John Phung

Archives For whey protein

MuscleTech Phase8 Review

March 14, 2013 — 6 Comments

Originally I bought MuscleTech Phase8 whey protein thinking that it was a protein powder, similar to that of Optimum Nutrition’s Gold Standard 100% whey protein or Dymatize Elite.

Turns out, it’s not.

According to the “supplement facts”, it only contains a little over 60% protein per serving.

It also contains 7 grams of carbohydrates. Something that I wasn’t expecting because I ASSuMEd it was just a “regular” protein powder.

You know, the stuff that has a ~30 g serving size and a 24+ g of protein per serving with 1-3 g of carbs.

It was listed under the category “protein powder”, and all of the protein powder I had bought previously was the regular stuff I just described.

They say that it contains “only half the carbs and fat of the leading competitor”. I’m not sure who or what product they are referring to.

My mistake, and lesson learned: Read the label before buying

It seems like it doesn’t fit into any category that I’m aware of. It contains too little carbohydrates to be classified as a meal replacement, post-workout powder or mass gainer. But it contains too much carbs to be a pure protein powder. Maybe there’s some new made-up category that popped up recently that I’m not aware of.

My plan was to take this later after I finish my existing tubs of protein, but since this stuff has more carbs than I expected (probably due to the maltodextrin, the 2nd ingredient listed after it’s protein blend), I’m going to drink MuscleTech Phase8 during my workout.

Anyway, I ended up purchasing 2 jugs of each flavor (strawberry, chocolate and vanilla) for a total of 6 jugs because of some buy 1 get 1 free deal. So now I have 27 lb of this MuscleTech Phase8 powder.

What I thought was a little weird was that the weight of the protein was not the same for every flavor.

The strawberry is only 4.4 lb, vanilla is 4.5 lb, and milk chocolate is 4.6 lb.

I don’t know if this is the case with every manufacturer, but I thought it was odd.

Ingredients

According to the product description, it contains a protein blend which is listed as:

1. Hydrolyzed Whey Protein Isolate
2. Whey Protein Isolate
3. Whey Protein Concentrate
4. Milk Protein Concentrate
5. Calcium Caseinate
6. Micellar Casein

Interestingly, the order of the type of protein listed on their product profile is not the same as the order in which they’re listed in the “ingredients” label:

I wish they would show the quantities or some percentage of each type of protein instead of simply listing it out in a bracket under “protein blend”.

I also want to point out something that caught my eye:

Processed in a facility that also processes wheat, egg, fish and shellfish.

I checked to see if my other protein powders had this, and it did not.

I would be interested to see this facility that processes wheat, egg, fish and shellfish…along with MuscleTech Phase8 powder. Maybe there’s a MuscleTech wheat, egg, fish and shellfish product out there?

Sustained Release Protein

The claim in their marketing is “8-Hour Sustained-Release Protein Absorption”.

I’m not sure how I can test this out for myself to see if it is true, but I would bet eating a steak and not chewing it thoroughly would provide me with a longer “Sustained-Release Protein Absorption” than an easily digestible protein powder that contains some “Digestive Enzyme Matrix” to help digest it.

Scoop & Serving Size

The scoop is much larger than I’m accustomed to seeing, but it makes sense because the serving size is much larger than average.

The serving size is a whopping 41 g, and it only contains 26 g of protein per serving. See the comparisons below (the MuscleTech scoop is on the right side).

Mixability

It’s a very fine powder, something similar to that of baby powder. Because of this, MuscleTech Phase8 mixes well, but is a bit messier than other protein powders that I’ve used. It goes everywhere; sticks to my hand and fingers, sticks to the scoop, on the table, on the container and even in the air.

I didn’t bother mixing it in with my coffee, because I did not want to make a big mess and didn’t want the additional carbs first thing in the morning.

Taste

All the flavors are very sweet, and have a slight chemically taste.

Vanilla tasted best, chocolate had an artificial taste to it, and strawberry tasted like strawberry flavored medicine.

Strawberry

Smells nice
White powder turns pink when you combine it with liquid
Taste a bit like medicine
Looks like Pepto Bismal

Chocolate

Vanilla

The scoop was on top when I opened this tub.

