How much Protein is Enough?

It should be noted that there is no recommended daily protein requirement for weight or strength training athletes and additionally, the daily requirements do not increase for people over their ideal body weight. This is because additional protein is not needed to support fat cells.

Here is the general thinking out there from the experts about Protein.
According to Mark Tarnopolsky, M.D., Ph.D., who studies exercise and nutrition at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, highly trained athletes thrive on 0.77 gram of daily protein per pound of body weight. That’s 139 grams for a 180-pound man. However, there are numerous studies that report consuming more than 0.9 grams of protein per pound of body weight provides no additional benefit to the athlete.

Men who work out 5 or more days a week for an hour or longer need 0.55 gram per pound. And men who work out 3 to 5 days a week for 45 minutes to an hour need 0.45 gram per pound. So a 180-pound guy who works out regularly needs about 80 grams of protein a day.

Now, I found this bit of information crucial for weight cutting athletes like wrestlers and MMA fighters; the fewer calories consumed the more calories that should come from protein. To do this protein intake needs to increase to between 0.45 and 0.68 gram per pound to repair and preserve lean body mass or calorie-burning muscle mass (and not cannibalize lean body mass).

“At any given moment, even at rest, your body is breaking down and building protein,” says Jeffrey Volek, Ph.D., R.D., a nutrition and exercise researcher at the University of Connecticut. Donald Layman, Ph.D., a professor emeritus of nutrition at the University of Illinois, says “every time you eat at least 30 grams of protein you trigger a burst of protein synthesis that lasts about 3 hours.”

Based on this says Layman, it seems that most athletes eat the most of their protein at the wrong time to do them the most good. Why? Because most athletes (and people in general) eat most of their protein at dinner and that means they are fueling muscle growth for only a few hours a day, and breaking down muscle the rest of the time. Instead Layman says, athletes should spread out their protein intake.

How much Protein can your body process in a single sitting?
Your body can process only so much protein in a single sitting. A recent study from the University of Texas found that consuming 90 grams of protein at one meal provides the same benefit as eating 30 grams. It’s like a gas tank, says study author Douglas Paddon-Jones, Ph.D., “There’s only so much you can put in to maximize performance; the rest is spillover.” A January 2009 study published in the “American Journal of Clinical Nutrition” found that 20 grams of protein was an amount sufficient enough to stimulate muscle protein synthesis post-exercise. I like this number better. So it appears from the literature there is no benefit to consume in excess of 20-30 grams of protein in one sitting.

So How much Protein is Enough?
Every serious athlete knows they should consume some protein after a workout. But how much, and when? “When you work out, your muscles are primed to respond to protein,” Volek says, “and you have a window of opportunity to promote muscle growth.”

Volek recommends splitting your dose of protein, eating half 30 minutes before the workout and the other half 30 minutes after. A total of 10 to 20 grams of protein is ideal, he says. And add some carbs with the protein, because carbs can raise insulin; this slows protein breakdown, which speeds muscle growth after your workout. Moreover, this way stored protein won’t be used for energy; the carbs will do that.

Volek goes on “resistance exercise breaks down muscle. This requires a fresh infusion of amino acids to repair and build it.” He goes on to say that not preparing the body with protein before and after workouts is “almost counterproductive”. Protein also helps build enzymes that allow the body to adapt to rigorous sports. Everyone, not just athletes, can benefit from the quick hit of protein provided by a protein supplement, like a fast-absorbing, high-quality whey protein powder. “It appears in your bloodstream 15 minutes after you consume it,” Volek says. This critical timing is a key reason for consuming a high quality whey protein supplement.

Whey protein is also the best source of leucine, an amino acid that behaves more like a hormone in your body: “It’s more than a building block of protein—it actually activates protein synthesis,” Volek says. Whey contains 10 percent leucine while other animal-based proteins have as little as 5 percent. This higher amount of leucine is another reason for consuming a high quality whey protein supplement.

Calculate your Daily Protein Needs by entering your Weight in the Chart Below.

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Question #1. Who Do You Listen to?
There is a lot of information out there from many people, and it can be confusing at times who you should listen to because of the abundance of advice and information. They’re are a lot of people who can help you out there, but what you’re looking for is someone that already has what you want. Make sure they have already went through the process of achieving the level of success that you want themselves.  Make sure they have already demonstrated they can achieve the level of success you want. Listen to the coach that has coached State, National & Olympic Champions. This doesn’t mean that a coach that hasn’t coached a champion at any of these levels can’t help you, because I was Richard Depenbrok’s (my high school coach), first state champion and he skillfully and masterfully shaped and coached me to my to two state titles. His coaching created the foundation of all of my future success.

