Top 6 Benefits of Protein Powder for Health and Fitness

After spending yet another year watching the most muscular people at your local gym guzzle protein shakes after their workouts while you’ve struggled to add on healthy body weight, you’ve decided it’s time to cave in and try it out for yourself.

Granted, it wasn’t so much the fact that you watched all of the free weight room’s most dominant muscle monsters mixing protein shakes in the locker room that left you feeling inspired to ingest more protein. Rather, it was the sight of some of the older adults in your gym picking up the habit, along with a few of the folks in the aerobic studio who have been showing off the results of some impressive weight loss.

Since everyone in your vicinity seems to be gravitating toward a high protein diet, you figured you might as well give it a shot. The only question you really have is what are all of the benefits of protein powder that you should be expecting? Is the downing of all of these protein shakes really all about muscle growth, or can you reasonably add weight loss and the protection of your body as it ages to the list of predictable outcomes?

What is Protein Powder?

There are several types of protein powder, and virtually all of them are either a modified version of a natural food source, or a byproduct of a procedure intended to create a specific type of food.

For example, whey protein powder — the most popular protein powder in the world — is formed from whey, which is a byproduct of the process from which cheese is created from cow’s milk. Specifically, whey protein is a dehydrated form of the liquid that remains behind after the casein is separated from the whey during cheese production.

Soy protein powder is another example. Soy protein is created after soybeans have been dried, flaked, defatted, washed, dehydrated, and then powdered.

Once protein powder is created, it is usually taken for purposes of protein supplementation by people who have decided they need more protein for reasons ranging from weight loss the muscle growth. 

This allows those people to enjoy the specific benefits of the type of protein they're taking — whether it’s whey protein, soy protein, casein protein, hemp protein, pea protein, or some other type of protein.

6 Benefits of Protein Powder

If you were introduced to protein supplements through a gym environment, you may think protein powders have a single purpose and benefit, which is commonly thought of to be the growth of muscle tissue. 

Yes, protein powder certainly provides the benefit you’re thinking of, but there are several other advantages to taking protein powder that may be less evident to you, including weight loss and calorie reduction.

Muscle Growth and Repair 

The most commonly stated benefit to protein powder is that it can help you to efficiently maintain muscle mass, and to support muscle growth through consistent supplementation.

In the aftermath of strength training, resistance training, intense cardiovascular exercise, or any other form of training that taxes your muscles, protein arrives at the scene to repair your muscles in a stronger form to handle the increased physical stress.

In short, supplementing with dietary protein acts as an insurance policy that guarantees the presence of sufficient protein in your body to optimize the muscle-repair process, and help you to maximize your gains in muscle and strength. 

This is also true in the case of older adults, as high protein diets can help them maintain their valuable muscle tissue as they age, and when muscles are more likely to naturally atrophy.

Weight Management

In the process of supporting muscle growth, protein supplements can also help you lose weight — and specifically to reduce body fat — when used strategically.

Protein is known to produce greater satiety in those that consume it, which is another way of saying you are less likely to experience cravings for unhealthy or high-calorie food sources when you consume sufficient quantities of protein without any added sugars.

In this sense, when you drink protein shakes, the fact that you’ve blended 40 grams of protein powder into skim milk or water — along with whatever other dietary supplement you might be using — can reduce the likelihood that you’ll be consuming something unhealthy later in the day.

As a result of this, protein powders can be very helpful in your efforts to decrease body weight while you improve your body composition. Even if you weren’t intending to do so, protein powder can act as a meal replacement that helps you reduce your caloric intake and lose weight, and especially to lose body fat.

Convenience and Versatility

One of the clearest benefits to protein powder is the ease with which you can use it. Whether you’re attempting to add extra protein to your usual diet, or you’re looking for a reduced calorie way to get the same amount of protein so that you can achieve a healthy weight, your protein supplement can be rapidly mixed and consumed.

This is key, because you may choose to drink an early morning plant-based protein shake mixed with fruit and yogurt to get your day off to a healthy start, or you may prefer to scoop whey protein concentrate into your post workout water along with creatine monohydrate to kickstart your post-workout recovery.

