After I met with the trainer at BSC, I wanted to learn more about protein.
WHAT IS PROTEIN?
Protein is made up of chains of amino acids. Our bodies can’t make all these amino acid, therefore it is important for us to get them within our diet.
WHY IS PROTEIN IMPORTANT?
- Grow muscle and repair the tissue
- Helps athletes maintain blood
- Keep hormones working to fight off diseases
HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU HAVE?
Normal, sedentary people should have 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. To calculate this, take your weight in pounds and divide it by 2.2 to find your weight in kilograms.
Athletes need more protein than the normal person because amino acids are broken down for energy when you exercise. When your glycogen gets low, the body breaks down a little fat but also a little muscle. This is why post-exercise recovery with protein is necessary.
Strength athletes need 1.4 to 1.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.
Runners and endurance athletes need 1.2 to 1.4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. It is less for these athletes in comparison with the strength athletes because endurance athletes tend to weigh less.
After doing the calcs, I need 70g of protein per day.
ENOUGH BUT NOT TOO MUCH!
Too much protein can be bad.
- Extra calories are converted to store body fat, which means any extra calories you intake from protein will be that body fat.
- Extra protein must be processed by the kidneys and liver to get rid of nitrogen byproducts. Kidneys have to flush out toxins in urine, so excess protein can lead to dehydration!
- Loss of calcium in urine. This can lead to osteoporosis!
I am sipping on a strawberry, banana, blueberry, peanut butter shake with protein powder to help my Ragnar Recovery! YUM! Keep an eye out for some more posts featuring protein!
All information from today’s post is from ESPN’s Protein nutrition for athletes by Sharon Howard.
Are you getting enough protein?
I am getting good at logging all my food on MyFitnessPal.com. I will be keeping track now to make sure I am reaching my goal!
What is your favorite recovery food?
BANANAS!! And I love my protein shakes!
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YAY love this post!! ineed to check if i am! i thnk so! although being a vegan means my intake is less than it used to be!
I found an interesting article on vegan protein intake. I’ll post probably next week!
That smoothie sounds awesome. Good info on the protein…so important for us to know!
Protein is hard for me, because I don’t find that all protein keeps me full the same way. Is all protein created equal? Is that completely crazy?
Not all proteins act the same (Well from what I am reading that’s what it seems like). I will do a post on some more of this (or what research I find). I find it all really interesting!
Great post – great info. Bananas are definitely my fav post-run protein.
Thanks! I’ll keep an eye out for it!
Hey, I’m a new follower. I recently bought some protein! Hope it works. lol
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