Protein supplements can be a very viable option to get your protein sources during busy times. This obviously depends on your budget and how busy a lifestyle you have. Pure protein supplements also allow you to add protein without any carb or fat calories.

No matter what though, you should never ever depend entirely on supplements to get your protein calories. And there's three main reasons for that:

• There is no thermic effect in digesting supplement drinks. Therefore you lose some of the benefits for weight loss of having whole foods
• Pure protein supplements only contain protein, whereas with whole foods you also get other nutrients, vitamins and minerals
• Your body is not designed to just digest supplemental drinks all day. It's designed to break down food, and therefor it is un-natural to drink all your calories.

So you should always try and get your proteins from whole foods as a first choice. Supplements should only be used to ensure you get the nutrients you need from those times when you just cannot get to a proper meal because life gets in the way. In other words, protein supplements should not be one of the main features of your eating plan.

With that said, these days you can get protein supplements with other nutrients as well. In fact, if you are going to take a protein supplement, you are better off choosing one of these or adding the pure protein supplement to a whole food meal. This is because studies have shown that a pure protein supplement that is not added to a whole food meal does not metabolize efficiently.

You can get protein supplements that includes carbs as well. If you have one of these, be sure to count the calories from the carbs as part of your daily quota of caloric intake (if you are counting calories). Otherwise you will be taking in more calories that you think you have.

Now, you may be wondering what other types of supplements you should think about having in your diet. We definitely recommend you taking vitamin supplements to make sure you get your recommended daily intake.