If you have ever listened to the news, or read a magazine, you may have heard a great deal about 'meal replacement' shakes. These are also known as muscle building supplement shakes, and in the media, they do get a bad shake. It is important to understand why, because these muscle building supplement shakes are essential to your bodybuilding goals.

When you hear bad things about these shakes, it is usually tied to someone who replaced all of their normal meals with the shakes, essentially going on nothing more than a liquid diet. This isn't healthy, for any reason, for any person, and this is why muscle building supplement shakes have gotten a bad rap.

In the sane world of bodybuilding, serious bodybuilders understand that you need a nice combination of solid food and liquids. The liquids do indeed have their place. First, the muscle building supplement shakes are usually water based, and often purchased in powder form, and mixed with water. The water is essential, because water is what moves the nutrients, including the protein, to and through the muscles.

Second, liquid shakes are highly convenient in a very busy world. People no longer have time to cook the meals that will give them the nutrients that they need, and those nutrients, particularly protein, are essential to bodybuilding.

Furthermore, bodybuilders have a one hour window after a workout to consume a meal with carbs and protein, in order to enhance muscle growth, and slow down or stop muscle breakdown. That isn't enough time to shower, change clothes, get home, and cook a meal…or even to get to a restaurant to order a meal. Therefore, they arrive at their workout with an after workout shake in hand, and consume that shake immediately after the workout - and often before the shower.

These muscle building supplement shakes have yet another purpose as well. You see, bodybuilders typically need to eat six meals each day. That's a lot of eating…and a lot of cooking. With meal replacement shakes (muscle building supplement shakes), you can eat three actual meals per day, like most people do, and consume the muscle building supplement shakes three times a day.

This is very convenient, especially for people who have jobs and can't just leave work to go eat. Instead, you can sip your shake on your break, or while working at your desk, or while changing classes at school. Without these muscle building supplement shakes, many bodybuilders simply wouldn't be able to consume the required six meals a day needed to prevent muscle breakdown.

So, before you hear the media hype about the dangers of meal replacement shakes, which are indeed muscle building supplement shakes, realize that whether or not these shakes are good for you depends on how you use them. If you are using them to completely replace solid food that is bad. If you are using them, however, along side solid food, you are doing the right thing.