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Combat Protein Powder Review – Is This MusclePharm Protein Worth Buying?

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By Scot Mills

Reviewed by Juliana Tamayo, MS, RDN - Last Updated

Combat-Protein-Powder-Review

Combat Protein Powder is a protein supplement that contains a blend of five types of protein to boost your nutrition and help you build muscle.

If you’re looking to get big, strong, or lean, you’re going to need LOTS of protein, and MusclePharm is here to help. They produce quality pre-and-post-workout formulas to power you through your gym sessions and give you the building blocks to recover.

MusclePharm’s Combat Protein Powder is claimed to fuel your muscles and performance for hours, but can it really boost your physical performance?

Today’s article discusses Combat Protein Powder’s ingredients, benefits, cost, and more. Is this supplement better than others? Why should you bother with a blend of different proteins? Let’s find out in this Combat Protein Powder review!

About Combat Protein Powder

Protein is protein—or is it? For those who train hard, you need the type of quality and absorption that goes beyond what a single protein source can provide. Combat Protein Powder is a protein supplement that includes three forms of whey in addition to casein and egg protein. 

They claim it tastes great and goes beyond the status quo of most single-source protein powders. In other words, it’s more than just a can of whey protein!

combat protein powder review

Combat Protein Powder Benefits

Fuels Muscles & Performance for Hours

By combining multiple proteins that metabolize at different rates, Muscle Pharm brings you a formula that can fuel your performance for longer than most single sources of protein can. While one type may be absorbed nearly instantly, another may take hours longer so that it’s in you when you need it. 

It also contains amino acids that are not only the building blocks your body needs to produce more protein, but ones such as L-leucine act as potent antioxidants to help you recover more quickly so that you can do it all again sooner. 

Contains Digestive Enzymes and Fiber

Merely getting protein into you is just the start since you also need to metabolize it. That’s why Muscle Pharm includes the enzymes lactase, which helps you digest milk products, and protease, which helps improve your overall digestion. 

There is also a bit of inulin in the product, which, being soluble fiber, bulks up in you, keeps you feeling full, and works to remove waste while providing the probiotics in you the nutrients they need to keep themselves and you healthy. 

Easily Mixes in Cold Water or Milk

Since snorting protein powder isn’t a great idea—at least for most of us—you need the next best way to get it in you and to work as quickly as possible. That’s why Muscle Pharm makes sure their product dissolves easily in your favorite beverage, which should be water but can also be milk to increase your protein consumption further. 

This not only helps the consumption of Combat Protein Powder to be a pleasant experience, but it also means you can more readily absorb the product. 

Combat Protein Powder Ingredients

Combat Protein Powder includes 25g of protein, including three different why protein forms, casein, and egg white protein, along with a variety of other ingredients. Below we will take a thorough look at the ingredients found within Combat Protein Powder’s formula and what they are used for.

combat protein powder supplement label

Whey Protein Concentrate, Whey Isolate, Whey Hydrolysate, Milk Protein Concentrate, & Egg Albumin

By combining 3-forms of whey protein, you get the benefits of concentrate, which is a complete form that includes energizing carbs and fats; isolate, which breaks it down to just the protein molecules; and hydrolysate, which takes it a step further by unbinding the protein molecules for even more rapid uptake. 

There is also casein, another type of milk protein, and egg white protein—both of which further diversify Combat Protein’s blend so that there is less of a need to use yet-another protein source to meet your daily needs.

Since these different types and forms of proteins all digest at different rates, this helps the product work in a fashion similar to a time-released capsule, just without the capsule. 

Inuline (1g), Protease, & Lactase

Your body needs to break down and absorb proteins and other nutrients, which is helped along by the inclusion of lactase to enhance your ability to digest milk products, and protease, which further helps your digestion. 

Protein powder is also not known to be the best source of fiber, as it usually doesn’t contain any, which is rectified at least somewhat by the inclusion of inulin, which is a type of soluble fiber. Since it’s soluble, it absorbs fluids and bulks up to not only help you feel full but to work as something of a scrub brush in you to move waste along. 

combat protein powder ingredients

L-Leucine, L-Isoleucine, L-Valine

To further enhance the workout benefits of their product, Muscle Pharm also includes three essential amino acids in their formula (being essential means your body doesn’t produce them, and they need to come from an outside source). 

This includes l-leucine, which not only acts as a powerful antioxidant but is necessary for formulating Adenosine Triphosphate, or ATP, in your cells. This is important since that’s the stuff that carries energy through your cells. 

