A Question of Shakes

[Greg Davis]

So I had totally phased out shakes for real food for about a year now and don't miss em. BUT circumstances call for me to add them back in temporarily:

I have a BJJ tourney coming up in 2 weeks and my weight is at 165, division is 170. (a) so I could use a few extra pounds to be more competitive
(b) my training volume is quite high leading up to it
(c) budget is tight and i still have some whey protein sitting around

Im gonna use piece of fruit, kefir, whey, bit of nut butter, and coconut cream mostly.. to get some extra calories in on training days.

What I'm not sure of is if I should down one as a separate "meal" or if I should just drink it along side my breakfast/1st meal. I don't really like the idea of spiking my insulin with a liquid only meal but I also don't like to eat too much in one sitting early in the day (makes me less ambitious to get things done). Since I'm not a big fan of shakes just wondering if people have felt better combining them with meals versus on their own.

[Greg Davis]

I should mention the main point of the shakes is to get more calories absorbed quicker so I can eat a next meal sooner than if eating the same kcals in whole foods.. (assuming this logic is not faulty)

[Mike ODonnell]

Have them with a meal. A whey only shake is not going to spike insulin. Shakes are helpful for getting in some of the high amounts of calories when you don't feel like being bloated all day long from whole foods. Add it with some milk(although)/cream/oil and you will get plenty of calories.

[Greg Davis]

FYI this is my old shake "recipe"... I would normally have 1/2 portions on their own. Today I had a 1/4 portion with bacon and eggs after my BJJ training... went down pretty good. My girlfriend had another 1/4 portion as her whole breakfast before work so that worked out well.

Personally I find if I overdo it with a high-kcal shake (ie. too much portion size) it takes away my appetite for quite a while as if my body is saying "whoa thats a lot real fast" (not pleasant).

Perhaps I'll try 1/4 portions of this with my breakfasts on morning training days (after BJJ) and see how it goes. Its only an extra ~300 kcals (20g PRO) but I'm only trying to gain ~5 lbs so it might make the difference.

Shake

kefir 1 cups
almond butter or mac butter 3 tbsp
frozen berries or fruit 1 cup
whey protein 2 scoops
coconut cream 2 tbsp
eggs 2 each
cocoa powder 1 tsp
maca powder 1 tbsp
fish oil (orange flavored carlsons) 1 tsp
cinnamon ½ tsp
creatine 1 tsp

[Grissim Connery]

i'd prop cut water and drop to the lower weight class. what's the weight range?

[Greg Davis]

weigh-ins were day-of, right when division was called... won 2 lost 1... first gi tourney..

155-170.... i ended up getting right up to 170 but whole experience makes me not want to care what my weight is next time.. i dont like eating more than i need to / feel like

shakes dont agree with me, seem to take away my appetite. ditching them.

[Garrett Smith]

Shakes are usually high CHO + high PRO = tough to digest.

Hence they tend to sit in your stomach a LONG time and take away the appetite (because they haven't moved).

If you need to do shakes, make sure to take some HCl + enzymes.

I have a hard time with the thought of weight gain--my OL coach has already mentioned that I should "top out" the 85kg weight class, that means I need to add up to 11 pounds of BW. Yuck.