Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Micellar Casein Protein Powder, Slow Digesting, Helps Keep You Full, Overnight Muscle Recovery, Chocolate Supreme, 1.87 Pound (Packaging May Vary)

Essential part of recovery

For too long I had relied solely on whey protein to help build muscle, especially after intense work outs. It definitely helped, but often times I would wake up the morning after not feeling that much better. In other words, I wasn't really recovering that well. I considered just doubling up on the whey, basically eating another serving before bed, but then I did some research. I figured it would benefit me to alternate the types of protein supplement, and when I added the Optimum Nutrition Casein protein, it was a game changer. I now wake up in the morning feeling back to 100%. Even though I never train the same muscle groups two days in a row, I feel as if I could. I am making a 100% recovery in less than half the time. As a side benefit, the stuff tastes amazing. I mix mine with soy milk (yeah, I drink soy, get over it) and shot of light cream, after reading that a modest amount of fats help the body absorb large amounts of protein. Anyways, the vanilla is a very deep and satisfying flavor. To change it up I sometimes add some cinnamon powder, or some nutmeg and ground clove. On top of that, I eat it just before bed, and I am never super hungry in the morning, and I have eliminated my midnight snack routine. I use a hand crank egg beater to mix this stuff up, because even a little bit quickly turns into a thick mixture, sort of like wet concrete. It needs way more liquid to dissolve into than whey protein powder. Sometimes I also throw in some Greek style yogurt, but this stuff is thick enough already. The labeling says something about how Casein behaves differently when it hits the acid in the stomach, and that it expands, and you see this when you mix it up. If you have been missing something in the protein department, I would absolutely try this Casein. PROS: Tastes awesome. Fills you up, you feel satisfied, and won't be hungry for quite a while after. A little powder goes a long way. Slow absorption. CONS: - More expensive than most whey protein powders, but that's common to Casein

127 persons found it helpful

Best Casein supplement you can buy with added BCAA's

This is the best casein supplement you can buy in my opinion. You get the BCAA's you need as well. A good majority of your muscle growth comes in the first hours of REM sleep, When you don't eat over an eight hour or so. At night your body starts to burn off muscle. This combined with other simple supplements a low-calorie diet and 30 min excercise a day will get you the fastest and most lasting results. For those of you complaining about the chunkiness or they're being clumps in it not dissolving it's because you're not mixing it correctly. This should be the last thing you take before you go to sleep, To as a suggestion about 20 minutes before you go to sleep to a half an hour mix your drink and a shaker shake it up pretty well let it sit for about 20 minutes shake it again and drink it right before you go to bed and you will have no clumps

57 persons found it helpful

Tastes Good, Easy to Mix, A

A lot of reviews stated that Casein clumps up and you'll need a blender to effectively take this. This is not true. I just put a heaping scoop in my BlenderBottle, shook 20-25 times and the shake is consistent throughout with no clumping or powder stuck to the sides. For those that are interested, here's how I'm supplementing with protein: - AM whey shake right when I wake up to quickly get protein back into my system - 2 hours after breakfast - casein shake (will slow release over the next 6-7 hours) - Small whey shake 30 minutes before working out (at 6PM) - Big whey/casein mixed shake immediately after working out (60% whey). Whey will flood your system quickly, casein will time release. - THE MOST IMPORTANT PART: casein shake immediately before bed. This will limit your body to entering a catabolic state only towards the end of your sleep as it will remain in your system 6-7 hours. Trick: I've heard if you eat a tbsp of all-natural peanut butter before the shake, it can slow the release of casein and possibly prevent you from entering a catabolic state altogether - not sure about this though. Also, if you're doing as many shakes as I am, buy a BlenderBottle and only mix with water. This reduces the amount of time spent on taking supplements dramatically. Put a little water in the bottle, add protein, shake-shake-shake, pound it, clean, DONE. Good luck

