Optimum Nutrition Serious Mass Protein Powder High Calorie Mass Gainer with Vitamins, Creatine and Glutamine, Banana, 16 Servings, 5.45 kg, Packaging May Vary

Firstly, I don't write many detailed reviews on Amazon solely because I purchase so much from them that it would take me forever. However. Certain items (either very expensive or made to help people) will push me to write a review. Sorry for the long story, but I never tell this to people and want others to understand the struggle some guys have, and that "JUST BULK!" BS does not work for everyone. Thanks in advance to everyone who reads this and hope it helps.I am 19 year old male, and have been skinny since... Forever. I was always bullied about my weight, and this isn't a nice thing to live with. Admittedly, I never really had a big appetite until my teenage years (I guess because of something that kicked in at that point). I then started scoffing down very unhealthy food. Chips, chicken and chips, and burgers. From when I was about 15 till 16. I got a horrible big belly, but my arms were still skinny as twigs.I then calmed down with the fatty foods. I still ate crisps, and to be honest, most of my lunches in my first year of college was just crisps. Then I hit my second year of college, and a friend of mine introduced to me gym. Much later than others in my year. But boy, did it start me on one cool journey. I got my own weights (max dumbells were only 5kg) but I used them 3 times a week and wanted to get good arms. I wanted to prove people wrong. And it failed. I got newbie gains, but that was it. My mates had these arms at 15 lmao. It was disappointing.Fast forward another 2 years. I entered university, and was hitting gym hard. Got my membership and was going 3 times a week. Was eating big meals at uni. Every lesson just eating food. Sandwiches, panini, nandos, everything. I had definitely lost the big belly, but partly because I had grown taller (so could just be an illusion).I had a strong regime, and invested in this mass gainer. I went against my mum's words, and let me tell you. Always listen to mama. She told me to chill with the scoops. Most people here have said how two scoops are grotesquely large. Well I drank straight from the blender, and two scoops with milk just touched the top of the glass. I drank it down every night. Within a month, I believe I went from 9 stone (underweight for a person at 6ft) to 10 stone. I hadn't seen this kind of gain in... Forever. I kept going. Hit 11 stone. Then, the stomach pains kicked in. I suddenly noticed I had to go bust one every few hours, and it was disrupting my daily life. It was bad, and wasn't calming down. I know for a fact that my ignorance killed my stomach. Also, I eat cereal almost every day for breakfast so pretty sure I'm not lactose intolerant.Mid 2016 I stopped the shakes. My weight stayed at 11 stone. But I DID gain the fat. The majority of this weight came from muscle, but I do literally no cardio at the gym, so this caused me to gain a bigger tummy as well. My abs grew significantly, so this also contributed to the large look of my overall torso Area. It really isn't worth doing intense ab work, as I learned, because it just doesn't look any better. If anything, it makes you look more bloated!Anyhoo, my doctor told me to stop the shakes as they were giving me the stomach issues. So I did, and now, I'm all good. Thank you God. Trust me, it's not a fun experience. But. You DO get the weight and muscle you could never get.It's also worth mentioning that I never got any fat onto my arms, legs, etc. Just the stomach. My wrists have never grown, and I literally get depressed about how skinny they are. My arms just don't show the hard work I put into them!!Since stopping the shakes, I started working and ate more food than ever before. I was literally having 6 meals a day, which was major for me. But after 7 months, my weight wouldn't go up again. I had stalled at 11 and a half stone. Then, a few weeks ago, I tried about two days worth of mass gainer. Just for old times sake. And the fact I still had half a bag left lol.I hit 12 stone. Pretty damn epic. But the cramps returned.Now, after seeing other reviews on Amazon, I plan to try and split my shakes up, and use this again. One scoop in the morning, one at night. I currently have a 22g grenade protein bar straight after a gym session. Then a meal afterwards (usually dinner) so then I will have my milkshake. Hopefully, I will send better gains than before and less stomach pains.(side note that since I stopped mass gainer, I invested in Hydrowhey Platinum Protein, it is lactose free and I mix with water, and I have no stomach aches. I have also changed my gym routine and my shoulder, arms and back are looking great so far! But milk and cereal don't give me any issues, so still not sure what the killer ingredient in serious mass is unfortunately).I will go back to using this, and maybe attempt without milk. I'll let you guys know how it goes.Thanks again to anyone that listened to this. Just remember that this DOES WORK! You have to just be careful and test it carefully first. I didn't listen and suffered the consequences. Also like others state, do some cardio to keep the belly away. You should be all good.And to those on the body building forums that answer to hardgainers by just shouting BULK! It doesn't work like that. We have demonic metabolism that doesn't let us get the weight you do. I would be as big as Arnold if that was all there was to it!So good luck to all hardgainers and I'm still with you on this journey to greatness. Thank you ON for making products that really do change people in ways you always wanted. I was skeptical and tor between either a 4 or 5 star rating. However it's my fault (I think) that I suffered these issues with the mass gainer. It does it's job. 5 stars.