Overall

Because of the buy-1-get-1-free deal for the 4.4 - 4.6 lb tubs (which is no longer available), I suppose 27 lb of MuscleTech Phase8 for $157.11 was alright, even though it only contains about ~62% protein (that’s 16.7 lb of protein) by weight.

That’s still $9.41 per pound of protein if my math is correct.

Would I buy at full price? Nah.

I think the next time I buy protein, I’m just going to go with something cheaper with less carbs, like a 25 lb cube of whey protein from CanadaProtein.

I think if they eliminated the maltodextrin (which seems to me like a cheap filler ingredient…not sure why it’s in there) this would be a better product. But there may be some people out there who want the extra 7 g of carbohydrates coming partially from maltodextrin per serving.

Personally, if I wanted extra carbs, I would just eat a piece of fruit, add an extra scoop of rice to my post-workout meal or something like that.

It does have pretty high ratings from other people though (currently a rating of 9.5/10 from 195 reviews). Although from reading some of the reviews, it looks like MuscleTech themselves sent out free tubs to bb.com members to evaluate.

Personally, I give it a 3 out of 5.

In Product Reviews Calcium Caseinate, Hydrolyzed Whey Protein Isolate, Micellar Casein, Milk Protein Concentrate, muscletech, muscletech phase8 review, phase8, protein powder, whey protein, whey protein concentrate, whey protein isolate

Adding Whey Protein To Tea: Endless Combinations!

January 31, 2013 — 6 Comments

I wrote a post before about adding whey protein to coffee, but for some reason it never occurred to me to add whey protein to tea.

I recently discovered that adding whey protein powder to tea makes it taste a bit like bubble tea, but without the bubbles.

It also reminds me a bit of the Malaysian milk tea Teh tarik aka “pulled tea”, but without the “pulling” as shown below:

I’ve had pulled tea at JJ Market before, but pretty sure not from this guy!

Anyway, here’s what happened:

The other day, I saw some left over Lipton “Yellow Label” tea inside of a mug on the counter.

I was in the middle of making my protein-energy drink at the time. Seeing that there was still some tea sitting in that mug, and I fill up my shaker cup yet, I took this mug of leftover tea and dumped it in with the whey protein.

I really had no idea what to expect, because I have never tried this or read of anyone mixing whey protein with tea.

It turned out tasting a little bit like bubble tea, or milk tea. Pretty yummy!

I tried making it again by putting a teabag in a mug, adding boiling water to it and let it sit for a while until it cools down.

Then I poured the tea from the mug into my shaker cup. This is a bit of a pain in the ass.

Problem with making tea in a mug is that I had to repeat this step 3 times before filling the shaker mug with tea.

So the next idea I had was to use a big Pyrex measuring cup to make the tea first, before pouring it into the shaker cup:

After leaving it in for 15 minutes, I pour it into the shaker cup:

Works pretty well!

After pouring the tea into the shaker cup, I took the tea bag and squeeze out every last bit of “juice” I can get.

Here are some pictures of me demonstrating my pinch grip strength:

At this point, it still feels a bit hot, so I stick it in the freezer for about 10 minutes to cool down the tea before adding whey protein powder to it.

Today, I’m going to add 1 scoop of that chemically tasting vanilla flavor Elite whey protein, and 1 scoop of the chocolate truffle flavored Ultimate Nutrition Whey Sensation 81 protein which supposedly “expires” this month (still have 9 x 2 lb tubs left).

I also added 5 grams of creatine to the mix, because these days I mix creatine with my protein shake.

Shake it up, and drink. Tastes really good! Better than mixing it with plain ol’ water.

Personally I’ve only tried this with Lipton green tea and yellow tea, and it’s really a mild tea flavor.

In the future, I’d like to experiment with something stronger like black tea, or other flavors.

There’s a few people on Fitocracy who have tried this out already. Here are some combinations that work well:

Chai green tea + vanilla whey protein
Iced mango peach tea + vanilla whey protein
Black tea + strawberry whey protein

However, one kind of tea I probably won’t try anytime soon is Ginseng tea

Yeah…I just don’t think Ginseng tea combined with whey protein would work well. Not 100% sure though.

With the many variety of teas available on the market, and the multitude of different flavors of whey protein, the possibilities are endless.

Try mixing whey protein with tea for yourself.

