What’s the best protein supplement for hiking? It’s important to get enough protein around your hikes to optimize muscle recovery, get stronger, and for older adults, to reduce age related muscle wasting.
I recently wrote an article called Protein Requirements For Day Hiking, where I applied the International Society of Sports Nutrition’s (ISSN) 2007 and 2017 recommendations, regarding protein and exercise, to the venture of day hiking. (Really it can be applied to hiking in general, I just used protein examples you normally wouldn’t have on a backpacking trip.)
In it I focused on several aspects of protein, including daily requirements, timing around hiking and the rest of the day, and high quality sources of protein. However, I didn’t touch on any recommended protein supplements, so let’s do that here.
What Makes A Good Protein Supplement For Hiking?
Again, I will be basing my criteria on the protein recommendations found in the ISSN’s reports. Specifically their information on endurance related exercise. Below is the criteria for a good post-hike protein supplement, that should be consumed within 30 minutes after exercise:
- has whey, or whey and casein, as these proteins rank at the top, concerning PDCAAS and DIAAS protein scores (protein quality scores based on amino acid balance, bioavailability, and digestibility).
- can provide 0.25-0.5g/kg of protein, or an absolute value of 20-40g per serving, for post hike amino acid repletion, reduced muscle breakdown and maximal muscle protein synthesis.
- can provide 1.1-1.5g/kg of carbohydrates per serving, for post hike muscle glycogen repletion.
- can provide 700-3000mg of leucine per serving.
- can provide the branch chain amino acids at roughly a ratio of 2:1:1 for leucine, isoleucine, and valine, as is found in animal proteins.
- can provide 6-15g of essential amino acids per serving, as it’s these that uniquely stimulate muscle protein synthesis.
- contains no artificial sweeteners to avoid GI sensitivity.
A low dose of a mass building supplement can be used for post hike protein and carbohydrate recovery
Though our goal as hikers is not to gain muscle weight, at least to the same degree that a body builder does, the protein supplements that fit our criteria are ironically the ‘weight gainer’ or ‘bulking’ supplements.
We just won’t be using the same amount as what would be suggested to gain mass after weight lifting weights. Instead we will just be titrating the dose to the ISSN based criteria above.
Why you should avoid non-bulking protein powders after hiking
The non-bulking protein supplements tend to generally have some type of artificial sweetener, since they purposely avoid adding significant amounts of carbohydrates in those products. This seems a little contrary to the needs of the endurance exerciser (the hiker), since ISSN stresses the importance of taking in enough carbs around exercise, to avoid muscle breakdown via glycogen depletion.
Plus if your consume protein and carbohydrates together, during your post exercise recovery, this has been shown in athletic studies to be more beneficial than just consuming one, or the other, at similar doses.
So which mass building protein supplement is good to consume after hiking?
Naked Nutrition’s Weight Gainer Protein Supplement – Naked Mass
I’m recommending Naked Mass products to satisfy the International Society of Sports Nutrition’s post exercise protein, and carbohydrate dosing. It should be used once, directly after your hike, for quick delivery of these vital macros to your muscles, for recovery. Afterwards, you’ll need to grab more macros every few hours from your normal diet.
Pros: tastes good – simple, small set of ingredients, with no artificial sweeteners – can be used for hiking or other endurance sports to satisfy protein and carbohydrate requirements, at lower doses than needed for muscle building.
Cons: needs a blender to mix with milk or liquids – premium price
Naked Mass’ original formula has just 3 ingredients: organic tapioca maltodextrin, whey protein concentrate, and micellar casein.
Of course, if you want one of the flavored versions, either chocolate or vanilla, those have one additional flavoring ingredient, and one additional simple sugar for taste.
I personally have the chocolate version, as you can see on the image at the beginning of the article.
How to use Naked Mass after a hike
As stated above, you’re going to want to consume 0.25-0.5g/kg of your body weight in protein, or an absolute value of 20-40g per serving, shortly after a high exertion, or long hike.
