How to choose the best protein powder (and make sure you aren’t wasting money)

I often get asked for help from my clients in regard to choosing a brand of protein-powder or supplement that they can take to compliment their training. The question can be quite complex for a couple of reasons, especially for people who are just starting out. In short, there are a lot of doggy businesses trying to turn a quick profit, and the hope of this post is to show you the way to sort through them all.

The primary reason for the complexity of the topic is that personal trainers who give nutritional advice in the form of meal plans or supplement recommendations fall on the verge of malpractice. 

Let me explain...

Most trainers that the majority of people will come across are cut from a certificate 3 &/or 4, or a diploma level of qualification in fitness, personal training, or some other title. There is a scope of practice that everyone in any profession must follow which also applies to us as trainers. With this level of training, personal trainers have to be careful with the information they communicate, myself included.

This is why I am pedantic about what I say to my clients.

Most trainers have to register with a governing body to work in most commercial gyms. In Australia, there are a few of these governing bodies such as AUSactive, Physical Activity Australia, FitREC, and Fitness Network. They all post a scope of practice that trainers must work within to be covered. 

Looking at the Scope of Practice for AUSactive it states under section 5 of Scope and Boundaries that personal trainers must:

“Work(ing) within professional limitations to provide basic healthy eating information and advice through the application of nationally endorsed nutritional standards and guidelines”

“Provision of general nationally endorsed public health information that will educate and support positive client health outcomes”

Also under section 5.5 of this scope of practice, it states that the scope of practice does not include:

“Provision of nutritional advice outside of basic healthy eating information and nationally endorsed nutritional standards and guidelines”

So if your trainer is providing meal plans to you, then it might be considered malpractice. I would consider the ethics of your trainer as they might just be trying to make some money from you. I refuse to do them for my clients but rather educate them about basic nutritional information to help them make informed decisions. 

So if I can't trust the word of my personal trainer, what should I do? I am still no closer to determining what brand of protein powder or supplement I should buy.

I promise I will give you some answers below, just one more final caveat.

If you did want nutritional information beyond general guidelines and specific advice, then I would look to work with a nutritionist or dietitian. But preferably a dietitian. 

The same situation applies here as a nutritionist (at least in Australia) is a certificate or bachelor's level degree, whereas a dietitian is someone who has gone further to a master's level degree. 

Does the highest degree warrant the highest quality work or the safest level of practice? No. Not necessarily. It is a screening process as less of illegitimate people are likely to follow it all the way through for the years of study required. All I am suggesting is to use some level of skepticism when choosing a health professional to work with. The way they convey information to you is important and ultimately it is you who makes the final decision about what interventions you agree to do or not to do, it is just up to the health professional to provide their best effort to inform you of what might be the best course of action based on their professional opinion and not to force you to do anything.

So how do I choose a protein-powder or supplement?

I am only going to give you information to help you make a decision as to whether or not you need the protein powder, and if you were to buy one, what brand you would buy from.

Ideally, your protein intake should be coming from a naturally occurring source, through your diet of meat, nuts, and legumes. But if you are failing to hit your protein intake for whatever reason, then yes a supplemental protein could be of benefit (general advice given).

There are a lot of protein powders on the market and a lot of them are quite terrible. A lot of people in the industry slap together cheap supplements to make a quick dollar. This is why I usually make my recommendations based off of the approved list by two companies called HASTA and Informed Sport. 

The primary function of these companies are to test for banned substances in supplements for professional athletes. If professional athletes are allowed to take supplements from the list then it's a safe bet that you will be too. 

There are a lot of approved brands that sell protein powders. I went through these lists and filtered out the common ones by checking the availability to purchase at local nutrition stores and based on price which is how I go about choosing and buying my own protein powder. 

My clients will be able to contact me and I can send them that information, but for those of you who do not work with me, I would go about choosing a protein supplement as I mentioned earlier.

So to wrap this up, 

I would suggest that you exercise some skepticism when choosing a healthcare professional. Whether that is a personal trainer, a nutritionist, or a dietitian. When choosing supplements or protein powders in this case, I would also exercise a high level of skepticism because there are a lot of terrible products out there. 

I hope that helped you reach an informed decision about your protein powder dilemma.