Bench Press 3RM, Increased Squat Volume, Supplements, Hugh Jackman, Legs and Lose 40 lb of Fat

January 27, 2013 — Leave a comment

Let's see how my training went this past week:

Squat

Decided to add a couple of sets of low bar squat to Monday's already high volume squat workout, and it was quite challenging. Maybe it's my lack of conditioning, but I had to lie down on a bench with my feet elevated during the later sets. I have never done this before.

I did 2 sets of 5 after 5x3 of low bar squats. My low back muscles felt extremely pumped after the sets of 5, and may have made the high bar squats more difficult than it should have been. I think I'll try adding the 2x5 low bar squats after 5x5 high bar squat to see how it feels.

Surprisingly, I did not experience much DOMS in my legs or lower back the next day, and I could walk up and down the stairs just fine.

Maybe, because my body proportion is similar to that of Wolverine, I have similar healing powers too! I definitely do not have the body hair though.

OHP

For overhead presses, I missed again (twice!) at 260 lb even though I didn't bench as much on Monday (3x5 instead of the usual 5x5), allowing my triceps to be "more fresh" on OHP day.

Maybe it has to do with my grip width, and how it affects my upper body position. I find that with a wider grip, I can stand more erect, but with a narrower grip, I need to lean back a little so that the bar is over the center of my body. I used a narrow grip, and I'm pretty sure I was standing more erect than leaning back, because the bar felt a little too forward as I tried to press the weight up.

Or maybe, I'm just not strong enough to OHP 260 lb. Yet.

I did get a body weight (200 lb) 7 rep max, and I'm hoping for 225 x 5 for the next session.

Bench Press

Out of all the lifts that I do with a barbell, I think I'm making the most progress with my bench press.

I hit a new 3RM at 330 lb. Previous my 3 rep personal best was 320 lb a little over a month ago. +10 lb increase is not too bad!

I think this weight would be a good opener for the bench press in a powerlifting competition.

Also, I think I finally (and accidentally) figured out how to utilize my lats to drive the bar up during the bench. I'll need to experiment more though.

Anyway, check out some of the articles I wrote this past week:

And take a look these:

Dude, So and So Got SO Fucking Jacked For That Movie: Hugh Jackman by Jamie Lewis
Maximal Leg Development by Mike Robertson
How to Lose 40 lb of Fat in 63 days by Marty Gallagher

In Weekly Review Bench Press, food, hugh jackman, jamie lewis, leg development, lose fat, low bar squat, Marty Gallagher, mike robertson, ohp, Squat, supplements, whey protein

How To Get That Last Bit Of Whey Protein Powder Out Of The Container

January 24, 2013 — 1 Comment

Every person who has taken whey protein powder that is stored in a jug, tub, or some sort of container has come across this problem.

When you’re just about finished the container of protein powder, there’s always that little bit left over that takes forever to scoop out.

There are a few ways to get this out. You know what they say: there are many ways to skin a cat.

I have tried adding water to the container, but that ends up being a little messy. Sometimes I’ve already added all the water I need to my shaker cup, and adding any more liquids is not possible unless I drink some of it first. And if I want to save the container for later use, I would need to wash it right away, or else it ends up stinking like crap later.

I’ve also tried using a smaller spoon to try to scoop out the remaining whey protein. It works for a few seconds, then it becomes just as frustrating as using the regular protein scooper, but on a smaller scale.

There are probably many other ways (some people have recommended snorting it, but I don't think this is a good idea), but the "upside down container" method I’m about to explain is by far my favorite.

Here’s what you do:

1. Scoop out as much whey protein as you can with the scooper. You’ll be left with this familiar sight:

When it comes to a point where you’ve had enough scooping, screw the lid back on and turn it upside down while keeping it in your hands.

2. Then, give it a shake.

3. Next, “flick” with your fingers to hit the sides of the container. You want to do this a few times on multiple areas of the container to try to dislodge any particles of whey protein that’s clinging to the insides of the jug.

4. Now, place the container upside down on the table and let it sit for a moment to allow the protein powder to settle.

5. Unscrew the lid carefully from the bottom, and you should find that most of the leftover whey protein powder has fallen into the lid!

6. There will still be a little whey protein inside of the container, so give it a few more finger flicks to knock it out. Make sure you aim the mouth of the jug towards the lid.