No matter how much protein powder you require or when you decide to take it, protein powder makes it very simple and convenient for you to get additional protein. 

Improved Immune Function

Perhaps the most underrated role of protein is how it improves the functionality of your immune system in several ways that are imperceptible to the naked eye.

First and foremost, protein helps your body to create antibodies to defend it against illnesses. This means that maintaining a high protein intake can help you to ward off sickness, which is a role that protein powder can fulfill.

Second, once your body has already been stricken with an illness, it begins to use amino acids to defend and repair itself. If you haven’t been consuming enough protein to produce the free amino acids required for bodily repair, your body will start to leach amino acids from your muscles in order to get what it requires. This can lead to a decline in body weight, but probably not the kind you’re hoping for.

Again, using protein powder to elevate your protein intake to the point where it is adequate can help your body assemble enough amino acids to recover from illnesses quickly, and without cannibalizing your muscles for those essential amino acids.

Boosted Metabolism

Supplementing with protein powder also has an underrated effect on your metabolism, and can influence it in multiple ways. This starts with the thermic effect of protein powder, which is three or four times higher than that of carbohydrates, and at least ten times higher than that of fat. This means the protein naturally increases your metabolic activity due to its complexity.

Second, protein poses a greater challenge to your body when it comes to digestion. In essence, consuming protein powder can force your body to engage in a hidden calorie burning workout, by burning more calories through internal processes than you would otherwise burn.

All of this occurs in concert with the fact that consuming protein powder will reduce your cravings. Therefore, the total effect of getting extra protein by way of protein powder can be a combined metabolic outcome that can ultimately help you lose undesirable body weight and improve your body composition.

Balanced Diet Contribution

While protein is busy helping you build lean body mass, it is also helping you to fill out a vital component of a balanced diet. 

Even if you don’t have a specific interest in maintaining high protein intake, but you want to make sure that you address the essentials, scooping 40 grams of protein into a protein shake can eliminate much of the pressure from monitoring your intake of dietary protein for the rest of the day.

Having your protein needs met simply can allow you to focus on other aspects of nutrition, like vitamin, mineral, and antioxidant intake, or seeking out complex carbohydrates and healthy fats.

How to Use Protein Powder Effectively

There are multiple ways that protein powder can be used effectively, but the specific way you opt to use it will probably be influenced by your personal goals. 

If you are taking protein powder for weight loss maintenance, you may decide to supplement with protein powder at key points in the day to reduce your hunger level, or to serve as a meal replacement. 

In either of these cases, whey protein supplementation will help you to sustain muscle mass while you lose weight, and especially body fat.

On the other hand, if the foremost goal of your protein supplementation strategy is to make your post-workout recovery more efficient, you can drink a protein shake immediately after resistance exercise training to accelerate muscle repair and jump-start the muscle recovery process.

Regardless, if your goal is dependent upon increased protein intake, taking extra protein at any point of the day can help you achieve your aim.

What Are the Differences Between Protein Powders?

An understandable misconception when it comes to dietary protein is the belief that your protein intake requirements can be equally satisfied by any source of protein. 

In reality, if your diet calls for you to acquire 40 grams of protein from protein powder, you may find yourself consuming too much protein from sources that are complete while still lacking in essential amino acids. 

In essence, you may find yourself not eating enough protein relative to the sources you choose to acquire the protein from. That’s why it is important to understand the amino acid composition of whichever protein powder you select before you find yourself in need of consuming even more protein powder than expected to achieve your recommended dietary allowance.

Whey Protein Powder

For many people, whey protein powder is the only form of protein powder worth discussing. It was the original protein powder made available for mass consumption, and it remains the most tested and trusted form of protein powder there is.

Most people who opt to use a protein powder other than whey protein do so because they have a specific sensitivity to whey, because they prefer to use some form of plant based protein powder, or because there is some specific amino acid they are hoping to capitalize on from the other protein forms. 