You should consider adding the protein powder to milk, preferably reduced fat milk. This gives you extra, very high quality protein, and keeps you from burning through your protein powder stock so quickly.
| International Society of Sports Nutrition post exercise protein requirement for one serving | 1 scoop of Naked Mass in 1 cup of reduced fat milk |
|---|---|
| 0.25-0.5g/kg of protein, or at least 20-40g per serving | 12.5g + 8g = 20.5g protein |
| 6 to 15g of essential amino acids | 6g + 4g = 10g EAA’s |
| 700 to 3000mg of leucine | 1,400mg of leucine, not counting milk |
| 1.1 to 1.5g/kg of carbohydrate | 63g + 12g = 75g of carbohydrates (satisfies up to a 68kg person; use more powder you’re >68kg) |
Related: Read my Protein Requirements for Hiking and my Carbohydrate Timing for High Exertion Hiking articles to make sure you are satisfying your entire day’s requirements after a big hike.
You’re going to want to blend Naked Mass in a blender
I blend my Naked Mass with a Ninja blender. And this is a requirement in using this powder.
If I just try stirring up a scoop in a cup of milk, a significant portion of the powder doesn’t perfectly suspend into it. It clumps up, and the top of the cup looks like a slurry of half suspended powder, and large wet chunks.
Naked Mass does provide some pre-bedtime casein
Adding Naked Mass to milk also could get you some pre-sleeping casein, as recommended by ISSN (2017) to replete muscle overnight, but not as much as their prescriptive 30 to 40g.
One scoop in a cup of milk likely only provides around 13g of casein, but obligates you to consume between 400 to 500 calories. If you have no other protein supplement to use in the house, then you could try a few scoops in some milk, but this shouldn’t be routine.
Naked does however also sell a Naked Casein product for night time protein.
Vegan versions of Naked Mass are available
There are also vegan, vegan chocolate, and vegan vanilla versions of Naked Mass.
The pea and rice proteins should together create a DIAAS score over 1 (pea protein alone clocks in around 1) so you’re still getting quality protein here.
The essential amino acids are a tad bit less with this one, so I’d recommend using 1 and 1/2 scoopfuls in almond milk, or any vegan milk of your choice, to get enough EAA’s.
And the protein to carbohydrate ratio is about the same as the whey/casein version, so you’re good there as well. The vegan versions are also dairy and lactose free, of course.
Naked Mass Additional Features
Here are a few more reasons I think Naked Mass is the best protein supplement for hiking.
Naked claims their dairy cows spend 300+ days per year, and 19+ hours per day in the pasture of family owned farms in Northern California.
Further, Naked Mass products are:
- Non-GMO
- Gluten Free, certified by GFCO.org.
- Soy Free.
Their products contain Calcium and Phosphorous to avoid protein supplement related bone mass loss (as alluded to by older studies using purified amino acids, with no fortification, i.e. the Calcium and Phosphorous were removed).
Naked Mass products are Compact By Design Certified by Amazon, which means they minimize shipping space and weight, via the use of powder in a container, as opposed to a set of ready made shakes of the same caloric density. Amazon was able to send me my Naked Mass bottle in a small box, even though it was 8 pounds, probably because the bottle itself is rugged enough for shipping.
Conclusion
Naked Mass protein and carbohydrate supplement products fit all the International Society of Sports Nutrition recommendations regarding post exercise protein and carbohydrate intake, and further, general protein intake per serving on exercise days.
They also have several other good things going for them, like no artificial sweeteners, no unnecessary additives (some products I researched had excessive quantities of vitamins, or fad ingredients), no components inhibitive to stricter diets, and contains fortification that avoids protein supplement related bone mass loss.
I’ve tried looking for competing brands that offer the same level of quality for this article but have yet to find one. I’ll keep trying; surely there are more out there; and with post here if I find one.
Also because this product is a mass forming product and is calorically dense, be aware of your total daily energy needs on your hiking days, so you can balance this supplement into your diet, and not get too little or too many calories for the day. I’ve built a day-hiking, total daily energy needs calculator from the ground up, that lets you input the details of your particular hike into it (minutes spent walking on flat land, minutes spent walking up a moderate slope, etc.) and how active or inactive you are the rest of the day, to provide you with an estimation of your needed calories. You can check it out here: Day Hiker’s Total Daily Energy Needs Calculator.
Further Reading
Thanks for checking out my Best Protein Supplement for Hiking article.
Next check out my Hiking Nutrition page where you can find articles on protein dosing and timing for hiking, and carbohydrate dosing and timing for high exertion hikes.