The Funny Pitfall of Protein Shakes and Weight Gain Programs

The other day a friend of mine told me a story about protein shakes which I thought was pretty funny. Well, I thought it was pretty funny, but I don't think he was very amused by the whole situation. You see a few months ago he had decided to start his own weight gain program because he wanted to look more muscular. True, there's nothing wrong with trying to put on a little muscle or even quite a bit of muscle, but you have to go about it the right way.

That's where the story gets a little humorous and a bit sad at the same time. My friend thought he could simply add lots of calories and protein to his diet and then sit back and watch the muscle magically appear on his body. His frame would become more muscular by the day, and all he needed to accomplish this was a hearty protein shake every morning.

It sounds pretty simple, right? Just grab a tub of protein powder, add some milk, several raw eggs (yes, some people really do this) and a dash of chocolate or vanilla flavoring. Maybe the eggs were a little bit over the top, but you probably wouldn't object to the rest of the ingredients, would you? So what exactly was the problem here? In all his excitement, my friend failed to add a tiny, minuscule, trivial little ingredient -exercise.

That's right, simply adding protein and overall calories to your diet, even if it's a lot of protein and calories, will not build muscle if you don't combine this with weight training. Your body doesn't particularly like to grow muscle because it's difficult to maintain so you have to give your body a reason to build muscle. In other words, you have to force your body to build muscle by exposing it to strength training. When your muscles are challenged by unusually heavy weights (at least unusually heavy for your muscles), your body will respond by gradually increasing muscle mass.

So what happened to my friend, you ask? Unfortunately, he ended up with a bellyful of fat, as we could have predicted. The good news is that he can reverse the situation and, if he's really serious about growing a muscular physique, follow a comprehensive muscle building program.

Keywords: