Men"s Fitness Training - About Protein Part 1
Welcome!
The last few articles published spoken about macronutrients: Carbohydrates and essential fatty acids. It is time to discuss the other one, protein. Read on...
The body utilizes protein:
Just like essential fatty acids, proteins are involved in many major functions in your body. Without these proteins your body won't function very well.
However, protein is particularly important to people like you who lift weights. Because protein is considered one of the "building blocks" of muscle and other important tissue. Muscle tissue damage and building muscle is a role of protein in the body. And this is important when you lift weights, because you're regularly "tearing down" your muscles so that you can build them back up.
In order to function properly your body needs 20 separate amino acids (proteins). The body produces twelve of these proteins. However, you need to get the other eight amino acids from your food. As such, these eight amino acids are referred to as the essential proteins.
Proteins come from two sources:
Complete proteins. These are foods that provide all the essential amino acids that your body needs to thrive. Generally, most animal sources of protein (e.g. meat) , includes all the essential proteins, and thus animal proteins are complete proteins.
Incomplete proteins. Proteins that don't contain all the essential amino acids. Incomplete proteins are those that come from plant sources.
After you read this you might think vegetarians cannot get enough protein. Vegetarian or not the key is to eat protein from a variety of sources. This is because incomplete proteins like to compliment one another. That is, if you're missing a few of the essential amino acids from one source, you're likely to make it up from another source.
How Much Protein is Needed?
You should get approximately 40% of your calories from good protein sources. There is another guideline for those lifting weights (body-builders). Namely, that you should get about one gram of protein for every pound of body weight.
Very simple. If you weigh 200 pounds, then you should seek to eat 200 grams of protein per day.
This is the first way. The next is to eat one gram of protein per pound of non-fat tissue. To use this method you subtract your body fat from you total body weight the eat one gram of protein for pound of the remaining body weight.
E.G. if you are 200 pounds with 14% body fat (as measured by body fat calipers or other measurements). The body is carrying 28 pounds of fat (200 pound x 14% = 28). , Take those 28 pounds from your overall weight (200-28), and you come to 172 pounds of other tissue. In this case, you should eat 172 grams of protein.
You'll see that nutrition experts often recommend about half that amount. Split the difference and start monitoring your results for a month or two. Increase you protein intake if you are not happy with muscle growth in that period you are tracking.
I trust you enjoyed this article. In my other articles discuss the effect of protein on your kidneys......
The last few articles published spoken about macronutrients: Carbohydrates and essential fatty acids. It is time to discuss the other one, protein. Read on...
The body utilizes protein:
Just like essential fatty acids, proteins are involved in many major functions in your body. Without these proteins your body won't function very well.
However, protein is particularly important to people like you who lift weights. Because protein is considered one of the "building blocks" of muscle and other important tissue. Muscle tissue damage and building muscle is a role of protein in the body. And this is important when you lift weights, because you're regularly "tearing down" your muscles so that you can build them back up.
In order to function properly your body needs 20 separate amino acids (proteins). The body produces twelve of these proteins. However, you need to get the other eight amino acids from your food. As such, these eight amino acids are referred to as the essential proteins.
Proteins come from two sources:
Complete proteins. These are foods that provide all the essential amino acids that your body needs to thrive. Generally, most animal sources of protein (e.g. meat) , includes all the essential proteins, and thus animal proteins are complete proteins.
Incomplete proteins. Proteins that don't contain all the essential amino acids. Incomplete proteins are those that come from plant sources.
After you read this you might think vegetarians cannot get enough protein. Vegetarian or not the key is to eat protein from a variety of sources. This is because incomplete proteins like to compliment one another. That is, if you're missing a few of the essential amino acids from one source, you're likely to make it up from another source.
How Much Protein is Needed?
You should get approximately 40% of your calories from good protein sources. There is another guideline for those lifting weights (body-builders). Namely, that you should get about one gram of protein for every pound of body weight.
Very simple. If you weigh 200 pounds, then you should seek to eat 200 grams of protein per day.
This is the first way. The next is to eat one gram of protein per pound of non-fat tissue. To use this method you subtract your body fat from you total body weight the eat one gram of protein for pound of the remaining body weight.
E.G. if you are 200 pounds with 14% body fat (as measured by body fat calipers or other measurements). The body is carrying 28 pounds of fat (200 pound x 14% = 28). , Take those 28 pounds from your overall weight (200-28), and you come to 172 pounds of other tissue. In this case, you should eat 172 grams of protein.
You'll see that nutrition experts often recommend about half that amount. Split the difference and start monitoring your results for a month or two. Increase you protein intake if you are not happy with muscle growth in that period you are tracking.
I trust you enjoyed this article. In my other articles discuss the effect of protein on your kidneys......
