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Posts tagged ‘Proteins’

The best diet.

I usually do not do this but this time I will make an exception. Instead of wrtting a blog, I am going put a link to a video that talks about nutrition and diet from a scientific point of view. It is only 15 minutes long and it is explained in a simple manner. In my opinion one of the best videos I have seen. Hopefully you guys like it and learn something from it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqhYBTg73fw . If the link gets blocked, all you have to do is go to youtube and look for Doctor Mike Evans.

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Carbohydrates part 2

It has been a while but I´m finally back (back again), so let us continue with the second part of carbohydrates. I will make it short since most of the important things were already said in the first part (click here). As I mentioned in my last post, carbohydrates have been getting a bad ¨rap¨, and a lot of people blame them for their weight gain. So, they are the first macronutrient ¨punished¨ when someone wants to lose weight.  But carbohydrates, if eaten properly, is an essential macronutrient, and one that should definitely not be completely taken out of your diet.

The thing is, most people completely misunderstand what carbohydrates are. When they think carbohydrates, they think sugar, pasta, or processed foods, but carbohydrates are much more than that. Carbohydrates are found in lettuce, broccoli, spinach, onions and many other healthy foods. So the important thing is that we should try to stay away from refined and highly processed carbohydrates, which can cause trigger cravings, and try to eat whole, natural carbohydrates.

Now, if you are not that active, I would recommend to try to keep your carb intake low. But if you exercise regularly and maintain a low carb diet you could actually be doing more harm than good. As it has been shown that exercising regularly and restricting your carb intake drastically can lead to (1-6):

  1. Decreased thyroid output
  2. Increased cortisol output
  3. Decreased testosterone
  4. Impaired mood and cognitive function
  5. Muscle catabolism

In other words, it leads to a SLOWER METABOLISM and this is the last thing someone wants when losing weight.

And again I will finish by saying that the most important factor when someone is on a diet is the percentage of proteins they eat. So it really doesn´t matter if you go on a low fat diet or a low carb diet, both of them will be more or less effective  as long as  you keep your protein intake high (7-9). Remember that!

Hope you enjoyed it.

References

 

  1. E Danforth, Jr, et al. Dietary-induced alterations in thyroid hormone metabolism during overnutrition. J Clin Invest. 1979 November; 64(5): 1336–1347.
  2. Spaulding SW, et al. Effect of caloric restriction and dietary composition of serum T3 and reverse T3 in man. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1976 Jan;42(1):197-200.
  3. Serog P, et al. Effects of slimming and composition of diets on V02 and thyroid hormones in healthy subjects. Am J Clin Nutr. 1982;35(1):24-35.
  4. Anderson KE, et al. Diet-hormone interactions: protein/carbohydrate ratio alters reciprocally the plasma levels of testosterone and cortisol and their respective binding globulins in man. Life Sci. 1987 May 4;40(18):1761-8.
  5. Tsai L, et al. Basal concentrations of anabolic and catabolic hormones in relation to endurance exercise after short-term changes in diet. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1993;66(4):304-8.
  6. Lane AR, Duke JW, Hackney AC. Influence of dietary carbohydrate intake on the free testosterone: cortisol ratio responses to short-term intensive exercise training. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2010 Apr;108(6):1125-31.
  7. Hu T, Mills K, Demanelis K, Eloustaz M, Yancy W, Kelly N T, He J, Bazzano L.  Effects of Low carbohydrated diets versys Low-Fat Diets on Metabolic Risk Factors: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Clinical Trials. Am J Epidemiol. 2012 October 1; 176: S44-S54
  8. Loria-Kohen V, Gomez-Candela C, Fernández-Fernández C, Pérez-Torres A, Garcia-Puig J, Bermejo LM. Evaluation of uselfulness of a low calorie diet with or without bread in the treatment of overweight /obesity. Clin Nutr.2012 Aug;31 (4): 455-61.
  9.  Soenen S, Bonomi AG, Lemmens SG, Scholte J, Thisjssen MA, van Berkum F, Westerterp-Plantenga MS. Relatively high-protein or ¨low-carb¨energy-restricted diets for body weight loss and body weight maintenance. Physiol Behav 2012 Oct 10;107(3):374-80.

 

 

 

 

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Protein: part 2

Hey guys, so in the first part of proteins, I talked about what they are and why they are so important. I also mentioned that we should be consuming a little bit more than the recommended daily intake, especially if we exercise. Now, I will explain why that is.

