(4.0)
(3.0)
(3.4)
(2.2)
(2.3)
Summary: Find the whey protein with the greatest number of servings for your money, and how big your serving sizes should be.
About this servings ranking table.
The whey supplements above have been ranked based on how much it costs for each 40g serving of protein. This is the important number when looking for tubs with the "most servings".
The whey powders have not been ordered based on which ones have the most servings in each tub. If you're searching for a whey protein with the "most servings", you're almost certainly looking for the tub with the most servings for your money.
Therefore, the ranking of powders on this page is exactly the same as the rankings on the best value for money whey protein supplements page.
Example.
Let's say you're choosing between 2 tubs of whey protein.
| Servings | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Whey Protein A | 50 | £80 |
| Whey Protein B | 30 | £36 |
Assuming both proteins are as good as each other, you'd go for Whey Protein B every time. Even though Whey Protein A has the most servings, you're paying a lot more for each of those servings (£1.60 each) than you are for the "fewer" servings you're getting from Whey Protein B (£1.20 each).
In fact, you may as well buy 2 tubs of B and get yourself 60 servings instead of 50, in addition to saving an extra £8 to add to the meat fund.
It's all about the number of servings relative to the price of the tub, rather than the absolute number of servings in the tub. Therefore, the whey protein supplements in the table above have been ranked in this "cost per serving" way. So the servings column is kinda useless really.
An important note about total servings.
Pay no attention to the "total servings" number splashed on the front or back of tubs.
Different protein powders use different serving sizes, so they're not comparable. For example, one tub may claim to have "30 servings" per tub, but each serving may only deliver 20g of protein. A different tub on the other hand may only contain "20 servings", but each serving contains 40g of protein – making it the better value whey protein overall.
If you want to compare the number of servings in each tub, you need to have a level playing field by using the same measurements. I like to call 40g of protein one serving, as that's an excellent serving size.
Don't go by the tub's guidelines for your serving sizes. Figure out how much protein you need in your diet each day and put enough protein in your shakes to reach that mark.
The different "recommended serving sizes".
Just to show you how difficult and awkward whey protein companies are, here's a list of different why protein brands and their varying serving sizes.
| Whey Protein Brand | Serving Size | Protein/Serving |
|---|---|---|
| [Sci-MX] Ultragen Whey | 45g | 35.1g |
| [Nutrisport] Whey Protein Isolate | 40g | 34.4g |
| [Boditronics] Express Whey | 47g | 34.3g |
| [Dymatize] Elite Whey | 32g | 25.1g |
| [Gaspari] IntraPro | 36g | 24.8g |
| [MuscleTech] Nitro-Tech Hardcore | 33g | 24.8g |
| [Maximuscle] Promax | 30g | 24.3g |
| [Maxx Essentials] Whey Maxx | 34g | 24g |
| [MyProtein] Impact Whey Protein | 30g | 23.6g |
| [Optimum Nutrition] Gold Standard Whey | 29g | 22.6g |
Nice and consistent.
Plus, if you're doing this yourself you'll still need to factor in price to figure out which whey supplement is delivering the most bang for your buck (or punch for your pound). It's really not as easy as you'd hope, which is why I decided to make WhichProtein.co.uk.
All whey protein is pretty much all the same, so one isn't going to be more potent than another and require a smaller serving size.
Their serving size numbers are just based on what they think is appropriate for the general population, and they all have different guesses. It would be a bit like Heinz recommending that you have 20ml of Tomato Sauce with your chips. That might work okay for a lot of people, but a whole load of others are going to need more or less depending on how many chips they have and how much they love Tomato Sauce.
I know, I'm the king of analogies.
What's the best serving size?
It all depends on how much protein you need to take in daily, but 20g (1 scoop) and 40g (2 scoops) servings of protein are popular and easy.
There's no one-size-fits-all for how much protein you should have in each shake. Take as much as you need to meet your goals. If you're looking to build muscle for example, you want to try and consume at least 1g of protein for every lb. of body weight.
- If you're 10st (10st = 140lbs = 140g protein/day aim) and you're already getting 100g of protein through 3 of your other daily meals, then 3x 20g protein shakes will be good.
- If you're 13st (13st = 182lbs = 182g protein/day aim) and you're getting 80g of protein through your meals, you'd be better off with 3x 40g protein shakes.
If you still don't know, just stick with 3x 40g protein shakes a day. With that amount you can't go wrong – you can only get big.
How much powder is in a scoop?
About 25g, give or take about 15g. I've found whey protein scoops that go as low as 20g and as high as 40g, but 25g seems to be the mode average.
It all depends how big your scoop is and much you shove in to it and how awesome you are making heaps. That's obviously a lot to depend on. The most common scoop size though (70ml – found in a bunch of different brands of whey) with an "average" heap tends to turn out 25g of powder.
Here's what the popular 70ml heaped scoop containing close enough to 25g of powder looks like.
The 25g size is perfect too, because 2 scoops of one of those and you've got 50g of powder, which should contain just under 40g of protein. Perfect.
Useful links.
- Protein 101: How much protein you need to build muscle – An easy, straightforward article on how much protein you need to consume on a daily basis to build muscle. Stronglists.com is such an informative site.