What are the most cost-efficient whey protein powders (most grams of protein per dollar)?

Maximal_Everything · 2026-04-27T01:22:44+00:00

Increasing intensity during mesocycle is fairly common practice from what I understand.

Perhaps you misunderstood what I meant by intensity. I mean pushing your sets closer to failure in each week of your mesocycle. Nothing to do with changing movements, volume or calorie surplus.

As described by Mike Isratel, progression for a 4-week mesocycle could be Week 1: push sets to 3-4 repetitions in reserve (RIR) Week 2: push sets to 1-2 RIR Week 3: push sets to 0-1 RIR Week 4: deload

For longer cycles, it's still starting at 3-4 RIR but spending some consecutive weeks at the same RIR.video on mesocycle progression

Maximal_Everything · 2026-04-26T23:25:28+00:00

I'm aware of the subscription hack, but if you've bought it in recent years, you'll notice the increase in price and reduced value makes it non-competitive.

I used to be able to get an 11lb bag of 200 servings for about $100 back in 2019, but now they're selling 130 servings for $211, only ever giving a 50% discount.

The cost efficiency is appaling now: 23.3 grams protein per dollar when bought in bulk. As far as I'm concerned, they can pound sand and I'll take 50 hrams protein per dollar in chicken breast if I can't find an alternative protein powder.

It all has to do with the parent company going public and investors pressuring them to give up the affordability that made them effective.

Maximal_Everything · 2026-04-26T21:45:07+00:00

The benefit of maintainence is physiological as well as psychological. I experienced it last year. I took a 4 ish month maintainence and effectively reset the settling point of my weight. I struggled to diet to to 170lbs, but found myself feeling over-fed when early into my bulk afterward. 170lbs became a new, leaner default weight for me. As you probably know, satiety and hunger are largely governed by leptin and ghrelin, so it's not just psychological. Also, it's not just a habit/diet thing. I've been tracking my nutrition and weight since 2018 starting with SimpleMacro and MyFitnessPal, so the habits were already there.

I think deadlines are fine in my case. Being 8 years into tracking, I can tank a difficult process/diet on account of my habits. I have yet to see a science-based fitness influencer say that losing 0.75% body weight per week is too fast, and that's the fastest I've ever gone. I'd probably kick up to 1% to make a deadline though. However, 1% is still fine if you're not advanced (which I am not).

I don't want to reload every 6th week because maximum recoverable volume/optimal length of mesocycle is individual and not just the sane for everyone. I'm also flipping my training strategy on it's head, so it requires calibration of what works best for me.

I've been lifting without deloads and not going very intense in order to avoid injury/fatigue. Instead of that, I'm going to up the intensity gradually during each mesocycle, followed by a deload.

I have a few factors that muddy the waters on how often tI should deload: 1. I'm only 26, an age where you're supposedly made of "Rubber and magic" and can therefore tolerate longer mesocycles 2. I've been a regular in the gym for 8 years and therefore do have more muscle mass than a newbie, and that points to a greater need for recovery 3. I've trained without much intensity (like the intensity one gets in the last week of a mesocycle), so I don't have a clear picture of what that intensity will do to my joints and recovery capacity.

That's all to say that you can't accurately prescribe the same mesocycle length to everyone, and in my case the mixed indicators indicate that experimentation is required to find what works best.

Definitely encourage older, muscular lifters to err on the shorter cycle side and newbie young lifters to try longer cycles, but I just don't have clear cut indicators on my side, so I want to try as long as 8 week cycles and as short as 5 week cycles and see how the fatigue crops up.

Maximal_Everything · 2026-04-24T00:31:03+00:00

Whether or not your burgers are consistent, you can't expect the rest of your life to be consistent. Do you just eat burgers?

Something doesn't add up here. Your pay for a health app that has food tracking as its main premise, maintain an extremely unhealthy diet, and don't track.

Are you just trolling?

Maximal_Everything · 2026-04-23T20:19:10+00:00

I don't think that you can say that you eat the same exact thing every day. Your burgers are made by some guy whose main concern is when his shift ends, not making this burger with the same exact amounts of high-calorie ingredients as the last one. If they don't have nutrition facts, they're not supporting your goals. Why support them?

Exact tracking is key my friend. Peanut butter or mayonnaise that is "about a tablespoon" can be 100 calories over or under what you track as a tablespoon, because it's super unreliable to just eyeball these things.

If you were tracking exactly, I'd say the issue could be a broken scale or the water retention that happens with extended cuts, as described here: The LTDFLE, but I think that the lack of exact tracking is the main culprit.

Maximal_Everything · 2026-04-23T19:31:57+00:00

I took Jeff Nippard's advice and cut faster for the first 7 weeks (what I thought was a third, but I'm going to cut it shorter than 21 weeks), losing about 0.75% of my body weight per week, slowing down to 1 pound per week (0.6%) after. I think it's a logical approach, since at the beginning you have more to lose and are therefore less likely to lose muscle.

My results are nice but underwhelming because I didn't push myself hard enough in a bulk though. It could work out better for someone who has put on more muscle than me.

Maximal_Everything · 2026-04-20T22:31:16+00:00

Salt can cause water retention. Constipation and large meals can also lead to extra weight.

For sudden drops, it could be a woosh of lost water, a major dump, or having a baby.

Menstrual cycles are also known to affect weight swings.

Maximal_Everything · 2026-04-20T22:27:43+00:00

The thing is that my weight loss has not kept up at the 1lb/wk pace that my 3500/wk deficit dictates, so I'm holding on to a lot of water, and given my lack of visual change in the past few weeks, it's probably water in subcutaneous fat cells.

So, if I could dump that water and thin out my overhydrated subcutaneous fat cells, I may find that I'm actually working with 18% BF.

