Balance Protein Review

Posted on March 1, 2020

Balance Sports Nutrition are synonymous with trust, quality and integrity, having served the nutritional needs of Australia and New Zealand’s athletes and the sports and exercise inclined.

With a range of products that encompass fortified protein powders, amino acids, pre-workouts, plant protein and mass gainers, Balance always have a unique formulation to suit a range of sports, exercises and nutritional requirements.

Their products are 100% naturally sweetened and flavoured, and contain no fillers to cheapen the product. Every ingredient is selected for a specific biochemical purpose, ensuring optimal synergy is achieved, which leads to the best results possible.

Balance 100% Whey Protein is one of the biggest selling protein powders in Australia and New Zealand, containing premium quality Fonterra New Zealand whey, produced with the highest possible quality standards and sourced locally from pasture fed cows.

Balance Sports Nutrition products are made to satisfy, shake after shake, sweetened with thaumatin and steviol glycosides to keep it chemical free without any bitter aftertaste.

The natural colours and flavours add to the quality of these products, using only the finest quality ingredients for inclusion in their range. This takes the worry out of product selection for the health conscious!

Balance Sports Nutrition are the smart choice for natural nutritional support. And you don’t have to be a world class athlete to use their products. They are perfect for young and old, supporting performance and recovery through a wide range of activities, such as cross fit, ball sports and swimming.

Balance 100% Whey Natural Review

Few protein powders have sold as much tonnage over the years as Balance 100% Whey Protein. Their epic 2.8kg tubs have been slapped on the counters of thousands of health foods stores, sports nutrition stores by eager customers.

And no serve is ever as delicious as the first; no scoop ever as mortifying as the last—especially when you’re scraping the bottom of the container, trying to find enough powder for one last serve.

Sad times indeed.

So what is it about Balance Whey Protein that makes it so popular? Is it just the sumptuous flavour profile, texture and colour? Or is there something more to this mysteriously fortifying powder?

It turns out there is.

And it all comes down to protein quality. Balance Sports Nutrition source their protein powder from Fonterra, New Zealand. And Fonterra source their milk from all over both islands, where cows graze on rich pastures.

The processing methods used by Fonterra are second to none, utilizing microfiltration and ultrafiltration for a premium quality finished product. And you can taste the difference. Balance protein powder is fluffy and light, mixing well in water and going down smooth every time.

Balance natural whey protein contains a blend of whey protein isolate and whey protein concentrate, with a small amount of soy or sunflower lecithin (emulsifier) to ensure an easy mix.

Lecithin is a natural emulsifier, containing a range of phospholipids, such as phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylinositol. These specialised lipids help to keep cell membranes fluid, as are often taken in capsule form as a health tonic.

The finished product is around 75% protein, with each 28 gram serve containing 21 grams of protein, 1.7 grams of fat and 2.8 grams of carbohydrates. A minimal 92mg of sodium is contained within each serve.

Balance whey protein is an excellent source of amino acids, providing plenty of essential, conditionally-essential and non-essentials. Included in each serve is 4.7 grams of naturally occurring branched chain amino acids (BCAAs).

This product is perfect for use any time of the day. Whether you want to fortify a low protein meal, enjoy as a snack, incorporate into a smoothie or baked product or take post-workout, Balance Sports Nutrition have got you covered with their 100% Natural Whey Protein.

Balance Lean Ultra Ripped Protein Review

This product incorporates a range of thermogenic fat burners into a high quality whey protein. Ultimately, this creates a low fat, low carbohydrate powder, offering an abundance of protein.

Balance Ultra Ripped may be used immediately after exercise to promote muscle recovery, or taken between meals to keep the munchies at bay. Though this product is not designed as a meal replacement, you may like to replace one meal per day, as long as two high quality meals are still consumed daily.

Each 28 gram serve of Balance Ultra Ripped contains 280mg L-Carnitine Tartrate, 700mg Green Tea Extract, 980mg Green Coffee Bean Extract and 470mg of Garcinia cambogia standardised to 280mg hydroxycitric acid (HCA).

There is abundant evidence indicating that Green Tea derived polyphenols, such as EGCG, promote energy expenditure and can even assist with abdominal fat-loss when exercising ^1,2. On top of this, Green Tea contains plenty of antioxidants and natural health promoting compounds.

Green Coffee and its chlorogenic acids have been touted for years as promoting fat-loss, in addition to their general health promoting effects.

Recent research published in Nutrients in 2019 indicated that chlorogenic acids assist in reducing abdominal and visceral fat mas, as well as decreasing overall BMI and waist circumference ³.

A cup of coffee has approximately 1mg of chlorogenic acids per ml, naturally occurring. This is an average figure, as cups of coffee (excluding espresso) typically contain between 50-200mg per 100ml ⁴.

If you want to experience the full effects of chlorogenic acids, as indicated in the aforementioned clinical trial, you can try this:

1 Serve of Balance Ultra Ripped Protein per day, plus a minimum of 320ml quality brewed coffee daily.
2 Serves of Balance Ultra Ripped Protein per day, plus a minimum of 270ml Quality Brewed Coffee Daily.