Still, whey protein powder remains the gold standard for most people, and contains high quantities of the much-sought-after branched chain amino acid combination that is credited with building serious muscle mass.

Soy Protein Powder

As the most popular form of plant based protein powder, soy protein is the second most popular form of protein powder in the world. 

When it comes to comparisons between soy protein and whey protein, this is often when the topic of complete proteins is first introduced. While every protein powder may contain substantial quantities of protein and amino acids, only certain types of protein powders contain all of the amino acids necessary to be classified as complete proteins.

Moreover, simply because a type of protein powder can be classified as a complete protein, that doesn’t mean it contains all of the most sought after amino acids in the desired ratios to optimally repair and build muscle tissue.

Cutting straight to the heart of the matter, soy possesses lower levels of essential amino acids and branched chain amino acids than several other types of protein powders. The most vital of these is leucine. 

Although there are studies that suggest that soy is as good as whey when it comes to developing muscle in untrained lifters, the designers of the study equalized the amount of leucine in the soy and whey in order to create this result; this is not a normal occurrence. (1)

Therefore, although it retains its status as a complete protein, soy is not as efficient as other types of protein powder when it’s time to build muscle mass. In the most long-term randomized study comparing the effects of whey and soy protein supplementation on different test takers, participants who supplemented with whey experienced significantly greater gains. (2)

With that being stated, soy is still superior to many other plant based proteins when it comes to its completeness.

Casein Protein

One of the benefits to studying the activity of casein protein is to study how certain protein powders may behave differently from others, and how these behavioral differences can be utilized for your benefit.

Originally, casein was the milk based protein substance that was being isolated for the sake of cheese production by the extraction of whey. Nowadays, casein protein powder is a supplement in its own right, with an amino acid profile roughly similar to that of whey, and similar levels of essential amino acids.

The most critical difference between whey protein and casein protein has to do with their rates of absorption. Whey protein is very rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream, thereby initiating muscle protein synthesis almost immediately.

Conversely, casein protein is the milk based protein that is digested far more slowly, which means it supplies your muscles with a steady amino acid stream without spiking the level of amino acids in your blood. 

For athletes who may be interested in either protein source, studies have generally shown that there is no perceived difference in performance following the consumption of either protein derived from dairy milk. (3) Despite this, there are bodybuilders who will use both protein powders, except they will use them at different moments of the day. 

These bodybuilders will use a whey protein supplement immediately after the conclusion of their workouts to quickly begin muscle protein synthesis, and then use casein prior to bedtime to prevent muscle breakdown overnight.

Study results indicate that participants supplementing with 40 grams of casein protein 30 minutes before bedtime experienced improved sleep, reduced muscle soreness, greater amino acid availability at rest, and reduced muscle breakdown during the night. (4)

Pea Protein

The incompleteness or insufficiency of different protein powders is something that many people attempt to compensate for once they know the full story behind the contents of the powders. Pea protein is an example of this, because it possesses all of the essential amino acids, but with very low levels of methionine. 

This shortfall of methionine can be a limiting factor when it comes to the growth of muscle mass. Because of this, many people — especially vegans and vegetarians — compensate by dumping a combination of rice and pea protein powders into their protein shakes. 

By combining these two protein powders, the rice protein is able to make up the shortfall of methionine and ensure that the total protein intake from the protein shake provides all of the expected nutrients.

Hemp Protein Powder

Hemp is one of the most trendy sources of protein powder, potentially stemming from the desire to find an increasing number of uses for hemp-based products. However, it is also one of the most useful protein powders to spotlight due to its limitations.

Specifically, while hemp qualifies as a complete protein, it suffers from a serious shortage of lysine, which is a major limiting factor in its functionality. 

This doesn’t mean hemp’s existing amino acids can’t perform within your body. However, it does mean that hemp will not be as efficient at tasks like building lean muscle mass as some other protein sources.

FAQs about Protein Powder

If you’re on a path to higher protein intake, you will probably have some questions about the safety and capabilities of protein powder before you start drinking protein shakes several times per day. 

Here are some answers that will guide you along the lines of how much protein you should consume, and what you should expect when you begin supplementation.

