Why do I need to eat six times per day and what is a positive nitrogen balance?
Protein Is The Building Blocks Of Muscle
Most people are aware that if you want to build muscle, you need to eat lost of high protein foods. This is because protein, which represents 15-20% of bodyweight, forms the building blocks of muscle and without sufficient protein intake, it is impossible to build more muscle.
How Much Protein Per Day?
The question is, how much protein does a typical bodybuilder need? Well, the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of protein for the average person is 0.36g per pound of bodyweight (0.8g/Kg). The RDA of protein for bodybuilders is 0.77g per pound of bodyweight (1.7g/Kg).
However, various studies have shown significant strength and size increases for existing high level bodybuilders and weight lifters who increase their daily protein intake from 0.77g per pound of bodyweight to 1.59g per pound of bodyweight (3.5g/Kg). Personally, I think a daily protein intake of 1.50g per pound of bodyweight is sufficient for most natural bodybuilders. I appreciate that there are some genetically gifted natural bodybuilders or ‘pharmaceutically enhanced’ bodybuilders who can consume higher amounts of protein, but for the majority of people, this additional protein would be used as energy, or stored as bodyfat.
How Much Protein Per Meal?
So, now you know how much protein you need to consume per day. But, you are wondering why you need to spread the protein out over 6 or more meals. Well, this is because your body cannot store protein and therefore needs a steady supply, every 3 hours, throughout the day. The optimum serving size varies between 30g and 50g depending upon age, weight, lifestyle, genetics, etc., but 40g is accepted as being a reasonable serving size for the majority of people. To meet your daily requirements of protein, you will need to consume the same amount at every meal, every 3 hours. This keep your body in an anabolic,muscle building state. If you do not meet your protein requirements, your body will go into a catabolic muscle losing state, which is not good for bodybuilders.
What Is Nitrogen Balance?
So, what is a positive nitrogen balance? All three macronutrients, carbohydrates, protein and fat contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, but protein also contains the additional nitrogen molecule. Therefore, nitrogen testing can assesses whether the amount of nitrogen consumed is more or less than the amount of nitrogen excreted by the body. If you are excreting more than you are consuming, then you need to increase your protein intake. Nitrogen testing is usually checked by measuring the urine urea nitrogen loss (90% of nitrogen loss is via urine) against nitrogen intake over a 24 hour period.
How To Maintain A Positive Nitrogen Balance
To maintain a positive nitrogen balance and to be building as much muscle as possible, you therefore need to consume protein every 3 hours as stated above. To improve the situation, you can use a slow releasing protein before bed, such as micellar casein which has been shown to maintain a positive nitrogen balance for up to 7 hours whilst sleeping. Then, first thing on a morning, when your body has a negative nitrogen balance after sleeping 8 or 9 hours, use a fast releasing whey protein shake to restore your positive nitrogen balance as soon as possible. Other tips include:
- Maintain a reasonable amount of carbs and fats in your diet, to support protein synthesis and provide energy, i.e. 2g of carbs, 1.5g of protein and 0.4g of fats per pound of bodyweight per day is about right
- Do not overtrain (3-4 training sessions per week is enough for the majority of natural bodybuilders)
- Always supplement before and after a training session with a high protein (ideally hydrolysed whey), high carb (medium and fast releasing) shake, such as Pro-Recover
- Try and get plenty of sleep
- Drink plenty of water
- Keep training sessions intense and less than 50 minutes
Summary
If you are following an appropriate training program, then in my opinion, the single most important thing you can do as a bodybuilder is to maintain a positive nitrogen balance, by consuming adequate amounts of protein throughout the day. Every day. Remember: consistency is the key to success, as you lose muscle a lot quicker than you gain it.
Regards,
Martin.
