Despite the claims in the ads, it is not protein intake that controls muscle growth. It is only the demand for growth caused by the trauma of intense exercise that will result in growth. The protein we eat is processed by the liver. The liver controls the amount of nitrogen used to build muscle in the body based on the demand. the excess protein we eat is broken down into carbohydrates and urea waste. Nobody has ever gained muscle by overeating protein. If you are not putting in the effort, your body will only use the amount of protein it needs.
Most athletes hitting heavy weights and using the best nutrition possible gain only about 10 lbs of solid muscle a year. If you remember a few blog entries back, I discussed that the every cell in the body renews itself every 6 months. This is the limiting factor in your muscle growth.
Lets give you an example of a 180lb man with 11% body fat. This gives him 160 lbs of lean mass of which about 80lbs is muscle. With the help of some serious weight training, this individual could gain a true 10% of muscle (about 8lbs). He will also gain another third in other tissue such as blood vessels, lean connective tissue, bone mass, nerves, and organ growth, This brings the total gain in 6 months to be about 10.7 lbs. That is a gain of 171 ounces in 180 days. A far cry from the 25 lbs in 12 weeks that the ad claimed.
OK, so just revisit the amount protein needed. Remember that only 21% of that mass you gained is actually protein. Doing some simple math reveals that 0.2 ounces (5.7g or 1 tsp) of protein is incorporated into lean mass every day. in order to get that amount of protein to become lean tissue, you need 8 times that amount. That works out to be 1.6 ounces (45g). OK, this does not seem like much, but when take into consideration that this individual would need about 108g of protein just to maintain his current existing lean mass, you come out with a daily protein requirement of 153 grams of first class protein required each day to gain optimal muscle growth. Now that is a lot of munchies.
What can we conclude from this. Gaining 25lbs of muscle in 12 weeks as advertised is an impossibility. On the other hand, in order to get the protein required to gain the optimal amount of muscle, supplementation is needed. The question is what type of supplement. This will be the topic of my next entry. I will discuss the types of supplement, discuss my favorite, and I may even touch on the subject of Branch Chain Amino Acids.
Until next time, remember that daily movement and exercise is essential to good health.
Until next time, remember that daily movement and exercise is essential to good health.
