One of the most frequent, and yet fundamentally important, questions that we get asked at BodyActive is how many calories should I eat to gain/lose weight. How much protein do I need, how much carbohydrates can I eat and am I…

By Alan Aragon: www.alanaragonblog.com / http://www.printfection.com/brainygear  (clothing line)

 

Introduction

A longstanding belief in fitness circles is that the body can only use a certain amount of protein per meal, and the excess is either oxidized or excreted. The ballpark range thrown around is 20-30 grams, with 30 grams being perhaps the most common figure.

This guideline has led many trainees to go through the pains of consuming multiple doses of protein throughout the day, banking that it will maximize muscle anabolism or muscle retention.

Well, true or not, this concept fits in nicely with another longstanding fitness “rule” that you have to eat at least six times per day in order to keep the body’s metabolism revving high. Since the meal frequency and metabolism dogma has been thoroughly debunked [1-5], it’s time to dig into the topic of whether there’s a limit to effective protein dosing, and if so, what that limit might be.

By Lyle McDonald: www.bodyrecomposition.com In A Primer on Dietary Fats – Part 1, I looked at some basic concepts related to dietary fat/lipids including the different primary types of lipid (triglycerides, cholesterol and the ‘other stuff’) as well as the difference…

By Lyle McDonald: www.bodyrecomposition.com   For the past 30 years or so, ever since people started talking about cholesterol and heart disease, there has been a combination of concern and confusion over the topic of dietary fats in the diet.  In…

By Lyle McDonald: www.bodyrecomposition.com   Q: I read in quite a lot of places that fish oil capsules or cod liver oil are a great supplement for controlling inflammation and improving nutrient partitioning, but no one gives any information about dosing.…

By Lyle McDonald: www.bodyrecomposition.com   In a Primer on Dietary Carbohydrates – Part 1, I took a brief look at what carbohydrates are and listed the three primary categories of dietary carbohydrates which are monosaccharides, oligosaccharides and polysaccharides.  As well, I…

By Lyle McDonald: www.bodyrecomposition.com Having previously done a fairly detailed Primer on Dietary Fats, I wanted to do something similar on the topic of carbohydrates (in the future I’ll do one for protein as well).  In this article, I’m not going…

By Lyle McDonald: www.bodyrecomposition.com   Years ago I remember lamenting (and writing somewhere) that I was fairly sick of reading research papers on how eating more fiber was good for people, how it was time for nutritional science to move into…

By Lyle McDonald: www.bodyrecomposition.com   A perennial question, argument and debate in the field of nutrition has to do with how many carbohydrates people should be eating. While the nutritional mainstream is still more or less advocating a large amount of…

By Lyle McDonald: www.bodyrecomposition.com   In Carbohydrate and Fat Controversies: Part 1, I begun an examination of the argument over carbohydrate and fat intakes in the human diet, explaining that, contrary to popular argument, most extremist stances in this debate are…