How Much Protein Do Strength Athletes, Bodybuilders And Weight Trainers Need?
1:20 pm in Weight Loss News by seph
The amount of protein needed by the body to build muscle is often hotly debated. Science and the opinions of bodybuilders sometimes differ on exactly what is needed. This article looks at various opinions about protein and protein supplements.
The body uses protein to maintain teeth and hair, synthesize hormones and enzymes, keep the immune system working and of course to build muscle. It is of course its role in muscle building that interests strength athletes and bodybuilders.
Let’s see what dieticians and medical professionals recommend in terms of the amount of protein we need. The current Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of protein is 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body-weight, which is 0.79 grams of protein per kilogramme of body-weight. Additionally, they recommend that protein should constitute roughly 30% of your daily intake of calories. However, the experts broadly agree that strength and endurance athletes need more protein and variously list the necessary amount between 1.4 and 1.8 grams of protein per kilogramme of bodyweight (0.63-0.82 grams per pound of bodyweight per day).
Where possible you should try to get as much of your RDA of protein from food rather than supplements. Foods such as meat, soy, eggs, nuts, cheese, milk and fish are high in protein. Often though, bodybuilders, powerlifters and other strength or endurance athletes will supplement their protein intake with a protein powder such as Optimum Nutrition 100% Gold Standard Whey.
Weight trainers, powerlifters and bodybuilders in particular are known to take in large amounts of protein. In fact they will sometimes even consume as much as 4 grams per kilogramme of bodyweight, which is more than double what experts think strength and endurance athletes need and 5 times the RDA for a ‘normal’ person. There is much debate as to whether such huge amounts of protein are actually used by the body and most in the scientific community would probably say such excess protein consumption is not necessary. However, some professional bodybuilders feel it makes a difference or at least makes very sure they never risk being deficient in protein.
Excess protein can be dangerous and may cause liver and/or kidney problems, although you’d be very unlucky to consume dangerous amounts unless you have a pre-existing liver or kidney problem. Having said that, excess protein can increase your chances of getting kidney stones and it can be ultimately stored as fat in the body if it isn’t used. At the very least it can leave you feeling bloated. Get the balance right – take a bit more protein than the ‘recommended’ amounts if you feel you need it but don’t overdo it.
Often, bodybuilders will use a protein supplement just to make sure there’s no chance of being deficient in it and hindering the muscle-building process, but what type of protein supplement do you need?
Protein can be classified in lots of different ways and you will often hear terms such as ‘isolates’, ‘concentrates’, ‘blends’ and ‘amino acids’ quoted when people are talking or writing about protein powders. However, you will most often find that protein supplements are classified by the product from which they are taken and some of the main ones are:
1. Whey protein, a fast-digesting protein from cheese.
2. Casein protein, a slow-digesting protein from milk, often used by those wishing to gain weight.
3. Soy protein, which is a fast-digesting protein.
4. Albumen protein, which is taken from egg-whites and is a fast-digesting protein.
If you do feel you need additional protein to supplement your bodybuilding or weight-training activities, the first one to consider is probably a whey protein such as Optimum Nutrition 100% Gold Standard Whey. Whey provides a good general purpose protein supplement used by a lot of bodybuilders and it contains many of the essential amino acids required to build muscle. As you progress you may experiment with different proteins to see which one works best for you depending upon what you’re trying to achieve at the time.
