By Ollie Cooper, live news reporter
Welcome to the next part of my series on fitness supplements – where I aim to discover whether they are helping you get ripped, or you’re getting ripped off.
I’ve enlisted the help of performance nutritionist Andrew Petts and Arj Thiruchelvam, personal trainer and head coach at Performance Physique, to analyse 12 different supplements every lunchtime over the next two weeks – and today we’re looking at mass gainers.
Mass gainers
These products are targeted at people, particularly young men, who are looking to put on size.
You may want to gain weight to get bigger muscles, get stronger or just as a challenge.
The process, known as “bulking” in the gym community, requires a lot of eating to stay in a considerable calorie surplus.
For example, I need around 2,700 calories a day to maintain my weight, known as “maintenance” calories.
When looking to bulk, I need to consume at least 3,300 calories a day if I want to gain 0.5kg a week, or nearly 4,000 if I want to put on 1kg every seven days.
You can calculate your maintenance calories here in just a few seconds.
These may just sound like numbers – but anything over 3,000 calories is surprisingly difficult to eat every day, especially if you’ve got an eye on what you’re putting into your body.
Anyone who has “bulked” before knows the pain of waking up full, bloated and queasy, and needing to get three crumpets and a bowl of protein oats down you before you leave the house.
That’s where these mass gainers come in – marketed as a calorie-dense and light powder that can be added to shakes and won’t break the bank.
What actually are they?
“Mass gainers are usually protein powders with extra carbohydrate and sometimes creatine included,” Andrew explains.
These powders usually contain maltodextrin, a carbohydrate compound that’s used in food and drinks as a thickener, sweetener and stabiliser – and in mass gainers to raise their calories.
Marketing suggests that they’re “easy calories” – ie, they have a lot of calories for not much room in your stomach, leaving space for more food later.
The problem is that’s not really the case.
When we looked at protein powder earlier in the week, we discussed a serving size of 25g, which you could add to a shake or something else.
Most mass gainer products recommend anywhere between 100g-350g a serving.
It doesn’t matter what’s in it – that amount of powder mixed with milk is going to sit heavy – so that’s brings into question whether it’s worth pursuing at all, seeing as you may as well just eat food.
On top of that, it makes it rather expensive.
Even with cheaper brands, that’s more than a pound a serving, with middle-of-the-road offerings nearly £5 a shake.
Other negatives
Remember, we’re looking at a supplement – something that should be added to a balanced diet, not replacing meals.
“My worry is the nutrients you are missing out on by not having a balanced meal in favour of a shake could be detrimental to your overall health,” Andrew says, “and if you’re full up on a massive shake, then you won’t want to eat [real food].”
That’s doubly bad – skipping real meals because you’re full of the shakes means fewer calories and fewer health benefits.
Alternatives
“A well-rounded meal with vegetables is far more beneficial,” Arj says, giving mass gainers a low 4/10.
And if you want extra calories via a shake as a reward after a stint in the gym, Andrew’s advice would be to “go for a whey or pea protein (and possibly creatine) shake after a session and eat a balanced meal pre and post-training that includes carbohydrates, protein, fats and lots of colour via veggies and fruits”.
The verdict: Somewhat counter-intuitive and expensive
The advice from our experts is clear – just eat real food.
If you’re packing on size, we’re afraid there’s no real way around being in a calorie surplus, but we’re sure that there are easier, cheaper and healthier ways of doing it than by forcing large servings of mass gainers down.
You can read the other parts of this series below…