7. Now, all you need to do is take this lid with leftover whey protein powder and dump it into your shaker bottle.

This is what you’ll see inside the container after all is said and done:

There’s still a bit of whey protein powder left over. You can choose to do whatever you want with it (add water and drink a super diluted whey protein “shake”, run your hand inside the container and lick it off your fingers, etc.).

Personally I just leave it. Most of the time.

I save most of my containers for later use, in case I end up ordering a giant bag of whey protein in the future.

In Blog container, jug, scooper, tub, whey protein, whey protein powder

What I Eat And What Supplements I Take

January 22, 2013 — 11 Comments

So PZillaFX asked me on Youtube the other day to write a blog post detailing what I eat and what supplements I take.

Actually, he asks “how” but I’m going to assume he meant “what” because I’m sure he’s not interested in what type of utensils I use or how I chew my food etc.

And this seems to be a somewhat common question I get from a variety of places from time to time, so I might as well write a blog post about it.

Before I get started, there’s a few things I want to mention when it comes to my approach to eating and supplements.

1. First, if you didn’t know already, I’m 5’4” tall (or 163 cm) and fluctuate between roughly 200-205 lb (or 90.9-93.2 Kg).

I have gained a few pounds or so since eating like this (around late spring/early summer 2012), and right now my body weight is holding steady.

When I started taking barbell training seriously around late November of 2010, I was about 183 lb. I did not take any supplements except fish oil and a multivitamin.

I was living in Bangkok, Thailand until July 2011, and up until then, I only ate real food. Because food was cheap I ate out a lot.

This includes sushi buffet, pizza buffet, breakfast buffet (unlimited eggs and bacon!), Sizzler, KFC (ordered a family size bucket and ate this with rice), McDonalds, Outback Steakhouse, mango and sweet glutinous rice with coconut milk, Thai stewed pork leg with 5 spices and rice, Korean pork with rice, and a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember.

Trying to recall what and where I ate is making my mouth water as I write this.

I also had a slow cooker and rice cooker that was used on a regular basis. And I ate many bags of chips and drank a lot of pop (usually Coke Zero or Sprite Zero).

Man, I miss Thailand!

Back then, I also ate food before working out. Eating a big bowl of rice/meat/veggies before heading out to squat with a belt on was not comfortable.

When I came back from Thailand to Canada in July 2011, what I ate was more of the same (rice,meat,veggies). I just didn't eat out as often as I did before.

And this may come as a surprise to some people, but I only started taking whey protein around early January 2012 (I found an old receipt in my email to verify this), and creatine sometime early-April of 2012.

2. I don’t count calories or figure out what my “macros” are.

It just seems like a pain in the ass counting calories and trying to accurately figure out something that is at best, an approximation.

By the way, “macros” is a relatively new term for me. Previously I have known this word to be meant as something big (ex. macroeconomics, or macrophillia), something to do with programming, as in a macro in Excel, or something to do with photography.

Somehow, it has been adopted by the internet fitness world as a short form for “macronutrient”.

I like the long form of macronutrient better.

I mean, you wouldn’t call macroeconomics and microeconomics “macro 101” or “micro 101” right? Or maybe people do. I don’t know.

3. I am jaded by taking crappy supplements in the past that did nothing but burn a hole in my wallet and/or give me an upset stomach in the past.

I’m skeptical of marketing claims made by supplement companies and generally “stick to the basics” so I don’t take a whole lot of supplements. I prefer things that make a big impact, rather than some substance that claims a certain effect if you take it, but in reality, couldn’t really tell the difference between the “supplement” from a placebo.

I do take a multivitamin and fish oil, just in case. But that’s about it.

Anyway, I describe below what a normal day is when it comes to eating and supplements. I started eating this way around late spring or early summer of 2012.

The timestamps are approximations, so they vary from day to day.

6:30 AM - Morning Coffee With Whey Protein

I start my day off with some instant coffee and whey protein. I’ll add heaping teaspoon of instant coffee, and either half a scoop of whey protein if I’m using 1 flavor, or 2x 1/4 scoop if I’m using 2. I eyeball the quantity in the scoop so it’s not exact. I wrote an article describing exactly how I add whey protein to coffee here.