53 persons found it helpful

Formulation Changed – High Zinc Warning

The formulation has changed and the nutrition information provided by Amazon is not accurate for the product now being shipped (see photo). It now contains 11mg of zinc (had none before), which is 100% of the recommended daily amount for an adult male. If you are taking a multivitamin, 2 or 3 scoops of this protein per day will put you over the 40mg/day tolerable upper intake level for an adult. Excessive zinc can interfere with copper absorption and lead to immune system suppression, anemia, heart problems, etc. Furthermore, the product now contains 85mg of magnesium (20% of RDA) from magnesium oxide (contained none before). Magnesium oxide is a cheap form of magnesium that is poorly absorbed and can cause diarrhea. ConsumerLab recommends taking no more than 350mg/day through supplementation. I would greatly prefer to take a separate, higher quality magnesium supplement where I can choose the timing and quantity of the consumption instead of having it piggyback on my protein. If you intend to consume several servings of protein powder per day, you are really going to have to be careful about getting too much zinc or magnesium if you use this product. I don't see other brands putting zinc or magnesium in their protein supplements. I'll be switching brands. I've been using the Supreme Chocolate version of this product for a while and I was happy with it. I purchased Cookies & Cream version because Supreme Chocolate wasn't available (I'm guessing because they are still working on switching over the formulation for that flavor). The Cookies & Cream is not nearly as thick as the Supreme Chocolate (I don't know if that is a feature of the flavor or the new formulation). The flavor isn't terrible, but it is kind of weak and definitely not creamy. A lot of the cookie bits wind up stuck to the bottom of the glass

42 persons found it helpful

Skip Whey, Casein is the WAY! KEEP YOUR GAINS!

I used to drink whey protein and pre-work out powders and all that junk, and really what I learned after bodybuilding for a long time is whey protein is a gimmick and most pre-workouts are too. Whey digests so fast that you barely get any into your system, realistically maybe 20-30% for what you consume with the rest coming out with your post-coffee morning constitutional. That means if you consume 200 grams, you might get 40-60 into you, and the rest comes out as gas and greasy brown. No thanks! With Casein you get 80-90% of what you consume and it digests really slowly, which means the best time to consume is right before bed. When sleeping your metabolism slows down and helps digest more of the casein resulting is less waste and not greasy brown or gas later, AND results in your body having protein to consume instead of large muscle group scavenging. That means you KEEP YOUR GAINS! 10 years ago I was 130 pound and had a goal of gaining 100 pounds of muscle. All that whey and so on and I still had noodle arms after 2 years of following Arnold's Modern Guide to Bodybuilding workout and diet plan. Only after changing from whey to casein did I really start to gain... and gain I did! At the same 12% bodyfat I was when I was 130 pounds, I am now 247 pounds. That's all muscle gain! I accomplished my 100 pounds of muscle gain on year 3 btw. Only this summer did I decide it was time to see how far I can go and in the last 2 months I'm up 17 more pounds to that 247 I weighed in at today, and 11% bodyfat. Same diet, same exercises, just increased my casein intake. I get O N Gold Standard because it's the best tasting of all the brands and if I forget to order more I can just pick it up at the local GNC or Vitamin Shoppe. Chocolate or Strawberry are absolutely amazing tasting! No chalkyness and it mixes well in cold milk even without the metal blender ball inside your shaker bottle. So forget Whey, Casein in the WAY

33 persons found it helpful

Works Well

I used to take whey protein before bed for recovery and growth but lately my recovery times have been taking too long. This Gold Standard Casein works very well with over night muscle recovery. I mix one scoop of the Casein with a Gatorade sized bottle of milk, shake it, and drink it. Over all it does what i wanted it to, help me recover faster. Taste- Well i knew it would probably be bad from what other reviewers have stated. In the beginning it was absolutely terrible. Two weeks into it, i can barley taste it. It will be hard at first but you will get used to it. If its too hard for you, hold your nose while drinking it. You won't even taste it. Be forewarned it is very hard to mix, its sticky, and likes to form chunks. POUR THE LIQUID FIRST THEN ADD THE CASEIN. If you add the casein into the glass or bottle then add milk, its not gonna be easy to mix. What i do is add the casein into my Gatorade bottle, then add milk, and immediately shaking it to mix them. All in all i would recommend this to any serious body-builder that needs faster recovery, post workout. P. s. I have not tried any of the other flavors other that Chocolate Supreme

