In this Naked Mass review, I’m going to be framing this from the perspective of an endurance exerciser.

My main sport is hiking and backpacking. So if you’re into similar endurance type sports, like hiking & scrambling, trail running, cycling, mountain biking, etc., this review article is for you.

If you’re seeking help to get enough calories to build mass, after resistance training, there are a few articles, elsewhere, on the web for that as well.

If you want, scroll halfway down the article for my personal review of the product, otherwise it starts with my philosophy on using this supplement for endurance recovery.

Table of Contents

• What is Naked Mass?
• Naked Mass Ingredients
• Naked Mass Benefits
• Does Naked Mass Work (Have the Right Ingredient Dosages)?
• Who is Naked Mass Best For?
• Personal Review of Naked Mass Chocolate, as a Hiker
• Examining Naked Mass’ Claims
• Naked Mass Versus Other Weight Gainer Supplements
• Is Naked Mass Safe?

What Is Naked Mass?

Naked mass is a calorically dense milk protein, and tapioca carbohydrate supplement, that can be used as an adjunct to your normal diet.

When consumed up to, or around 30 minutes after hard exertion exercise that lasts more than 1 hour, Naked Mass can provide the protein, and high bioavailability carbohydrate needed to replete your muscles’ glycogen stores. Further, it has the appropriate amount of essential amino acids to facilitate restorative muscle protein synthesis after working your muscles hard.

Research has demonstrated that the addition of protein, in the form of milk and whey protein isolate (0.4 g/kg) to a moderate (0.8 g/kg), but not high (1.2 g/kg) carbohydrate-containing (dextrose-maltodextrin) beverage promotes increased rates of muscle glycogen replenishment following hard training. Further, the addition of protein facilitates repair and recovery of the exercised muscle. These effects are thought to be related to a greater insulin response following the exercise bout.

Intriguingly, it has also been demonstrated that whey protein enhances glycogen synthesis in the liver and skeletal muscle more than casein in an insulin-independent fashion that appears to be due to its capacity to upregulate glycogen synthase activity. Therefore, the addition of milk protein to a post-workout meal may augment recovery, improve protein balance, and speed glycogen replenishment.

International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: protein and exercise (2017)

Naked Mass Ingredients

Naked Mass is formulated with 3 main ingredients: Naked Whey, Naked Casein, and Tapioca derived Maltodextrin.

However, the Naked Mass Chocolate that I have (see photo before article), also has organic coconut sugar, to make it taste sweet, and organic cacao powder, to make it taste chocolatey. The vanilla version has natural vanilla flavor, instead of cacao powder.

Naked Whey Protein Concentrate – Fast-Absorbing Protein

The whey component of Naked Mass is the real post-exercise recovery work horse protein. Because it has the ability to be digested and absorbed fast, it starts delivering restorative proteins to your muscles shortly after your run, hike, bike, or whatever intense venture you were participating in.

Naked Micellar Casein Protein – Slow-Digesting Protein

The casein component of Naked Mass is a slow digesting protein. This allows Naked Mass to be used as an adjunct to a pre-bedtime, casein featured meal. This ensures a sustained release delivery of amino acids to your muscles throughout the night, to keep them in restoration mode, after a big day on the trail, track, or road.

Recent work using protein-rich beverages 30-min prior to sleep and two hours after the last meal (dinner) have identified pre-sleep protein consumption/ingestion as advantageous to MPS, muscle recovery, and overall metabolism in both acute and long-term studies. Results from several investigations indicate that 30–40 g of casein protein ingested 30-min prior to sleep or via nasogastric tubing increased overnight MPS in both young and old men, respectively.

International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: protein and exercise (2017)

Essential Amino Acids – An Important Component In Muscle Protein Synthesis

In order for your muscles to recover their protein mass, or gain in mass, after a hard bout of exertional exercise, there has to be an appropriate amount of essential amino acids in your blood stream at the time. These are the AA’s that stimulate protein synthesis.

The stimulatory dose of essential amino acids is likely in the 6 to 15 gram range per meal.

Further, of equal importance, you should also be striving for 1 to 3 grams of leucine per meal as well to ensure good muscle protein synthesis (MPS).

The concentration of EAA’s in the blood (plasma) regulates protein synthesis rates within muscle at rest and post exercise. More recent work has established that protein-carbohydrate supplementation after strenuous endurance exercise stimulates contractile MPS via similar signaling pathways as resistance exercise. Most importantly, and as mentioned initially in this section, muscle appears to be “sensitized” to protein feeding for at least 24 h after exercise…

…A protein dose of 20–40 g of protein, containing 10–12 g of EAAs, and 1–3 g of leucine, stimulates muscle protein synthesis, which can help to promote a positive nitrogen balance…

…EAAs appear to be uniquely responsible for increasing MPS with doses ranging from 6 to 15 g
all exerting stimulatory effects. In addition, doses of approximately 1 to 3 grams of leucine per meal appear to be needed to stimulate protein translation machinery.

