Should I drink my protein shake all at once?
So you decide to chug it, down it, drink it all in one—whatever you want to call it—and now you feel a little unwell, and probably a bit gassy.
So how can you avoid the bloating, nausea, gas, and cramps that might come with drinking your shake too quickly? The obvious answer is to slow down and sip your shake as you would any other drink.
Here are some reasons why chugging your protein shake might be stopping you from having an optimal digestive experience, and what you can do to improve it.
Digestion
When you work out, your body prioritizes sending blood to your muscles, especially during a harder session. This slows down a process called peristalsis, which is when muscle contractions move food through your digestive system (Patel and Thavamani, 2020).
Drinking a protein shake too fast, or too soon after exercise, means your shake will sit in your stomach instead of starting the process of digestion and absorption. This can cause nausea and that sloshy feeling in your stomach—not what you want after a workout!
But what if you’re worried about the so-called ‘anabolic window’? If you want to maximize muscle growth, you might be used to downing your shakes as quickly as possible after a workout. However, research shows that consuming protein and carbs immediately after training doesn’t affect your muscle recovery rate. It also doesn’t impact the rate of muscle protein synthesis—the process your body uses to repair muscle damage, which causes them to grow in size (Aragon and Schoenfeld, 2013).
So, sipping your shake slowly over time won’t hurt your gains or your muscle recovery, and it may even help your digestion.
Bloating and Stomach Issues
It’s not just exercise that can slow down digestion. Eating or drinking too quickly can also cause your digestive system to stall. When that happens, whatever is in your stomach just sits there until digestion picks back up again.
On top of that, when you eat or drink too fast, you swallow a lot more air than when you take your time. Combine that with a slowed-down digestive system and the air may end up trapped in your stomach, making you bloated and, eventually, gassy (Wilkinson, Cozine, and Loftus, 2019). By drinking your protein shake more slowly, you can avoid the discomfort and pain from bloating and trapped gas, while also making digestion easier!
Dairy
If you haven’t yet discovered the benefits of plant-based protein powder and love to chug your shakes, you might want to think about switching. Whey protein powders can cause digestive discomfort—even when sipped slowly—so drinking them too quickly can make bloating and gas worse. Considering that about 65% of people struggle to properly digest lactose after infancy, it’s easy to see why you might want to skip it! (Fisher, 2019)
In short, it pays to be kind to your digestive system (especially after a workout!), so it’s worth choosing an easy-to-digest protein powder. Vivo Life’s PERFORM protein powder with BCAAs uses easily digestible bio-fermented protein and contains herbal enzymes.
So, to chug or not to chug—that’s the question. Ultimately, it comes down to what works best for you. If you’ve been chugging shakes for years without any problems and it makes you happy, then go for it! But if you’ve noticed nausea, cramps, bloating, or gas after your post-workout shake, try sipping a shake designed for better digestion instead!
