There is no recommended daily amount of protein powder, but we recommend 1-2 scoops daily, depending on your training and protein goals. Your protein intake should vary between 1.4-2g/kg body weight to support performance. Aim to consume most of your protein from food and then use protein powder as a convenient way of topping up your intake. Including a scoop of whey protein in your breakfast, smoothie, yogurts and other meals and snacks is a great way of increasing the protein content of that meal, helping you hit your daily protein goals. 

The following is the amino acids profile of Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey Vanilla flavour.  This may vary slightly due to seasonality of milk. 

The difference between Gold Standard Gainer (GSG) and Serious Mass is the quality of carbohydrates and protein used. The protein blend in GSG includes whey protein isolate and hydrolysed whey protein, which are more filtered forms of protein and therefore lower in lactose, fat and carbohydrate and thus gives a high percentage of protein per serving, compared to whey protein concentrate, which is the primary protein in Serious Mass. Whey protein concentrate is still a quality form of protein and Optimum Nutrition use the highest form (85%) of whey concentrate available. The carbohydrate blend used in GSG consists of complex carbohydrate from oats, potato starch and pea starch, whereas Serious Mass is made using maltodextrin, which is a simple carbohydrate. Another difference is that SM is fortified with vitamin and minerals whereas GSG is not.

Due to the differences in these key ingredients Gold Standard Gainer (GSG) is viewed as a more premium gainer product compared to Serious Mass and targeted towards a more educated consumer seeking higher quality ingredients. Although both products offer the same benefits of adding calories to a person’s diet and in conjunction with resistance exercise support them in achieving an increase in muscle mass.

For more than 30 years Gold Standard 100% Whey has been the number 1 choice for athletes Worldwide. Gold Standard 100% Whey is formulated using a premium blend of whey, using whey protein isolate as its primary ingredient making its taste and texture worthy of being the most rewarded and reviews whey protein on Bodybuilding.com and Amazon.com to date.   

Optimum Nutrition is a global leader and our award winning products are available across the world.  

Formulas may differ from US products in order to meet EU and other local market regulations.  Differences between formulas are minimal and the product quality is equal across all markets and does not impact  the effectiveness of the product when training recovering. 

No, it is not. The plant protein used in Gold Standard 100% Plant is a mixture of isolated pea and brown rice which means the fibre has been removed for better digestion and absorption.

Gold Standard 100% Plant is a mixture of pea and rice protein, the combination of which makes it a complete protein. Rice protein is high in cysteine and methionine but low in lysine whereas pea protein is low in cysteine and methionine but high in lysine, therefore combining these proteins provides you with a full complement of both essential and non-essential amino acids which will support the growth of lean muscle mass, particularly as it contains a leucine content of 2g.  

The bloating you experience with whey protein may be due to the lactose in the product, which is a naturally occurring sugar in dairy products. Plant protein does not contain lactose so it may help with this issue.  

There is no added vitamin K in the product.  

The BCAA products (powder and capsule) are in a 2:1:1 ratio for leucine, isoleucine and valine. This is based on the fact that all proteins (whey, casein and egg) all have a similar ratio.

Optimum Nutrition protein products including Gold Standard 100% Whey contain complete high quality protein sources. This means that they contain all 20 amino acids - which are divided into essential (not produced by the body and are required from food in the diet) and non essential (produced by the body and not needed from food in the diet) amino acids.   It is well understood though that a complete protein with all 20 amino acids is needed to support muscle growth and maintenance. 

Opti-Men contains green tea extract, while standardized for polyphenols, is not decaffeinated and will still have very trace amounts of caffeine

Lean Whey contains 0.6 g of sugar per serving. All relevant information is declared on the back of pack.  

Approximately 270mg/100g 

There is only <2% caffeine in green coffee extract and <7% in green tea extract. 

All the whey used in our products is sourced from cow’s milk.

The blenders that are used to make Gold Standard 100% Whey are cleaned with alcohol so there may be some traces of it in the product however, very small traces if any. 

No, it is a synthetic product, Hydroxyl Acetonitrite Methylamine, with no animal ingredients

Our powdered Optimum Creatine contains micronized creatine.

Creatine may cause bloating in some individuals due to an increase in water retention in the muscle cells. 

It is derived from the fermentation of glucose. This is a soy free product. 

The soy lecithin is a part of the initial blend of BCAA which we use to make up the amino energy product so the amounts in the product are at trace levels, there is maximum 1% added to the BCAA blend, so there would be maximum 20 mg of soy lecithin per serving. It is added to the product to allow the product to be better dispersed when liquid is added.

Gold Standard Whey protein uses ultrafiltration and ion exchange processes to produce a superior product which supports training goals. These processes do denature the protein, however this does not affect the proteins ability to support muscle growth and maintenance after training.  In fact cooking and the digestion process also leads to denaturation. 

You can take them any way to want, whole or split. We don’t have smaller ones but we do have powder which may suit you better.

We produce products for multiple countries and therefore our labels must be compliant in each country. We reduced the dose in ZMA to 1 capsule for consistency across all of Europe as  advising to take 3 capsules daily was outside the upper limit for the daily recommended intake (RDI) for some countries in mainland Europe, particularly for zinc. In some of these countries the upper limit for the RDI for zinc per day is 25mg and 3 capsules of ZMA would exceed this dose as it provides 30mg.  

The phrase ‘contains a source of sugar’ is a mandatory statement associated with Isomaltoligosaccharides (IMO) as it has an effect on your blood glucose levels. However the primary role of IMO is for bulking properties as well as being a fibre source, it is not added as a source of glucose.

The recommendation for meal replacements is to use 1-2 a day to replace meals, as part of a diet which includes food. There is a mandatory statement in relation to MR products which states; 

“The product is intended only as part of an energy-restricted diet and that other foodstuffs should be a necessary part of such diet.” 

From a nutritional standpoint, these products are complete/balanced, but we cannot go against the mandatory regulatory dosage and consumption advice. Plus, considering these are only ~200 kcal, if you were having one for each meal, that’s only 600 kcal a day, which is a bit extreme. Therefore we recommend that these products be taken in place of 1 or 2 meals, and other food should still be consumed.