International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: protein and exercise (2017)

Just one scoop of Naked Mass, in 1 cup of 2% milk, will provide 20.5 grams of protein, 10 grams of essential amino acids, and about 1.4 grams of leucine. So Naked Mass in milk has you covered, after your jam.

Organic Tapioca Maltodextrin – A Gluten Free Starch

While Maltodextrin is a polysaccharide built from simple sugars, it actually has a higher glycemic index than regular table sugar. So while it’s great for a post exercise, quick injection of carbs to restore your glycogen, it’s likely not going to be a great stand alone, pre-exercise carb, if consumed too far away from the start of such, and you are failing to use carb dosing (Gatorade) during exercise. More on that in my personal review below.

One scoop of Naked Mass, in 1 cup of 2% milk, provides 75g of carbohydrates.

weight of exerciser	g/kg of carbohydrate 1 scoop of Naked Mass in 1 cup of milk provides
50kg	1.5
60kg	1.25
70kg	1.07
80kg	0.94
90kg	0.83

Remember, according to the ISSN, we’re looking for 0.8 to 1.2g/kg of carbs after a hard training session. But when we factor in Wardlaw’s Contemporary Nutrition, that reference calls for 1 to 1.5g/carbs, 30 minutes after an endurance bout to restore glycogen. Naked Mass basically has everyone from 50 to 90kg covered for their post exercise injection of carbohydrates.

Related: If you want to know more about hiking (or really any endurance type exercise) and carbohydrate timing, click here to read my article on that subject. I use the International Society of Sports Nutrition’s medical literature reviews as my guide to macro intakes around exercise.

Naked Mass Benefits

The benefits of Naked Mass are that it can provide one, or more, of your post endurance exercise feedings of protein and carbohydrates. And it can do so with as little as one scoopful in a cup of 2% milk. Indeed it will provide some recovery hydration as well when added to milk.

Further, even 1 scoopful in a cup of milk has enough essential amino acids and leucine to meet your muscles’ immediate restorative needs, after a hard bout of endurance exercise.

Other benefits include that because it has maltodextrin from tapioca, it’s gluten free, and because it only has a handful of simple ingredients, it’s less likely to cause GI discomfort than another product marketed for mass gaining.

Does Naked Mass Work (Have the Right Ingredient Dosages)?

Yes, when using Naked Mass with low fat milk, it provides enough protein, essential amino acids, and leucine to stimulate muscle repair after endurance and resistance exercise.

It also has enough carbohydrate and protein to restore glycogen levels, if you’ve reduced your glycogen stores by participating in high intensity exercise for an hour, or more.

Who is Naked Mass Best For?

Naked Mass is best for any endurance sport that involve sustained periods of high intensity, such that your glycogen stores are reduced. It further helps repair and strengthen muscle that has broken down from such activity. It’s best to use after your sport has concluded to get a rapid injection of protein and carbohydrates for quick restoration of your muscles.

And it’s best when you don’t feel like you can eat enough whole food sources, but still require more protein and carbs to repair your muscles after an intense bout of exercise. The flavor of the chocolate version of Naked Mass tastes like a dessert, and can be more palatable than trying to overeat a whole meat source to get enough macros.

Weight Loss and Weight Gain

Keep in mind that you should be trying to balance the calories expended throughout your exercise day, with the amount of calories your consume, for whatever your weight goal is. Hence if you’re trying to maintain your current weight, those two numbers should be similar in nature.

Also keep in mind, when you exercise, your body of course expends extra calories, and needs supplemental calories to remedy that deficit. Thus you should be using a calorie calculator to estimate your additional needs, on your exercise days. This helps you avoid overdoing it, or underdoing it, when it comes to supplementing your diet with Naked Mass.

I have a set of hiking and backpacking calculators that I built, using my knowledge of math and nutrition. I’m a heath care pro, that had an additional Nutrition Support Clinician certification for 5 years. I have calculators both for just how many calories are burnt on the trail, and for how many calories are burnt daily, on the days you hike or backpack. So if you want to check any of them out, visit my hiking nutrition library by clicking this link. Some of the inputs allow for faster paces, so they might help trail runners too.

Personal Review of Naked Mass Chocolate, as a Hiker

Taste of Naked Mass Chocolate

This is the best protein/carbohydrate supplement I’ve ever used. It tastes like a chocolate shake when I use around 1 and 1/2 scoopfuls in a glass of milk. It does taste less chocolatey if you only use 1 scoopful in a glass of milk, but it still tastes really good.

