37 y/o - protein supplements to help with gain

[miriamf]

Hi all, I’m looking for some supplements to help gain muscle. I’m 37 going on 38 soon and am struggling to get my gain back after over 5 years of not exercising (I guess I’m sort of skinny fat now - thanks to depression, a ligament tear and a fair bit of laziness).

I’ve managed to cut my consumption of junk food and am mostly eating healthy - I feel pretty good about myself in general and make a few visits to the gym everything week - however, a regular diet isn’t cutting it.

Would protein supplement help? I want to be able to lift more so I can grow bigger. Any suggestion would be most appreciated. Thank you!

P.S. living in Canada

 

[daniellion]

@miriamf Real foods are best - grilled chicken being my personal favorite. Greek yogurt, etc. high protein low fat low carb foods. Otherwise ~2 scoops of whey post workout is a nice protein boost, too. ON’s 100% gold standard being my preference in terms of cost/quality ratio

 

[user_random]

@miriamf Eat protein in your diet, and supplement with protein powder as needed. Aim for around 1g protein per pound of body weight. Combine with resistance training. It’s really that simple to get started.

Add creatine if you want too. But this is less important than protein and resistance training.

 

[antponetteoaks]

@miriamf Beef, chicken, eggs, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, tuna - top stuff!

 

[jerryy324]

@miriamf Hey man. I’m a similar age to you. I eat mainly whole foods like chicken and beef. I also supplement with a fish oil capsule, multivitamin and a zinc and magnesium capsule.

For protein I use whey protein isolate. Typically aim for 200g protein per day and supplement with 5g creatine also.

Calories hover around 2200-2500 (I’m 87kg and cutting) but managed to hold onto a significant proportion of muscle.

 

[ecs867]

@miriamf Seeing lots of comments about getting protein from “real” food. While a varied source of protein IS important, whey, casein, egg protein, pea protein, etc., basically any protein found in a supplement is REAL food. It isn’t some fake thing created in a lab and can be very helpful and cost effective when trying to up your protein intake.

 

[dawn16]

@miriamf Hey OP, I'm currently cutting at 1700-1800 cals. I'm 6'0 ~198lb right now. Doing a sort of recomp/fat loss and feeding off some delicious noob gains. Protein is essential for you to not feel as hungry throughout the day as well as build muscle, so it's good to fill your stomach with protein rich foods. Be aware that not all protein sources are created equal, and WHEY protein (in context of protein supplements) is more or less the king as it has complete proteins assuming you're buying decent stuff. Eating protein alone won't do anything without actual progressive overload when working out.

I eat 160-180g of protein a day and that's fairly difficult at my intake. I was munching on protein bars for breakfast for a while but then I got into meal prep and that's been helping me out. For example I've made some breakfast burritos and they have 42g protein and 420 cals. Not the tastiest and it gets old after a while, but you can spice it up if you have different recipes.

As for protein supplements, pretty much everyone can benefit from having a tub of whey in their home (if you're not intolerant to it) but definitely get your protein from other sources if possible. Some people like to make a shake in the morning that's fairly similar in macros to my burrito in terms of protein & carbs, but personally it doesn't fill me up the same way.

All of that being said you'll need a fairly strict diet and exercise regiment, as well as a minor surplus of calories if you're not looking for a body recomp the same way that I am. Some people like to hard cut and then eat 2-300 cals over maintenance for a lean bulk, others like to do a deficit while continuing to lift to try and maximize muscle gain and fat loss simultaneously.

I consider myself to have a pretty severe past of eating disorders and unhealthy habits that made doing this initial change hard. I've used food as a crutch my entire life and have ate my feelings nearly every day for 30 years. If you have any questions or need anything and feel like I might provide some useful information for you, just let me know and I'll help you out.

 

[dawn16]

@miriamf Steak, Chicken, salmon, tuna, cottage cheese,

 

[teodorescu]

@miriamf Im a year younger [36] 6ft, 215lbs in the best shape of my life and my advice is basically the same as everyone else's keep the protien intake up 1lbs per lbs you wanna way, creatine (but make sure your drinking enough water for the creatine to do anything). But the advice I didn't see that I'll preach is reverse diet to try to bring your maintenence calories as high as you can. I've managed to get my maintenence up to 3k-3.5k so it's super easy now to cut without feeling starved. Remember for every lbs of muscle you gain you're burning more calories just existing I know it's tempting to just cut to get the definition but reverse dieting into a bulk is gonna make that definition easier to get and maintain in the long run. I'm not a personal trainer, I have zero credentials other than my own personal experience so take it all with a grain of salt