HOW MUCH PROTEIN CAN YOUR MUSCLE USE IN ONE MEAL? What happens when you ask the wrong question? I recently read an online piece by a prominent person in the weightlifting/muscle/protein world and the question posed was basically how much protein can your body can ‘use’ in a single meal? The answer, the author concluded, was eat a lot because it doesn’t matter your body can use a lot. That conclusion seemingly conflicts with things I’ve said that we’ve established through our research.(2, 8, 9, 14, 16, 17) In essence, I’ve said that doses of protein in the range of 20g, or more recently refined to ~0.24g/kg/meal seem to be adequate and maximally stimulate muscle protein synthesis. Based on those data, and admittedly extrapolating to gains in muscle mass, I don’t think your muscle (not your body) can use much more protein. Note the subtle, and yet highly important, difference in the question: how much protein can your body use versus how much protein can your muscle use? Subtle, but incredibly important! Now, I know many will point out that MPS doesn’t always align with hypertrophy and cite this paper.(6) What’s interesting to me when people level that criticism is that they ignore a lot of literature were we and others have shown good agreement between MPS responses to milk and soy(15) and hypertrophy,(5) and between repetitions to fatigue(4) and differing exercise volumes(3) and the subsequent long-term training response.(7) We also have written a commentary on how and why MPS may or may not align with hypertrophy, but to simply dismiss the acute results from processes that underpin hypertrophy is, I think, naive. Anyway, back the main point. What I’ve consistently recommended as a daily intake – read my reviews on this topic(10-13) – is a daily protein dose of ~1.6-1.8g protein/kg/d. Quite simply, you can eat more, lots more, but it’s not going to help your muscle is my point. So you can distribute it as bigger/smaller meals than our per dose recommendation in any manner you wish – I wouldn’t recommend eating it all as one big 150g meal – but eating more protein isn’t going to help your muscle, read here.(1) So what’s the answer? In truth, I don’t think we really know, but what I do know – look at the research – is that your body may be able to process/digest and assimilate more protein, but your muscle can’t. In the applicable sense I’ve consistently seen meals that contain a ‘reasonable’ protein dose (20-40g) as being highly effective in promoting lean mass gains in more than 25 years of research and working with athletes (I used to do that you know). You can consume more in a single meal, but the muscle’s full. A fundamental truism of metabolism is that nitrogen (protein) is toxic to a mammalian system and your body doesn’t have an infinite capacity to store away large quantities of protein in a single meal in muscle. Don’t get me wrong, it can shuttle off amino acids to various pools, but it’s only got a finite capacity to do this, consume 100g at one sitting and you’ll see your blood and, eventually, urinary urea increase drastically. That’s wasted protein folks! I understand in these article it’s at this point I’m supposed to write a bio about why you should read this and think I’m right… I’ve been doing research in protein metabolism for 19 years, published more than 200 papers, and given more than 150 public presentations on this very topic. By no means am I an expert, I never stop learning. But in this case I demur with the opinion expressed in the online piece I read. The sum of the evidence shows that protein intakes spread throughout the day are a far more efficient way of getting protein into your muscle. Now, the call for more and longer-term research is always out there and I don’t disagree, but as with many short-term controlled studies the findings are often not supported by longer term research. That’s not because the short-term research was wrong, but because the ability to control how people behave, whether they adhere, and the other variables that impinge upon longer-term studies multiply it’s MUCH harder to show long-term effects. So beware small sample size longer-term studies with insufficient power to detect changes in muscle mass if they were there! Reference List 1. Antonio J, Peacock CA, Ellerbroek A, Fromhoff B and Silver T. The effects of consuming a high protein diet (4.4 g/kg/d) on body composition in resistance-trained individuals. