Powder power

Protein supplements can help you bulk up at the gym, Rrishi Raote discovers, but it’s very easy to make mistakes.

This reporter, who is thin, visited several Delhi gyms this week. My task was to demand a muscular body within four months, and then to see whether trainers would propose a regime of protein supplements to go with the workout.

Protein supplements are diet add-ons, usually sold as a milk-soluble powder. If you work out regularly, supplements give your body the extra protein that it can turn into muscle mass. They help produce the prized built (big) or “cut” (well-defined) look. There are thousands in the market, comprising different types and proportions of protein, carbohydrate, fat and other nutrients.

As a walk-in at a chain gym, however, one is handled not by trainers but by “consultants”. At Fitness First in Connaught Place, consultant Ankur Jain uses a “body composition analyser” machine to estimate that I need to gain 8 to 10 kg. This, he says, can be done in four months. I will have to follow the trainer’s and dietitian’s advice.

And supplements? “For your purposes, you don’t need supplements,” says Jain. “You don’t have a problem with eggs, do you?”

It’s a similar story at the Talwalkars gym in Greater Kailash II where consultant Farhan is a little taken aback on being asked about supplements. “No, we don’t sell supplements,” he says. “Though the trainer may advise.”

On its website, international chain Gold’s Gym links prominently to a supplements retailer. At its gym near Nehru Place, consultant Pratap says, “Yes, we do sell, but that all depends on the trainer.”

At Fitness Freaks, a standalone gym in Lajpat Nagar, however, I meet with trainer Vikas. “Yes,” he says, “we will advise you to take supplements, of course. Two scoops after workout, two scoops at night. Why four months, after 15 days there will be a difference. You should see results; that’s what you’re paying for.”

The rule of thumb is, for everyday gymmers, about 0.4 gm of protein per pound of body weight per day. For me, that works out to 40 gm a day. Vikas’s four scoops would yield about 80 gm. My body would not have much use for the extra protein, and it could harm the kidneys.

Undercover mission not very successful, I turned to the experts and the experienced.

Sourish Ghosh Dastidar owns and trains at Beetles, The Fitness Centre in Kalkaji. “Supplements are very beneficial,” he says. Bodybuilders used to eat egg whites for protein. But “these days natural food is not pure. Tablets are given to hens to make them lay eggs faster. So the protein for one egg gets divided between four eggs. You need at least 40 gm protein to stay fit. I can’t tell someone to eat 40 eggs! So, you need a balanced diet, plus two scoops of supplements.”

Before starting a client on supplements, says Dastidar, he checks that his immune system is strong. The client must first work out to improve it. Then, “I tell him to try eggs. If he can digest them I can start him on whey protein, like IsoWhey,” an imported supplement.

Whey protein is extracted from the liquid left when milk becomes cheese. It is rich in amino acids, the building blocks of protein. It also has a high “biological value” (BV), which means that it is easily taken up and utilised by the body. Other sources of protein for supplements include eggs, milk, soy, beef and beans.

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Dastidar also notes body type. Ectomorphs are slim and tend to neither build muscle nor store fat. They can take whey protein. Hrithik Roshan is ectomorphic, says Dastidar, and has a “cut” figure. Endomorphs tend to store fat: Suniel Shetty, who is built. Mesomorphs are muscular: Salman Khan, who is cut and built. The actors’ bodies represent, to Dastidar, the acme that each body type can attain if trained and supplemented well.

What if a client insists on bulking up fast? “If we recommend the wrong thing,” says Dastidar, “next day he’ll be lying in hospital.” After a month a serious client can start on a whey supplement with substantial carbs. Purer proteins are for more advanced bodybuilders.

Prithvi Singh, 24, has been working out for four years. He says he gymmed for six months before starting supplements. “Trainers will tell you to get into it within the first month or two. In the smaller gyms especially, they know that when someone new comes he won’t know where to get the supplement and what the rate is. They tell you, you take this and I will get it for you.”

Once you do start taking the supplement, says Singh, “there is a 15-25 per cent change in [the rate of] muscle development. Within the first two weeks you will tell the difference.”

Mustafa Ahmed, a Fitness First trainer, starts them on supplements sooner. “My advice is, 10 to 15 days after joining the club you can start. I usually tell them to start with simple whey protein. Once the client is used to it he can start with MuscleTech, MyoFusion.”

It’s important to keep up with the data. Websites like www.bodybuilding.com help with product ratings and user reviews. But “you have to understand your own body,” Ahmed says. “The problem is we just go by the trainer’s advice. He may tell you, ‘I used to take this, you also take it.’”

Corporate executive Arun Grover is 53 and has been gymming since he was a teenager. “People buy supplements quite arbitrarily,” he says. He buys his at a fitness shop, rather than from the gym. Magazines like Men’s Health and Health & Nutrition offer decent recommendations, he says.

Shopping is still risky. “Eighty per cent of supplements sold in Delhi are fake,” says Dastidar. “Buy in a registered store with a bill, not from someone’s house.”

Singh sticks to foreign brands brought by visiting relatives. “They dissolve well in milk or water, and taste like shakes.” Prices are cheaper, he says; a 5 lb tub that lasts three months costs $40 (around Rs 1,300) overseas and over Rs 4,000 here.

“You cannot trust any supplement, even imported,” says Ahmed. “Here a lot of mixing is done. Ten boxes are made from five.” Prices have stabilised now that there are chain fitness stores and information from the Internet. What he could source for Rs 2,500, he says, other trainers would sell for Rs 4,500 to Rs 5,000. “Now the stores sell at Rs 3,200, which is fair.”

“It’s not a quick fix, not a magical system,” says Dastidar. As a thin person uninclined to strenuous gymming, I almost wish it were.