My 16 year old son is 6'4" and 245 pounds.
He has been using protein powder that has 21 grams of protein.

He wants to put on weight this offseason, and was told he needs more protein from his shake.

There are so many different brands, I'm not sure where to start.
I thought I would get information from the experts on this board.
Please let me know what y'all recommend.

Thanks!

100%.

For reference, I am 37 and was easily knocking out 220 - 250g of protein a day by adding the half gallon of milk and a half pound of ground meat as an afternoon snack. Then obviously my other meals throughout the day.

If your son is 16 he should be able to handle that and then some.

CC is spot on. Add some olive oil to his shake. 9 calories per gram of fat.

6'4" 245 is a big kid. 2 more years he has D1 size on him.

TONS of protein snacks on the market too, and a lot of them are either whey or milk protein isolate-based. Check the protein snack thread

My 13 yo son would love life if I told him to double his amount of fairlife milk. I didn't realize how much it could help my own protein intake until I started tracking macros. Only difference is he gets the good whole stuff and I'm stuck with the old lady nonfat.

Didn't think of that - a shake with protein powder, milk, yogurt, and a tbsp of peanut butter would be a pretty solid calorie count and protein heavy.

I am not the biggest fan of apps but have him download a macro tracking app where he can put his goals in there. My stepson is 19 and said he couldn't gain weight being 6ft and 165 pounds. After a few months is up 10 pounds and has gotten a ton stronger. Crazy thing is he eats around 4200-4500 calories a day with minimal fat gain

download myfitnesspal app and track what he eats
get a food scale $10-15 and weight things out

Protein = macro to support muscle growth.
Carbs = Fuel for workouts and restoring glycogen.
Fat = Delicious and calorie dense.

Shoot for .5 to .8 grams of protein per lb of target weight. Try to limit it to 30g per serving (from what I understand, this is most your body can process at a time). Eat complex carbs before and immediately after working out. Also, make sure you eat some protein within 30 min of working out.


You have to get an understanding of what his TDEE is so you can set his calorie goal high enough to be in a calorie surplus. Once you do that, set your protein and carb goals goal (1g of protein or carbs = 4 cal) then put in some fat (1g of fat = 9 calories). Since he doesn't seem too concerned about losing fat a 40% protein /30% carb/30% fat split would be a good start.

The % suggested are % of total calories. You'll have to do the math to get the target numbers in grams for tracking purposes.

kapon said:

---

My 16 year old son is 6'4" and 245 pounds.
He has been using protein powder that has 21 grams of protein.

He wants to put on weight this offseason, and was told he needs more protein from his shake.

There are so many different brands, I'm not sure where to start.
I thought I would get information from the experts on this board.
Please let me know what y'all recommend.

Thanks!

---

All good advice on here.

If you really want to get into it, I would suggest this.

- Make sure that protein is about 1 gram per one pound of body weight. (can go a little lower or a little higher, but this is where he should aim).

- Carbs are you friend here. He needs to be running in a surplus to gain some real weight (I am assuming he is also heavy weight training....if not...start immediately or all of this will just make him fat).

Using a macro calculator, he likely needs to be close to 1000 calories over maintenance calories to put on some real freakin weight. Maybe even 2000 over maintenance.

Lots of good advice on protein sources here. Your son can likely do the GOMAD (gallon of milk a day), in addition to eating big to get to where he wants to go.

If not, he needs more than one protein shake a day. Likely 3 or 4.

Costco has kirkland brand protein bars that taste great and 21g for buck a piece. Great deal. My 18yr old loves them.

Cottage cheese with soy sauce. I'm telling y'all.

Scramble three high quality eggs and 1/2 cup of cottage cheese for breakfast.

Protein is made up of nine different essential amino acids. The most important amino acid for muscle synthesis is leucine.

As far as proteins go, whey protein has the most leucine. Egg white protein doesn't have as much leucine as whey protein, but it does contain more than other protein options. Egg whites/egg white protein is also considered a complete protein, meaning it contains all nine of those essential amino acids.

Good info.

What is leucine? Does milk protein have leucine too?

I ask because I have been enjoying ultra filtered milk as a supplemental protein source since I upped my calorie intake.

texag06ish said:

---

Good info.

What is leucine? Does milk protein have leucine too?

I ask because I have been enjoying ultra filtered milk as a supplemental protein source since I upped my calorie intake.

---

Leucine is an essential amino acid- so you must consume it because you cannot make it internally. We have learned in the past 20-30 years that leucine is a key amino acid to help drive muscle growth. And we also know that if you just consume enough complete protein, you're also getting in enough leucine that will help drive muscle growth or at least preserve the muscle that is already there.

