International Protein Heavy Weight Mass Gainer Review

The new mass gainer from International Protein is a hard-hitting product for anyone who needs calories to fuel new growth.

There's something really different about this mass gainer. And it all comes down to quality calories. How many mass gainers have you seen with digestive enzymes, hydrolysed WPI, whey protein isolate and a gluten free carb mix? How about none … until this product.

Getting Jacked with Amino Acids

What else is cool about this dynamic product? Apart from the fact that it's been developed and manufactured by the expert team at International Protein? It’ got added amino acids.

Now this might be setting off alarm bells for some. Amino spiking! Amino spiking! Extra aminos can be a nightmare in some products. However, the right amino acids in the right product are an absolute blessing.

This heavyweight gainer has added glutamine and branched chain amino acids (BCAAs).

This is the opposite of amino acid spiking. The companies that amino spike use cheap aminos that do not enhance the quality or effectiveness of the finished product. One of the reasons they do this is to keep costs down.

If you are a protein company and are paying, let’s say $20 per kilogram for a protein powder, and are diluting it with an amino acid that costs $2 per kg, the cost of the finished product decreases. This is amino spiking for increased profits.

Just to be clear, this is NOT what International Protein are doing. In fact, quality amino acids are expensive. And in this case, the amino acids are added each for a specific biochemical reason.

BCAAs and Glutamine add extra quality and efficacy to their product. In my books, this is good.

As we know, Glutamine is helpful for boosting glycogen levels, and has also been shown to increase peak torque and reduce muscle soreness ^1,2. This amino acid is rapidly depleted during exercise.

One of the BCAAs, called leucine, activates the one and only magnificent mTOR.

This means more of the amino acids in the product will be used to create new muscle tissue ³. It's like a trigger switch for your muscle tissue.

This group of amino acids will definitely improve the quality of the product. This means more bang-for-your-buck—not less—and more gains.

 How Much Protein is too Much Protein?

One of the biggest problem with most mass gainers? Not enough calories and too little protein. If you’re young, and have a fast and healthy metabolism, or have a physical job and burn tones of calories, an extra couple hundred calories may not be enough to get you into a positive energy balance. And if it does, it will take a long time to see results.

And 20 or 30 grams of protein may not be enough. That’s why International Protein Heavy Weight Mass contains over 800 calories per serve, with over 60 grams of protein.

Now, this serving size, calorie and protein content won't be needed by everyone. That's why International Protein have a lower calorie mass gainer, called Extreme Mass. They also and other low carb high protein powders to choose from.

Heavy Weight Mass Gainer is perfect for tradesman, off-season bodybuilders, powerlifters and strong-women/men, individuals with fast metabolisms and general workaholics who don't eat enough. Obviously, your goal here would be to put on size.

Some say that the body can’t absorb more than 30 grams of protein at once. But it's important to remember our vast individual differences. Certainly, a 45kg ballerina would be able to digest and absorb less protein than a 150kg powerlifter.

Factors that can affect protein digestion and absorption rates are numerous. These can be acid and enzyme outputs in the digestive system. Stress level. Lean muscle mass quantity. Metabolic rate. Body size, as a determinant of protein needs and stomach size ... and so on.

In fact, a research paper was published in 2016 by Physiological Reports. This study showed that regardless of the amount of muscle mass you have, 40g of whey protein taken after exercise led to greater muscle protein synthesis than 20g ⁴.

Simply put, this means more gains from 40g than 20g. It would have been nice if the researchers looked for an upper limit. But in time more detailed studies will come. 

International Protein have taken these results one step further, offering you 60 grams of quality protein per serve from whey and casein.

Also of interest is a paper published in 2012 by The Journal of Physiology. The researchers showed that leucine fortified whey protein was 4 times more effective than regular whey protein ⁵!

As we’ve discussed, International Protein Heavy Weight Mass is fortified with leucine. It also contains added isoleucine and valine as well, as it’s important to keep the ratios of BCAAs balanced.

 
 Carbing Up with HeavyWeight Mass

This product contains the easy-to-digest maltodextrin, backed up with ModCarb. Modcarb is a gluten-free carb blend from a mixture of starch sources.

Why is this important? Because we’ve got the high glycemic index carb maltodextrin, plus some low GI sources as well. This helps to keep your blood sugar and energy levels stable. It also prevents you from having a crash, which can be unpleasant.

 What’s the go with Digestive Enzymes?

You don’t have to have gut issues to benefit from digestive enzymes. In fact, the reason many people can’t gain size is because they aren’t digesting and absorbing their food properly.

This leads to less nutrients being absorbed into your blood, which is then pumped to your muscles.This means, less nutrients for growth find their way to your muscles. If you digest and absorb less nutrients from food, more just ends up in the toilet. Literally.

This is where the gung-ho, stuff your face, approach to gaining mass can completely backfire in some people. When your digestion is naturally weak, and then you overload it with food, it only makes things worse.

Supporting digestive health is an important part of gaining muscle mass or general size.

How to Use Heavy Weight Mass Gainer

This is the fun part. There are chocolate and vanilla flavours to choose from. It’s a big serving size, at 220g. So you’ll need quite a lot of water or milk to mix it properly. Try around the 400-500ml mark for starters.

Give it a good shake and enjoy. We really liked both of these flavours. They went down smooth and gave us a lot of energy, which is to be expected. International Protein never do anything by half measures!

This product will cover you for morning and/or afternoon tea. You can also try it after training for recovery or before bed to keep you fueled through the night.

Say welcome to the gains train folks! Because it's chugging your way. You might be clothes shopping in a few months for XL and XXL. There are big boy shops around too if you can’t find your sizes.

If you’re ready to gain size like a true mass-monster, International Protein Heavy Weight Mass is definitely worth taking a look at.

References

1. Varnier M et al. Stimulatory effect of glutamine on glycogen accumulation in human skeletal muscle. The American Journal of Physiology. 1995 Vol 269 E309-E315
2. Legault Z et al. The influence of oral L-Glutamine supplementation on muscle strength recovery and soreness following unilateral knee extension eccentric exercise. International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. 2015 Vol 25;5 p. 417-426
3. Norton L.E., & Layman D.K. Leucine Regulates Translation Initiation of Protein Synthesis in Skeletal Muscle after Exercise. The Journal of Nutrition. 2006 Vol 136 p.533-7
4. Macnaughton L.S., et al. The response of muscle protein synthesis following whole-body resistance exercise is greater following 40g than 20g of ingested whey protein. Physiological Reports. 2016 Vol 4;5 p.1-13
5. Churchward-Venne TA et al. Supplementation of a suboptimal protein dose with leucine or essential amino acids: effects of myofibrillar protein synthesis at rest and following resistance exercise in men. The Journal of Physiology. 2012