17 year old taking protein.?

Question

Am I too young to be taking protein supplements? And is it alright to take protein supplements if your looking to maintain or lose weight by keeping it within your daily calorie intake?

Answer 1

One way to find out :)

Answer 2

If you have a healthy balanced diet there is no need to take protein supplements

Answer 3

You are never too young to take protein supplement. It's merely stripped protein. Whey for instance, is most often stripped from milk, and so is completely harmless.

Protein supplementation (up to 1,4 grams / lbs) is a good idea both for weightloss and for gaining muscle.

If you take protein in addition to your regular diet, you will probably gain weight, since 1 gram of protein is still 4 calories, and probably more because it isnt usually 100% stripped and still contains some small and insignificant ammount of fat.

EDIT: J.T, you are incorrect. We're not talking about the medical necessity of protein here, we're talking about using protein to our advantage, to stifle hunger and losing weight in the healthiest way possible, maintaining lean mass.

Excess protein is like excess everything else, converted to fat, which is why you take your protein spaced in small doses over several hours and figure the calories into your daily or weekly caloric total.

The problem with protein on a diet is that you would have to eat several pounds of meat per day to cover your dose which give way too many calories. If you eat other sources, you get even more calories. Protein supplement is usually around 90% pure. The excess 10% fat in whey is milkfat, and is negligable.

For example, I have a leanmass of 220 pounds. If I were going to eat 200 grams of protein I would have to eat at least 2 pounds of meat per day. I don't know about everyone else, but for me that's not feasable. Especially because meat also contains a lot more fat and whatnot.

So in conclusion, we're not talking about a regular diet, we're talking about utilizing a protein supplement to suppress the appetite. The only thing he has to make sure is to space out the doses and keep it to around 1 gram per pound of body weight.

Answer 4

It is always better to take in protein etc through your diet and not take supplements.

Answer 5

If you have a healthy diet, there is no need for protein supplements.  You can get all you need from normal food, and it tastes a lot better than the supplements, I bet.  If you really want more protein, have a chicken sandwich, or some fish.  The oils in the fish will give you an extra benefit of helping to reduce any high HDL cholesterol levels.

Answer 6

I hate to burst your bubble on this issue; but protein supplements are only needed in a few medical conditions that aren't allowing proper synthesis of certain proteins; thus the need for practitioner-grade supplements.

Protein supplements usually increase your levels of unneeded additional fats in your body as the average diet is already more then adequate in protein intake; that any unused protein is converted into glucose and stored as fat.

All the protein you'll ever need is in your food.

Red meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, dairy & soy products are the best sources but not the only sources of protein in your diet.

Except for fruit; most vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds & whole grains contain large amounts of protein!

If you've had more than 3 servings of meat, seafood, poultry, soy or dairy products in a day then you've had all the protein your going to need.

:-)

Answer 7

ur good 2 go! protein just makes u gain more weight and mass. if ur just tryin 2 tone up then i wouldnt suggest protein, id go with a hydroxycut type of supplement

Answer 8

Yeah thats fine I think.I remember My brother always doing that when he was about your age.So it's okay I guess....it's nothing UNhealthy :)