I bought a tub of 100% whey protein from gnc. will it help my weight loss if I take it during and or right after a work out? I'm starting a new diet plan on monday and I plan to drink 20% of my protein in form of liquid. I'm planning to work out everyday. or 6 days a week if I feel really weak. suggestions are appreciated

chicken breast = protein
whey powder = protein

4calories per gram of protein. nothing magic about whey powder...its protein, just like meat and eggs. if you drink too much and push your calories high, you don't lose weight, and may gain fat instead.

20% from shakes sounds reasonable to me.

whey isn't a weight loss potion. the main reason for taking it is to supplement your daily intake of protein. it's also pretty convenient.

what do your workouts consist of?

thats a lot of working out.
And dont consume ANYTHING during your workouts except some water. It will lower your igf-1 production which is kinda counterproductive.
I too would like to know what your workout plan is.

well my plan is to do 30 minutes to an hour of cardio to warm up and then start working my chest, abs and a little bit of my arms. so i would say about 1 to 2 hours a day going to the gym daily.

That sounds like a perfect recipe for over training. You will be better off to hit your body hard and less frequently. Training every day is no wise because you will never give your body a chance to heal. You have to rest it too.

would you recommend i workout every other day?

At most yes. It is hard to judge really because some people are fine with 4-5 workouts each week. But i think 3 times each week is a great way to start.
Working out every day is just not a good idea unless you are juicing (which is a whole other story..)

that's 100% backwards.

5-10 mins MAX for warming up with cardio. low intensity, just get the blood flowing.
or, warmup with light sets of weights.

30-60mins of cardio isn't warming up...its a full cardio session, and you'll screw your chances of a decent weight workout afterwards since the cardio burned off muscle glycogen.

weights, then cardio, always. or do them on separate days. period.

I agree your workouts are way too long. If you are just beginning start slowly before building up to multiple or split workous. As malkore said only 10 minutes cardio to warm up of weight days. I used to try doing exactly what you are doing and just had no energy for a good weight session. Now that I do cardio on separate days I have a lot more intensity in my weight sessions and have seen much better results.

What do you think will have more effect:
Lowering IGF production from the tiny bit that you already secrete during a workout
OR
Increasing glycogen stores during exercise (with immediate delivery due to GLUT-4 sensitivity) for more energy so that you can lift more AND decreasing cortisol and gluccorticoids release, increasing anabolic ratios AND increasing insulin secretion, further shifting hormonal balance to the anabolic side AND supplying immediate amino acid sources for further protein sparing and substrate delivery?

Don't worry about possibly reducing IGF release...there's very little released to begin with, and it barely makes a difference when compared to more powerful anabolic hormones, i.e. testosterone.

Having said that, I'll agree that if the workout is a "normal" workout at or under an hour, you don't need to drink anything other than water.

I don't think people should work out to the point where they are losing muscle.
What about the fact that GH release is limited during and after your session?

What are you referring to?

Exercise stimulates growth hormone secretion from the pituitary, it doesn't limit it...what are you talking about?

easy.. My first comment was that I personally do not recommend working out long enough that you would need to eat or drink anything during your workout.

my second comment... Im saying that you wont be stimulating much growth hormone if you are eating or drinking anything during your workout. I know that working out stimulates growth hormones.

Which I already agreed with, so again, I don't understand what that was in reference to:
Having said that, I'll agree that if the workout is a "normal" workout at or under an hour, you don't need to drink anything other than water.
...And again, carbohydrate/protein introduction can greatly shift hormonal profiles to favorable anabolic conditions. And the point about carb ingestion negatively affecting Growth Hormone secretion, and hence results, is wrong (and in any case, growth hormone secretion is highest at night during sleep):

Nutrition. 2006 Apr;22(4):367-75. Epub 2006 Feb 10. Related Articles, Links


Effects of liquid carbohydrate/essential amino acid ingestion on acute hormonal response during a single bout of resistance exercise in untrained men.

Bird SP, Tarpenning KM, Marino FE.

School of Human Movement Studies, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. sbirg@csu.edu.au

OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this study was to investigate the influence of nutritive interventions on acute hormonal responses to a single bout of resistance exercise in untrained young men. Specifically, the aim was to determine whether the acute hormonal milieu conducive to enhancing skeletal muscle hypertrophic adaptation to resistance training could be created. The potential role of cortisol in inhibiting training-induced muscle growth is of particular interest, as is whether exercise-induced cortisol release can be attenuated by nutritive interventions. METHODS: After a 4-h fast, 32 subjects performed a single bout of resistance exercise ( approximately 60 min), during which they consumed a 6% carbohydrate (CHO) solution, a 6-g essential amino acid (EAA) mixture, a combined CHO+EAA supplement, or a placebo beverage. Blood samples were collected every 15 min throughout the exercise bout, immediately after exercise, and 15 and 30 min after exercise for analysis of total testosterone, cortisol, growth hormone, insulin, and glucose. RESULTS: No significant change in glucose or insulin was observed for placebo. CHO and CHO+EAA ingestion resulted in significantly (P < 0.001) increased glucose and insulin concentrations above baseline, whereas EAA resulted in significant postexercise increases (P < 0.05) in insulin only. Placebo exhibited a significant increase in cortisol within 30 min (P < 0.01), with a peak increase of 105% (P < 0.001) immediately after exercise, and cortisol remained 54% above baseline at 30 min after exercise (P < 0.05). Conversely, the treatment groups displayed no significant change in cortisol during the exercise bout, with CHO and CHO+EAA finishing 27% (P < 0.01) and 23% (P < 0.05), respectively, below baseline at 30 min after exercise. No between-group differences in exercise-induced growth hormone or testosterone concentrations after nutritive intervention were present. CONCLUSION: These data indicate that CHO and/or EAA ingestion during a single bout of resistance exercise suppresses the exercise-induced cortisol response, in addition to stimulating insulin release. We conclude that the exercise-induced hormonal profile can be influenced by nutritive interventions toward a profile more favorable for anabolism.
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The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 187–196.

Carbohydrate Supplementation and Resistance Training
G. GREGORY HAFF


Human Performance Laboratory, Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, Texas 76308

MARK J. LEHMKUHL and LORA B. McCOY


Exercise Physiology Laboratory, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina 28607

MICHAEL H. STONE


Sport Science, United States Olympic Committee, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80909

ABSTRACT

There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that the performance of resistance-training exercises can elicit a significant glycogenolytic effect that potentially could result in performance decrements. These decrements may result in less than optimal physiological adaptations to training. Currently some scientific evidence suggests that carbohydrate supplementation prior to and during high-volume resistance training results in the maintenance of muscle glycogen concentration, which potentially could result in the maintenance or increase of performance during a training bout. Some researchers suggest that ingesting carbohydrate supplements prior to and during resistance training may improve resistance-training performance. Additionally, the ingestion of carbohydrates following resistance exercise enhances the resynthesis of muscle glycogen, which may result in a faster time of recovery from resistance training, thus possibly allowing for a greater training volume. On the basis of the current scientific literature, it may be advisable for athletes who are performing high-volume resistance training to ingest carbohydrate supplements before, during, and immediately after resistance training.
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