My high school coach, Richard Depenbrok, was highly motivated to learn everything he could to enhance his coaching skills and insight. For example, after my sophomore year, he personally drove me, and a few other dedicated Chardon wrestlers to a summer wrestling camp in the summer of 1972 where he and I personally met Dan Gable (’72 Munich Gold), Ben Peterson (’72 Munich Gold) and John Peterson (’72 Munich Silver), as they were training for the ’72 Munich Olympic Games. Some of the best colleges coaches in the nation were there for my coach to learn from (i.e., Harold Nichols and Les Anderson, Head Coach and Assistant Coach respectively at Iowa State & Gable’s college coaches. Other successful college and high school coaches were also in attendance. I went to that camp finishing a 11-8-3 sophomore season not qualifying for the State tournament to going the next two years undefeated and winning two Ohio state titles.

Was it coincidence? or was it responding correctly to these two questions? I personally know coaches that were so motivated to coach our United States Olympic athletes, that they took assistant coaching jobs at colleges that had Olympic level athletes training there, to gain experience and insight to coaching that caliber of athlete (and also gaining insight from the other coaches there). This led to many of these coaches actually, successfully coaching US Olympians to the Olympic podium. If your goal is to be an Olympic athlete find one of these coaches and start training with these athletes.

Question #2. How Willing Are You to Change?
Once you’re listening and taking in the CORRECT information, how willing are you to accept, adopt and use the new information to actually stop the old ways and change to the new ways.

Before you can change you must be teachable, i.e., how do you respond to someone giving you new and different information. You may want to change, but if you’re not “teachable”, or more simply, haven’t learned the skill of listening with an open mind and coming to the new teacher with complete trust willing to do whatever the teacher says, then the desired change won’t happen. A teacher could be another athletes training for the same thing you are or a coach. What’s your “Teachability Index”? IT MUST BE AT 100%. You can’t pick and choose what you are going to learn and be for example at 80% on the “Teachability Index”. I’ve coached people like that and they think there’re doing pretty good learning from me, but as a teacher and coach I can see the flaws and weaknesses, and ultimately so can the competition.

Summary
I know this sounds too simple but as a coach I’ve watched many athletes fall short of their goals because of answering these two questions incorrectly.

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There is much evidence to support this “more sleep – increased performance equation”, including a study done more than 10 years ago by a Stanford University researcher named Cheri Mah. The athletes she was working with all reported significant increases in performance when they increased their sleep to 10 hours per night. It’s not hard to understand the opposite of this that sleep deprivation can lead to declines in physical performance.

Getting enough sleep increases a host of things including increased; focus, stamina, strength, muscle growth and regeneration to name a few. This is what happens while we sleep. Important hormones are released that are only triggered by darkness and light intervals over alternating 24 hour periods regulated by our bodies “internal clock”. You know what I’m talking about. When this rhythm is working the way it should, we feel rested and we don’t need an alarm clock – we just wake up on cue every morning ready to go. The part of sleep that I am talking about here is REM (or deep sleep) and for at least 6 continuous, uninterrupted hours. That means no waking up or going to the bathroom. So blinds closed with no light or waking up for all of the 10 hours.

When we mess with these rhythms by not getting enough sleep, our metabolism of glucose (which gives us energy) declines, and our level of cortisol (which causes stress) increases. Less Energy – More Stress is an equation for athletic disaster. The longer we are not in the proper sleep rhythm the greater likelihood for diminished athletic performance, not to mention decreased concentration, focus and increased likelihood of injury.

Getting 10 hours of sleep in the proper cycles is naturally anabolic, meaning during deep REM sleep, our bodies release growth hormone, which stimulates the healing and growth of muscle and bone. Sleep benefits can also come in short intervals when we doze off into a deep sleep for 15-20 minutes, sometimes called “power naps”. When we awake from one of these short naps we usually feel refreshed and ready to go. Sleep in these two ways, the long 10 hours at night and the power naps, helps the body in several ways: First, it boosts areas of performance that require top-notch cognitive function, like reaction time and hand-eye coordination. Second, it aids recovery from tough matches, games and workouts. Both of these sleep benefits covers all sports.

Coaches and athletes have known about the importance of sleep for years and many professional sports teams have consulted experts in this area, including Dr. Charles Czeisler, director of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, for advice and guidance in the area of sleep and athletic performance.

The U.S. Olympic Committee began taking the issue of adequate sleep seriously in 2005, when it consulted with sleep specialist Mark Rosekind, a former NASA scientist, to help redo rooms at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and at the 2006 Torino Olympics. Out went twin beds; in came plush-top mattresses, blackout curtains, thermostats set to cool temperatures and reliable alarm clocks. Rosekind and his colleagues pushed for the Olympians to get nine to 10 hours of sleep a night, not the five to seven most young adults manage. “People need to be as smart about sleep,” Rosekind once said, “as they are about diet and exercise.”