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 11: 19, 2014. 2. Areta JL, Burke LM, Ross ML, Camera DM, West DW, Broad EM, Jeacocke NA, Moore DR, Stellingwerff T, Phillips SM, Hawley J and Coffey VG. Timing and distribution of protein ingestion during prolonged recovery from resistance exercise alters myofibrillar protein synthesis. J Physiol 591: 2319-2330, 2013. 3. Burd NA, Holwerda AM, Selby KC, West DW, Staples AW, Cain NE, Cashaback JG, Potvin JR, Baker SK and Phillips SM. Resistance exercise volume affects myofibrillar protein synthesis and anabolic signalling molecule phosphorylation in young men. J Physiol 588: 3119-3130, 2010. 4. Burd NA, West DW, Staples AW, Atherton PJ, Baker JM, Moore DR, Holwerda AM, Parise G, Rennie MJ, Baker SK and Phillips SM. Low-Load High Volume Resistance Exercise Stimulates Muscle Protein Synthesis More Than High-Load Low Volume Resistance Exercise in Young Men. PLoS ONE 5: e12033, 2010. 5. Hartman JW, Tang JE, Wilkinson SB, Tarnopolsky MA, Lawrence RL, Fullerton AV and Phillips SM. Consumption of fat-free fluid milk after resistance exercise promotes greater lean mass accretion than does consumption of soy or carbohydrate in young, novice, male weightlifters. Am J Clin Nutr 86: 373-381, 2007. 6. Mitchell CJ, Churchward-Venne TA, Parise G, Bellamy L, Baker SK, Smith K, Atherton PJ and Phillips SM. Acute post-exercise myofibrillar protein synthesis is not correlated with resistance training-induced muscle hypertrophy in young men. PLoS ONE 9: e89431, 2014. 7. Mitchell CJ, Churchward-Venne TA, West DD, Burd NA, Breen L, Baker SK and Phillips SM. Resistance exercise load does not determine training-mediated hypertrophic gains in young men. J Appl Physiol 113: 71-77, 2012. 8. Moore DR, Churchward-Venne TA, Witard O, Breen L, Burd NA, Tipton KD and Phillips SM. Protein ingestion to stimulate myofibrillar protein synthesis requires greater relative protein intakes in healthy older versus younger men. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci In press: 2014. 9. Moore DR, Robinson MJ, Fry JL, Tang JE, Glover EI, Wilkinson SB, Prior T, Tarnopolsky MA and Phillips SM. Ingested protein dose response of muscle and albumin protein synthesis after resistance exercise in young men. Am J Clin Nutr 89: 161-168, 2009. 10. Phillips SM. Dietary protein for athletes: from requirements to metabolic advantage. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab 31: 647-654, 2006. 11. Phillips SM. Dietary protein requirements and adaptive advantages in athletes. Br J Nutr 108 Suppl 2: S158-S167, 2012. 12. Phillips SM, Moore DR and Tang JE. A critical examination of dietary protein requirements, benefits, and excesses in athletes. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab 17 Suppl: S58-S76, 2007. 13. Phillips SM and van Loon LJ. Dietary protein for athletes: from requirements to optimum adaptation. J Sports Sci 29 Suppl 1: S29-S38, 2011. 14. Robinson MJ, Burd NA, Breen L, Rerecich T, Yang Y, Hector AJ, Baker SK and Phillips SM. Dose-dependent responses of myofibrillar protein synthesis with beef ingestion are enhanced with resistance exercise in middle-aged men. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab 38: 120-125, 2013. 15. Wilkinson SB, Tarnopolsky MA, MacDonald MJ, Macdonald JR, Armstrong D and Phillips SM. Consumption of fluid skim milk promotes greater muscle protein accretion following resistance exercise than an isonitrogenous and isoenergetic soy protein beverage. Am J Clin Nutr 85: 1031-1040, 2007. 16. Yang Y, Breen L, Burd NA, Hector AJ, Churchward-Venne TA, Josse AR, Tarnopolsky MA and Phillips SM. Resistance exercise enhances myofibrillar protein synthesis with graded intakes of whey protein in older men. Br J Nutr 108: 1-9, 2012. 17. Yang Y, Churchward-Venne TA, Burd NA, Breen L, Tarnopolsky MA and Phillips SM. Myofibrillar protein synthesis following ingestion of soy protein isolate at rest and after resistance exercise in elderly men. Nutr Metab (Lond) 9: 57, 2012. - Stu Phillips
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 19:47:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015