Other protein powder supplements I’ve tried in the past seemed to have a similar, distinct taste to them that was unappealing. I thought this taste was just part of what amino acids tasted like. But now that I’ve been using Naked Mass, I see this is not actually the case.

And the texture is creamy and not chalky. Those Muscle Milk products always taste a bit chalky or something. Not Naked Mass Chocolate.

I’ve tried using the powder with just water. It didn’t taste as good like that. I mean it’s okay if your out backpacking, where your food standards are a bit lower. But I’d say always combine it with milk for the extra protein if your at home. Or use powdered milk with it, if on the trail.

Mixability

Naked Mass does have to be mixed with a blender. It blends to perfection with my Ninja Nutri single serve blender. And it thoroughly mixes, with very little powder residue left over afterwards.

I’ve tried just mixing it by hand with a spoon in a glass. It sort of works but it creates a tall, floating slurry of half mixed clumps floating on top of the milk (see picture). Not the best method.

For the purposes of backpacking, you might have better luck putting half a scoop in a commercial water bottle, with some powdered milk, then shaking the heck out of it. Then add another half a scoop and repeating the shaking process. Just leave space for the powder.

Reduced leg fatigue

The whole point of quickly restoring your glycogen and initiating muscle protein synthesis with additional carbs and protein is to reduce post exercise muscle soreness, fatigue, injury risk, and improve next day performance of your muscles.

I haven’t done a scientific study on myself, but just from personal experience, I do feel less wiped out, if I get enough protein and carbs in, during and after a high exertion hike, with Naked Mass helping me out in doing so. It delivers the right prescription of amino acids and carbs to my muscles after I come home from the trail.

Has it helped me get stronger for longer, more strenuous climbs up mountains? I think that’s more up to me: how much I hike, and push myself. But if I can recover faster, which it subjectively seems to help me do, then I can hike more, and do lower body resistance exercises more often. And in the end, that does help me.

Don’t use it hours before exercise if not combining with complex carbs

I’ve tried to use Naked Mass Chocolate in milk, as the main part of a meal, a few hours before hiking, with no follow up snacks. What ended up happening is the maltodextrin, with its high glycemic index, wore off pretty fast, and I felt my blood sugar crash on the side of a mountain, 800 feet and 1.2 miles into the climb. I was able to recover by standing still for 5 or 10 minutes, giving my body enough time to produce more glucose.

But if your going to use this as a pre-exercise meal, make sure you’re eating enough other food with complex carbs, healthy fats and such. Or once you’ve eaten your normal foods, it would be okay to use this more close to the start of your exercise, as long as you’re bringing some maintenance carbs to be used as needed, like I should have done. The ISSN says it’s okay to take in simple carbs right before exercise.

Again, see my article on carbohydrate dosing around exercise for more details.

GI Issues

I haven’t had any major GI issues from Naked Mass Chocolate. The only thing I recall is that my insides got a little gurgly when I mixed Naked Mass with plain water, instead of milk.

If it causes any GI distress for you, you can either cut down the dose and titrate back up to your goal dose over time, take your protein shake with other foods, or use it at night, before going to bed when your GI system slows down.

Examining Naked Mass’ Claims

Fuel Your Workouts

Organic maltodextrin is a complex carbohydrate that will give you a boost in calories and energy. A pre-workout shake with Naked Mass can provide that extra fuel to power you through an intense workout. Evidence has shown that supplements with maltodextrin can help maintain anaerobic power to promote strength and exercise performance.

Naked Mass Chocolate product page

Technically maltodextrin is a complex carbohydrate, but as I was just discussing above, it has a high glycemic index, so don’t use it too far before exercise. I would still load hours before with real complex carbs if planning to use this product right before you work out.

Build and Sustain Muscle Mass

If you want your weight gain to be mostly lean muscle mass, then it’s not just about a calorie surplus. You also need to pay attention to protein intake to promote muscle growth. Naked Mass includes Naked Whey, a fast-absorbing protein to aid quick muscle recovery after exercise. Naked Casein, a slow absorbing protein that takes several hours to digest, keeps your muscles nourished throughout the day.

Naked Mass Chocolate product page

It’s true that whey is your best recovery protein after your exercise. However, keep in mind you want to be consuming protein every 2 to 4 hours around an intense bout of exercise. Most of this should be actual food, with vitamins and nutrients in it. So it’s okay to use Naked Mass once or twice around your exercise, but don’t expect the casein to keep you going for ‘several hours’.

Naked Mass Versus Other Weight Gainer Supplements

Naked Mass has made the effort to use a small handful of macro ingredients. The original Naked Mass has 3 macro ingredients. The flavored Naked Mass has 4 macro ingredients and 1 natural flavor ingredient. These also have potassium and calcium, and tiny amount of iron and vitamin A. The calcium, along with the calcium from your normal diet, helps prevent amino acid related bone density loss.

