Can Protein Increase Your Muscle and Training Results?

By Mandy Gibbons

Getting Fed Up with Your Lack Of Muscle Tone? Frustrated with Your Muscle Growth?

Have you ever wondered why you weight train like crazy and yet your muscle tone decreases? You've increased your weights, cardio'd your head off to lose extra body fat, so you can see your muscle definition, but none of this seems to work. You are not sure what you are doing wrong but you are getting fed up not getting results.

So why Would Protein Help?

When exercising, particularly weight training, our bodies need plenty of protein to develop and maintain muscle. Protein is broken down into amino acids, then turned back into protein to produce and repair our muscles after our training session. Because amino acids can be burned by the body during exercise, especially aerobic exercise, it is important that we make the effort to supplement our muscles to help them repair faster and more efficiently.

What Happens to my Muscles if I don't Bother to Increase my Protein Intake?

At the beginning of this article I mentioned instances that you may be familiar with. If you are training hard and don't bother to supplement your muscles with extra protein your muscles can start to deplete - due to your body turning to muscle / protein as a source of energy.

So how Much Protein Should I be Taking?

This depends on your body size, training schedule and program. It is important that you increase your intake to cater for your training so your muscles can survive your training sessions.

Protein intake required for the average person - who performs a light amount of exercise.
Approximately 1 gram of protein per kilo of body weight

Protein intake required an Athlete who has a heavy training schedule that involves alot of resistance exercise, sports specific training or weight training
Approximately 2 grams of protein per kilo of body weight

Protein intake required for the person - who has a hard core heavy weight training schedule.
Approximately 2.5 grams of protein per kilo of body weight

The above are approximations and examples to give you some idea of what the bodies requirements are for protein. Notice the difference in the protein intake for the programs that involve more muscle damage?

Keeping Up with Consuming Larger Amounts of Protein

Such high intakes of protein can be difficult to keep up with on a daily basis. So as well as including the following protein sources in your low fat healthy eating program you can also use a protein powder. (see below)

Sources of protein:
Lean Red Meat, Lean White Meat: Fish, Chicken or turkey (no skin), Eggs (preferably egg whites) Beans and legumes (which are high in carbohydrates). Nuts (nuts are also high in fat)... just to name a few.

When performing regular resistance training try to include a source of protein in each meal. Say for instance: Breakfast: 2 x poached egg whites, morning snack: 1 x protein shake, lunch: lean chicken with salad sandwich, afternoon snack: 1 x protein shake, dinner: grilled lean read meat or fish with veggies. If you are still hungry late at night, and you've been training hard, you might want to also have a protein shake before going to bed, as this is your peak muscle recovery time. 2 x protein shakes per day should be sufficient for the average person wanting to increase lean muscle mass. If just after a light snack after dinner try a low fat, low GI style yogurt - small, single serve tub.

Protein Powders

Protein Powders help supplement your eating program with the necessary muscle nutrients that your body requires such as Amino Acids (mentioned above), Vitamins and Minerals. Protein powders are a convenient way of ensuring you receive an adequate protein intake. There are so many protein powders available to us now. You can choose from a variety of different flavors, different powders for different training needs and even easier to mix powders that can be mixed in shakers rather than blenders. One more thing too. Make sure that you drink lots of water when increasing your protein intake to prevent dehydration and to help the digestion of your protein. Some people prefer to cycle their protein intake here and there to give their body a rest from trying to digest large amounts of protein. Like a cleansing process.

Eating "real food" is important so don't go overboard gulping down protein shakes with every meal because you'll more than likely find that you'll end up consuming too much. Which is not only as waste of protein powder but you could cause yourself to raise your calorie intake too high.

Just a few last words!

It is important before starting any new eating program to check with your doctor regarding increases or decreases in certain food intakes and food sources. You should now have a better understanding of why protein is important for assisting with your training. Your eating program and training program work hand in hand to help you achieve the training goals you have worked so hard for.

For more information on Personalised Training and Low Fat Eating plans please feel free to visit my site: http://www.virtualfitnesstrainer.com

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Happy Training!

© Mandy Gibbons
Virtual Fitness Trainer
http://www.virtualfitnesstrainer.com

Persons who are of good health, suspect of their health or are aware of any conditions, physical deficiencies or diseases should always consult a physician before undertaking any eating or exercise program. Mandy Gibbons, Virtual Fitness Trainer, www.virtualfitnesstrainer.com.au and www.virtualfitnesstrainer.com disclaims any liability or loss in connection with the above program or advice given in this article.