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Don't throw stones at me here, I'm just the messenger... if you are living an active life style and would like to have some muscle, the golden rule at the gym i

by ibdf 8y ago

Don't throw stones at me here, I'm just the messenger... if you are living an active life style and would like to have some muscle, the golden rule at the gym is that you need at least 1 gram of protein per pound in your body (daily intake). An though I find that there's tons of mis-information out there about what's needed, the 1g per pound is surprisingly consistent throughout most researchers on the subject.

mikekchar 8y ago
It's been a super long time since I looked at this (decades), but at least when I did a lot of reading on it, this kind of recommendation is based on making sure you have protein availability in the bloodstream when it is being taken up for muscle building. It's not so much the amount as the timing. Again, at least at the time when I was reading about this stuff, there were lots of recommendations for having 5-7 meals a day, or splitting your carb and protein intake (for example eating your protein 1 hour after eating your carbs in order to take advantage of the insulin rush). There are dangers corresponding too much protein intake -- calcium depletion, for example. It's also pretty hard on your kidneys. A lot of advice in the gym is not necessarily geared towards health as much as it is to maximise muscle development/protection. I will also say that nutrition research is chock full of poor science and worse explanations of that science by well meaning popular books. It was my hobby when I was at university (hence decades ago) to look up the actual papers referenced by popular sports nutrition theorists and never once did I find that it held up (either the papers they were referencing were horrible studies, or they got the conclusions completely wrong). It's been a long time since I've had access to a good library, so I've completely lost touch, but I suspect that little has changed. I do wonder about some sports teams and whether or not they are puzzling things out. For example, the Sky cycling team is famous for their "marginal gains" approach -- trying to get a tenth of a percentage of improvement from anywhere. But I haven't found them to be particularly forthcoming about nutrition, for example.
somenewacc 8y ago
https://bayesianbodybuilding.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/ https://bayesianbodybuilding.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-pr...
vidarh 8y ago
Most people will find it damn hard to eat that much protein without getting a far too high calorie intake for their activity level. Having lifted for 14 years, with some shorter breaks, with protein intake ranging from less than half of that to meeting that, I feel confident that you need nothing like those amounts. If you're a competitive lifter, you might want to push your intake up towards those levels, but the improvements you can expect are tiny. The research indeed does show improvements, at higher intake, but the difference is small enough that it really is irrelevant to most people. Most people will take years of serious lifting with a strict focus on increasing strength/volume (rather than "just" staying healthy) before they lift heavy enough for it to be something to even think about. As someone else said, timing might play in a bit more, but total daily intake does not need to be that high.
lgregg 8y ago
Oh yeah, absolutely, I'm just talking minimums for body maintenance and staying "healthy". If you're wanting to get gains, you'll need more but not as much as people think. I've had plenty of talks with nutritionists, dieticians, and training/PT specialists over the years when I played sports competitively. There is an upper curve on grams per pound though when it's just converted into energy; it's also not the best equation because you should really be converting based on lean body mass rather than gross body pass (incl. fat). This is the type of stuff that my coaches preached and taught: https://www.livestrong.com/article/489271-minimum-protein-intake-per-lean-body-mass/ https://www.livestrong.com/article/489271-minimum-protein-in...

by ibdf 8y ago

mikekchar 8y ago

It's been a super long time since I looked at this (decades), but at least when I did a lot of reading on it, this kind of recommendation is based on making sure you have protein availability in the bloodstream when it is being taken up for muscle building. It's not so much the amount as the timing. Again, at least at the time when I was reading about this stuff, there were lots of recommendations for having 5-7 meals a day, or splitting your carb and protein intake (for example eating your protein 1 hour after eating your carbs in order to take advantage of the insulin rush). There are dangers corresponding too much protein intake -- calcium depletion, for example. It's also pretty hard on your kidneys. A lot of advice in the gym is not necessarily geared towards health as much as it is to maximise muscle development/protection. I will also say that nutrition research is chock full of poor science and worse explanations of that science by well meaning popular books. It was my hobby when I was at university (hence decades ago) to look up the actual papers referenced by popular sports nutrition theorists and never once did I find that it held up (either the papers they were referencing were horrible studies, or they got the conclusions completely wrong). It's been a long time since I've had access to a good library, so I've completely lost touch, but I suspect that little has changed. I do wonder about some sports teams and whether or not they are puzzling things out. For example, the Sky cycling team is famous for their "marginal gains" approach -- trying to get a tenth of a percentage of improvement from anywhere. But I haven't found them to be particularly forthcoming about nutrition, for example.

somenewacc 8y ago

https://bayesianbodybuilding.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/ https://bayesianbodybuilding.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-pr...

vidarh 8y ago

Most people will find it damn hard to eat that much protein without getting a far too high calorie intake for their activity level. Having lifted for 14 years, with some shorter breaks, with protein intake ranging from less than half of that to meeting that, I feel confident that you need nothing like those amounts. If you're a competitive lifter, you might want to push your intake up towards those levels, but the improvements you can expect are tiny. The research indeed does show improvements, at higher intake, but the difference is small enough that it really is irrelevant to most people. Most people will take years of serious lifting with a strict focus on increasing strength/volume (rather than "just" staying healthy) before they lift heavy enough for it to be something to even think about. As someone else said, timing might play in a bit more, but total daily intake does not need to be that high.

lgregg 8y ago

Oh yeah, absolutely, I'm just talking minimums for body maintenance and staying "healthy". If you're wanting to get gains, you'll need more but not as much as people think. I've had plenty of talks with nutritionists, dieticians, and training/PT specialists over the years when I played sports competitively. There is an upper curve on grams per pound though when it's just converted into energy; it's also not the best equation because you should really be converting based on lean body mass rather than gross body pass (incl. fat). This is the type of stuff that my coaches preached and taught: https://www.livestrong.com/article/489271-minimum-protein-intake-per-lean-body-mass/ https://www.livestrong.com/article/489271-minimum-protein-in...