Sunday, November 07, 2010

Self experimentation and unintended consequences

People, I am no spring chicken. But I am moderately active. I play tennis, practice a fairly active version of yoga, "do" Pilates, and take daily walks with my pack.

Both Mrs. Angus (more of a spring chicken than I) and I have been bothered by post workout soreness. She asked her doctor about it and he recommended milk proteins taken post-exercise.

So she did some research and we've been using a product called "Muscle Milk".

AND IT WORKS!

This stuff is so awesome. I feel much better the day after exercising and can be more active more often.

However it is also highly caloric, so in spite of increased activity, I am gaining weight. I am up to 140 pounds, which is the heaviest I've ever been.

Now maybe the therapeutic value of Muscle Milk is mainly as a placebo; that's fine with me, I'll take help any way I can get it. But the weight gain part is very real.

There is a "lite" version of the product but (a) it's not very lite and (b) it contains less of the treatment (i.e. less milk proteins).

I guess I'll keep using it until I either get too big to do yoga or Mrs. Angus threatens to dump me.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The crucial question is whether the weight gain is taking the form of muscle (good!) or fat (bad).

Anonymous said...

You could just try drinking milk to get your milk protein. 6 cups of milk has as much milk protein as a juice box of Muscle Milk, and less fat, and it's cheaper.

Anonymous said...

recommend whey protein with glutamine and branch chain amino acids (always listed as BCAA). those are the key items that are doing you good in the muscle milk but you can get a mix without the sugar. when i was good about exercising, i used "optimum: gold standard whey protein" and have found it to be wonderful.

Angus said...

anon@4:42: 6 cups of milk? wow I think I'd yak for sure.

anon@5:21: thanks for the suggestion.

Kevin Munger said...

EYM here.

www.trueprotein.net

My friend and I are on our third batch of 16 pounds of the whey protein advocated by the homeboy above.

The brand-name markup on muscle milk is particularly egregious. The stuff is str8 protein, and it's decent with water, delicious with milk.

Anonymous said...

EYM,
Which product in particular at trueprotein.net would you recommend? I've shed about 25lbs of fat by running, and I need to shed about 10 more. The biggest obstacle is having to keep my mileage down to avoid injury.

Shawn said...

yeah...optimum gold is probably the most pure protein around. It doesn't taste anywhere near as good as MM, though. Adding some fruit in helps, as does making it with milk rather than water.

Cookies and cream is my favorite.

Angus said...

Muscle Milk is also Deee-licious!

I tried the lite version tonight, will see how it works.

Dr. Tufte said...

I wonder how close this stuff is to sweetened condensed milk. The wikipedia page gives its nutritional content, and it's huge. That's why you don't drink it by the can.