Is protein powder safe to use daily?

For most people, protein powder is very safe, and is something you can consume daily. For most people, the only danger that accompanies taking protein powder can occur if you are on a high protein diet, and you consume too much protein.

The most common issues connected with high protein diets are related to your kidneys, which can become stressed by the creation of too much acid resulting from protein breakdown.

However, this is a problem linked to high protein diets and the consumption of too much protein in general, and not specifically to consuming too many grams of protein powder.

In addition, each protein powder still retains some of the disadvantages from its original food source. For example, if you have an allergy to dairy, supplementing with whey or casein — the two popular protein powders derived from dairy milk — are likely to induce an allergic reaction.

Can protein powder help with weight loss?

If losing weight is on your agenda, protein powder can help you with your weight loss in a number of ways. First, protein requires more calories to process than fats or carbohydrates, which means replacing other macronutrients with protein can contribute to the sort of caloric deficit that can contribute to weight loss.

Second, unless your protein powder contains added sugars, it will usually arrive in the form of a sugar-free, low calorie nutrient, which can address your lean muscle growth needs without flooding your body with the unnecessary calories that would help you pile on excess weight.

Finally, when you drink protein shakes, they can act as meal replacements that reduce the likelihood that you will run to other food sources. This is owed to the fact that high protein intake is linked with increased satiety. This also contributes to the weight loss process by decreasing your overall food consumption.

How many grams of protein powder should I consume per day?

There are no specific limits for how many grams of protein powder you should consume during a day. However, it is generally advised that you should consume no more than two grams of protein each day per kilogram of your target body weight.

Most dietitians would place the recommended dietary allowance of proteins at closer to 1.0 to 1.5 grams for protein per kilogram of ideal body weight for athletes or people engaged in frequent resistance training.

In short, when it comes to how much protein powder you consume, you should consider your protein supplementation in relation to all of the protein you consume over the course of a day, and attempt to keep your overall protein consumption within a safe range.

An All-Purpose Supplement

As you can plainly see, the advantages to a high protein diet are vast, and there are many ways you can improve your body and quality of life by getting more protein. Whether you are interested in all-purpose weight loss, muscle building, or simply adding the right kind of weight to your body, protein powder can help you accomplish these goals, and several others.

References:

1. Lynch HM, Buman MP, Dickinson JM, Ransdell LB, Johnston CS, Wharton CM. No Significant Differences in Muscle Growth and Strength Development When Consuming Soy and Whey Protein Supplements Matched for Leucine Following a 12 Week Resistance Training Program in Men and Women: A Randomized Trial. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 May 29;17(11):3871. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17113871. PMID: 32486007; PMCID: PMC7312446.

2. Volek JS, Volk BM, Gómez AL, Kunces LJ, Kupchak BR, Freidenreich DJ, Aristizabal JC, Saenz C, Dunn-Lewis C, Ballard KD, Quann EE, Kawiecki DL, Flanagan SD, Comstock BA, Fragala MS, Earp JE, Fernandez ML, Bruno RS, Ptolemy AS, Kellogg MD, Maresh CM, Kraemer WJ. Whey protein supplementation during resistance training augments lean body mass. J Am Coll Nutr. 2013;32(2):122-35. doi: 10.1080/07315724.2013.793580. PMID: 24015719.

3. Wilborn CD, Taylor LW, Outlaw J, Williams L, Campbell B, Foster CA, Smith-Ryan A, Urbina S, Hayward S. The Effects of Pre- and Post-Exercise Whey vs. Casein Protein Consumption on Body Composition and Performance Measures in Collegiate Female Athletes. J Sports Sci Med. 2013 Mar 1;12(1):74-9. PMID: 24149728; PMCID: PMC3761774.

4. Kim J. Pre-sleep casein protein ingestion: new paradigm in post-exercise recovery nutrition. Phys Act Nutr. 2020 Jun 30;24(2):6-10. doi: 10.20463/pan.2020.0009. PMID: 32698256; PMCID: PMC7451833.