So I’ve been interested in meal replacing powders since Soylent came out, and I thought I’d check up on the idea now. I’ve stumbled upon Jimmy Joy after looking through other similar brands, and this one seemed like a good quality product for the lowest price I could find. I read it tasted good, and it wasn’t as difficult to mix as some of the competition. Plus it’s located in the EU so it makes life easier.
I’ve been going to the gym on and off for the past 5 or six years. I’d go for a while, get strong, but not gain much weight, and then give up realising my nutrition is simply not enough to gain muscle. Recently I’ve thought about buying some weight gainer, but this seemed more logical.
I’ve ordered my first batch of 30 Classic meals (i realised there’s a sport version, but the classic has 135g of daily protein which seems more than enough).
TLDR
The only thing that is bothering me are the videos of the people who review these types of products: they’re all thin!
Now I guess they probably don’t work out so that’s to be expected, but can one expect to gain weight with just the plenny shake classic (provided a good workout routine)?
To gain weight, calories in must be greater than calories out. Eat more than is needed to maintain weight, and you will gain weight. That’s all there is to it.
That’s what I figured, but then I wasn’t sure whether the fact it’s liquid would mean more of the nutrients/calories get excreted as waste.
I’m also wondering if for muscle gain it isn’t more productive to split the daily content into 5 meals? so 5 shakes of 300ml water and 2 scoops? because as it currently stands you get 45g of protein per shake, which seems wasteful. I’ve always been told muscles can’t absorb more than 20-25 grams of protein “at once”.
Any thoughts on this?
I’m no expert in this topic, but to my knowledge there is no credible research to support that a human body absorbs nutrients/calories from liquid food less efficiently than from traditional food. I’ve never seen anyone effectively back up the claim that it’s more inefficiently adsorbed. I’ve only seen speculation. This belief seems to be more or less bias and myth rather than tested fact. “Future liquid food” is new and unusual. It makes sense for there to be some bias and push back.
On the other hand, I’ve never seen any research to support that our bodies adsorb liquid food as efficiently as traditional food either. Basically there isn’t much research either way. All we can do is speculate…
That said, I can’t think of a reason why it would be adsorbed less efficiently. Jimmy Joy is food. It’s just food you mix with water. Our bodies have been adsorbing nutrients from liquids our whole lives. If it’s not similarly absorbed compared to traditional food, then my guess would be that it is actually more efficiently adsorbed, since there is little to no extra stuff in Jimmy Joy that your body doesn’t need. No preservatives, no “processed” junk, no unnecessary chemicals, none of that stuff that your body doesn’t need. If anything, it seems like human bodies would have more difficulty adsorbing all of that crap. My best guess though is that we just absorb it all pretty equally, whether we need it or not. That’s why it’s unhealthy to eat unhealthy food, because your body is absorbing it all.
If you eat a 700 calorie lent meal (which has only nutrients you need like in Jimmy Joy), then does it even matter if it’s a little less absorbed than traditional food? Many people’s diets in the west aren’t so great. So for this group of people, even if liquid lents were less efficiently adsorbed, they would still probably be getting better nutrition on a lent product compared to a traditional diet. My lent diet has to be better than my previous diet.
As far as building muscle, that’s a little out of my league. Eat after you workout so your body uses your food as fuel rather than itself. Also, I’ve always heard that it doesn’t matter if you eat 1 meal a day, 3 meals, 5 meals, whatever. It doesn’t matter how you divide it. What you eat matters much more than the portions you divide it into. I think this is another area without much science behind it though. My personal motto is to eat when I’m hungry (or in your case, eat when you’re hungry plus right after a workout unless you’re still full).
I’d also recommend asking for advice on the Soylent and/or Jimmy Joy subreddits, so that those with more experience might be able to advise you better.
Oh and keep in mind that muscle building isn’t the only reason your body needs protein. So even if it’s true that muscles can’t absorb more than 20-25g of protein at once, if you eat 45g of protein after a workout, your body can use that protein for other things. In fact you may need more than that if you’re trying to build muscle. Just wanted to throw that out there, but again this is a little out of my league.
I did this and i would guess it was alot easier than with regular food…
I used to have a maintenance of around 2000 kcal, 60kg bodyweight at 181cm, no muscle, no sports, around last september i started to do calisthenics (bodyweight training) 3 times per week, and i upped my diet to around 2800 Kcal (bit less at the beginning, bit more at the end.
75% plenny shake and 25% regular food (i would eat a whole bag of Jimmy Joy each day in 3 shakes, and one meal from the canteen or self cooked)
I kept this up until one week ago, and i have gained about 15 kilograms, of which i would guess AT LEAST 5kg are muscle mass.
I dont look really fat now, because i was super skinny to begin with, and now I’m back to 2100 kca l and ONLY Jimmy Joy to shed the little bodyfat i gained (done this for a week, i have incredibly loose stool now, i hope this goes away within the next 2 weeks :s)
Here’s what i think: It’s probably easiert to swallow a HUGE surplus of calories from normal food when split into4-6 meals, just because it’s delicious. In the beginning it was really hard to gulp down the last shake of the day, but i got used to it in 2 weeks.
However, it’s so much easier to keep this up with Jimmy Joy, as you dont have to go grocery shopping and prepare huge amounts of food every day, plus you dont have to resort to junk food for a big bulk, you always eat clean and healthy.
These three studies seem to indicate that 20g of protein seem to be sufficient every 3 hours to maximize utilization of protein for muscle building, and minimize “wasted” protein for conversion to calories. You can drink 2 scoops @100grams 5-7 times a day, really depends on what you goals are and current weight/height/age etc.
Cheers Chasteeny,
I figured as much, have been drinking as you said, 2 scoops (diluted in 300ml) 5 times a day, along with additional irregular meals.
I’ve gained over 3kg thus far, but I’m unsure how much is muscle and how much is fat. We’ll find out in a month or two I guess.
Thats perfect, at least from what I can gather. Although you can get more “utilized” protein with more consumption in one sitting it seems the “percentage utilized” begins to drop off heavily. Good luck on your bulking Matt.
With 100% liquid food the volume problem remains if you want to gain weight. Both at the same time seem to be incredibly difficult. Maybe using less water per scoop could help - but this has limits. Otherwise the powder won’t dissolve well. And it would not be really “liquid” any longer…and less shake would make you fuller, decreasing appetite…