Transparent Labs Mass Gainer is the pick that proves the category's sugar habit is a choice, not a necessity. Its 770 calories come from whole-food carbohydrates — oat flour, organic tapioca and sweet potato — rather than the maltodextrin-and-sugar base most gainers lean on, and it carries 53 g of grass-fed whey plus 3 g of creatine monohydrate with zero added sugar and not a single artificial sweetener or dye. That makes it the formula closest to the clean homemade shake we keep telling readers to try first, just packaged for convenience. The honest catches are real: it is the most expensive tub per calorie on the list, and at 770 calories a true hardgainer may need two servings a day to hit a surplus. For a ranking that weights carb quality and ingredient honesty above the raw calorie headline, this is the correct number one.
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Read the complete Muscle Growth guide →The reason it wins. The carbs are oat flour, organic tapioca and sweet potato with 0 g added sugar (~15 g naturally occurring) and 8 g of fiber — genuine whole-food carbohydrate, not a maltodextrin-and-sugar base. On the axis the category hides from, nothing else here comes close; this is as clean as a carb source in a mass gainer gets.
53 g of protein per serving sits at the top of the ideal 40-55 g window, so you are building on protein rather than coasting on sugar. The 770 label-stated calories (from the powder in water, no milk assumed) are enough to create a surplus for most, though moderate for the biggest hardgainers — the only reason this isn't a perfect 10.
Grass-fed whey concentrate, 3 g of creatine monohydrate (an effective clinical dose per Kreider 2017), MCTs, and stevia plus monk fruit as the only sweeteners — no sucralose, dyes or fillers. 'Grass-fed' is a manufacturer sourcing claim rather than a third-party certification, which is the one thing keeping this off a perfect score.
At roughly $0.67 per 100 kcal it is the most expensive tub per calorie on the list — you pay a real premium for the clean formula. It scores high here anyway because value is judged against what you get: whole-food carbs plus built-in creatine make the per-calorie cost defensible, but it is not the cheapest way to buy calories and we don't pretend otherwise.
A moderate 770-calorie, two-scoop serving blends far more easily than the seven-scoop 1,250-calorie bombs, and the Chocolate Glaze flavor is well regarded. Because it isn't a thick 1,200-calorie paste, it is one of the easier gainers here to actually drink day after day.
“Whole-food carbs with no added sugar — the cleanest carb profile in the category.”
The label lists oat flour, organic tapioca and sweet potato as the carbohydrate sources with 0 g added sugar (~15 g naturally occurring) and 8 g fiber. This is genuine whole-food carbohydrate rather than the maltodextrin-plus-sugar base of the mainstream tubs, and it is verifiably the cleanest carb source among the eight picks.
“53 g of grass-fed whey per serving.”
The 53 g protein dose is label-stated and sits at the top of the ideal 40-55 g window. 'Grass-fed' is a manufacturer sourcing claim, not an independently certified one, so treat the protein amount as verified and the grass-fed sourcing as a brand assertion rather than a third-party-audited fact.
“3 g of creatine monohydrate built in.”
3 g is within the 3-5 g/day maintenance range the ISSN identifies as effective for strength and lean-mass support (Kreider 2017, PMID 28615996). Unlike the token 1 g in some rival tubs, this is a genuinely useful dose, and its inclusion is a real formulation advantage.
“No artificial sweeteners — stevia and monk fruit only.”
The ingredient panel uses stevia and monk fruit with no sucralose, acesulfame-K or artificial dyes, consistent with the brand's transparency positioning. This is verifiable from the label and is a clear point of difference from the sucralose-sweetened and dye-containing tubs lower on the list.
“A 'mass' gainer — builds muscle mass.”
At 770 kcal it supplies a surplus for most users, but no gainer builds muscle on its own: it works only alongside a sustained calorie surplus and resistance training with adequate protein (Slater 2019, PMID 31482093; Morton 2018, PMID 28698222). For an extreme hardgainer 770 kcal is moderate and may require two servings, so the 'mass' framing is accurate only within that context.
The formula we keep recommending readers make themselves — oats, whey, real carbohydrate, no added sugar — is essentially what Transparent Labs put in this tub. Oat flour, sweet potato and tapioca for the carbs, 53 g of grass-fed whey for the protein, and 3 g of creatine on top. If you were always going to blend your own oats-and-whey shake and just want the convenience, this is the version that doesn't compromise on what goes in.
At roughly $0.67 per 100 kcal, this is the most expensive tub per calorie on the entire list, several times the cost of ON Serious Mass or Dymatize. That is the honest trade-off for whole-food carbs and built-in creatine. If your single priority is maximum calories for minimum money, this is not your pick — but if you're buying on quality, the premium buys a genuinely cleaner product, not just marketing.
The clean formula comes with a smaller calorie headline than the 1,250-calorie maltodextrin bombs. For most people 770 kcal is plenty to create a surplus, but a true hardgainer with a fast metabolism may need two servings a day to move the scale — which also doubles the already-premium cost. Budget for that if you're bulking aggressively.
Most gainers either skip creatine or add a token 1 g. This one includes 3 g of monohydrate, inside the 3-5 g/day range the ISSN position stand identifies as effective (Kreider 2017). That means one fewer supplement to buy separately, and it's a real dose rather than a label-decoration sprinkle.
If you've honestly decided a mass gainer is the right tool for you, this is the one to buy. Transparent Labs takes the 770 calories from real food — oat flour, sweet potato and tapioca — and pairs them with 53 g of grass-fed whey and 3 g of creatine, with no added sugar and no artificial sweeteners or dyes anywhere on the panel. It is the closest thing on the shelf to the clean DIY shake we keep recommending, which is exactly why it tops a ranking that rewards carb quality and ingredient honesty over the biggest calorie number. The two honest catches keep it from being a no-brainer for everyone: it is the priciest tub per calorie here, and at 770 calories a serious hardgainer may need two scoops a day. But cheap calories were never the point of this product — clean calories are — and on that axis nothing else comes close. Buy it if you want the best-formulated gainer and will let the surplus and the training do the actual muscle-building. If pure cost per calorie is your priority instead, drop down to the value tier and manage the sugar.
Check Transparent Labs · Mass Gainer · powder · 15 servings (770 kcal) on AmazonAn even cleaner whole-food meal — real oats, sweet potato and rice with just 2-3 g of sugar — that you scale by adding scoops. The pick if you'd rather under-dose calories than drink anything refined.
See it on the list →A true 1,250-calorie bulk shake with only 5 g of sugar from three ingredients. The right step up if you specifically need a big single-shake calorie hit that Transparent Labs' 770 kcal can't supply in one scoop.
See it on the list →Across 49 studies (1,863 participants), protein supplementation increased resistance-training gains in muscle and strength, but the benefit plateaued above ~1.6 g/kg/day. This 53 g dose sits at the top of the useful window; calories beyond the protein and surplus needs add fat, not muscle.
A modest positive energy balance supports hypertrophy alongside training, but the required surplus is small and individual, and a large surplus mainly adds fat. This gainer's 770 kcal is a convenient way to supply that measured surplus — not a substitute for the training.
The ISSN identifies 3-5 g/day of creatine monohydrate as the effective maintenance dose for strength and lean-mass support. This gainer's built-in 3 g lands in that range, unlike the sub-clinical 1 g in some rival tubs.
Muscle protein synthesis rose dose-dependently and was near-maximally stimulated around 20 g of high-quality protein per serving. At 53 g, this gainer comfortably clears the per-serving threshold that actually drives muscle protein synthesis.
