Day 19: Exercise and Protein Intake
Barb is a 50-year old woman who just had her menopause. She was concerned about sarcopenia—the muscle wasting that happens as one gets old and the consequent weakness that may lead to disability. To prevent this, she shed a couple of pounds to reach her BMI, learned Tai-Chi to gently strengthen her muscles and joints, and now she’s ramping up from walking exercises to running and cycling, having found much benefit from the activities. She has more energy in the morning and no longer crawls out of bed with a headache. Her knee joints no longer bears the pain of carrying too much weight. She goes to sleep the moment her head hits the pillow, instead of the usual tossing and turning and counting sheep while praying Hail Marys for world peace.
She heard from a friend that protein is necessary and to prevent injuries and muscle wasting, and to recover fast, she needs to take tons of protein supplements. But because Barb knew her friend was part of an MLM, selling protein supplements, Barb was skeptic. Although Barb had been doing the 40-Day Challenge of the Culinary Medicine Facebook group, she still doesn’t know whether she’s eating enough protein after reading #Day17. Barb did some research and typed, “Protein and exercise NIH.” This should provide a list of evidence-based publications and not just opinions and blogs from hobbyist. She found a position paper from the International Society of Sports Nutrition on Protein and Exercise.
And here are the key take aways from her readings:
1) When she eats a good source of protein before or after exercising, especially when doing strength training (weight lifting, push-ups, sit-ups, and the like), she can build and maintain a healthy muscle.
2) To build and maintain muscle mass, she needs a positive protein balance by eating 1.4 to 2 gms of protein per kg body weight per day.
Because she weighs 50 kg, this means eating about 70-100 gms of protein.
Meat and fish are the highest sources of protein in food and one 4-oz serving can deliver about 17-19 gms of protein (fish) and 27 gms (chicken), But because Barb is a vegetarian, she is very concerned about protein deficiency. If she eats a whole pack of silken tofu, she gets 20 gms of protein. She plans to use silken tofu for snacks as a base for her smoothie and jello-like dessert topped with sweetened red beans, berries and chopped dates. She found some plant-based high protein milk that she can also use for her tea, coffee, and smoothie. She just need to read the labels and discover more protein sources as illustrated in #Day18 Challenge.
3) For those who restrict their calorie intake to lose weight, they need to increase their protein intake to 2.3 - 3.1 gm/ kg/ day to prevent loss of lean body mass.
Barb needs to switch her carbohydrate source to one with a higher protein content. She found kamut, teff and quinoa to have the highest protein among grains. She can use these grains for the Whole Grain and Herb recipe from #Day14.
4) Those who do resistance training can benefit from more than 3 gm/kg/day of protein intake and this can promote fat loss.
Barb decides to add planks, sit-ups, and push-ups in between or on top of her cycling and running.
5) For athletes, it’s recommended to have 20-40gms of protein per serving.
Since Barb doesn’t consider herself an athlete who cycles and runs for more than 2-4 hours a day, she doesn’t need to concern herself with this.
6) A good protein dose must have a high content of leucine (a small-branched chain amino acid), about 700-3,000 mg, which is known to be beneficial along with the other essential amino acids.
Barb found a list of foods with their leucine content in this article, Where to Find Leucine in Food and How to Feed Elderly With Sarcopenia in Order to Counteract Loss of Muscle Mass: Practical Advice
7) The protein doses should ideally be taken every 3-4 hours across the day.
Barb is happy that she can snack on legumes, especially peas and nuts, and include tree nuts as toppings for her frozen blueberry with cashew milk chiller.
8) The optimal period to consume protein can be anytime within 24 hours of exercise because the muscle-building benefit of strengthening exercises last up to 24 hours. Protein is therefore necessary as a precursor.
9) It’s possible to meet the daily protein requirement by eating whole foods but for those who restrict their calories while on training and for those athletes who do rigorous exercises, protein supplementation is beneficial and may prevent muscle loss and injury.
10) Supplements that contain rapidly digested proteins with high essential amino acids and leucine can stimulate muscle protein synthesis.
11) Bioavailability can be an issue and one need to look for good quality protein supplements.
12) Eating whole food sources with the complete essential amino acids should be the focus.
Barb has learned how to eat complementary protein sources like whole grain + beans to achieve the complete amino acid profile she needs.
13) Endurance athletes need to ensure adequate carbohydrate intake to perform well and use protein to prevent muscle damage and help in recovery.
