There is lots of controversy in the nutrition world about a high protein diet. Meal plans given by your typical dieter will consist of a ratio of 20% protein, 50% carbohydrates, and 30% fat. Protein is the lifeblood of muscle development, and muscle development is the lifeblood of healthy fitness.
There are many more benefits of having a high protein diet. Meal plans should be high in protein especially if your trying to develop this muscle. Protein is used in the body to build, maintain, and replace the tissues in your body. Your muscles, organs, and immune system are all made mostly of protein.
Eating foods that contain protein cause your digestive juices in your stomach and intestine go to work. They break down the protein into small building blocks called amino acids (say uh-mee-no a-sids). The amino acids are then reused to make the proteins your body needs to maintain.
Proteins are long chains of amino acids in different combinations. These amino acids can join together to make thousands of different proteins. There are many different amino acids in protein, but 22 of them are important to human health. Out of these 22 amino acids, you can only make 13 of them without any help from food. Your body can’t make the other nine amino acids, but you can get them by eating protein-rich foods. They are called essential amino acids because it’s essential that you get them from the foods you eat.
So how much protein should I have to be eating a high protein diet? Meal plans I make for myself are extremely high in protein. They usually have a breakdown of 40% protein, 40% carbohydrate, and 20% fat. For my body size, this will pan out to be around 300-350 grams of protein. That is a huge amount of protein, but from my experience, it has only had positive effects.
For the average reader, take a look at your current diet plan or eating habits…you should be keeping a nutrition journal already if you’re not. It will only help you learn what works best for you. Anyways, find out what your diet breakdown is. There are many diet calculators on the web today. I use FitDaymyself. As long as you get a relative figure you should be ok. Don’t make things too exact. More than likely you are going to be taking an larger amount of calories from carbohydrates. Add protein foods like meats, beans, or dairy products and remove portions of your heavy carbohydrate foods like breads, pastas, or starches. This will shift the ratios in proteins favor.
My high protein diet meal plan consist of at least 1.5 gram of protein per pound of body weight. 30-40% of your calories should come from protein. Don’t get too carried away and completely remove your fats. I always suggest replacing carbohyrdates with proteins instead of your fats. Fats are very important for a healthy fitness lifestyle. Dieters commonly try and completely eliminate fats when this will only hurt your results. So try a high protein diet meal plan today! It will prove to be beneficial for you.
If you really want to put on some muscle, you need to check out Go Healthy Fitness’ review of No-Nonsense Muscle Building. It has great information to help transform your body into a great looking figure.
Travis
Check your sources. The recommendation of 1.5g of Protein per unit body weight is for kilograms, not pounds. Your intake, according to this, is >3g/kg if your CBW is 233lb(~105kg). The correct protein requirement following these recommendations for you would be 158g/day. This is still high but for bulking up or endurance athletes this is acceptable. The protein requirement would be more for repair than actual building though. Muscle mass can be gained by modest increases in protein if any at all. There are many Sports Dietitians out there who study this very subject extensively. A quick Google search will pull up a few. One of my former professors is a former bodybuilding and a Sports Dietitian. Articles to considered are referenced here: http://bit.ly/TvJ9i
Good input Ross, but take a look at the article again. I’m recommending 1.5g per pound, im not saying the RDA recommends that. I realize how much protein that is, and from my training experiences this has better effect.
First sentence of this post is “There is lots of controversy in the nutrition world about a high protein diet.” I work with sports dietitians about this subject daily and there are some who agree and some who don’t.
Early in my career I worked with all body builders and thats why I adopted this theory. Like you mentioned, the extra protein is mostly for the repair needed. Thats why I like it.
Thanks for your input though.
What’s most important is that you eat properly even when you’re trying to lose weight. One of the biggest misunderstandings is that you should drastically cut calories when you’re dieting
. In fact, these high-protein low carbohydrate diets can give you a lot more nutrition then you might get with other types of diets. And, for most people, this type of diet is safe and satisfies hunger pangs.
exactly, cutting calories drastically isn’t what works in the long run. Even with a high protein diet, you don’t have to cut carbs that much.
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