When should I take my protein shakes bearing in mind I only do crossfit twice a week? Should I also take it on rest days?
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1Could you please edit your question to be text rather than a picture of text?– gwaighCommented Feb 9, 2019 at 2:18
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I'd love to. Unfortunately I've just started using Stack Exchange and I'm having trouble understanding how it works - I basically copied/pasted the text from Word into the 'body' box on SE and it automatically turned it into an image. Any advice would be welcome.– CharlesCommented Feb 10, 2019 at 18:18
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1That is a surprising change in behaviour. A comment from a moderator on this meta.stackexchange.com/questions/320162/… suggests that pasting with Ctrl-Shift-V rather than the usual Ctrl-V will grab the plaintext version from Microsoft Word rather than an image. I don't have the means to test this, so you will have to experiment. I hope they find a better mechanism for users to choose between the two options.– gwaighCommented Feb 10, 2019 at 19:54
1 Answer
You already mentioned that you know protein shakes are not magic, and you should eat a balanced meal.
So don't think of protein shakes as anything more than another food. It's just a food with a really skewed macro ratio.
The general advice is to get 2.2g per 1kg. (1g per 1 lb.) of lean body mass a day, regardless of whether or not you worked out that day. So that means that the foods you eat in that day should contain that much protein.
So when should you take it? Whenever is convenient for you. You're meal is lacking a protein? Take the protein shake. You can't have lunch (because life)? Take the protein shake. Hungry and looking for a snack? Take the protein shake.
For macro counters, they're another tool that helps them keep within their dietary limits. For everyone else, they're a food that's very easy to transport and doesn't require cooking (though can be expensive).