few questions i need answered!

[predator4]

right, this is my first post, i been workin out for around 6 months. but having read this diet section i have realised that my diet is absolutely rubbish! on a "GREAT" day, i will have weetabix in morning, and spaces of around 3 hrs where i have plate of pasta, whey protein shake, 4 fish fingers and a cod, tuna salad sandwich, whey protein shake again, and a fruit sumwhere in the middle!

i have seen changes with my body but slowly! but i have a few questions.

i have read often that people take around 200g of protein per day. however the body can only properly digest 30g every 3 hrs ish? so even with 6 meals (which seems like a lot in the first place) u can only digest 180g! now this calculated figure to me seems like a maximum for an effective metabolism. so how do u can u eat that much. there is no point right?

im amazed how much u guys eat. im not saying this is wrong but wat gets to me is that u eat all this EVERY day? how is this possible? do u sit at home all day next to the clock and prepare food for urself all day? i am not criticising but don't u have work? don't u just go out sometimes with friends for a day. do u lock urself in all day just to get ur food? or do u carry all these things in a huge bag around with u? i just want to get familiar with ur lifestyles aswell so i can put it into practice!

today, i had to go work from 11-8, meaning i left at 10 and got home at 9. thats my whole day gone and this was one day after doin intense shoulders. i bought some nutrament and a chicken tikka baguette on my lunch break, and i had my fish fingers earlier but thats all! how do u guys manage?

thanks

 

[Emma-Leigh]

Welcome!

i have read often that people take around 200g of protein per day. however the body can only properly digest 30g every 3 hrs ish? so even with 6 meals (which seems like a lot in the first place) u can only digest 180g! now this calculated figure to me seems like a maximum for an effective metabolism. so how do u can u eat that much. there is no point right?

There is no set amount that your body can digest at a given meal - that is a 'myth'. How much protein you should eat should be determined by your body weight, your lean mass, your activity level and your overall goals.

From this post I explain:
The body can ABSORB a LOT of protein in one meal - the bodies digestive system has the enzymatic capacity to digest and absorb amounts far in excess of what anyone would need (the only time this is not the case is if you have a medical condition which limits your ability to digest the protein or you consume MASSIVE MASSIVE amounts - in which case the bulk of the meal will push the protein through your intestines at a speed that will overwhelm your enzymatic capacity)...

However, the amount your body can actually UTILISE is completely different.... (That is - the amount of protein that your body will use as amino acids for muscle growth and repair, for enzymes, for hormone formation and for other cells and their biochemical processes..). This is related to your lean mass, your metabolism/physiology, your hormone levels, what type of workouts you are doing/how active you are etc etc... And it is very hard to determine just how much your body needs (however - The levels of protein that we all take in actually far exceed our actual requirements)....

eg: a 200 pound juiced man with 8% BF and a 110 pound female with 25% BF may both digest/absorb a meal with 50g of protein in it - but their ability to utilise that protein as PROTEIN will be vastly different.

So, in the case above, if that smaller female ate 50g of protein the excess amino acids that are not needed for their repair/growth purposes will be deaminated and converted to energy via gluconeogenesis... And if you don't need glucose at that point in time, then will then be stored as glycogen (and, in the event that all your glycogen stores are packed up then it will go one step further and be converted to be stored as fat).

But it is safe to say that if you get ~1-1.5g protein per pound lean mass (usually 1.2 to 1.5 to be on the 'safe side') and make sure most of that is from complete forms, and then you divide that evenly over your day then you don't need to worry about just 'how much you can digest/absorb/utilise as will be getting more than enough to give your body all the amino acids it needs...

So, if you know your weight and BF% then multiply your lean mass by 1.5g and then that will give you the amount of protein you should eat.

If you do not know your BF% then just multiply your total weight by ~1.25g and, provided you are not massively overweight, then this should be sufficient too.

im amazed how much u guys eat. im not saying this is wrong but wat gets to me is that u eat all this EVERY day? how is this possible? do u sit at home all day next to the clock and prepare food for urself all day? i am not criticising but don't u have work? don't u just go out sometimes with friends for a day. do u lock urself in all day just to get ur food? or do u carry all these things in a huge bag around with u? i just want to get familiar with ur lifestyles aswell so i can put it into practice!

Yes I eat that everyday... And I don't consider it a hassle at all. Infact, I am so used to it now that I don't even notice it.

How do you manage? With a LOT of tupperware and a few hours on the weekend.

I simply spend sunday morning cooking up most of my meals. eg: I will make home-made protein bars or slices (which I use for 2 of my meals) and boil up some legumes/barley (which I use for another of my meals). I then wrap up the bars individually and store them in the fridge (so I can just grab them each day) and I seperate the barley/legumes into serving sizes, before adding some protein (tuna) and storing them in the fridge. Then during the week all I have to do is chop up some salad type stuff (lettuce, tomato, mushroom, cucumber) and add this to the mix and I have another meal done. I usually do two days at a time - so I only do this 2-3 times a week as well.

This means the only meals I make everyday are pre and post workout (both shakes - so these take me all of 5 minutes to prepare), breakfast (oats - which only takes a few minutes in the microwave) and dinner (very simple meal of something along the lines of stir-fried or steamed fish, eggs and vegetables)... So I do not end up doing more than the average person in this regards.


It is a matter of priorities. Most people find enough time to watch the telly for 1 or 2 hours of an evening - and even if you didn't want to spend some of the weekend preparing food you could simply use 30 minutes of that time prepare your food for the next day.

You can also make it REALLY easy and eat the same thing for 3 of your meals (eg: chicken, vegetables, rice, olive oil). Then you just make up a HUGE batch and divide it into 7 serves (one for each day) and then you just take one day worth and eat ~1/3 of the serve at each meal.

Add on breakfast (eg: bowl of oats + a scoop of protein powder + some walnuts), a post-workout shake (whey + banana + skim milk) and make yourself a good meal for dinner (steam some fish and vegetables + some avocado) and you have a simple plan that will work.