Barb plans to use rye sourdough bread for her peanut butter or almond sandwich because she read that the metabolic profile of this type of sourdough bread has more of the short-branched chain amino acids.
14) Some take 30-40 gm of casein before sleeping to increase muscle protein building. This may help but it doesn’t have an effect on fat breakdown.
She heard from a friend that protein is necessary and to prevent injuries and muscle wasting, and to recover fast, she needs to take tons of protein supplements. But because Barb knew her friend was part of an MLM, selling protein supplements, Barb was skeptic. Although Barb had been doing the 40-Day Challenge of the Culinary Medicine Facebook group, she still doesn’t know whether she’s eating enough protein after reading #Day17. Barb did some research and typed, “Protein and exercise NIH.” This should provide a list of evidence-based publications and not just opinions and blogs from hobbyist. She found a position paper from the International Society of Sports Nutrition on Protein and Exercise.
And here are the key take aways from her readings:
1) When she eats a good source of protein before or after exercising, especially when doing strength training (weight lifting, push-ups, sit-ups, and the like), she can build and maintain a healthy muscle.
2) To build and maintain muscle mass, she needs a positive protein balance by eating 1.4 to 2 gms of protein per kg body weight per day.
Because she weighs 50 kg, this means eating about 70-100 gms of protein.
Meat and fish are the highest sources of protein in food and one 4-oz serving can deliver about 17-19 gms of protein (fish) and 27 gms (chicken), But because Barb is a vegetarian, she is very concerned about protein deficiency. If she eats a whole pack of silken tofu, she gets 20 gms of protein. She plans to use silken tofu for snacks as a base for her smoothie and jello-like dessert topped with sweetened red beans, berries and chopped dates. She found some plant-based high protein milk that she can also use for her tea, coffee, and smoothie. She just need to read the labels and discover more protein sources as illustrated in #Day18 Challenge.
3) For those who restrict their calorie intake to lose weight, they need to increase their protein intake to 2.3 - 3.1 gm/ kg/ day to prevent loss of lean body mass.
Barb needs to switch her carbohydrate source to one with a higher protein content. She found kamut, teff and quinoa to have the highest protein among grains. She can use these grains for the Whole Grain and Herb recipe from #Day14.
4) Those who do resistance training can benefit from more than 3 gm/kg/day of protein intake and this can promote fat loss.
Barb decides to add planks, sit-ups, and push-ups in between or on top of her cycling and running.
5) For athletes, it’s recommended to have 20-40gms of protein per serving.
Since Barb doesn’t consider herself an athlete who cycles and runs for more than 2-4 hours a day, she doesn’t need to concern herself with this.
6) A good protein dose must have a high content of leucine (a small-branched chain amino acid), about 700-3,000 mg, which is known to be beneficial along with the other essential amino acids.
Barb found a list of foods with their leucine content in this article, Where to Find Leucine in Food and How to Feed Elderly With Sarcopenia in Order to Counteract Loss of Muscle Mass: Practical Advice
7) The protein doses should ideally be taken every 3-4 hours across the day.
Barb is happy that she can snack on legumes, especially peas and nuts, and include tree nuts as toppings for her frozen blueberry with cashew milk chiller.
8) The optimal period to consume protein can be anytime within 24 hours of exercise because the muscle-building benefit of strengthening exercises last up to 24 hours. Protein is therefore necessary as a precursor.
9) It’s possible to meet the daily protein requirement by eating whole foods but for those who restrict their calories while on training and for those athletes who do rigorous exercises, protein supplementation is beneficial and may prevent muscle loss and injury.
10) Supplements that contain rapidly digested proteins with high essential amino acids and leucine can stimulate muscle protein synthesis.
11) Bioavailability can be an issue and one need to look for good quality protein supplements.
12) Eating whole food sources with the complete essential amino acids should be the focus.
Barb has learned how to eat complementary protein sources like whole grain + beans to achieve the complete amino acid profile she needs.
13) Endurance athletes need to ensure adequate carbohydrate intake to perform well and use protein to prevent muscle damage and help in recovery.
Barb plans to use rye sourdough bread for her peanut butter or almond sandwich because she read that the metabolic profile of this type of sourdough bread has more of the short-branched chain amino acids.
14) Some take 30-40 gm of casein before sleeping to increase muscle protein building. This may help but it doesn’t have an effect on fat breakdown.
PROTEIN CHALLENGE #5
Build and maintain body mass by incorporating a strengthening exercise. Start easy with wall push-ups or go-crazy with a daily 3-minute plank below. Ensure adequate protein intake according to your activity level.