During this time I’m catching up on email, looking through my Facebook feed and RSS reader. Once that’s out of the way and the caffeine starts kicking in, I’ll try to do something productive.

I’ll go through 3 cups of coffee and total of about 1.5 scoops of whey protein.

9:30 AM – Make My Shake & Take Some Pills

Now, I make my pre-peri-post workout protein energy drink. I’ll add caffeine and sometimes ephedrine HCL into a shaker cup, mixed it up with water, followed by approximately 5g of creatine and 2 scoops of whey protein. Full details about how I make my protein energy drink is covered here.

I recently struck a deal with some nearly-expired Ultimate Nutrition Whey Sensation 81 whey protein for $9.99 for 2 lb. The flavors are cookies and cream, and chocolate truffle. So I’m mixing in 1 scoop of cookies and cream, and another scoop of chocolate truffle. Tastes ok, but the cookies and cream has actual cookie bits in there.

Also, at this time I’ll take a multivitamin and fish oil. I take these so that I’m not deficient in any vitamins and minerals, and I don’t eat fish at home and unfortunately I cannot eat sushi buffet everyday.

This is the cheapest multivitamin I could find. I even accidentally got the “adults over 50” version! It makes my urine neon yellow like the color of the Nike Romaleos 2 Volt shoes. Should be fine.

I don’t believe in taking super expensive, supposedly high quality multivitamins, simply because I’ve never found that it made any significant impact on my health. But it can make an impact on my wallet.

I like the Now Ultra Omega-3 because it’s in a pill format (drinking liquid fish oil seems a bit gross), and contains the most EPA/DHA per pill that I know of. Decent price too.

10:00 AM

Now I brush my teeth, and try to do something productive for a couple of hours!

During this time, I take sips from that protein shake I made, simply because I am feeling hungry.

Once I my stomach starts grumbling and I can’t take it anymore, that’s what I begin preparing for my training session of the day.

Sometimes, I’ll take my favorite pre-workout supplement, ibuprofen (generic name for popular brands such as Advil, Motrin, Nuprin or Nurofen):

12:00 PM – Start Training

During my workout, I’ll sip on the DIY protein energy drink I made earlier. Occasionally I’ll add extra water after a few gulps so I have enough to drink throughout my workout.

Every now and then, I’ll even go back upstairs and add another scoop of protein and water into the shaker cup. It really depends on how I feel based on the duration and how tough the workout is.

3:00 PM – Finish Training & Post-Workout

Usually by this time I’m done with my protein drink.

At this point, I’ll make a post-workout sandwich. Today, it’s a triple-decker peanut butter and ~~bee vomit~~ honey sandwich.

After eating this, I’ll take my post-workout shower.

3:30-4:00 PM – Meal 1

Time for real food meal #1. Which is generally a huge bowl of rice, some sort of meat and vegetables.

I eat rice everyday. I’m sure members of the Chinese Olympic weightlifting team eats rice everyday. I’m kinda strong, and they’re really strong. Coincidence?

As you can see by the picture below, I’m running out of cooked meat. I made this last week.

Time to defrost something from the freezer…

I throw in some baby spinach whenever possible.

I’m not into this “organic” food craze that’s been popular lately. I’ve tried organic baby spinach, and it tasted gross! Also, it was more expensive for less amount of spinach. I’ve been eating this non-organic spinach for a long time. It’s good enough.

I'll also toss in an egg, sprinkle some cashews if I have them, and pour on some Sriracha hot sauce.

7:00 PM – Meal 2

Same thing as my first meal, but without the egg.

7:30-8:00 PM – Snack time!

Occasionally I’ll eat potato chips, fruits, cereal, chocolate, cookies or whatever else that’s available.

As you can probably tell, my “diet” loosely follows the Carb Back-Loading protocol (as in, I eat my carbs after my workout). I find that it works pretty well. I feel comfortable when I train, can see the outline of my abs under the correct lighting sometimes, and I’ve continued to get stronger since eating this way.

Over the course of the day, I drink water. It’s tap water, filtered by a Brita filter that’s stored in my refrigerator.

Occasionally I drink juice if it’s in the fridge, and only have milk when it’s in my cereal.

And that’s basically it.

Hope that answers anybody’s question about what I eat and what supplements I take!