Other product’s large ingredients list increase risk of GI problems

But most of the other mass gainers on the market have loads of extra ingredients. A lot of them have sucralose or other artificial sweeteners. Some of them have thickening or suspending agents, like xanthan gum, cellulose gum, etc. A significant number have creatine that is only dosed properly if you take the full 50g of protein and 1,250 calories. Some of them have large doses of vitamins. Basically for every extra ingredient the manufactures add, it increases the risk that their consumers are going to have gastrointestinal issues, using such.

Naked Mass’ carbohydrate advantages and disadvantages

Naked Mass’ carbohydrate has advantages and disadvantages compared to other mass gaining products. The tapioca maltodextrin, as mentioned before has a high burn rate going through the body. Where as these other gainers also have true complex carbohydrates that digest slower, on top of their maltodextrin.

Naked’s maltodextrin is gluten free, while other gainers, in order to introduce more complex carbs are often not.

And because Naked focuses on maltodextrin as its main carb, it’s less likely to cause any GI distress from osmotically related fluid migration in the GI tract.

Naked Mass’ protein advantages and disadvantages

Naked Mass has a blend of whey and casein. While this is also true of other mass gainers, some focus mostly on just whey, leaving out the casein. All else being equal this may be advantageous in that casein is more likely to cause GI irritation than whey. But because all of these other gainers have so much other ingredients I don’t think this is a real world advantage.

Naked Mass doesn’t have enough casein to satisfy the International Society of Sports Nutrition’s position on pre-sleep protein ingestion. They say that 30-40g of pre-sleep casein increases overnight muscle protein synthesis and the body’s metabolism. For that you’re going to have to look into Naked Casein.

Is Naked Mass Safe?

Liver and Kidney Function

Here are the key takeaways from the International Society of Sports Nutrition, regarding high protein ingestion in healthy, exercising individuals:

Multiple review articles indicate that no controlled scientific evidence exists indicating that increased intakes of protein pose any health risks in healthy, exercising individuals.

Statements by large regulatory bodies have also indicated that concerns about one’s health secondary to ingesting high amounts of protein are unfounded.

A series of controlled investigations spanning up to one year in duration utilizing protein intakes of up to 2.5–3.3 g/kg/day in healthy resistance-trained individuals consistently indicate that increased intakes of protein exert no harmful effect on blood lipids or markers of kidney and liver function.

International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: protein and exercise (2017)

Bone Density Loss

Again I will refer to the ISSN for their position on protein supplements and bone density loss:

In addition to renal function, the relationship between dietary protein intake and bone metabolism has also served as the cause for some controversy. Specifically, there is concern that a high intake of dietary protein results in the leaching of calcium from bones, which may lead to osteopenia and predispose some individuals to osteoporosis. This supposition stems from early studies reporting an increase in urine acidity from increased dietary protein that appeared to be linked to drawing calcium from the bones to buffer the acid load.

However, studies reporting this effect were limited by small sample sizes, methodological errors, and the use of high doses of purified forms of protein. It is now known that the phosphate content of protein foods (and supplements fortified with calcium and phosphorous) negates this effect.

International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: protein and exercise (2007)

So basically, because Naked Mass has calcium, and you’re getting calcium from your normal diet, you don’t have to worry about amino acid induced bone loss.

Nutritional Deficiency

Obviously Naked Mass is just an adjunct to your normal diet. Do not use it as a meal substitution, as it does not have the normal vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, etc. that normal food has.

Spikes Blood Sugar

Maltodextrin’s high glycemic index can cause a spike in blood sugar after being ingested. You may be increasing your risk of type 2 diabetes if you are chronically using high amounts of maltodextrin.

Naked Mass therefore shouldn’t be used by diabetics.

Further, even if your are not diabetic, you should only be using Naked Mass during the post exercise recovery phase, when your body is more apt to take in large doses of macros to replete its glycogen and muscle proteins.

Imbalance in Gut Bacteria

Early research suggests maltodextrin may increase the amount of harmful bacteria, and reduce the amount of good bacteria in your gut. This may increase your risk of inflammatory bowel disease.

Thus you may want to consider taking a probiotic if you are using Naked Mass on a regular basis.

Where to Buy Naked Mass

Further Reading

Thanks for checking out my Naked Mass review! I have a hiking, backpacking, and thru-hiking library, with hiking calorie calculators, articles on macros and supplements, fluids and electrolytes, assessing yourself for malnutrition on long thru-hikes, etc. Check out my hiking nutrition library by clicking this link.

See ya out there…