Since I've given up protein powder and just used whole food, my gains have gone through the roof. I'm harder and have better energy than I ever did while taking 3 scoops of protein a day.
Kevin and Shawn didn't use protein powder before a contest. Kevin just ate 6 meals of flounder, chicken or lean beef for his protein.
Tbombz hit the nail on the head. Basically, your diet was lousy and you consumed TOO LITTLE PROTEIN POWDER. Three scoops of protein per day? Many trainers use that much PER SHAKE and consume around three shakes per day.
Remember when MET-Rx was the be-all-to-end-all supplement in the mid-90s? I tried it and got nothing, so I thought much the same way that you did. Of course, after reading a bit more, I found that some of these guys, singing the praises of MET-Rx, were dowining EIGHT MET-Rx shakes per day (which is nearly 300 grams of protein). That's in addition to their regular food intake.
Basically, you needed to consume more protein and you have done that, which is why your gains have gone "through the roof". The same thing happened to me, back when I was in college. Even though I did increase the amount of regular food I was eating, because of my schedule, my increased protein uptake came in the form of three Mega Mass 2000 shakes (which totaled 30 oz. of powder, yielding 3300 calories, 165 g protein, 600 g carbs, and a little fat).