In fitness, strength sports and sports nutrition in general, the most common question is probably the topic of proper protein intake. There are many myths and extremes in this area - on the one hand, some athletes are inappropriately inspired by professionals and take excessive amounts of protein, on the other hand, a large part of recreational and performance athletes have a lack of quality protein in their diet. What about protein dosage according to the latest scientific findings?
In order to optimise health and weight in the "public", to protect muscle mass in the elderly and for good recovery in recreational athletes, it is advisable to slightly increase protein intake to 1.2 - 1.6 g/kg compared to the official recommended protein intake for the general public (0.8 g/kg, 15% of energy intake). Of course, it depends on the proportion of active body weight and age, gender, type of sporting activity performed and health status.
In athletes, the ideal dosage of protein for maximum stimulation of protein synthesis, increased strength and the proportion of active body weight and muscle volume is in the range of 1.6 - 2.2 g/kg. This applies to all sportsmen and sportswomen who seek to adapt their body to strength training, whether it is strength sports (bodybuilding and fitness, CrossFit, weightlifting, etc.) or strength training performed as part of conditioning in other sports (e.g. hockey, athletics, etc.). In the context of natural training, it is indeed true that further increasing protein intake to 2.2 g/kg has no further effect on increasing protein synthesis even further and building new muscle mass. However, this is not true for athletes taking doping substances, where this upper limit naturally shifts and higher amounts of protein are involved in protein synthesis, which would be unnecessary for a natural athlete.
For athletes and female athletes in caloric deficit, who are trying to maintain muscle mass and strength in a reduction diet, to sculpt the figure and lose fat or to drop weight into the weight category, the appropriate dosage of protein is in the range of 2.2 - 3.1 g/kg. Although this amount of protein cannot further increase protein synthesis in natural athletes, it can still greatly help to achieve the desired shape, fat loss and weight loss. This is due to the high thermic and satiating effect of protein as well as its effect on increasing resting metabolism. This has been used for many years by all athletes in bodybuilding and fitness categories in the last weeks before competitions.
The ideal protein content in one meal for maximum stimulation of protein synthesis is 0.40 - 0.55 g/kg. You don't have to stress about the recommendation to take in no more than 30 g of protein in each meal, because the human body can't process more than that. It is a myth and nonsense. The utilization of 10 - 50 g of protein from animal sources is between 91 - 98% in the average person! In addition, strength training further increases protein utilization in the hours after strength training - the harder the training the more protein is utilised up to 48 h after training. Lower doses of protein in a single meal also count towards a full day's protein intake of course (better than no protein at all), but a single amount below about 20 g will do nothing to increase protein synthesis in the muscles (mTOR stimulation by leucine).
Therefore, a frequency of 4 larger meals per day supplemented with protein supplementation to achieve supra-physiological blood amino acid concentrations and mTOR stimulation appears optimal. Again, we will add that the same may not be true for athletes taking doping substances, where protein synthesis is constantly enhanced by other pathways.
For the sake of completeness, let us add again and again that even long-term increased protein intake, according to current scientific knowledge, has no proven negative health effect in healthy people up to 2.2 g/kg and in athletes in the short term within a few weeks up to 3.1 g/kg.
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