Protein Shakes - Do You need them?

Having been a regular gym goer for over 5 years, clean eater (most of the time!) and all round fitness enthusiast I have taught myself a thing or two about the gym and the importance of getting the right nutrition. Couple that with some intense training over the past few months and a PT boyfriend, protein has fast become my friend.

The quick answer to the above question is, if you are looking to increase lean muscle mass and / or train weights regularly then yes, however there are a few more caveats to that. 

People often recoil in horror when they see me drinking a protein shake, won't that make you muscly or worse even FAT? The answer to both is no, protein shakes regardless of what you do if consumed sensibly won't make you muscly or fat (like most things.)

What they will do with the right nutrition and exercise plan is help you reach your health / fitness / body goals, for me they aid recovery after a workout and help boost my daily intake of protein.

Bodybuilding.com.has some great fitness calculators to  help you calculate how much protein / fat / carbs you should have in a day depending on your goal and body type so if you're ever unsure give them a go.

Getting the right type of protein shake is equally important, there are many different types out there the two main ones being to aid recovery and to aid recovery and increase mass, the latter usually contain a lot more calories / sugar / carbs.

When I'm looking for a protein shake I usually go for low sugar, low carbs and high protein content and more often than not have mine after a workout, sometimes as part of a snack for example a banana and a protein shake after breakfast / before lunch.

Protein powders also make awesome additions to other foods such as plain yoghurt or chia seeds -I mix mine in smoothies and my favourite  protein pancakes!

I take 1 whole egg 2 egg whites and a banana whiz it all together, add a scoop of My Protein Impact Whey (chocolate Peanut butter is my fave,) mix that in and pour into a hot pan to make protein pancakes! Yum!