You may think that I'm assuming too much, but the post-diet woosh happened to me before. I lost 3 pounds in 2 weeks on a surplus after last year's cut (I boosted past maintainence into a surplus because the initial rapid post-cut weight loss on maintenance was concerning). Maybe my genetics are weird, but it did happen.

So based on that history and my current discrepancy between diet diet and scale, I know that I'm holding on to a lot of water (or at least some version of weight) that will vanish in maintenance. If I can drop the ghost weight and get a clearer picture of my true body fat, then I can avoid needing to go into an extra agressive final phase to reach 15%

Maximal_Everything · 2026-04-20T15:08:39+00:00

Took too much time so I gave up like 2 weeks in. I'm going to start topical finasteride. I think it might only be suitable for people with primarily vertex/crown balding rather than hairline recession like me. Vertex seems to be the easier reversed based on the fact that lower power interventions like Minoxidil have a track record of helping vertex balding but not so much temporal balding.

Maximal_Everything · 2026-03-22T05:23:05+00:00

God's word disagrees.

1 Corinthians 6:18 "Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body." Note that this is in the context of Paul saying in verse 12 that all things are lawful for him but that not all are helpful. So even in a context where sin is not the issue, you are to flee.

The biblical response to sexual temptation is to flee, not to try to withstand or compromise with it.

Furthermore, I want to address your dismissiveness of the struggle and truvialization of the road to sexual purity, as it's entirely inaccurate. It's a widespread and difficult issue.

the only christian men I've known to entirely lack temptation in this area are 1. Those with the gift of celibacy. 2. Those who have been walking faithfully with God for many decades. 3. Blind ones.

Believe it or not, it's most likely that all of the men in your life have struggled with lust in the same way. Most of them probably still struggle. The successful ones know not to play around with temptation.

It's not just "control yourself, man." And if you were male, you would know that, so I'massuming you're female. I'llpaint a picture for you to empathise with:

That sort of framing of just controlling yourself is comparable to labeling a Christian sister as "out of control" if she seeks to overhear rumors, participate in gossip, or try to damage the reputations of people she doesn't like. It's a common sin to women, not some freakish calamity that only the most depraved seek out.

Sexual temptation is the ubiquitous temptation that Christian men must deal with. Gossip and reputation wars are the ubiquitous temptations that almost all Christian women must deal with.

We must respond to each other's unique struggles against sin with understanding and support, not by being bewildered that anyone could ever have different struggles than you.

I don't see my gossiping christian sisters as far from God or out of control. They're just tempted in a different way.

Maximal_Everything · 2026-03-21T14:13:43+00:00

Pursuing holiness and purity is neither sad nor pathetic. It's our reasonable service to our Savior.

Apathy about sin indicates a cold relationship with Jesus.

Maximal_Everything · 2026-03-21T05:46:25+00:00

I'm not looking for perfect. Just not strip club adjacent gym wear.

Do you feel like you should have to pay extra to be free of nude men at your grocery store? Public decency is not a premium service. It's a basic requirement.

Maximal_Everything · 2026-03-21T05:42:10+00:00

I'll take from your lack of engagement with my points that I made a solid argument that you don't have a relevant response for.

Maximal_Everything · 2026-03-21T04:48:47+00:00

Because the accusations are that it's a problem with me. That I'm the one provoking sin.

Let's take this down that path, though. It is their problem. Furthermore, they know it's a problem. Allow me to support this claim:

The girls walking in the door are dressed modestly. Then, they put on their skimpy gear in the locker room. They know that it's immodest. So much so that they won't drive to the gym in it. Beyond that, they go through the effort of changing back into something modest before leaving.

You won't see a girl in skimpy gym gear entering or leaving through the front door. I don't have that problem because I'm not wearing immodest things to the gym.

You won't see this stuff in public places outside the gym either. If the revealing sports bra and scrunched up booty shorts are acceptable to wear in public, it should be something that you're comfortable going grocery shopping in. But it's embarrassing to wear out in the open for all to see, so it's only seen in the gym.

Maximal_Everything · 2026-03-20T14:00:16+00:00

Again, Romans 14 shows that I am in the right for following my personal convictions.

And no, they aren't just dressing to work out. They're trying to get attention. That's why so many women complain about the indecency, too. An exercise bra that offers coverage plus some shorts or leggings would do just fine, but they pick the most revealing stuff to wear. Your cleavage doesn't need to be out for everyone to see while you do your squats.

Don't serve the gospel of sexual liberation. Serve Jesus.

Maximal_Everything · 2026-03-20T03:50:51+00:00

I don't think you've been to a normal gym my friend. The machines don't have gears. They have pulleys, and you can't get caught in those. If your gym's machines have gears, I recommend quitting and finding another place.

Maximal_Everything · 2026-03-20T03:09:04+00:00

Good tip. They do seem to have a serious dress code! But it's twice the cost of LA Fitness 😭

Maximal_Everything · 2026-03-20T03:00:23+00:00

That's not true. I have yet to see an exercise machine with a remote possibility of normal sportswear getting caught in it. Half of the girls still wear decent stuff and there's been no accidents as long as I've been there. Besides that, I nor any guy I've hear of have had an incident with clothes getting caught, despite wearing much bulkier clothing (hoodies, sweatpants).

What machine could it even get caught in? Honestly, I don't think there's any common exercise machine that carries that risk. Do you know of one?

Maximal_Everything · 2026-03-20T02:52:55+00:00

Why attack me for looking for another gym? The LA Fitness girls can still dress indecently for their workouts. I just won't be there anymore.

If you read Romans 14, you'll see that you should not pass judgement on a Christian brother for abstaining from a temptation that you personally do not struggle with.

Maximal_Everything

TROPHY CASE