Bodybuilding - Maximum Protein Intake At A Time
You already know that getting in sufficient protein is critical when bodybuilding and attempting to gain weight.
But how much protein is the body able to absorb in a single sitting? Should you space your protein intake out over six to eight meals a day in order to promote optimal absorption? Or can you stick with three meals a day and still meet your needs? Let's look a little more closely at this issue.
Meal Frequency First up, we need to expel the myth that you must eat six to eight meals a day or your body is going to go into a catabolic state.
This is completely false and if you are three hours and one minute out from your last meal, all your progress is not going to come to a halting stop.
Bodybuilding websites often tote that you need to eat so often during the day if you hope to gain weight but the primary reason for this is not to prevent catabolism (breakdown of muscle), but rather to help you get those calories in.
If you are a guy needing 5000 calories a day to build muscle, imagine eating meals consisting of between 1500 and 2000 calories.
You will be STUFFED! Protein Needs Regardless of WHEN you get in your protein, one thing is for certain and that is that you will need enough.
If you aren't eating one gram per pound of body weight, you may not have maximum results from your bodybuilding program and need to get this fixed immediately.
While you don't need much more than one gram per pound, shorting yourself of this number is something you do not want to risk.
Get that protein in, every day, every time.
Protein Frequency Which now brings us to why we're here - to talk about protein frequency.
This is going to depend on a couple of things.
First, whether you have trained in the last few hours.
Immediately after a training period, body utilization of protein will be at an elevated rate, therefore it is a smart plan to get a little more in during this time period.
After that, then we need to look at your individual metabolic rate.
Obviously the faster you are burning calories and metabolizing cellular processes, the increased your need will be for protein frequency.
However, as a result of this, if you eat more protein per sitting then this will counteract this effect since it will take longer to metabolize the protein you did eat at each meal.
Finally, the last factor that comes into play is the form of protein you consumed.
If it was a simple concentrate or whey protein powder, these are digested rather rapidly.
If it was a piece of red meat or some casein protein such as that found in cottage cheese, then your body will be feeding on that for hours (assuming sufficient quantity was given).
So, to sum up, don't stress too much about going three hours without a serving of protein provided you are: 1.
Getting in your total protein needs on a daily basis and never running short.
2.
Eating good quality sources of protein that is slower digesting in nature.
3.
Not dieting (eating excess calories - which you should be because this is required to gain muscle in the first place).
Doing all of these things should ensure that you don't run into problems.
Also note that the old notion that you can only use 30 grams of protein at a time is completely off.
The body is capable of handling much higher doses when it needs to so don't let that influence your meal planning process.
But how much protein is the body able to absorb in a single sitting? Should you space your protein intake out over six to eight meals a day in order to promote optimal absorption? Or can you stick with three meals a day and still meet your needs? Let's look a little more closely at this issue.
Meal Frequency First up, we need to expel the myth that you must eat six to eight meals a day or your body is going to go into a catabolic state.
This is completely false and if you are three hours and one minute out from your last meal, all your progress is not going to come to a halting stop.
Bodybuilding websites often tote that you need to eat so often during the day if you hope to gain weight but the primary reason for this is not to prevent catabolism (breakdown of muscle), but rather to help you get those calories in.
If you are a guy needing 5000 calories a day to build muscle, imagine eating meals consisting of between 1500 and 2000 calories.
You will be STUFFED! Protein Needs Regardless of WHEN you get in your protein, one thing is for certain and that is that you will need enough.
If you aren't eating one gram per pound of body weight, you may not have maximum results from your bodybuilding program and need to get this fixed immediately.
While you don't need much more than one gram per pound, shorting yourself of this number is something you do not want to risk.
Get that protein in, every day, every time.
Protein Frequency Which now brings us to why we're here - to talk about protein frequency.
This is going to depend on a couple of things.
First, whether you have trained in the last few hours.
Immediately after a training period, body utilization of protein will be at an elevated rate, therefore it is a smart plan to get a little more in during this time period.
After that, then we need to look at your individual metabolic rate.
Obviously the faster you are burning calories and metabolizing cellular processes, the increased your need will be for protein frequency.
However, as a result of this, if you eat more protein per sitting then this will counteract this effect since it will take longer to metabolize the protein you did eat at each meal.
Finally, the last factor that comes into play is the form of protein you consumed.
If it was a simple concentrate or whey protein powder, these are digested rather rapidly.
If it was a piece of red meat or some casein protein such as that found in cottage cheese, then your body will be feeding on that for hours (assuming sufficient quantity was given).
So, to sum up, don't stress too much about going three hours without a serving of protein provided you are: 1.
Getting in your total protein needs on a daily basis and never running short.
2.
Eating good quality sources of protein that is slower digesting in nature.
3.
Not dieting (eating excess calories - which you should be because this is required to gain muscle in the first place).
Doing all of these things should ensure that you don't run into problems.
Also note that the old notion that you can only use 30 grams of protein at a time is completely off.
The body is capable of handling much higher doses when it needs to so don't let that influence your meal planning process.
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