Mass Gainers

Clubber Lang

Just wondering if mass gainers are any good and what exactly they are, my understanding of them is that there full of carbohydrates and most of this is sugar but i could be wrong. Have they any value for someone playing sport who wants to retain and preferably gain muscle or are they just a product thats mainly there to satisfy beginers in the gym who think you can get big by just drinkin a magic shake??

Dragan

They have value but most of them are crap. Most of them provide much of the calories they offer from Sugar and not carbs like they claim to.

They are of great value but only really to people who are pushing themselves into the "extreme" level of calorie requirement. For example a guy i know who trains for strongman needs to eat about 5000 to 6000 calories a day, another guy i know who trains for MMA does so much mat work and cardio that he needs to eat about 3500 though even though he competes at 155 pounds just to stop from losing too much weight.

They are of great advantage but not to the average Joe. Stick with wholefoods and you will be fine.

Clubber Lang

what mass gainers would you recommend as being good quality and ive noticed the protein content seems to be lower in mass gainers whys this

Dragan

Actually, i have always seen it to be a bit higher, most of the decent ones clock in around 50 to 55 grams of protein per serving.

My suggestion to you would be that if you do buy one that you take a half serving instead, from most of them this should yield about 25 grams of protein, and maybe 45 grams of carbs, depending the product. This should yield a little over 300 calories. I would suggest you take them a meal replacement instead of a normal whey shake if you are worried about losing weight because of all your cardio from the GAA.

There is a good one called Mammoth that i have used in the past, I have also used Mass X by Nutrition X which seemed to be very good. I would avoid Tony Quinn, Weider and N - Large2 ( known by most of my mates as N - Lard2 ). As far as i am aware Reflex Nutrition also do a quality gainer, and these are another company i have a lot of faith in.

Clubber Lang

if i was to replace a whey shake with mass gainer what would you think of just taking it at certain times like possibly after training or matches where i might need to take in more carbohydrates

Dragan

Makes perfect sense, that's pretty much what they are for!

BrianD3

I tried a mass gainer but threw the tub out after the first serving as it was so sickly and disgusting. The serving size was about 70-80 g and this required at least 500 mls of liquid to blend. 500 mls of sickly sweet vile liquid is a lot to stomach. I think the serving gave around 500-600 calories (when blended in water which is what I was doing)

A nicer way to increase calorie intake is to try adding some calorie dense foods to your diet. Eg a 100 g packet of shelled hazelnuts is a tasty snack, has about 600 calories, is high in good fats, minerals and has some protein. You won't get any carbs from nuts so you'll need another source for carbs.

Degsy

If you stick with your six medium sized,high protein meals a day there should be no need for them unless you're doing a phenomenal amount of training.As Dragan says,they seem in the main to be full of sugar and a such more harm than good,i tend to find that taking one before bed for four weeks gives me an ven bigger spare tyre and little in the way of inctreased muscle size.I do however think that a quality shake before and just after the workout will top up the muscles glycogen levels and provide a quick hit of protein.