Bigger then a tod

Very good

From day one I released you need you blender in order that all the powder is disseminated. I’m 187cm at 78kgs. Decided to push calories to around 3900. Week 3 and I don’t seem to have to on any fat, and have measured my arms etc and have recorded some pleasing gains. I was keen to buy another huge bag but apart from the £50, I worry about all that extra sugar. Now I’m into blending , I’m thinking why not make my own gainer shakes. Gained 2.5kgs in 3 weeks consuming 3900 calories every day.

Great product, have been using this for years.

Good

I have been using this protein for a long time now and its in my opinion one of the bests. I like the vanilla flavour which if you combine it with milk you barely notice is a protein shake, compared with other brands which can taste awful. I then add some strawberries and mix it together and it tastes even better than a strawberry milkshake from starbucks. Definitely recommend it after or before the gym and will get the calories going for a good bulk.The only downside is it has many carbs but that's not any different with other protein brands.

Note: I used this product for approximately a year.Firstly, I will assume that this product is the legitimate serious mass that you would obtain if ordered from the optimum nutrition (A BIG IF.) The levels of sugar intake per serving are too high. This causes a massive blood sugar spike and your insulin can't keep up meaning over time your insulin becomes less responsive to blood sugar increases. Sound familiar? That's diabetes and if you really want it hell this product will get you there. People abstain from Sugary foods in order to lower their risk of diabetes and chocolate for example contains a fraction of the sugar in this product! The carbohydrates are entirely disaccharides (two monosaccharides like glucose) meaning they digest very quickly causing this bloody sugar spike. Can leave you feeling very drained when the sugar rush from the shake wears off.Secondly, this is not the legitimate serious mass basically. It's sold way below the market price of serious mass and we all love a good deal but this product differs from the actual serious mass. The labeling is subtly different to the real stuff and the colour of the packaging slightly wrong. You would never notice normally but I thought something was wrong and looked into it thoroughly. I found myself getting ill regularly whilst taking this stuff and any gains were short lived (basically just the carb load effect of muscles getting larger due to the sugar intake into the cells.)I won't even get onto the effects it has onto the intenstines and your stomach but they aren't pretty, can get around this by splitting up servings and taking at different times but you don't ideally want to be splitting up a post workout shake because well.... it is for after a workout.Best case scenario- this is a company that is not optimum nutrition selling a decent and similar product under the name of ON in order to gain custom it would not have been able to get on its own brand nameWorst case scenario- (and the most likely scenario) It's a third party company selling something that differs greatly from ON at a price far lower and can afford to do so because the ingredients are substandard and possibly dangerous and saturated with chemicals.(Looking through other reviews it seems other people have had similar experiences and yet many people still continue to buy the product. TRY PRO GAINER BY OPTIMUM NUTRITION, yes it is expensive but superior in every way and far more effective. Made my best gains on that stuff in my 3 years of lifting)