Whey protein powder nutritional information.

Summary: Table of nutritional values for different whey protein powders, along with a brief introduction to what to look for as far as nutrition goes in your whey protein powder.

Are nutritional details important?

Not really.

I don't mean "not really" in the sense that nutrition isn't important, but more that most of the nutritional details for whey protein powders are very similar, so any differences are usually negligible.

If you don't know much about these macronutrients (the main nutrients like fat, protein and carbs) and wouldn't mind having a general idea of what to look for, try and get a whey protein with more than 75g of protein and less than 400 kcal per 100g of powder. If the protein ticks both of these boxes then you're on to a winner.

Note: be careful about the values on nutritional labels.

Different brands of protein have a tendency to put nutritional values in numbers based on serving size instead of a more standard per 100g of powder. Serving sizes can vary from one whey protein to the next (like from 25g to 44g to 56g for example), so make sure you keep an eye on that the next time you're bored and decide to read the back of a tub.

All of the stats on this page are for 100g of powder, which is a nice and friendly stat that every supplement company should use. If they did, comparing supplements would be so much easier. I'm sure that some companies intentionally do not give nutritional values in the "per 100g" format so that it's difficult to compare their supplement to other similar products, which is one of the reasons why I decided to put this comparison site together.

What nutritional information should you look for?

Nutrient/Value	Good Value	Average Value	Notes
Protein	75g+	75.22g	The more protein you can get per 100g of powder the better. Protein is what you want from a protein shake after all.
Carbs		9.45g	The lower the better. Although part of a good diet, carbs increase the number of calories per serving. Ideally they're not something you want a lot of in a whey protein shake when looking to build lean muscle or reduce body fat.
Fats		6.07g	Same as above.
Sugars		5.43g	Same as above. Lower quality whey protein powders use more sugar to make them taste nicer, but it quickly increases the calories in each serving. So if your supplement is sweet and delicious, watch out for the sugar.
Calories		397 kcal	The less "expensive" your whey protein is in terms of calories the better, especially if you're looking to reduce body fat or build lean muscle. High protein and low calorie is the sign of a good quality whey protein powder.

I'm not the king of nutrition, but after buying lots of different whey protein powders this is a decent set of guidelines in terms of nutritional values to look for. Of course, if you find your tub of protein in the kitchen has slightly more than 400kcal per 100g in it there's no need to throw it out the window. These are just rough benchmarks that indicate the sign of a good whey protein supplement for the most part.

Should you use whey protein shakes as meal replacements?

No.

As awesome as whey protein supplements are for quickly and easily getting protein in to your diet, they are not meant to be used as replacements for actual food. Instead, whey protein shakes should be taken on top of your 3 or so daily meals.

Whey protein supplements are there to do just that – supplement your protein intake. They're not designed to be nutritious like a slab of steak with vegetables is, so certainly do not cut whole foods out of your diet in favour of whey protein shakes.

If you have absolutely no food in your house and your cat is out, then yes, a whey protein shake is better than nothing.

How whey protein supplements compare to the nutritional values of other foods.

Here's a table highlighting the macronutrient values and calories in different whole foods compared to a popular whey protein powder – [Optimum Nutrition] Gold Standard Whey. The values are for 100g of each food unless stated otherwise.

Nutritional values are per 100g for each food. Information taken from http://nutritiondata.self.com

Food	Protein	Fat	Carbs	Sugar	Calories	Calories per 1g Protein
Protein (ON Gold Standard Whey)	77g	4g	7g	4g	374 kcal	4.9 kcal
Chicken Breast	31g	4g	0g	0g	165 kcal	5.3 kcal
Tinned Tuna	24g	3g	0g	0g	128 kcal	5.3 kcal
Steak	27g	10g	0g	0g	205 kcal	7.6 kcal
Whole Milk (100ml)	8g	8g	13g	13g	146 kcal	18.3 kcal

Whey protein powders are clearly stuffed with protein, and they deliver the most grams of protein for every calorie you consume (which is exactly what you want). So for high-protein "food" for minimal calories, you don't get any better than protein powders.

I'm obviously just comparing the macronutrients here and missing out the incredibly important vitamins and minerals. But still, I thought it would be interesting to see how the fats, carbs, sugars and proteins compare to other high-protein natural food sources.

Useful links.

• Whey Protein FAQ – A really handy FAQ about whey protein and its nutrition. There's a few cool stats and graphs in here too.