****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
As an amateur/hobby bodybuilder, this single product has become a staple in my diet over the past 3 years. When I started getting serious about lifting again out of college, I had dropped to 145lbs from my previous high of 175lbs. My metabolism is fast, and I simply had trouble keeping up for a number of reasons: time, money, and the difficulty eating the calories I needed in solid foods. I then found this product, which has helped all three of those issues.VALUE - At approximately $2.25 a serving (when using subscribe and save), this is one of the cheapest quality 650 calorie meals you can provide your body with. I found this to be much more cost effective than trying to put together my own meal. Thanks to Amazon's subscribe and save, the prices compete with the other bigger online supplement retailers and I don't have to worry about re-ordering.PERFORMANCE - I can drink an entire serving in 2-5 minutes without feeling bloated/sick (taste ranges from acceptable to good - banana cream and vanilla are must tries). I have one serving every morning, and one at some point after my workout and before bed. This accounts for 1300 of my 3500 daily calorie intake. For me, without the aid of liquid weight gainers - it would be impossible to achieve my calorie goals and gain lean mass. I especially would struggle in the morning -- I often don't have time to prepare a good meal, and have trouble eating too many solid foods first thing in the morning. Also - understand that while 60 grams of protein a serving may seem like too much, this is not 60 grams of pure whey protein that is metabolized very quickly. It is packed with 7 sources of protein (faster and slower metabolized proteins) so it takes several hours for your body to metabolize the protein.RESULTS - When used with a high quality, high calorie diet and proper lifting routine - this product can help you achieve your daily calorie requirements and consequently gains in lean mass. I have used this product to raise my weight from 145lbs to 187lbs while keeping body fat under 8%. Highly recommend this product over cheaper gainers with more sugars/poorer quality calories.FYI - If you have the time, I recommend following the blending instructions provided. However, if you are short on time - a shaker bottle is best. The blender mixes the product so well, that it will take you 2-3x longer to drink since the volume of product is increased just due to being "frothy" from the blender. While the blender taste cannot be beat (and less water can be used to get good mixing results), a high quality shaker bottle does work well for this stuff as well with 20-40 seconds of shaking and the correct amount of water. You sacrifice taste for a shake that takes less time to drink.
