Protein powder that contains 600 calories or more per serving is not suitable for everyone. These powders are often referred to as mass gainers because they are designed to help boost weight or muscle gain. If you are interested in pumping up your lean muscle in as little time as possible, a good high-calorie protein powder will ensure that you get the most benefit from every single training session.
Focus On Quality
You know that you need to increase your calorie and protein intake in order to reach your fitness goals, but there is a difference between eating more calories and eating more healthy calories. If you get your extra calories through high-fat, overly processed foods that provide little to no nutritional value to your body, you won’t get the lean, pumped physique you are after. Those foods will create more stored body fat than energy, reducing muscle definition and sabotaging your efforts.
The best high-calorie protein powders contain at least 40 grams of protein as well as amino acids, enzymes and other ingredients that you need to reach your health and fitness goals. These powders create the foundation of a healthy mass-gainer protein shake, but you should consider adding other ingredients that boost the nutritional content.
Some of the best ingredients to add include:
- Oats
- Peanut butter
- Other nut butters (almond butter, etc.)
- Honey
- Fresh fruit
- Greens (spinach, etc.)
- Yogurt
- Olive oil
- Ground flaxseed
- Chia seeds
- Milk (cows, coconut, almond, soy, etc.)
- Egg whites
If you don’t purchase a high-calorie protein powder that contains creatine or added BCAAs, you may also want to throw those supplements into your protein shake. You can add any nutritious ingredient that adds healthy calories from fat, protein or complex carbohydrates. Think about flavor combinations that you enjoy, and consider using an unflavored protein powder if you want to create flavors from fresh added ingredients.
How Much Is Too Much?
Determining exactly how many calories you need to consume through a protein shake is a personal issue. You need to consider your goals and how your body responds to your training regime when determining nutritional guidelines.
One thing to keep in mind is that each ingredient you add to a protein shake contributes calories, carbohydrates and fat grams to your overall daily diet.
If you plan on adding a lot of ingredients, you may choose a protein powder with approximately 600-800 calories per serving.
If you don’t plan on adding a lot of extra ingredients or you have an exceptionally high calorie limit to meet, then you may look for a protein powder with 900 or more calories per serving.
Recommended High-Calorie Protein Powders
If you classify high-calorie protein supplements as those that provide at least 600 calories per serving, you eliminate a lot of the powders currently on the market. You can expect the protein contained in each serving to go up with the calories, but some of these products contain significantly more protein than others. Following are four of the best mass gainers currently on the market. Consider your personal needs when deciding what is best for your fitness goals.
Optimum Nutrition Pro Complex Gainer
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This protein powder includes a blend of the following protein sources:
- Whey protein isolate
- Whey protein concentrate
- Calcium caseinate
- Egg albumen
- Hydrolyzed whey peptides
- Glutamine peptides
Each heaping scoop of powder delivers 60 grams of protein with all of these sources combined. Since Optimum Nutrition uses a proprietary blend of protein, they are not required to reveal how much of each individual protein source is included in the product. What you do know is that the combined protein content is higher than many other mass-gainer protein powders offer for the calories consumed.
Each heaping scoop of this powder offers 650 calories, 8 grams of fat and 85 grams of carbohydrate. It also includes 4 grams of dietary fiber in addition to many enzymes, vitamins and minerals which can help nourish your body.
Myogenix After Shock Critical Mass
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This is a lactose-free protein powder that also happens to be high in calories and rich in nutrients. The ingredient list also includes a variety of oils for added healthy fat and a reasonable list of carbohydrate sources. One serving is three scoops of powder, and the nutritional profile per serving is as follows:
- 690 calories
- 16 g fat
- 85 g carbohydrate
- 9 g fiber
- 52 g protein
Notice that this powder contains bit more fiber and fat than some other high-calorie protein powders on this list. If you want to consume a lot of calories and take advantage of increased fat consumption without eating a lot of fatty foods at mealtimes, the healthy oils in this supplement can help you reach your goals.
Optimum Nutrition Serious Mass
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This protein powder offers an impressive calorie count per serving, but it doesn’t contain as much protein as the above-listed protein powders. Each serving provides 1,250 calories but only offers 50 grams of protein. If you need as much protein as possible and don’t want to commit to a 1,250-calorie shake, you can get 60 grams of protein for about half the calories if you use the Pro Complex Gainer also made by Optimum Nutrition.
If you need the higher calories and can deal with 50 grams of protein per shake, this product does offer a high-quality blend of whey, egg and sweet dairy protein. Each serving also provides a whopping 252 grams of carbohydrate while limiting fat to just 4.5 grams.
Champion Nutrition Super Heavyweight Gainer 1200
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This protein powder offers a blend of whey concentrate, egg whites and hydrolyzed whey for faster absorption into the bloodstream. Each serving contains 866 calories and 52 grams of protein when mixed with water. This includes 115 grams of carbohydrates and 24 grams of fat in every four-scoop serving.
You can use this high-calorie protein powder as a pre or post-workout supplement or as a meal replacement shake. This variety allows you to work your shake into your daily life even when you aren’t completing an intense workout worthy of an after-workout supplement.