The Protein Craze Needs to Die
Goddam high-protein popcorn and high-protein ice cream are all the proof you need.
The first part of this 2-parter examined some of the reasons behind the “protein wars” and how you, the average American, got drafted into them. My conclusion was that most of you don’t need to worry about, much less count, how many grams of protein you ingest daily. However, there are exceptions to that advice.
The Protein Needs of Rug Rats
Obviously, children, at any age, do not thrive on maintenance or, heaven forbid, sub-maintenance levels of protein. Heck no. They’re constantly growing and as such need extra protein for tissue repair and tissue growth. Consider that enzymes are made of protein too and they’re crucial for digestion, blood clotting, energy production, muscle contraction, and a whole lot of other body functions.
So, rather than the .8 grams per kilogram of bodyweight, infants typically need between 1 and 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram. As the child grows bigger, protein requirements will need to be adjusted. For example, a 20-pound baby (9.1 kilograms) would need between 9 and 14 grams a day. If they’re one of those freakishly large, circus-attraction babies you occasionally see on the Internet and would pay good money to gawk at, they’ll need much more. Do the math.
The Protein Needs of Old Bastards
You’d think that old bastards are winding down and thus need less of almost everything, including protein, but with the possible exception of Metamucil.
As mentioned above, the hormones and enzymes that regulate most of your bodily functions are made of protein. Proteins comprise antibodies and they also transmit signals between different cells, tissues, and organs. On a larger scale, they form the scaffolding upon which cellular constituents are built.
Hell, the cells in your body couldn't even move without actin, a protein involved in contraction of muscle cells, cell locomotion, and even cell division. And none of the preceding takes into account that your body needs protein to regenerate the billions of cells that are constantly dying.
Unfortunately, protein isn't stored and if sufficient quantities aren’t provided through the diet, the body starts unashamedly stealing it from the muscles. The protein-deficient body gets weaker and weaker and this is exactly what's happening in a lot of old people.
A 2017 study found that old people who consumed the least amount of protein were almost twice as likely to have trouble walking or climbing stairs as those who ate the most (1). Another study done in 2018 had similar findings (2).
Carry out this loss of muscle to its logical conclusion and you can imagine falls and broken hips and living out the rest of their lives being painfully jostled between wheelchairs and beds. Often, that lack of mobility further weakens muscles and subsequently the body, setting the stage for infections and diseases for which there are no recovery. Mental functions fail, too. Healing slows. Jigsaw puzzles are purchased. And death comes early.
Not to mention all the stress these things might impose on the people that, for some strange reason, love these old coots.
Maybe you think that these worries are overblown. After all, as I mentioned, the RDA says the protein requirement for normal, non-athlete types is only .8 grams per kilogram of bodyweight, which is just a duck snort of protein, easily accomplished by just having three-square meals.
But even achieving that milestone often isn’t realistic for old people. They often have poor appetite, don't digest and process proteins very well, have dental issues or trouble swallowing, are often trying to fight off some sort of malady and you can easily see how they might need more protein, a lot more protein.
Determining the exact amounts of protein needed by old folks is an imprecise science and highly individual, but research seems to point to an intake of at least 1 to 1.2 grams per kilogram, with Tufts University suggesting this amount be increased to 1.2 to 1.5 grams per kilogram in cases of acute or chronic illness, or after hip or knee replacement.
So, at 1.2 grams per kilogram, the protein requirement for an elderly 150-pound woman, for example, would be roughly 82 grams while an elderly 180-pound man would need 97 grams. These numbers would escalate to 102 grams (for the hypothetical elderly woman) and 123 grams (for the elderly man) in cases of illness or surgical recovery.
This intake would best be spread out over three meals.
The Protein Needs of Athletes and Bodybuilders
Typically, protein recommendations for athletes are all over the place, with some supposedly college-degreed dietitians even doubting the need for them to ingest any additional protein beyond the RDA (0.8 grams per kilo per day).
This lack of agreement has generally been blamed on widely divergent study participants. Subjects were often of different ages or a specific sex, had different training statuses, different protein intakes, different sources, and different doses.
The best way to come up with some sort of consensus of protein intake, then, is not to look at individual studies of just a few protein-chomping people, but to look at a whole bunch of these studies to see if, collectively, they pointed a meaty finger towards some sort of recommendation.
Robert Morton, a Canadian exercise scientist from McMaster University, did just that. He compiled 49 protein studies comprising 1,863 men and women who'd been lifting weights between 6 and 52 weeks. While no study, meta or not, is definitive, this one begs to be taken seriously based on size if nothing else.
Morton found a distinct relationship between total protein intake and fat-free mass (muscle). He also found that dietary protein supplementation significantly increased one-rep maxes and cross-sectional muscle-fiber area (muscles got bigger).
No real surprises there, but his statistics did show that protein intake beyond 1.62 grams/kilogram didn't result in any further resistance-training related increases in fat-free mass. That means that 1.62 grams/kilogram might be what we should all strive for to maximize our muscle-building efforts.
Converted to pounds, this is what 1.62 grams per kilogram looks like for various bodyweights:
• 110 grams a day for a 150-pound lifter.
• 129 grams a day for a 175-pound lifter.
• 147 grams a day for a 200-pound lifter.
• 166 grams a day for a 225-pound lifter.
But as specific as this 1.62 grams/kilogram top-end protein requirement is, there are probably outliers among us who would gain even more mass with even larger amounts of protein. Not everyone fits into a neat, tidy little protein window.
Still, this number seems to be a good target for the majority of athletes -- especially bodybuilders -- to shoot for, but the rest of the population – with the exception of children and old folks -- should maybe apply for a deferment so they don’t have to participate in the protein wars.
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1. Mendonça N et al. Protein Intake and Disability Trajectories in Very Old Adults: The Newcastle 85+ Study. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2019 Jan;67(1):50-56. PubMed.
2. Hruby A et al. Protein Intake and Functional Integrity in Aging: The Framingham Heart Study Offspring. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2020 Jan 1;75(1):123-130. PubMed.
3. Morton, Robert W., et al. "A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults," British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2017, July 11th.
*Reads this while snorting protein powder through a straw*
Heya,
So yeah, you pulled the proverbial "Barry Sanders", you zigged when I thought you were going to zag, and while I have some ideas on what the upper echelon of strength athletes should/do/have take(n) for protein intake, especially bodybuilders, you've covered the basics of what the vast majority should be doing.
Nutrition partitioning and timing is something you've touched on before, along with insulin resistance, I think trying to find the balance of what to eat when, and how much is such a balancing act for ALL of us, since we are all SO different. For those serious enough to go down that rabbit hole, logging your meals (macros especially) will give you a true look at what works for you compared to what doesn't.
Most will never do it, but knowing what works for YOU nutritionally, hormones, workouts, makes things 2nd nature after a certain point, and something that gives you a sense of confidence that you KNOW your body.
As always, your talent to write in such a way to convey all this knowledge into an entertaining, readable way for all of us for decades is something I've come to look forward to on every new article my man, thank you.
Have a great weekend all.