Holy Weight Gainer, Batman!

[IronFist]

I was at GNC tonight looking at the weight gaining powders. I wonder who the "engineers" are that come up with some of these formulas.

I saw one a while ago (sorry, I forgot the brand) that was like 30g sat. fat per serving. That's 150% saturated fat (the bad kind of fat) of the daily recommended value (based on a 2000 calorie a day diet). Holy ****, they should rename that stuff heart attack powder.

Then tonight I saw this other one that was called "Weight Gain 2150" or something. The 2150 is because each shake has 2150 calories in it. Holy ****! Now, that's probably not much if you're a pro bodybuilder eating 7000 calories a day, but that's still quite a bit for one meal. One serving was "3 scoops", however, so if you wanted to be normal you could use only 1 scoop and have a nice, 700 calorie shake. If you did it this way you would extend the life of the product from 7 servings to 21 servings. But for $45 that's still expensive.

Why is that last one worth mentioning? Because of the ingredients. Out of the 2150 calories, I think 50-80g were protein. Now the funny part. In a 2150 calorie shake, only 2g was fat. That means the rest was carbs :eek: ! I remember in the RDA % column it said it was 160% of the RDA's recommended daily carb allowance. Holy ****!!! They should rename this stuff, "Who wants to become a diabetic powder."

I wonder who came up with that last stuff? "Hey guys, let's make a bulking powder with no fat in it! I'm SMART." Is it supposed to make you huge and lean? :rolleyes:

Rant over.

IronFist

[stuff]

they need the carbs to spare the muscle. of course carbs aren't the only thing involved. BCAA's esp. Glutamine and many other things play a part in sparing muscle.

[yenhoi]

Well..... you are kinda responsible for reading the label and stuff.

:D

[IronFist]

Originally posted by stuff
they need the carbs to spare the muscle.

What are you talking about?

IronFist

[stuff]

that was in response to the part in your rant about the carbs.

[IronFist]

I knew that much :)

I meant what are you mean by "sparing the muscle?"

IronFist

[prana]

IronFist,

Sometimes ignorance is a laff, but only to the ones who know better. I'm very ignorant, though I have a similar but off-topic rant.

Saw these RCA cables, carrying audio signals from the source to the input of the PA, costing a massive AUD$4000 per pair ! Its selling point, low inductance and of course gold contacts etc.

But what they did not know, is that, since the input of the pre-amp is an extremely high impedance, the worst enemy is in fact capacitive coupling. & even more so, the audio amplifiers greatest noise factor is lack of proper grounding.

Anyways, back to topic, you and most people here are lucky, we know better. Spare a thought for those shelling out precious hard earnt money and causing themselves more bodily harm in the name of health. Lets hope they learn eh ?!

[stuff]

not enough carbs the body starts eating muscle for energy.

[Ford Prefect]

I think what he means is that carbs are needed to replenish glycogen stores after they've been exhausted due to rigorous activity. Obviously 400g of carbs is enough to allow you to kill diabetic people with just a glance though.

[Qi dup]

Originally posted by IronFist
Holy ****!!! They should rename this stuff, "Who wants to become a diabetic powder."

Haha yeah, I thought about that myself. I like 'instant diabetic' personaly. I think your think of the weight gain 1850 and 2200. Before a new crap about nutrition I used to take that stuff:mad: I'd drink a full serving right befoe I went to bed (Thanks GNC). Let me tell, it worked. I gained 10 pounds in no time at all. It's the fatest I've ever been! Yeah weight gainer! I felt pretty crappy too. All in all I gained about 10 pounds of fat and not much muscle.

[IronFist]

Originally posted by stuff
not enough carbs the body starts eating muscle for energy.

Are you serious? I always thought it was protein that was responsible for the body not eating muscle. :confused:

I assumed this is why people could maintain a high level of muscle mass while on ketogenic diets (very, very low or almost no carbs allowed), which force the body to burn fat because there's no carbs to use as energy. The bodybuilders I know who do this keep their protein intake very, very high throughout this time as well because protein prevents the body from using muscle as energy.

As a side note, for people reading this who might want to try a keto diet, don't, unless you're getting ready for a bodybuilding tournament. No carbs makes you feel like crap and even starts to mess with your brain function after a few days.

IronFist

[lowsweep]

My boxing trainer used to be an army boxer. He said that they have meals (there was an acronym that i forget for them) that are about 900 calories when they are training in the field. He said they also have ingredients that constapate you for the entire week of field training. Now, not only do you get a heartattack, your bowels explode as well.

[stuff]

Iron Fist, protein also plays a part in that role. But you are burning carbs for energy. In a Atkins type diet you wanna keep your BCAA high to spare muscle since there arent many carbs. Without the carbs plus high protein, you burn fat and keep muscle.

Lowsweep, they are called MRE's and are freakin' good, though I think they are a bit over 900 calories. Very high in sodium as well, to retain water.

[IronFist]

But you are burning carbs for energy.

I understand what you're saying...

But making a weight gain powder, for the specific purpose of bulking up, without fat in it is stupid.

IronFist

[ricksitterly]

You may have also noticed that a lot of these weight gain powders have a ridiculous amount of sugar in them! The last one I looked at I remember having over 100 grams of sugar in a serving... insane!!! This is actually a cheap way to bulk people up. Knowing that unused sugar gets stored as fat, and also knowing that many athletes cringe if they even hear the word fat, the manufaturers simply load this stuff with sugar instead of fat at the expense of the user's sugar/insulin system. They know that the consumers probably will gain at least some weight, with so much extra sugar in their system, and this will give their product an "edge" over other products if it somehow manages help the average joe pack on a few more pounds right after buying it. It would be much more rational to put in SOME fat (even 5 grams maybe ), and lower the insane amount of sugar in these. So many athletes are against fat, not realizing that fat actually provides the body with a great amount of reserve fuel for energy, much more than sugar or carbs. Some products, such as enlarge2, have caught on and incorperated fat, but something still needs to be done about the sugar. It makes my stomach hurt :( Not all, but many. Take a look next time you visit gnc or wherever.