You see, your body is constantly building up and tearing down tissue. When there is tissue growth it´s called anabolism, and when there is tissue breakdown, it´s called catabolism.  When we exercise, especially resistance exercise (that is with weights), we are creating tissue damage, in other words CATABOLISM. To recover from that ¨catabolism¨, the body uses hormones and nutrients (proteins) to recover itself and build up more muscle (1). If we don´t have proteins at that moment, the body breaks down tissue (catabolism) somewhere else to get those amino acids……. in other words you could be losing muscle tissue!! The opposite of why most of us train and also really bad for those who want to lose weight.

When we consume proteins, that stimulates protein synthesis (build-up), and can reduce protein breakdown (catabolism) (2). But how much should we consume? Well, according to a recent study the greater the amount of protein individuals consumed, the greater the overall anabolic response. And when individuals consumed 80% of their daily protein in a single meal, it caused a greater overall anabolic response for the day than when the protein was split up over several meals (2). With all this said, there is still no consensus on how many grams of proteins you should consume per day but you should take into account a couple of things:

  1. If you are consuming a caloric surplus (taking in more calories than you are spending) you will require less protein.
  2. If you are in a caloric deficit (to lose weight, you consume fewer calories than what you burn), you will need more protein, so that you don´t lose muscle (4) Mettler et al. 2010)
  3. Women are better able to preserve lean mass (muscle) compared to men during times of reduced caloric intake (3)
  4. And lean individuals in a caloric deficit need more proteins than overweight individuals (4). So, if you weigh 80 kilos and have a lot of muscle, you will need to consume more  proteins than an 80 kg man who is ¨overweight¨ or has very little muscle.

With all this said, the ¨experts¨ recommend taking in between 0.70-1 gram per pound (5).

Now let us get to the topic if too much protein is bad for the kidney.  Within wide limits, there is no evidence that a diet high in protein has any detrimental effect on those with normal renal function(6-8). Now, if you have problems with your kidneys you should NOT be on a diet high in protein. Also, a recent study done in a Spanish university said a diet high in proteins increases the changes of experimenting renal dysfunction (click here). However, this study was done in rats and they were on a diet where the proteins represented 45% of that diet!! The normal recommendations are that proteins should represent just 10%,  45% is 4 times the recommend averages! So of course, I don´t think that is healthy. On top of that I don´t know how much the rats where exercising.  With all this said, I still think that people who want to lose weight should be on a diet high in protein, also those that exercise or are active. On the other hand, those who are  couch potatoes have no reason to be eating more proteins.

Hope you guys liked it. Till next time!

References

  1. Kumar V, Atherton P, Smith K, Rennie MJ. Human muscle protein synthesis and breakdown during and after exercise. J Appl Physiol 2009, 106(6):2026-39.
  2. Wolfe R, Deutz N. Is there a maximal anabolic response to protein intake with a meal. Clinical Nutrition.2013.
  3. Lemon PW. Beyond the zone: protein needs of active individuals. J Am Coll Nutr.200 Oct;19
  4. Mettler, S., Mitchell, N., & Tipton, K. D. Increased protein intake reduces lean body mass loss during weight loss in athletes. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2010.42, 326-337.
  5. Schoenfeld B. The Max Muscle Plan. Human Kinetics.2013
  6. Lowery LM, Daugherty A, Miller B, Bernstein E, Smurawa T. Large chronic protein intake does not affect markers of renal damage in healthy resistance trainer. The FASEB Journal.2011;25:983.25
  7. Lowery LM, Devia L. Dietary protein safety and resistance exercise: what do we really know?. J Int Soc Sports Nutr.2009 Jan12;6:3
  8. Martin WF, Armstrong LE, Rodriguez NR. Dietary protein intake and renal function. Nutr Metab (lond),2005

 

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Proteins and Carbohydrates – When to eat them, before or after the workout?

This has to be up there with the questions I get asked more often. Everyone always wants to know, what they should be eating before a training or what they should be eating after a training?  It´s an important question because, as we are about to see, it could influence your objective. What I am going to talk about in this blog regards all those that are looking to build up muscle. Aerobic exercise is different from resistance exercise and the intake of protein- carbohydrate is also different. Let´s first explain some certain things.

Glycogen- Glucose is stored in the  muscles and liver as glycogen. Glycogen is what gives you the energy when you do resistance training. One study even said that as much as 80% of ATP production during such training is derived from glycolisis (1). And different studies have shown that, after high volume bodybuilding workouts involving multiple exercises and sets for the same muscle (2-3), there is a depletion of glycogen in those muscles. Also, various studies have proven that a low muscle glycogen level impairs anabolic (building) signaling and muscle protein synthesis (3-4). And to top that off, another study has shown that glycogen availability also has been seen to slow muscle protein breakdown (5). So, it is pretty safe to recommend a high intramuscular glycogen content at the beginning of the training.

