/ amino acids (the building nutrients), good job, you gain “MUSCLE” weight. On the other hand, if your extra calories are from carbohydrates and fats (energy nutrients) meaning that your diet contain less protein more carbs & fat, you gain “ FAT” weight. And if the surplus calories come from protein, carbs and fat ,(meaning that you have extra protein for growth,you also eat too much carbs+fat for energy storage) you gain muscle and fat too. To correct this, just reduce the energy food ( carbs and fat ) to keep muscle gain, reduce fat gain. Therefore, only take carbs as your energy demands, too much extra will cause too much fat gain, especially if you’re endomorph.
Now you know the importance of protein.
That’s why I said (earlier) that eating ENOUGH protein is far far more important than eating what brand of protein. How much is ENOUGH? Well then,it’s based on body weight and body type. A bigger bodybuilder/very active guy will need more protein than a smaller guy/less active person. Do you agreed?? You have to…it’s only to be logical. Generally, most people/trainees/active bodybuilders need to ingest at least 1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day. So a 200lb bodybuilder needs 300g of protein (minimal) a day to keep him in a right GROWING mode. That amount is his minimal protein requirement of a day, of coarse he has to eat slightly more than that, maybe around 350g. An endomorph person may even have to ingest 2g of protein per pound of bodyweight. Simply because he needs that high amount of calories from protein, lesser calories from carbs and fat as the latter two can slow down the burning of existing fat OR can easily add fat weight to his body.
NOW, how to consume that 350g of protein? You must divide it into 5-6 meals spread out over the day, averaging about 3 hours per meal, and about 55-60g of protein per meal (if you choose to have 6 meals and you are 200lb bodybuilder). You must spread them out like this over the day to ensure that you have a constant influx of protein/amino acids into your body to enable it raw materials for muscle tissue repair, rebuild at any one time and as well as other physiological functions ( such as producing hormones, enzymes etc which is not today’s topic) Only eating like this manner ( 3hours per meal) ensure you total anabolism ( building) throughout the day. So that you'd be in the building mode all day. Well, how to consume that amount, from what protein?
I’ve been helping guys with their meal plan,etc through PMs in this forum. In fact, I’ve helped one customer who practically lived on whey protein (enough) all day, very low carbs and fat, but just won’t improve further. I got him to include some complex carbs,some solid protein food ( instead of whey all day) and start taking multi-vitamins minerals ( Animal Pak) for over a week. In his latest PM few days back, he feels much better, much energetic and lost 2 pound in that week. Good job, my friend.
So when protein is mentioned,it’s not just whey protein, it should always be protein from fish,eggs, chicken, beef,tuna etc. These are your staple protein food choices to be included in your daily meal plan to meet your protein needs, which also incuding whey protein. And it is important that you eat a varieties of protein food thoughout the day. Now, I know a lot of athletes getting their 6 meals eating the same food all day long,like steamed chicken( breakfast),chicken salad (mid-morning),grilled chicken (lunch), chicken sandish ( mid-afternoon), baked chicken ( dinner) and whatever cooked chicken ( supper) to get their protein supplies. All I want to say is this is bad, this is not bodybuilding. If you are eating like this for few days, you're gonna get chicken allergy. Besides, you keep getting the same amino acids profile. Please DON"T do this. Always have different protein sources, switch from chichken to fish to eggs to beef for example. Or you may like to mix them up (like having 30g protein from fish and 30g from eggs).
Another question most people would ask is " how much of chicken has 60g of protein?" Or " is 60g of chicken containing 60g of protein. Well, 100g of raw chicken breast would supply 25-30g of protein, and you need about 250g of chicken ( measured uncook) to get about 60g of protein. I like chicken breast because it contains less fat than other chicken parts. Of coarse, commn sense will tell us that methods of cooking is extremely important here, to avoid adding unproductive/unwanted extra calories to your protein food.