Mass Gainer's

[VirtualWolf]

Hey guy's.

Just wanting your opinion on Mass Gainer's and the use of them, in this particular case..

http://www.pro-soma.com/popup.php?pno=184

vs

http://www.iherb.com/BSN-True-Mass-Powd ... 1-kg/24890

Personally convincing someone to go for the BSN True Mass due to their insane base metabolism. Had a PT suggest not to use "overseas" products from the states due to them containing high amounts of some metal, which sounds like a bunch of crap to me.

[dannyjay]

mass gainer powders suck dick imo

low carb whey is the best imo

[I Declare War]

mass gainer powders suck dick imo

low carb whey is the best imo

Not if you're looking to pack on the pounds. Many advanced bodybuilders rely on well timed and portioned meals in the form of a mass gainer.

With a mass gainer you can spike your natural insulin levels to promote anabolism when you need to.

Just be careful if you are not consuming the mass gainer around training, as you'll put on fat if you're not expending all the extra energy from the carbohydrates.

I'd never buy a mass gainer myself. I make my own by mixing unflavoured Whey protein with glucose/dextrose. You can even adjust your blend by mixing in carbohydrate sources such as waxy maize starch to prolong the time it takes to digest the carbohydrate energy source.

[Kalidane]

I'm guessing the caution with US-sourced products and metals relates to a rather poor investigation undertaken by Consumer Reports, see here.

Anywho, let's look at this product.

Assuming free shipping we get:

Calories per $1 = 156.3

Protein per $1 = 11.4g

This stuff has 4 times the fat of Cytosport Cytogainer (the only gainer I have in my spreadsheet).

As an alternative, consider 100g powdered oats, 60g WPC, 300ml milk:

Calories per $1 = 277.6

Protein per $1 = 23.1g

Using the recommended serving size of BSN in water, the gainer costs nearly 50% more and has about 80% the calories of the home made option. If you pay for shipping then the comparison becomes ridiculous.

Mass gainers are never economically or nutritionally competitive. For someone bulking and taking a multi, the bonus micros of the gainer are not required.

If an individual ranks flavour ahead of all else simply use good old Primo Choc Milk. That stuff is damned good.

[jimmybro1]

Pain simple and cheap whey & oats!

As for the heavy metals a study was done a while back testing heavy metals in protein powders it found several were high in particular heavy metals but then again everything is due to bio accumulation. A handful of almonds has higher levels however and so does a bowl of oats. So in comparison to other regularly eating foods the levels are insignificant. Also the method of the testing wasn't appropriate it assumed a male who is 130lb.

Inform yourself

Your PT is a f**king idot! Nothing pisses me off more when someone who is plausibly knowledgeable about something spins some BS yarn that is passed on to several other people. Slap your PT in the face for me :twisted:

[Jpayer]

As previously said, Mass Gainers are ridiculous in my opinion.

Oats

Whey

Milk

Job done!

And you can adapt the nutrition to be relevent to your needs in so many ways. If you want low fat you have water not milk, if you want a slow release you use casein protein powder, if you want to spike insulin quick and hard then put some sugary stuff in there, if you want to keep a slow release get some oats in ya.

You really can't beat the price of whey/oats and milk, and personally I feel a massive load better eating and drinking good quality food, rather than a clumpy powder that smells like a-hole and bloats me so I look like a barrel

[holdenman]

Oats

Milk

Peanut butter

Frozen berries

Banana

Protein powder

Best mass gain shake.

[trainlikeafreak]

nothing wrong with using mass gainer.. everyone says waste of money but i disagree.. easy cals if u cant eat enough and conveniant also.. yeah u can make ur own with whey/oats/olive oil etc (i do this personally) but if u dont like that or ud rather just buy a normal gainer id go for one with a low amount of sugar for obv reasons and something high in aminos/glutamine/creatine etc just cause it wont hurt.

Pro Lean Mass by pro fight is good. 70-ish grams of carbs per serve i THINK and hardly any of it sugar. also im prety sure it has extra stuff like glutamine etc added into it.

[Kalidane]

nothing wrong with using mass gainer.. everyone says waste of money but i disagree.. easy cals if u cant eat enough and conveniant also.. yeah u can make ur own with whey/oats/olive oil etc (i do this personally) but if u dont like that or ud rather just buy a normal gainer id go for one with a low amount of sugar for obv reasons and something high in aminos/glutamine/creatine etc just cause it wont hurt.

Pro Lean Mass by pro fight is good. 70-ish grams of carbs per serve i THINK and hardly any of it sugar. also im prety sure it has extra stuff like glutamine etc added into it.

A mass gainer shake is as convenient as a home made mass gainer shake.

