alt Hacker Newsagree with the people that say you are moving the goal posts, but to answer this question anyway...
As someone who lifted for a good handful of years, there are a few reasons i used protein powder, it was a very affordable way to add 25-50g of protein and some random fruits or peanut butter or whatever(i'd usually blend up a shake).
It was also a good way as someone who struggles to eat a surplus, to hit my goals as it just went down way easier than an additional full meal.
It is ALSO easier to cut weight and maintain protein goals by utilizing simply water and protein powder.
when it came time for me to cut, im simply swapping milk for water, and removing the peanut butter, and suddenly that "meal" is ~400 calories less.
So the very simple answer? convenience/affordability.
Replies
>It was also a good way as someone who struggles to eat a surplus, to hit my goals as it just went down way easier than an additional full meal.
Which is hilarious since current bro-science is that protein is the most filling macronutrient.
I use intermittent fasting, 18+ hours fasting between meals. It is convenient, it is affordable, it gives me ketones to squat 140kg for twenty (20) reps being 54 years old without, literally, breaking a sweat, and, before all, raises blood concentration of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).
Fat's thermal food effect is 3% of fat's energy, while sugar and amino acids have 8 to 10 times more of their energy converted to heat (25% and 30%). That thermal effect raises the body temperature and makes body to sweat.
Ketogenic diet also allow for fat burn through the year, not at the cut stage only. I once managed to burn fat and bulk at the same time, burning 2 kg of fat and adding 4.5 kg of lean mass in three months, just by switching to intermittent fasting and hypertrophy-specific training. Without PEDs - they interfere with thinking.