Greek yogurt and protein powder mixed together make for delicious, protein-packed food. You should mix Greek yogurt with protein powder due to its many benefits as well as its added flavor profile. The combination makes it easier to digest proteins like whey, modify calorie content, and build muscles. Protein powder alone is also beneficial, but mixing it together with greek allows you to take advantage of the food’s versatility, amino acid profile, and rich source of healthy fats.
Today, we’re going to discuss mixing protein powder with Greek yogurt and why it’s a good choice for people looking to increase their profile intake. We’ll also be covering the perks of Greek yogurt itself and why you should be playing with whey and Greek yogurt in the kitchen!
Contents
Is it ok to mix protein powder with yogurt?
Yes, it’s okay to mix protein powder with yogurt. Yogurt is a great, stable food and you can combine it with all types of protein powder. We recommend avoiding pea proteins because they taste gross and yogurt doesn’t mask them entirely. Whey, soy, brown rice (Oryzatein), and other protein powders should be good with yogurt. Casein tends to produce a really thick texture which makes it amazingly filling but can limit your overall intake.
So, if you’re trying to gain mass you want to use a thinner protein like whey or brown rice, while a weight-loss diet might benefit from the huge satiety of casein.
How to mix Greek yogurt with protein powders
Greek yogurt and protein powders can be mixed together to provide a light and fluffy desert-style food. This is great because it combines all the benefits of Greek yogurt – a veteran food for bodybuilders and athletes – with the protein boost of whey or a plant-based protein powder.
You can mix Greek yogurt with protein powders by following three simple steps.
- Pour your Greek yogurt into a bowl or other container,
- Make a little “well” in the middle and scoop your protein into it.
- From there, take a spoon (the smaller the better) and stir the two together.
By the end, you should have something that looks like a consistent texture. It will probably look like yogurt but in the color of your protein powder! The combination of Greek yogurt with protein powder allows you to change the flavor without adding the usual calorie-dense toppings. We love a good topping, but mixing whey into yogurt allows you to produce a delicious snack by adding protein.
Below, we’ll go over some of the benefits and uses of Greek yogurt and protein powder.
Calorie content
It’s possible to limit the calorie content of Greek yogurt and protein powder by starting with a good low-fat Greek yogurt. You can get the benefits – from good fats and high protein – without racking up huge amounts of calories. This is also true of protein powders, with most good protein powders being over 80% protein by calorie. This makes the combination a low-calorie, huge-protein choice. This is great for a weight-loss diet.
If you’re trying to gain muscle, however, it’s a great base to add high-calorie foods to. We’ve been using Greek yogurt with whey, granola, and fruit as a calorie-rich pre-workout meal for years and it’s still a favorite!
Protein-rich for muscle gains
The protein-rich muscle gains of Greek yogurt and protein powders are a major benefit. The protein count is already quite high in low- or no-fat Greek yogurt, but adding ½ to 1 scoop of whey protein alone can produce a snack with 60g+ of protein. Greek yogurt alone is actually one of the staple healthy, protein-rich, performance foods you’ll see most bodybuilders and elite athletes eat.
Since the recreational gymgoer should be taking in around 0.6-1g of protein per lb of body weight, mixing Greek yogurt and protein powders can really add up and provide half of some trainees’ daily needs! Even if you have higher protein requirements, this amount is significant and can help improve muscle recovery and growth.
Digestive benefits
The digestive benefits of mixing Greek yogurt help us process whey proteins better. Whey proteins and whey protein powders can be difficult to digest, and often produce a little digestive distress. Greek yogurt, however, is very digestible and can support the use of protein powder without as much stress as a shake.
This could also be to do with the reduced lactose content in yogurt as compared to a milk-based protein shake, as well as the speed of digestion.
This is important because the yogurt and protein powder combination is a more-satisfying combination. This keeps you fuller for longer, and may even contribute to improved results since we know that long-term protein release/accretion is more important for repairing and building muscle!
Overall, this combo produces a fantastic protein profile, comes in as many flavors as you can find of protein powder, and keeps you full when you need it. We also love how you can still use regular toppings like granola (especially with nuts and seeds) to make it a perfect carb-protein snack!
Looking for protein powders to mix with Greek yogurt? Check out:
The 10 Best Unflavored Whey & Protein Powders
5 Best Organic Whey Protein Powders From Grass-Fed Cows
Greek yogurt: A powerful muscle food
Greek yogurt is a powerful muscle food. It has a history of being key to athletes’ diets and bodybuilding success, among several more benefits we’ll explore below.
Protein
The first benefit of Greek yogurt is its protein content. Protein is obviously always important for better health and fitness. This is because it’s a significant player in your ability to build and repair muscles/joints. A high-protein diet is key to better performance, a better physique, and even better digestive/metabolic health.
A low- or no-fat Greek yogurt has excellent protein content for its calorie content. This is because it is roughly 7-8g of protein per 100g, great considering the relatively few calories. A 500g container of low-fat Greek yogurt provides 35-40g of protein while still being a snack or small meal.
This is a significant boost and – for most recreational gym-goers – this can be a huge proportion of your daily protein. This becomes even more significant if you’re going to be mixing it with whey protein!
Amino acid profile
The second benefit of Greek yogurt is its amino acid profile. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and the essential/branched-chain amino acids are great for performance and recovery. There is a huge concentration of important mental amino acids like tyrosine, tryptophan, and theanine. These are 3 of the key compounds you’ll want for better mental performance, as well as glutamine – which is useful for immunity and avoiding illness while training.
These also, coincidentally, make it a great breakfast food – and especially when combined your morning coffee.
Fats – type and source
The third benefit of Greek yogurt is that it’s a rich source of fats. You don’t want a full-fat yogurt because of the increased calorie content and reduced protein percentage. However, the ones you get are fantastic.
One of the cool things about the fat profile of Greek yogurt is that it is high in MCTs. These are a type of fats that are rapidly burned up for energy and also seem to promote the burning of fat in the body more generally.
This is a great place to be, especially since there are also plenty of unsaturated fats in Greek yogurt. The result is a great fat profile on a high-protein, versatile, delicious light food.
Versatility
The final benefit of mixing Greek yogurt is that it’s a digestible, versatile foodstuff. There are dozens of excellent combinations you can use. Yogurt is also an amazingly digestible food that is unlikely to cause digestive stress, supports gut health, and encourages digestive regularity. These are all important benefits for a snack, especially pre-workout.
You can even use yogurt in a pre-workout meal due to how well it sits in your digestive system without causing bloating/discomfort.
Final Thoughts
We recommend giving a Greek yogurt and protein powder combination a try. It’s one of the easiest, most enjoyable ways to bump up your protein content and get in some high-quality, healthy foods. You should really experiment with the flavors of protein powder used, as there are many combinations out there. The only limit is what you want to try and what you can think of pairing it with!
We love this combination and we think that Greek yogurt – especially mixed with protein powder – should be a cornerstone of your diet if you want a better physique and improved performance!