Coffee drinking is best undertaken in the morning in order to have the least negative impact on sleep quality and quantity. However, coffee drinking is associated with a reduction in the risk of many chronic degenerative disease ⁵.

Overall, this is a smart formulation, packed with naturally occurring amino acids from premium New Zealand whey protein and contains a mere 104 calories per serve.

Balance Natural Plant Protein Review

What range would be complete without a quality plant protein? Whether you’re munching your way through a vegan diet, or simply keeping your plant intake up, this is a fantastic product that can be included in any sports nutrition or wellness program.

Balance Plant Protein contains a range of quality protein sources, including pea, rice, chia and sacha inchi. Though each of these protein sources is already a complete protein, together they make for a balanced amino acid composition, and deliver a texture that is second to none.

Each 30 gram serve contains 113 calories, and offers 22.2 grams of bioavailable protein, 0.3 grams of fats and 2.0 grams of carbohydrates. This makes for a low calorie product that won’t blow your daily calorie budget out the window.

Balance Plant Protein is fortified with free-form branched chain amino acids (BCAAs), L-Glutamine and the plant-based digestive enzymes bromelain and papain. These enzymes are protein-specific, which makes sense given that this is indeed a protein rich product.

With Berry, Chocolate and Vanilla flavours to choose from, you can supercharge smoothies, cereal or baked good with ease, or simply take it as a post-workout recovery shake.

Balance WPI Protein Review

Whey Protein Isolate is considered to have the highest biological activity of any protein source. This is due to its balance of essential amino acids, a high content of leucine and its rapid digestibility.

Whey protein isolate has a low level of dairy fat and lactose, making it a low calorie protein source. In this case, each 28 gram scoop contains 24 grams of protein and a mere 105 calories.

Given that protein contains 4 calories per gram, the protein content of Balance WPI contributes 96 calories, leaving only 9 calories per serve from other sources. This is about as lean as you will get for a flavoured WPI.

And this is one of the major benefits of using protein powders. They deliver a great payload of protein with little calorie surplus. This is hard to match with whole foods, as they typically have a much higher water content.

For instance, Ground Beef, 95% or more lean, and cooked, contains 25.6 grams of protein for every 163 calories. On the other hand, canned tuna in springwater provides approximately 19.4 grams of protein for every 86 calories. However, the serving sizes are much larger than 28g to achieve this!

Naturally, whole foods contain plenty of water, while a whey protein isolate is extracted from the whole foods source, being milk, and then dehydrated into a powder. This makes it gram for gram, with highest protein content per 100g gram, except perhaps for pure amino acids formulation, like essential amino acids, which technically aren’t protein—they’re the constituents of protein.

This product comes in chocolate and vanilla and is naturally sweetened and flavoured. Balance WPI goes down smooth mixed in water, milk or milk alternative.

Balance Original Mass Gainer Review

This mass gainer provides 245 calories per serve in the form of protein and carbohydrates with minimal fats. Given that each serve provides slightly more protein than carbohydrates, most people would consider this to be a lean gainer.

This is the tricky part of gainer products. One person’s lean gainer can be another person’s mass gainer.

It all very much depends on your metabolism and activity level. For someone who is relatively inactive, save for some weight lifting, over the age of 50, this product is certainly a mass gainer.

Though a young person engaging in regular intense weight lifting, an active job and busy lifestyle, this will likely work as a lean gainer product.

There’s no doubt about it, a calorie surplus does make it easier to gain muscle mass. And there are a few reasons for this.

Firstly, recovery times tend to be faster due to a higher meal induced protein synthesis response, as well as insulin release, which actually enhance each other.

Additionally, it’s much easier to lift heavier weights for the same amount of repetitions, or the same amount of weight for more repetitions, with a higher calorie intake.

Ask any strongman or strongwoman, and they will tell you all about the benefits of a high calorie intake for power and strength. And when we can train heavier or simply harder in the gym, this is the stimulus needed for greater muscle damage, which leads to greater muscular adaptation in the form of thickened muscle fibers.

It is also worth noting that a calorie surplus is all we need to gain bodyfat as well. And this is not necessarily a great thing for optimal health. And losing bodyfat can be difficult. So a mild calorie surplus is ideal, coupled with intense exercise, with some idea of what you will do to lean up in the near future and shed any excess body fat.

Final Verdict

Balance Sports Nutrition offer some of the highest quality protein powders available today, derived from the pasture-fed cows of New Zealand.

Their range contains zero artificial sweeteners, flavours or colours, opting for all natural ingredients. Despite the use of natural sweeteners, they still taste great and do not contain any of bitter aftertaste sometimes associated with stevia.

Whether it’s plant or whey protein you seek, Balance Sports Nutrition have a product on offer to deliver bioavailable protein to support wellness, exercise recovery and optimal performance.

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