Milk/oats/WPC provides more than twice the calories per dollar spent and has more than double the protein.

Maybe look at it this way - making your own mass gainer results in a better product. As a bonus you can pay for PWO supps with the money you save.

[student]

i go whey, oatbran, milk. i dont even blend that shit. just straight into the protien shaker.

mass gainer = waste of fkn money.

[FellowshipOfTheRon]

used weight gainers when i was a real super skinny noobtard, wasted lots of money, got fat (actually fat lol), got more educated about things nutrition related from resources on this forum and decided to make my own at home for heaps cheaper and would no longer recommend gainers to any friend.

this 'insane base metabolism' you speak of is probably just a case of not eating enough. if you know a bit about nutrition then help your mate count up what hes eating vs how much he is supposed to eat and get him to slowly work his way up each week. at first, shakes are really convenient but you may find they also bloat him up leaving him unable to fit his next meal in so find out some good stuff that he can either drink or eat quite a lot of to hit his bulking cals target. he will feel like puking at times if hes not used to it but help him find his motivation and he will eventually work his way through the food.

to answer your original question though, dunno about that other one (link doesnt work for me) but BSN TrueMass was quite decent in the days when I used to take it. Only ever tried the chocolate one but damn it was expensive, even buying from overseas (big shipping cost).

It's not that hard to make up your own alternative with whey+oats but the advantage with truemass (albeit a very expensive one) is that you could just take a couple scoops of truemass into your shaker with water and drink it up, rinse shaker at the end and you're all done. if you made your own gainer then you gotta get the electric mixer out (not everyone has space in kitchen to leave it out all the time), mix the stuff, drink the stuff, wash the mixer then put it back... and if you happen to forget to wash up then your kitchens gonna smell like crap. if he's a bit lazy then premade gainers will help to get him started and eventually he will realize he can replace it with a bit of extra work and save tonnes of money for other stuff he will want to buy.

[Kalidane]

... get the electric mixer out (not everyone has space in kitchen to leave it out all the time), mix the stuff, drink the stuff, wash the mixer then put it back...

I'm far too lazy for that every time.

I buy the Harraways rolled oats 800g bag. Blend the hell out of it and store in airtight container/s. The end result is almost-flour. You might need to do this once per week but it's not that much of a hardship and cleaning powder residue out of the machine doesn't get much easier.

[workingonit]

... get the electric mixer out (not everyone has space in kitchen to leave it out all the time), mix the stuff, drink the stuff, wash the mixer then put it back...

I'm far too lazy for that every time.

I buy the Harraways rolled oats 800g bag. Blend the hell out of it and store in airtight container/s. The end result is almost-flour. You might need to do this once per week but it's not that much of a hardship and cleaning powder residue out of the machine doesn't get much easier.

This is the answer right here. I do the exact same thing. Rolled oats are like $3.00 for 1.5kg at Pak'n'Save. Who cares about the brand, they all taste the same. Just blend that shit up once a week and you're good to go.

[trainlikeafreak]

nothing wrong with using mass gainer.. everyone says waste of money but i disagree.. easy cals if u cant eat enough and conveniant also.. yeah u can make ur own with whey/oats/olive oil etc (i do this personally) but if u dont like that or ud rather just buy a normal gainer id go for one with a low amount of sugar for obv reasons and something high in aminos/glutamine/creatine etc just cause it wont hurt.

Pro Lean Mass by pro fight is good. 70-ish grams of carbs per serve i THINK and hardly any of it sugar. also im prety sure it has extra stuff like glutamine etc added into it.

A mass gainer shake is as convenient as a home made mass gainer shake.

Milk/oats/WPC provides more than twice the calories per dollar spent and has more than double the protein.

Maybe look at it this way - making your own mass gainer results in a better product. As a bonus you can pay for PWO supps with the money you save.

did u even read my post? i said that and then said if u dont like it as some people dont like eating/drinking raw oats then thats another option.

[Kalidane]

Sorry I thought you were talking about whey/oats/olive oil in combination.

I totally get what you mean about raw oats - only tried that 2-3 times and never again.

I didn't think anyone would be put off by blended oats though.

[BeastBuilder]

Sorry to break in on an intense convo here but I was under the impression that raw oats had far less bioavailability then cooked oats, same as with eggs. So out of all those kcals and carbs getting consumed your body may not be able to put as much of it to use as you think.

Could be going off into broscience territory but I know that bioavailability is not taken into account by a lot of people.

And just to add to the discussion, I have a half serving of Mass Gainer after every training session, works out well enough cost wise, haven't thought about it much but just supporting the local business and getting what I want for recovery :nod: