Protein Requirements For Bodybuilders, Sports People and Athletes

There is one thing that is certain when it comes to bodybuilding, or any other form of exercise: unless you consume enough protein, regularly enough throughout the day, then your progress will hit a plateau and your results will hit a brick wall. So the question is, “how much protein is required per day and how often is it required throughout the day?”

Well, it makes sense that as your muscles are mainly made up of protein and water, then the more muscle you gain, the more protein you need in your diet to retain it and build more muscle. 1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight is therefore about right for a decent level bodybuilder, when between 3% and 10% body fat, in my opinion. However, for someone who has only been training a couple of weeks and is 30% body fat, then 1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight would be excessive. To account for body fat and muscle development when working out your protein requirements, I would therefore use the following formula.

Protein Requirements Per Day

Protein per day = Z x (1.5W – 0.015FW), where:

• W is your weight in pounds (lbs);
• F is your approximate bodyfat percentage; and
• Z takes account of your current muscle development and is 0.8 for non-trained individuals, 0.9 for intermediate gym go’ers and 1.0 for advanced athletes and bodybuilders.

• Example 1: a bodybuilder weighing 200lbs with 7% body fat requires 1.0 x ((1.5 x 200) – (0.015 x 200 x 7)) = 300 – 21 = 279g of protein per day.
• Example 2: a new gym go’er weighing 200lbs with 25% body fat requires 0.8 x ((1.5 x 200) – (0.015 x 200 x 25)) = 0.8 x (300 – 75) = 180g of protein per day.

If you struggle to reach your daily protein requirements with normal food, then you could consider using whey protein shakes. They aren’t vital, but they make life much easier, as getting a carton out of the fridge, or blending some powder is a lot quicker and cheaper than cooking some chicken, eggs or other high protein food source.

Optimum Protein Consumption During The Day

Equally important to total protein consumption per day, is the regularity of protein consumption. Your body doesn’t store protein, it is either used as energy (through a process called gluconeogenesis) or it used for protein biosynthsis (which includes muscle building). It is therefore important that you consume as much protein per meal as will be used for muscle growth as possible, but not so much that it used as energy or worse still, stored as fat. The amount of protein that can be biosynthesised per meal will vary by individual, diet, lifestyle, age, exercise and many other factors, but 40g seems to be an upper limit every 2-3 hours.

I personally think that 20-25g every 2 hours is a better solution and is more in line with recent studies which say 9g of protein per hour is the maximum that the body can metabolise. Further, I think people could get much better results in the gym from consuming 8 smaller meals per day, so that their calories and protein are spread out more. Your body would use protein more efficiently for muscle building and you would probably be able to reduce the amount of protein you consume per day by regulating protein consumption in this way. Of course the supplements manufacturers wouldn’t want you to know this! See the Wikipedia whey protein article for more information.

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Protein for Muscle Growth & Repair

Every athlete, bodybuilder and the majority of top flight competitive sports people use protein supplements to provide their body with the nutrients required for muscle growth and repair. Muscle is mainly protein, so obviously to build more muscle, you need to provide your body with the raw materials, i.e. protein.

Protein Supplements Benefits

To consume the amount of protein needed per meal, 6-8 times per day, 365 days per year is virtually impossible without using protein supplements. This is because your food bill would be sky high, your life would be spent in the kitchen cooking, eating & washing up and you would also consume way too many calories from eating so much high protein food, resulting in you getting fat. The perfect solution would be a high protein, low calorie food, that doesn’t require much preparation, is high quality and low cost, whilst being good for your health. This perfect solution is available in the form of protein supplements.

What are Protein Shakes and Protein Powders?

Protein Shakes Vs Protein Powder

Protein Shakes	Protein Powder

Protein Supplements come in many forms, but in this article I am only covering shakes and powders. Protein shakes come in ready to drink cartons, making them ultra convenient, whereas protein powders come in tubs and require blending in water. Both are usually made from milk, i.e. they are mostly made up of the protein from milk, but without the sugars or fats, making them low calorie. Protein supplements are easily digested by the body, making them the best source of protein for muscle growth available… above fish, poultry and beef! Further, protein supplements cost less per gram of protein than normal food sources, with protein powder cheaper than protein shakes. Protein powder can be as cheap as 1.7 pence per gram of protein. Protein shakes cost more as they come mixed in water, making them heavier, hence higher delivery costs.