22 persons found it helpful

If you dislike this because it “tastes bad”…

Seriously guys, if you dislike this because it tastes bad, you're an idiot. We take protein supplements to build muscle, not because it's some kind of dessert. Those who are really dedicated to achieving desired results know what needs to be done and just do what they gotta do. No matter what kind of protein supplement you take, it's probably not going to taste like a candy bar... nor should it because then it would probably be full of ingredients that are detrimental to your diet. i cant stand hearing people complain about the taste of supplements though. might as well complain about poop stinking too. I've been taking ON's whey protein supplement and casein protein supplement for about 10 months now and have seen some great results. no, i am not one of those guys who claims to have gained 20 lbs of muscle in that time (which is not realistic at all)-- if anything, i've gained maybe 3 lbs of lean muscle while maintaining 8% body fat, not to mention i got toned as f*k-- and me being a thin guy in the first place, you can really tell. 3 lbs may not sound like a lot, but with the compliments i've been getting, i almost feel like i did put on 20 lbs of muscle-- these supplements have been a big part of that. theyre are great because they are low cal and allow you to squeeze in 20-30 g of protein between meals without worrying that you're going to put on more body fat. The casein is perfect for just before bed so that you can keep your muscles building while you sleep. honestly, i don't mind the taste of this too much. that's probably because i know why i'm taking it. ive tried the vanilla one before, and i prefer that one-- but whatever. either one does the job. you have plenty of other opportunities throughout the day to eat and drink things with tastes that you enjoy. For the times that you're supplementing your diet with things like protein shakes, man up and get 'er done

20 persons found it helpful

Perfect for Weight Loss

Gold Standard is by far the most beneficial protein powder for my needs. It provides the most protein per calorie, and is great for people exercising to lose weight. I previously used the whey powder, but even a double dose left me hungry. The casein powder is thick and fills me up with just one scoop. If i drink one for breakfast, I'm not hungry for about 6 hours. So far, I have tried the chocolate peanut butter and cookies and cream. Both taste great and mix well with unsweetened unflavored almond milk. The only thing to consider is that you will need a blender bottle or something similar to fully mix this

20 persons found it helpful

great as ingredient in a 64oz kale and carrot smoothie

Size was an issue so I'm glad there was this 2 pound size, even if I'm not getting the best per ounce price. I'm new to protiens so I can't contrast between the whey and casein, but I can tell you this makes me fuller a lot longer when I add this to my carrot and kale smoothies. protiens in general make you feel fuller longer, so I add this stuff in conjunction with seeds like hemp, pumpkin, sunflower, etc. The cookies and creme is a bit ...ucky. I initially tried this with water and a bunch of strawberries in a vitamix. kinda gross. but when I use one scoop as an ingredient in a 64oz smoothie it's more mellow and it does the job of keeping those gut flora fed so they aren't whining to me they are hungry

16 persons found it helpful

Down 120lbs thanks to ON Casein protein!

I use a wire frother to blend mine into hot coffee with MCT oil and collagen powder for a perfect start to my day. Thank you Optimum Nutrition for the perfect, thick protein that does not trigger my migraines like whey and does not kick me out of ketosis. Being very carb sensitive presents massive challenges but you have contributed the Only Protein Powder on the market that keeps my macros in line. Thank you for the casein solution

14 persons found it helpful

Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Micellar Casein Protein Powder

Description

115 Reviews

Essential part of recovery

Best Casein supplement you can buy with added BCAA's

Tastes Good, Easy to Mix, A

Formulation Changed – High Zinc Warning

Skip Whey, Casein is the WAY! KEEP YOUR GAINS!

Works Well

If you dislike this because it “tastes bad”…

Perfect for Weight Loss

great as ingredient in a 64oz kale and carrot smoothie

Down 120lbs thanks to ON Casein protein!