Today we’ll take a look at Optimum Nutrition Serious Mass, and I’ll give you my full unbiased review of this weight gain powder.
Is this mass gainer really the best thing for you to spend your hard earned money on to gain weight and bulk up?
This is a really valid question because the way that mass building supplements are marketed they tend to really appeal to the serious hard gainer.
Optimum Nutrition (ON) is one of the most reputable names in the supplement industry – so I was excited to look under the hood and break down each individual ingredient.
I headed down to my local Vitamin Shoppe and purchased a big 6 lb tub of Optimum Nutrition and analyzed the entire ingredient label and even did a complete taste test.
Just as I suspected there are a lot of pros and a lot of cons. Let’s dive in and take a look at the ingredient label and first get into the pros of this popular mass builder.
Breaking Down The Pros Of Optimum Nutrition Serious Mass
Lets first get into the pros of Optimum Nutrition Serious Mass. The first thing that I really liked is that it contains a complete vitamin and mineral complex A through Z.
When you purchase Optimum Nutrition Serious Mass you really don’t have to purchase a multi-vitamin.
Another benefit is that you will have no problem getting in your carbohydrate content with Optimum Nutrition Serious Mass.
You get about 252 grams of carbohydrates per serving – so this makes it really easy to get all of your carbohydrates in for the day.
The fact that it has so many carbohydrates makes it really useful for a post workout mass building that also replenishes depleted glycogen stores.
Another thing that I liked was that Optimum Nutrition added in BCAA’s, Glutamine, and Creatine. These are proven mass builders and will help with growth and recovery.
Last but not least – since this is a mass builder, it has to be stated that Optimum Nutrition packs in over 1,200 calories per serving. This will make it very easy to enter a calorie surplus if you are consuming 1 serving every single day.
There are some good things here so far, but now let’s take a look at the cons of this supplement…
The Cons Of Optimum Nutrition Serious Mass
To be fair to you, let me preface this section by saying that this supplement has a lot more cons than pros. Take a close look at this section before you spend your hard earned money on this mass building supplement.
The first negative mark on this supplement is although it contains 1,250 calories per serving it only contains 8 servings per container. In the entire 6 lb tub you will only get 8 full servings! I think most guys are under the impression when they buy a giant tub that is 6 lbs. it will have close to 50 servings – but this is certainly not the case.
Another major negative aspect that I noticed was that this entire container only has 400 grams of protein, or about 50 grams per serving.
This may seem like a lot, but I took a look at the entire 4.2 lb. tub of combat protein powder and it contained a whopping 1,300 grams of high quality protein!
Protein should be the main ingredient in any serious mass builder – but sadly the carbohydrates drastically outweigh the protein content.
Most of the ingredients in this mass builder are carbohydrates. Maltodextrin is a really cheap ingredient. You can purchase a large 10 lb. tub of pure maltodextrin for less than 20 dollars!
Another major check mark is that this has some major allergy warnings. Serious mass contains wheat, soy, dairy, and egg! These are the 4 most common allergens – so make sure you are careful if you are sensitive to any of these things.
Last but not least – this product contains creatine, but only 8 grams in the entire 6 lb. tub.
This is only 1.5 tsp and is barely enough to be noticeable. You are much better off buying your creatine separately and adding to your protein shakes, which is exactly what I do.
Overall I’m going to give this popular mass builder a C. There are certainly better options out there, and I recommend making your own mass builder instead of buying this processed formula.
Let’s take a look at one of my homemade mass building formulas:
My Homemade Mass Building Shake
Just like with the Dymatize Super Mass Gainer review, I want to offer you a better alternative than Optimum Nutrition Serious Mass with way more bodybuilding nutrition.
This one is called the Chocolate Peanut Butter Mass Builder and I know you will love it (especially if you love peanut butter cups!)
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Mass Builder
- 2 cups chocolate almond milk or regular almond milk
- 2 tbsp. liquid coconut oil
- 2 tbsp. hemp seeds
- 2 tbsp. peanut butter
- 1 frozen banana
- 1 scoop chocolate protein powder
- 5 grams creatine powder
- 1/4 cup maltodextrin powder
This mass builder is pure muscle-building nutrition full of protein, carbs, creatine, vitamins, minerals, omega 3’s and electrolytes.
This is 10 x better than Optimum Nutrition Serious Mass. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
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