There’s just no getting away from it. Protein is vital to all of us whether taking part in athletic activities or just for day to day living. Protein enables us to build better muscle structure, hair, skin and even nails. And yet the fact is too much protein can actually do our body damage in the long run, and some people do consume too much of it!
You need the very best advice and the very best approach to digesting protein especially on a keep fit drive or an athletic programme!
Ok So What Do We Need to Know?
For the majority of people a normal diet can contain plenty of protein but of course if you add any more what happens is this! It can’t find a place to store itself in the body so the excess is just taken out and we develop fat instead of fresh muscle. What we need to do is take in just enough of this protein to help our muscles function well and stay healthy. The problem is just how much is enough?
The fact is we only use protein for around 15 per cent of our total use of energy. The bulk of our energy comes from carbohydrates or fats!
If we exercise this doesn’t necessarily mean we need more protein but more carbohydrates to stop the body breaking the protein down and storing it for energy!
So What Should We Do?
We must try and ensure 70 per cent of our protein comes from fish, eggs, meat or poultry. When eaten in combination the protein from these sources also combines with incomplete protein from other food sources! This means your body will make the best of whatever comes its way. When we consume too much protein we will also be taking in far too many calories.
Over time this will result in an increase in body fat levels and oh yes…………we begin to put weight on! The truth is with the arrival of fad high protein diets, carbohydrates are being ignored so the protein changes to glucose and isn’t converted into muscle growth!
So What Do We Need for Muscle Growth?
Well, not only do we need the right levels of protein but we also require some high intensity strength training combined with the correct rest and recovery between sessions. Ignore some of the posters or even some of the magazine photos showing bodybuilders who thrive on 250 + grams of protein each day.
They may be getting other help from things like steroids! The truth is high intensity strength training stimulates and encourages strong muscle growth – not food! Taking in excessive amounts of protein is frankly, bad for both your kidneys and liver. But it also leads to vitamin deficiencies and can even lead to serious illness!
Here is Some Good Advice!
What you can do is increase your consumption of protein – but it needs to be done in carefully planned stages. Eventually you’ll reach the point of what we call, ‘maximum efficiency’. We then need to reduce this quite quickly again. This will cause the body to over compensate by improving the absorption of protein into the body!
YOUR BODY IS A CLEVER PIECE OF KIT – GOOD PROTEIN = GOOD PERFORMANCE!