Most of the advice I get for my diet while I workout includes eating mucho protein. What I haven’t figured out why I need to eat all this protein and not just consume a lot of calories regardless of were they come from? Is it specifically for nutrition, because calories from protein are healthier than calories from fat? Does protein help build muscles in some way?
Yes, protein helps build muscles. Muscles are made primarily from protein. Also, your body doesn’t store up protein the same way it stores fat, so you need to have the protein in your bloodstream for your muscles to use it to rebuild after your workouts.
Protein also has a higher thermogenic effect. Eating it can raise your metabolism and it takes more energy to digest protein than it does to digest a high glycemic index carbohydrate, although in the grand scheme of things, this effect is probably negligible.
Your body only uses so much protein, after that any additional protien is converted to sugar and used or stored as fat. Unless you’re a bodybuilder you don’t need extra protein, cause people simply don’t break down enough to rebuild up. So the extra protein is not used and stored as fat
The rule of thumb is to use 1 gram of protein per KILOGRAM of body weight. Not pound but KILOGRAM
What Dpimi said - basically its a myth, and just a way of selling you a ton of protein supplements, some very high level athletes need some extra protein (emphasis on some), but if you’re starting out its just a great way to get overweight. Even 1/kg is higher than the RDA.
It can feel like you’re working if you’re thin though, because you will gain weight - its just that a lot of it wont be the right kind.
Finding an independent site on this issue is a nightmare though. If you do a search on protein bodybuilding myths you will find a myriad of sites defending it as a practice. Who then oddly enough almost always have convenient links to buying protein supplements.
So you see things like “The conservative medical community perpetuates the myth that athletes don’t need additional protein. But this same community turns from the face of scientific evidence on many issues.” all over the place - they know that doctors and nutritionists are saying otherwise and that the RDA is much lower than what they’re recommending. Its classic FUD really, getting people to do it ‘just in case’.
“Protein RDA Protein recommendations are mainly based on the individuals body weight. The protein RDA is high, to cover most person’s needs. The average requirement for protein is 0.6 grams per kilogram of body weight; the RDA is 0.8 grams this is said to meet 97.5% of the population’s needs.”
Again, the only people it doesnt meet are people like high endurance athletes and the like. If you are starting out weight training you will not be one of those people, and if you eat like you are it will just increase your fat levels and cost you a ton of money.
Otara
Here are some peer-reviewed studies I found on PubMed (a standard reference for medical types):[ul]
[li]Skeletal muscle protein metabolism and resistance exercise[/li][li]Short-term insulin and nutritional energy provision do not stimulate muscle protein synthesis if blood amino acid availability decreases[/li][li]Effects of dietary carbohydrate restriction with high protein intake on protein metabolism and the somatotropic axis[/li][li]Ingestion of casein and whey proteins result in muscle anabolism after resistance exercise[/li][li]Observations of branched-chain amino acid administration in humans (note that this refers not to whole proteins, but to specific amino acids–it still supports the conclusion that there’s some benefit to protein intake)[/li][li]Protein quantity and quality at levels above the RDA improves adult weight loss[/li][/ul]
Just for the hell of it, here are three more interesting ones:[ul][li]Type and timing of protein feeding to optimize anabolism[/li][li]Protein nutrition and resistance exercise[/li][*]The recommended dietary allowance for protein may not be adequate for older people to maintain skeletal muscle[/ul]
Almost none of those references refer to how much increased protein is helpful for beginners to weight training so the relevance isnt too obvious to me.
This is my pubmed effort:
Excess protein of minimal benefit
Otara
What if I want to gain muscle weight? Would extra protein be useful then or would I just end up like a sumo wrestler?
Yes it will Lakai. Muscles are made from protein The question is how much extra, and it seems that we do not really know that.
To build muscle you need both excess protein, and excess overall energy. The way to turn into a sumo wrestler is to consume way too much overall energy. And this could come from protein as well as from other sources.