Five days a week I go to the Y. I spend 30 minutes on cardio and then hit the weight room for a workout with free weights and various machines. Obviously, I receive benefit from this. What type of diet would create even more benefit? For instance, would I receive even more benefit/strength if certain types of food and/or supplements were increased or decreased?
Probably not enough to notice. Take a muiti-vitamin if you want insurance that you are getting the micronutrients, but you will mostly be vitamin-fortifying your urine. Protein supplements are usually a waste of money, although those with protein powder to sell usually disagree.
Creatineis the only supplement I am aware of that has any scientific evidence to back it up.
Regards,
Shodan
Do you have a cite for that? Was there a study done that proves whey protein provides no benefit?
Creatine does work but they found it to be effective only in athletes of professional caliber.
So you could try it, but I did and found it didn’t do anything and I work out a lot.
Basically without steriods, it’s hard to add any more than 10 or 15 pounds of pure muscle per YEAR. Anything else will be fat.
As for diet you need about 1 gram of protein PER KILOGRAM of weight. Remember it’s KILOGRAM of weight not pound. So I weigh 170 pounds which is 77 kilograms. So I need 77 kilograms of protein.
So you might want to try putting a few more grams of protein, but not many more as it’s unlikely to help. Any protein not used will be converted to energy or stored as fat.
I did P90X and lost 37 pounds while toning up considerably. However, I got the sense that the OP was looking for some diet recommendations that would enhance the muscle development. I don’t think the diet associated with P90X is particularly geared for that.
Many cites will tell you that creatine is helpful for explosive-type exercise, such as fast sprints or heavy lifting. It is part of creatine kinase, which is an enzyme needed for such exercise.
Studies also demonstrate that carbs to protein in a 4:1 ratio is the most helpful immediately (within one hour) of exercise for recovery purposes.
I use plain soy protein for recovery and was really surprised it made a huge difference to energy levels when I started adding it to my breakfast but in a much smaller dose than recommended. I exercise first thing in the morning and don’t usually feel like meat or eggs that early in the day and a mix of carbs and protein is really helpful after a workout. The only trouble with the protein powder is that it fills me up so I often have trouble meeting my daily calorie intake.