Which Protein To Build Muscle?

Building muscle needs protein. But it's not the quantity that matters, it's the origin.

Whether it’s food or supplements, when it comes to protein, it all depends on the source.

Meat, Fish, Soy – What Brings The Most?

In terms of digestion, poultry, milk and quark are the most digestible sources of protein. Beef also contains a lot of iron, but it stays in the stomach for a while. In addition to the protein content, fish also has iodine and healthy omega-3 fatty acids to offer.

Depending on the fat content, digestion also takes time here. Soy, on the other hand, has (apart from the extremely unusual taste of its own) one major disadvantage: it contains substances that can slow down the training effect, especially for men, namely phytoestrogens. There will be a separate article about that here.

A practical key figure for the usability of proteins is the biological value. It indicates how well the mix of different amino acids fits the needs of the human body. Chicken eggs have a value of 100, beef 92, soy 85. Mixtures of different foods have a much higher biological value than one alone - the variety brings it.

Protein Powder – But Which One ?

Whey protein is now very well known as a dietary supplement. It's not even expensive and has a high biological value, namely 110. Whey protein is easily digestible, so the amino acids are quickly available to the cells. In a 2009 experiment with young men in Canada, after a workout, muscles responded significantly better to whey protein than to the same amount of purified protein from soy, or casein . At rest, soy and whey protein had about the same effect, but again, the casein produced poorer results.

The study should be treated with caution. Only the short-term effect was measured, and only 18 subjects took part in the experiment. Nevertheless, the result is clear: Whey protein boosts muscle growth after a training session more than other protein supplements