Protein!

Headhuunter

I'm just wondering how much protein you all consume? I cycle around 100 miles per week - 12 per weekday to and from work and then a ride of about 40 miles on my "weekend bike" through the Kent countryside with Dulwich Paragon, my local bike club.

I also do weights at the gym 3 times per week for about an hour or so per time. I try to do pretty heavy weights to build muscle rather than high number reps for toning.

I drink protein shakes after the gym (whey isolate mainly I think) but I don't eat much meat. It's not that I'm veggie but the other half is so I don't tend to eat much but I do knock down the occasional can of tuna or other canned fish approximately 2 or 3 times per week as well as copious pulses and beans (veggie protein).

I must admit I am not building much muscle from the weights work. My thighs are pretty big from the cycling though! I am quite tall and slim, I guess you'd say athletic build, so not sure if it's just my body type or the fact that I'm not eating enough protein.

I'm not looking to for a massive upper body, just don't want my legs to be like tree trunks while my upper body remains slim. Should I be eating more meat?

ShaunL

There is a guy here who does a lot of weights and he says more red meat and fish if you seriously want to gain muscle mass.

I know i have lost upper bodt mass since cycling a lot but I think it is the cyclist physique to have big legs and not such a big upper body.

brixtonbiker66

Protein myths at work
The average person consumes about fifty percent more protein than the recommended daily amount. Yet we often see—in addition to misinformed athletes, fitness enthusiasts, and bodybuilders—businessmen and women, and those seeking to lose weight turning to protein powders, drinks, and nutritional bars in their quest for even more protein.

It is true that resistance training and endurance workouts can break down muscle protein and increase our need for protein to fuel repair and growth. But the increased need of protein is proportional to the increased need for calories burned with the exercise. As your appetite increases, you increase your caloric intake accordingly, and your protein intake increases proportionally. If you meet those increased caloric demands from heavy exercise with an ordinary assortment of natural plant foods—vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts, which contain more than 50 grams of protein per 1000 calories—you will get the precise amount of extra protein you need.

Racing to the grave
Out of more than 600 Olympic athletes on the East German 1964 Olympic team, fewer than 10 are still alive today. Promoting muscular growth with supplements and steroids doesn’t seem too wise in that context. Excessive body mass, and even excessive muscular development, gained by gorging on high-protein animal products is a risk factor for heart attacks and other diseases later in life.

Measuring relative physical size is not a good way to measure health. Health must be judged by measuring strength per body weight, resistance to serious illnesses, longevity potential, and maintenance of useful vigor into your later years.


http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/hu ... wders.html

SBezza

I have read that 1g of protein for every kg of bodyweight should be eaten as a minimum for an active person, if you are trying to build muscle, I have seen this should be around 3 times as much, this is each day.

Now that is alot of protein to get from a normal diet, hence why whey protein is good, as you can get alot of this quite easily. As for the above, I doubt many people get enough good quality protein in their diets.With vegetable proteins I have heard, we can only break down 60-70% of this, compared to nearly 90% for meat/dairy, so if you eat a small amount of meat, you may need extra vegetable protein to make up the shortful.

Have a look at the whey protein packaging, it might say recommended doses for your weight and the type of workout you do.

squired

Clearly brixtonbiker66 has firm beliefs on protein and diet in general. Recent published studies I've read suggest around 0.8-1g of protein per pound of body weight from what I remember. It is also important to note that protein needs to be consumed with carbohydrate ideally, as the energy from the carbohydrate is needed to incorporate the protein into your muscles.

One thing to bear in mind is the type of exercise. Someone who had plenty of fast twitch muscle fibres will be able to build good bulk from weights, but if you have more slow twitch muscle fibres doing weights for bulk won't really help. Thus maybe you should also try different exercise patterns to see how your muscles respond.

Headhuunter

Thanks for all your advice. I must admit, the advice Brixtonbiker gives seems to fly in the face of everything else I have read about building muscle, absorption rates of vegetable protein vs something like whey protein isolate etc. I can understand that too much protein is not good, however surely someone doing a lot of exercise should consume fairly significantly higher levels of protein to repair damage to muscles? I think I'll try to consume a bit more protein from animal sources in future, see what difference if at all, it makes.

Barry Nice

Headhunter,

Whilst I don't completely agree with brixtonbiker66's thinking, I do agree that you do not need to take additional protein via shakes (although if you do whey is the way to go)

You are simply not doing enough training to get the benefit. What you seem to be looking for is greater muscle mass but what I am guessing you have got is bad flatulence (worse than that induced by all the beans & pulses ) as your body can neither metabolise or use the extra protein.

You probably only need to take additional protein if you start a 2 on 1 off or more likely a 3 on 1 off programme for about 90 mins or 45-60 mins at a high intensity (by high intensity I mean feeling faint or sick most workouts).

At your levels I would suggest that Creatine is the only thing likely give noticable benefits, but make sure you only take the suggested dose as more does not mean more results it means more strain on your metabolic systems.

Please note: I am not a doctor or trained physiologist but I have wasted lost of money over the years on suplements that had about the same effect as a glass of milk a day.

Slow1972

Interesting article in this week's cycling weekly on high carb vs high protein diets and the "in between". Interestingly a diet with more protein and less carb resulted in more weight loss and more lean muscle than the high carb diet.

I've recently reduced my carb intake a bit and try to make sure those I do take in (except during and immediately after training) are lowish GI and added more protein to my diet on days I'm training hard and or the day after. Purely subjectively I feel better for it, recovery seems to have improved and I've lost weight without being overly anal about it.

But then I am not looking to beef up my upper body, merely ensure the muscles worked during exercise have sufficient protein to build and repair themselves as quickly and efficiently as they can.

And a whey protein drink made up using water is about 150 cals I think (but cant guarantee it) and seems to help me feel "fed" for a good period afterwards