should i start taking whey protein shakes if....

[stranger321]

I started working out 4 days ago, but i haven't done any real physical activities in more than 2 years and i'm 6'1 tall and 243 lbs.

after how many days of working out should i start taking whey protein?

should i even take whey protein if i want to lose fat?

how many grams of protein should i take if i do about 70 minutes of cardio and weightlifting? i read somewhere that i should take one gram of protein per pound, but alot of my extra weight is fat not muscle.

[DriftMonster]

1. Whey shakes are not mandatory, but they are really useful. I would suggest drinking them at least twice a day when you work out. For a ton of information and shakes, head here:

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=272067

That is pretty much for shakes around your workout time. Heading over to the nutrition forum and just skimming through all the thread and you'll learn more than you could ever imagine.

2. Yes, you should take whey even when you're trying to lose weight. In simple terms, whey helps make muscle, muscle increases metabolism, metabolism goes up and fat goes down. Again, very simple terms.

3. 1g/lb is a thumb rule, and a very good one. However, it does change based on activity and what type of lifting you're doing.

Your best bet is skim through the "nutrition" and "losing fat" forums and just learn all you can. Within a week, you'll be all over what you need to eat, how much, how you should go about it, etc. Also, whenever you have a question, just search it first, because most things have been talked about.