And yes, milk has leucine

TXTransplant said:

---

Protein is made up of nine different essential amino acids. The most important amino acid for muscle synthesis is leucine.

As far as proteins go, whey protein has the most leucine. Egg white protein doesn't have as much leucine as whey protein, but it does contain more than other protein options. Egg whites/egg white protein is also considered a complete protein, meaning it contains all nine of those essential amino acids.

---

Technically, protein is made up of 20 amino acids in various ratios- so skeletal muscle has a different proportion of amino acids than collagen does . It's just that nine of them have to be taken in via diet. We can make the other 11.

texag06ish said:

---

Good info.

What is leucine? Does milk protein have leucine too?

I ask because I have been enjoying ultra filtered milk as a supplemental protein source since I upped my calorie intake.

---

Leucine is an amino acid that isn't made by the human body. You have to get it from what you eat. It's one of the three essential branched chain amino acids (if you're not a chemistry nerd, that probably doesn't matter so much), but you probably have seen these marketed in "BCAA pre workout" supplements. The other two are isoleucine and valine.

If you are eating enough of the right kinds of protein, you probably don't need a BCAA supplement.

Foods high in leucine include eggs, salmon, beef, and chicken. Milk contains leucine as well. Thee are others…a quick Google search will tell you everything you want to know.

Where you have to pay attention is if you are using plant-based protein, which is often incomplete (meaning it's deficient in one or more of the essential amino acids). If you aren't relying heavily on plant based protein powders and/or aren't vegan, it's probably not an issue.

I use the ultra-filtered milk, too, and find it great to keep variety in my diet. It's unfortunate that certain influencers/celebrities have demonized dairy.

Correct. I mentioned the 9 essential to simplify the discussion. I love chemistry, but not everyone else does.

Between our two posts, we are essentially saying the same thing. I made the point I did because, when I first started my high protein transition, plant based proteins were pushed heavily. I hated them (pea protein tastes awful and does not agree with me), and then subsequently learned they prob weren't the best option for my goals (increasing and maintaining muscle mass). I don't use a lot of protein powder, but I exclusively use egg white protein now.

Thanks for the info guys!

The bulk of my protein comes from chicken and green yogurt so I think I'm good but I'll deep dive!

TXTransplant said:

---

Correct. I mentioned the 9 essential to simplify the discussion. I love chemistry, but not everyone else does.

Between our two posts, we are essentially saying the same thing. I made the point I did because, when I first started my high protein transition, plant based proteins were pushed heavily. I hated them (pea protein tastes awful and does not agree with me), and then subsequently learned they prob weren't the best option for my goals (increasing and maintaining muscle mass). I don't use a lot of protein powder, but I exclusively use egg white protein now.

---

Same- dont like pea protein stuff- just too grainy

Do you have egg white protein powder?

Yes, I always have plain and vanilla egg white protein powder on hand. I buy the Now Foods brand because I can get a 5 lb tub of the plain.

I use the plain in the overnight oats that I eat every day for breakfast (15 g per serving). Sometimes I add it to my Greek yogurt (depending on what's going on with the rest of my diet for the day). I keep vanilla on hand for smoothies and acai bowls.

I also add plain to my scrambled eggs/omelets (in addition to cottage cheese).

I've been doing ground venison taco salads for lunch. The venison and cheese get me quite a bit of protein and I'm only eating 5 ounces of meat.

This is the protein shake that I have used for the last 7-8 years to maintain my current BW and consume enough protein in one day that I need:

2 scoops of Whey (I prefer chocolate)
1 whole Banana
5-6 large strawberries
1.5-2 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp honey (this is totally optional and have stopped doing this personally)
1 yogurt (high protein or Greek - I prefer strawberry banana flavor)
1/2 cup of oats
10-12 oz whole milk (can use 2% but more calories and protein in whole)
12 oz of coffee (to counter the carb/calorie load)

That makes about 42oz give or take a few ounces.

A few thoughts:

-For value/quality/taste, I recommend the big bag of Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey from Costco (milk chocolate flavor).
-Post workout meal (15-30 minutes after): protein shake (25g protein/1 scoop if using Optimum), 8-10 oz milk w/ Hershey's chocolate syrup added, and a small PBJ. Then have some meat with rice/oats 1-2 hours after.
-Last meal: eat an Oikos Greek yogurt or similar an hour before bed; the casein protein is slow digesting. I'll usually mix an Oikos with 170g of Costco's Greek plain yogurt, which comes new out to 190 cals and 32g protein.