Another is l-isoleucine, which may be necessary for producing hemoglobin, which is the pigment in your blood that carries oxygen. This means it helps energize you, and it also may be beneficial in lowering blood sugar while revving up your exercise performance.

Finally, there’s l-valine, which essentially expands on what l-leucine and l-isoleucine do since they’re all interrelated. These amino acids also go along with what’s in the protein mix since protein is made up of amino acids.

By boosting your essential amino acids, you’re also increasing your body’s ability to produce androgens, energy, and muscle, all of which align pretty nicely with your goals!

Artificial Flavors and Sweeteners

Combat Protein powder is sweetened with sucralose that produces chloropropanols, a potentially toxic class of compounds.

If you are health conscious and really want to avoid artificial sweeteners, there are other protein options out there that don’t include them, such as Naked Whey and Aloha Protein Powder.

Does Combat Protein Powder Work?

Combat Protein Powder is… protein, albeit from various sources. Protein is essential for muscle building and maintenance, immune health, cellular growth, and more.

Because Combat Protein Powder delivers ample amounts of proteins and amino acids to you, it can help boost your nutrition and achieve your body’s goals.

 

combat protein powder

Claims vs. Reality 

Muscle Pharm claims their protein blend is easy to mix, formulated for athletes and other active people, and that it will fuel your muscles and performance for hours, which we can see no problem with.

It does include a variety of protein types and forms with varying absorption rates so that it stays in you working for longer and more effectively than can a single source. 

Plus, while we would like to see either a natural low-glycemic sweetener or none at all, they at least avoid dumping in a bunch of sugar in it just to help the medicine go down.  

Who Is Combat Protein Powder Best For?

Combat Protein Powder can be used by almost anyone looking for more protein. This includes dieters who will appreciate the product’s addition of inulin which, along with a sharp dose of protein, helps slow digestion, and other athletes such as cyclists, swimmers, and runners who need the increased muscle recovery and hormone balance a high-protein diet can bring. 

It can also be used by anyone simply looking for a protein source to improve their diet and nutrition.

Combat Protein Powder Safety

While the product contains primarily compounds essential to your health, consuming whey protein can have adverse effects on kidney health, especially for those with compromised kidneys, and a high protein diet is also associated with kidney stones.

This means the product should be avoided by anyone sensitive to it or who has been diagnosed with kidney damage or disease. The rest of us have to remember to consume LOTS of water, minerals, and pH-balancing substances such as apple cider vinegar along with it. 

Some individuals may also have allergies to specific proteins or be otherwise sensitive to the ingredients in the product. 

Other than that, we all need protein, and who knows—some may even need their daily source of artificial flavors and sweeteners.

Do we need to mention that the last statement was pure sarcasm? 

Where To Buy Combat Protein Powder

Along with Muscle Pharm’s website, Combat Protein is widely available both online and through traditional retailers that carry protein supplements. This includes iHerb, Amazon, good old Walmart, and many other corporate and independent retailers.

combat protein powder cost

Combat Protein Powder is available in 4 and 6-lb containers, which should last you about 1-2 months. The 4lb container costs $69.99, but you can get a 10% discount by subscribing for recurring deliveries.

Combat Protein Powder Final Verdict

Whether you’re a gym rat looking for the ultimate mixture of quality proteins to boost your androgens, power your workouts, and help you recover faster, or anyone else looking to add more protein to their diet, Combat Protein powder can work well for you. 

However, as mentioned, we would prefer healthier sweeteners than what Muscle Pharm insists on using, or even omit sweeteners altogether and allow the user to add what they would like.

We’d also like to see Combat Protein Powder include savory flavors to give users a different experience from what many other protein powder manufacturers already provide.

In conclusion, Combat Protein Powder is rich in protein, low in carbs, rich in amino acids, contains digestive enzymes, and can help supplement your diet to meet your protein needs.

Overall Rating:
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Scot Mills

Scot Mills is a nutrition writer who uses his unique skills and passions for natural products to share his research with others. Along with over twenty-years of experience working in natural industry sales, Scot graduated at the top of his class as a business major, and is a member of the Sigma Beta Delta honors society for his outstanding scholastic achievements. Scot specializes in using the latest scientific research to review supplements objectively. When he isn’t writing or hitting the gym, Scot can be found enjoying nature on epic trail runs, hikes, and mountain bike rides.

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