But what about after the training? Well, according to a recent study (6) it depends. They say that ¨consuming post-exercise carbohydrate does not meaningfully enhance anabolism. Moreover, unless you are performing two-a-day workouts involving the same muscle group(s), glycogen replenishment will not be a limiting factor in those who consume sufficient carbohydrate over the course of a given day¨. In other words, it is recommend to eat carbohydrates 2-3 hours before the training, if you do this then you should not worry about eating carbohydrates right after training, you still have a 3-4 hour window. If you train on a empty stomac (which I don´t recommend), it would be wise to eat  something as soon as you are done with your training.

Proteins- The building blocks of our muscles. Whenever we train we ¨damage¨ our muscle, so there is a breakdown in proteins. Studies have shown that muscle protein breakdown is only slightly elevated after the post exercise but rapidly rises after that. On an empty stomac this increase is even bigger. When we are building muscles, we don´t want this, we want the opposite, that is why training on a empty stomac is horrible for muscle building.

Insulin- When we eat, the insulin level rises in our blood. Insulin has been demonstrated to reduce protein breakdown (8). And consuming a combination of carbohydrates and proteins has been shown to elevate insulin levels more than just eating carbohydrates alone. So it would make sense to eat (or drink) carbohydrates-protein after the workout. But, if we had eaten something 2-3 hours before our workout those insulin levels would still be high and there wouldn´t be such a rush to eat something right away after the training. You see, when we eat something, insulin concentrations rise up over time. So, for example, if you ate a 45g dose of whey protein it would take approximately 50 minutes to cause blood amino acid levels to peak (9). If you would add carbohydrates to that, the insulin leves would even stay elevated longer.

So to summarize this in plain English: It is recommend for muscle building to eat carbohydrates and proteins 2-3 hours before the training. If you do this then you don´t have to worry about eating (protein-carbs) right after the training!!! You still have a 3-4 hour window space to eat those proteins and carbohydrates. If for whatever reason you train on a empty stomac (which you shouldn´t for muscle building), then it is recommended to eat those carbohydrates-protein right after the training, waiting would just cause more protein breakdown!!!

Hoped you enjoyed it. Until next time.

References

  1. Lampbert CP, Flynn MG. Fatigue during high-intensity intermittent exercise:application to bodybuilding. SPorts Med 2002,32(8):511-22.
  2. MacDougall JD,  Ray S,  Sale DG,  McCartney N,  Lee P,  Garner S.  Muscle substrate utilization and lactate production. Can J Appl Physiol 1999,  24(3):209-15.
  3. Robergs RA,  Pearson DR,  Costill DL,  Fink WJ,  Pascoe DD,  Benedict MA,  Lambert CP,  Zachweija JJ. Muscle glycogenolysis during differing intensities of weight-resistance exercise. J Appl Physiol 1991,  70(4):1700-6
  4. Churchley EG,  Coffey VG,  Pedersen DJ,  Shield A,  Carey KA,  Cameron-Smith D,  Hawley JA.  Influence of preexercise muscle glycogen content on transcriptional activity of metabolic and myogenic genes in well-trained humans. J Appl Physiol 2007,  102(4):1604-11.
  5.  Dennis PB,  Jaeschke A,  Saitoh M,  Fowler B,  Kozma SC,  Thomas G. Mammalian TOR: a homeostatic ATP sensor. Science 2001,  294(5544):1102-5.
  6. Lemon PW,  Mullin JP.  Effect of initial muscle glycogen levels on protein catabolism during exercise. J Appl Physiol 1980,  48(4):624-9
  7. Schoenfeld BJ, Aragon AA. Nutrient timing revisited: is there a post-exercise anabolic window? Journal of the international society of sports nutrition 2013,10:5
  8. Greenhaff PL,  Karagounis LG,  Peirce N,  Simpson EJ,  Hazell M,  Layfield R,  Wackerhage H,  Smith K,  Atherton P,  Selby A,  Rennie MJ: Disassociation between the effects of amino acids and insulin on signaling, ubiquitin   ligases, and protein turnover in human muscle. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2008,  295(3):E595-604.
  9. Power O,  Hallihan A,  Jakeman P: Human insulinotropic response to oral ingestion of native and hydrolysed whey protein. Amino Acids. 2009,  37(2):333-9.
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