And Here. We. Go. GNC has tons of products, but one in particular caught my eye the other day. And that was the Pro Performance AMP Women’s Advanced. I knew immediately that this was the next product to review. In this GNC AMP Women’s Advanced Protein Review, I’ll go in-depth on this national retail behemoth’s female protein offering. We’ll begin by discussing the product flavor, before delving into some more technical details of the product. The technical details, of course, involving the product’s ingredients and formulation. I really enjoy peeking under the hood to see what actually goes into these protein products to make them ‘women’s’ proteins. There are so few products that have actually made sense to me as being ‘for women’. Most of it is marketing. But hey. Who can blame them. It must be working! And it REALLY must be working for this GNC AMP Women’s Advanced Protein. It actually is backordered on the GNC website! Let me tell you if this is for good reason. How about we get this review started.
GNC. Also known as my home away from home. Also known as my wallets worst enemy. Eh. Just kidding, that title goes to Whole Foods. And Sakks. But GNC is certainly among the top three spots that put a real hurting on my pocketbook. But it’s because they are SO good at convincing you that you need something that you didn’t know you needed when you walked in. It’s the whole Steve Jobs thing, right? Convince them that they needed something that they didn’t know existed. Now. The GNC rep didn’t quite blow my mind with some crazy new tech gadget, but he DID introduce me to something that I didn’t know I needed when I walked in: I’m of course referring to the subject of today’s review, the GNC AMP Women’s Advanced Protein. And by ‘needed’, of course I mean that in the loosest, most shallow sense of need. On the class Maslow hierarchy of needs, I think it’s probably near the very bottom. Er. Or top? Whatever the least urgent need category is. Because this is absolutely considered a commodity item. It is $60 for 20 servings for goodness sake. That’s a premium, folks. But is it worth the money? Let’s begin with an overview of the taste.
GNC AMP Women’s Advanced Protein Flavor Grade: 8.8
You can’t fault GNC for going BIG with some of their flavors. They’ve gone with the standards of vanilla and chocolate, just like every company does. But then they’ve branched out a bit and gone with a really fun flavor too. And you know that’s the exact flavor that I went with, lol. Insert hair flip emoji here. The flavor is Cinnamon Bun. A few companies have started making a cinnamon-flavored protein to the delight of folks everywhere. I usually tend to go with a chocolate, or vanilla protein so that I can add some other goodies to it and make a big, blended shake. But I knew I would be doing a review of the product here for you on BPW so why not get the most fun flavor of GNC AMP Women’s Advanced Protein?
I mixed one big, heaping scoop of AMP Performance Protein with about two cups of skim milk. I think I actually broke my blender last night making those Arbonne shakes, so today I just had to use my Cyclone Cup and shake up my Women’s Advanced Protein shake the old fashioned way. But sometimes the old ways are the best, right? I think so. This shake blended up really evenly, to my delight. Note: I also added a few ice cubes to make sure my shake was nice and chilled when I poured it out into my pint glass. So what I did after this was, of course, take a big slurp of the Cinnamon Roll flavored protein. I was instantly impressed. I wasn’t blown away, but I was impressed. This flavor exceeded my expectations on the flavor. See, I’ve tried GNC proteins in the past. While some were ok, most of them were just not very good-tasting. That’s why I was delighted that my $60 tub of Women’s Advanced tastes great. It is smooth, and it is sweet, but not overwhelmingly so. I think it has a great balance of sharpness from the cinnamon with sweet, creaminess like a real cinnamon roll. In summary, this shake tastes strong and bold, but is also totally drinkable, as evidenced by my third one today that I just finished. So GNC Pro Performance Women’s Protein tastes great, but how healthy is it?
GNC AMP Women’s Advanced Protein Formula Grade: 8.7
This is a product that is formulated ‘for women’ apparently- so let’s have a look and see if we can tell what is in here that makes it different from any other protein on the market. The first thing you might note is the sheer amount of protein. I guess by ‘sheer’ you expect that to be a lot. At 15 grams, it is actually not that much. I think 15 grams is a fair amount, though. I prefer 20 in my protein shakes, but I won’t complain as long as the quantity is over 14. So 15 is ok. What you can also see, which I find very smart, is that GNC has included a handful of amino acids in here, and listed them out separate of the protein. This is a good way to put your mind at rest that the product is not ‘protein spiked’ or ‘amino acid spiked’, which is what Rule 1 Protein does when you don’t know how much complete protein you are actually getting versus some big shot of a single amino acid.
So what makes this a women’s protein, though? Really it’s two things. (Yes, I’m taking this right from the GNC rep’s mouth lol). It’s dosage of vitamin D, which is included at half of the recommended daily value. And then the other thing is the prebiotic blend, which is good for the gut health and for digestive function. I think that an added bonus is also the Acetyl L-Carnitine. This ingredient helps with cognitive function and fat loss and a whole host of other stuff. Final touches include a 25% rDV dose of Iron, and a bit of calcium as well. What they’re doing is including those things that your body doesn’t make, so it must be ingested from food. And since vitamin D, zinc, calcium, and iron are all things found most often in things like dairy, meat, and poultry (aka things we like, never eat), I do like that they’ve been included in this GNC AMP women’s protein. Overall I’m really happy with this formula. Now we can talk about the fun part- the packaging! Woo!
GNC AMP Women’s Advanced Protein Packaging Grade: 9.0
For GNC, this packaging is pretty good. In fact, it’s very good. It’s not quite as stunning and artistic as the Arbonne Essentials Protein that I reviewed yesterday, but I think they’ve really done a nice job crafting this protein from a design perspective. There are a few things that really strike me about it. The first has to be the lovely pink and black gradient that form the backdrop. The pink is a gorgeous shade that jumps right off the label at you, and screams femininity without being too obnoxious and corny. It also fades rather quickly into black, which gives the whole design an element of seriousness and strength that makes it that much more attractive. Like this guy I want to text so bad but am sort of afraid to. But anyways. It’s pretty awesome. Speaking of fear- checkout the big, bold ‘AMP’ logo that occupies the right side of the package. It’s a dark gray, and adds a really neat element of boldness to the design, especially with it’s futuristic type-face. And that brings us to the other textual features. What you see is the product name ‘Women’s Advanced Protein’, along with all the product features listed down below that. What I really enjoy here is the font and color selection of the ‘Women’s Advanced’ type. Very cool. The ‘AMP’ logo is also very neat. The whole design is sporty, nicely arranged, and easy to take in. Overall this is a lovely package.
GNC AMP Women’s Advanced Protein Review Summary
- GNC AMP Women’s Advanced Protein Flavor Grade: 9.0
- GNC AMP Women’s Advanced Protein Formula Grade: 8.7
- GNC AMP Women’s Advanced Protein Packaging Grade: 9.0
- GNC AMP Women’s Advanced Protein Value Score: 8.8
Any protein that is over $2 per serving is a hard sell for me. But with many of these prices rising, It’s tough to find a really great value in the protein category anymore. But with the right combination of flavor, aesthetic, and strength of formula, GNC has procured a winner with AMP Women’s Advanced Protein.*
GNC AMP Women’s Advanced Protein Final Review Score: 9.0
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