Much Ado About Protein
Would hitting the gym daily, following a diet that’s high in protein and taking expensive protein supplements guarantee a buff body like Will Smith’s or Brad Pitt’s? Most people think so. In fact, a lot of men believe that increasing their protein intake would help build muscles faster and improve their physical performance. Indeed, protein supplements have always been popular among gym bunnies and athletes who treat them like some sort of miracle cure. These come in many forms, with powder drinks and bars as the most popular.
Muscles consist mostly of protein, so logically one would think that a high-protein diet would help grow muscles. But this is not necessarily the case. The current recommended dietary allowance is a mere 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, although this is may not be enough for elite athletes and those engaged in high-intensity exercises.
For the average guy, however, the benefits of a high-protein diet plateau well below the levels typically consumed by athletes. Once a certain protein level is reached, any additional intake will no longer build muscle. Furthermore, excess protein is converted and stored as adipose fat.
There are other potential side effects of excessive protein intake such as an increase in urinary calcium excretion, which may be a concern for females who are prone to osteoporosis. High-protein intakes in conjunction with a pre-existing renal disease may also accelerate the progression of that ailment. Even if you have no renal problems and your kidneys are normal, it is still unadvisable to burden these organs with too much protein.
More alarmingly, problems may occur if one takes amino acid supplements. Large doses of such supplements could potentially be carcinogenic and mutagenic.
So how much protein does one really need? This depends on many factors such as age, gender and amount of physical activity. According to experts, males from 19 to 29 years of age who weigh more or less 59 kilograms need 67 grams of protein per day. Eating a regular burger, a medium-sized chicken breast or a whole fish such as tilapia already provides this. Thos who do sports, however, can consume more than that.
According to sports nutritionists, the daily protein requirement for elite male endurance athletes is 1.6 grams for every kilogram of body weight. For example, if you weigh around 80 kilograms, your protein requirement is 128 grams. Recreational endurance athletes need much lower than that—between 0.8 and 1 gram a day, the same requirement for sedentary males. Power athletes such as those who play basketball need around 1.4 to 1.7 grams, while those who lift weights at the gym need around 1 to 1.2 grams. Body builders may stretch it up to 1.8 grams.
Among the good sources of protein are meat, poultry, seafood and dairy
products. red meat and eggs actually contain the best quality protein, while
cereals contain only a small amount.