Well I guess I finally hit the point of where I do not feel sore about lifting anymore. My muscles still get very tense like during the workout but after I feel nothing.

My question is, how do I know if I am working my muscles hard enough. Do I need to go harder to get sore again or do muscles just not get sore after staying on a steady lifting routine.

Also, I think my mind if playing a trick on me and I need a small bit of advice. As of right now I drink about 40-60 grams of whey post lifting sessions. The ideas is to do this in hopes of my muscles recovering faster and get bigger/stronger. But If taking the whey provides my muscles with what they need, will my muscles still burn fat and take the necessary nutrients from my body...even though I give it to them through a supplement? I hope that makes sense, it hard for me to put this question into words haha. Thanks

You do not need to get sore to make progress. How you know you're making progress is going to be twofold: First you'll see that you're increasing strength and able to lift more. Second, you'll see changes to your body - maybe weight loss, or a change is shape and proportion and measurments.

About the whey - I think you're way overthinking this. When you lift weights, your muscles go through an intense recovery phase within the first 20-40 mins afterward. When you consume any kind of protein during that time, you are providing nutrition to your muscles at the exact time they need it the most. Whey is good because it's absorbed faster and gets to your muscles quickly.

As far as your muscle continuing to burn calories - do you think the only time your muscles burn calories is when they're fed? Muscles burn calories 24/7. They don't stop after they've been fed. Your muscles are metabolically active all the time - that's why building muscle is so important when you're losing weight.

You say you're drinking 40-60 grams of whey, but I think what you mean is 40-60 grams of PROTEIN, right? From all my reading, 60g of protein is simply unnecessary. Most people can only process 30-40g of protein at one sitting. The rest just gets excreted out.

Look, think of it this way: If you have a plant and the soil is stick dry and you add water, the plant perks up nearly immediately, right? Think of your post-workout protein like that: You're adding nutrients when they're needed the most. But once the plant is properly watered, it still consumes water through the air and through the soil, it still photosythesizes, it still does all those things that plants do, and it still needs water on a regular basis, even if the soil isn't stick dry any more.

Don't overthink it.

Kara Cooks to the rescue! Thanks Pretty id still be clueless if not for your posts hehe.

Its hard to not to associate "Pain" with progress. Try to gauge progress with how much weight and reps you can excel every week.

personally i've found that taking whey proteins after work out will decrease the amount of soreness the day after. sometimes i'm not sore at all, but in a week i will notice an increase in my strength (to be able to lift heavier weights with same number of reps).