Protein Shakes or Protein Powder

Both protein shakes and protein powder are as good as each other (if the same product, by the same manufacturer), but personally I prefer protein powder as it has a longer shelf life and costs less. Protein powder should form the base of your supplements programme, with protein shakes filling the gaps, where you need the extra convenience of just grabbing a chilled shake out of the fridge, or where you are away from home and don’t have blending facilities, although a protein shaker cup would allow you to mix your protein powder on the go!

Useful Links about Protein Shakes and Protein Powders

1. Benefits of protein shakes
2. Benefits of protein powder

Regards,

Promart Supplements

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Protein supplements are the most important supplement for athletes, sports men and women and bodybuilders. Without them, let’s face it, you’re not going to consume 1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day, no chance. Even if you did, you would have to eat so many eggs and so much meat, that your diet would contain massive amounts of cholesterol and so many calories that you would get fat. Not to mention that your food shopping bill would cost the earth and you would spend your life cooking, eating and washing up. So, if you are wondering how many competitive athletes, sports men and women and bodybuilders use protein supplements, the answer is ALL OF THEM!

Protein Supplements Requirements

If you want to consistently and progressively improve your physique, you will need 1-2 good protein supplements as well. My advice would be to have a whey protein shake with every meal lacking in protein (usally all meals except your evening meal), have a micellar casein protein supplement before bed (with 1-2 slices of wholemeal toast) and if you only eat 3-4 times per day, increase this to 6 meals per day by using high protein meal replacement shakes.

Whey protein supplements are most easily digested, but don’t use more than 20g every 2-3 hours or the extra protein will be used as energy, or stored as fat. Micellar casein protein supplements digest slowly, ensuring a steady stream of nutrients are bing digested up to 7 hours into the night. Meal replacement powders can be used 2-3 times per day, between regular meals.

Protein Supplements ensure that instead of losing muscle, you just Gain Muscle

Your body needs protein every 2-3 hours, or it starts using it’s own stores, i.e. your muscles – this is called a negative nitrogen balance, when your body is in a muscle losing state. It is therefore essential that you consume your protein every 2-3 hours during the day, to keep your body in a positive nitrogen balance, where your body is in a muscle gaining state. It is then up to you to perform progressively higher intensity exercise, which will result in progressive muscle gains.

Ready to drink protein shakes allow you to stick to a high protein diet much more easily, as they taste great and can be a very quick way to get breakfast on a morning when you are in a rush, or late for work.

Regards,

Martin.

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Whey Protein from EAS

Whey Protein

Whey protein is a collection of globular proteins derived from whey, a by-product of the cheese making process that contains all the soluble constituents of milk. Whey protein is widely recognised as being a high quality, easily digestable source of protein that supports lean muscle growth, fat loss and facilitates muscle recovery after high intensity anaerobic training.

It is absolutely essential to consume adequate amounts of high quality protein whilst training. If an individuals protein intake is too low and infrequent, then their metabolic rate is likely to drop, their strength will diminish and their ability to build muscle tissue will be hindered. In fact, their body will be in a negative nitrogen balance, meaning that they are in a ‘muscle losing state’.

Whey Protein is a fast releasing protein, so makes an ideal protein supplement to be taken with breakfast and before and after training, as well as with regular low protein meals.

CNP Pro Peptide

Protein Supplements

To keep someone weighing 200lbs in a postive nitrogen balance, so that they are in a ‘muscle building state’, their daily protein intake would need to be around 300g (ideally 40g of protein should be consumed every 2 hours throughout the day). To consume this quantity of protein from solid foods such as chicken, fish and milk is very time consuming, costly and not very practical for many people who have busy lives. An excellent solution to this problem is to add protein supplements to an existing well balanced diet. For example, if you are eating a chicken salad, then it is likely that sufficient protein is included within the meal. But, if you are eating pasta in a tomato sauce, then you should supplement such low protein meals with protein shakes. Reflex Instant Whey is an ideal example of a whey protein supplement. Instant Whey contains a high concentration of branched chained amino-acids and a digezyme enzyme system to ease protein digestion.

If you want better results and you have a bigger protein supplements budget, then you could try supplementing with Pro-Peptide from CNP Professional. Pro-Peptide is an advanced blend of bioactive fast and slow proteins. It contains whey protein high fraction concentrate and hydrolysed whey. This mixture of whey contains high levels of probiotic organisms that assist in protein metabolism leading to nitrogen retention and a healthy digestive system. For muscle building purposes, such high quality fast and slow releasing proteins keep you in a muscle building state much longer than regular whey protein supplements.

Its a fact - to develop your body to its full potential a diet rich in protein is critical!

Regards,

Gareth

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