header

What’s the difference between Whey Protein and Mass Gainer?

Gold Standard Whey

With a confusing number of different protein products available on the market, it’s easy to get mixed up. The two most common varieties are your typical Whey Protein powders - like Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey, and Mass Gainers like ‘Optimum Nutrition Serious Mass’.

Both of these products are loaded with protein, making them great for supporting your muscle building goals, however the intended goal of each product is different.

To illustrate the difference let’s look at two products. We'll stick with Optimum Nutrition products to keep things simple.

Each 31g serving of Gold Standard Whey contains 25g of Protein, a few grams of carbs and a meagre 110 calories. It’s great for topping up your supply of protein and building lean muscle. Low calories, very little sugar and near zero fat.

Serious Mass

Compare that with ON Serious Mass. We’re in a completely different ballpack. Infact, we’ve driven over the ballpark in a 50 tonne tank. Mass Gainers are designed to help you...gain mass and put on weight. They’re especially useful if you have the kind of body type that chews through calories, preventing you building significant muscle mass.

To that end, each serving of Serious Mass comes in at 334g, contains 60g of protein and a tremendous 252g of carbs resulting in 1250 calories per hit. Yeah. That’s some serious stuff.

Many Mass Gainers are also fortified with additional nutrients and muscle building ingredients like Creatine, Glutamine and essential vitamins.

Which Is Right For Me?

It’s really very simple, if you can’t put on any weight and your goal is to ‘get swole’ then a Mass Gainer might be right for you. Be aware though, if you don’t put the work in, you’re going to get ‘unswole’ pretty fast, and by ‘unswole’ we mean get fat.

Normal Whey proteins will suit most athletes, when combined with a healthy and varied diet.

Optimum Gold Standard Whey

Gold Standard Whey

Optimum Nutrition are highly regarded for producing some of the finest supplements in the industry. Gold Standard Whey is no exception. Each serving delivers 24g of protein and only 1.3g of sugar for a uncompromising product suitable for any athlete.

Buy Now

Optimum Serious Mass

Serious Mass

Serious Mass's muscle building blend is more than just protein and carbs. Every serving is stacked with 25 vitamins and minerals to support your health and fitness-focused lifestyle. All told, it weights in at a tremendous 1250 carbs. Optimum Serious Mass WILL get you swole

Buy Now


Return to the Guides Hub