When comparing protein supplements a lot of people look at the “protein per serving” as a guide. This is not a good way to compare, and I will explain why – along with an example from a customer that I spoke to recently.
If we assume that we have 2 products and that they both taste and mix just as well as each other, and cost the same then a good thing to look at next is which gives better value for money. Given that we are talking about protein supplements it seems reasonable to say that the more protein you get for your money the better value it is.
I’m going to take an example here – Reflex Instant Whey gives 20g protein per recommended serving and USN Pure Protein IGF-1 gives 40g per serving. This isn’t an arbitrary choice, these are the two products a customer recently wanted to compare in store.
If you just look at the labels on the front of the tubs then you may very well go for the USN IGF-1 as it seems to offer twice as much protein, right? Look a little closer and you will see that the 20g Reflex gives is from a 25g serving, whereas the 40g that the IGF-1 gives is from a 56g serving.
What does this mean? Well … not much when you put it like that, the difference isn’t all that obvious. However if you were to equal out the serving sizes so that they were both 100g you would see that Instant Whey gives 80g protein, whereas USN IGF-1 gives 71g protein – a difference of 9g.
Again, who really cares about 9g protein? To put that into perspective that isn’t even half of what a chicken breast would give you! However, when you realise that it is 9g per every 100g in the tub, and most standard tubs are 2.2kg tubs, that means that Instant Whey gives 198g extra protein per tub, meaning even if you used 50g servings (to give 40g protein per serving as the IGF-1 does) you would get an extra 4 servings from the Instant Whey tub – if you only use a protein shake post workout as many people do then this could last you an extra week!
One thing to note is that the products I have used as a comparison were chosen because they are the actual products I discussed with a customer recently. I do actually think USN IGF-1 Protein is a fine protein shake as well and has many plus points such as a sustained protein release and thick creamy taste!
Hopefully this will make you pay a little more attention to exactly what your protein tub is giving you for your next purchase. I have compared two protein products in this post however I have spoken to people that have made the same comparison with weight gainers – these tend to offer 50g+ protein per serving but have massively different effects!
