Bodybuilders and protein: what you need to know

Bodybuilders and protein go together so closely that some people already call it an obsession. The real question, though, isn’t whether you need protein, but how much, from which sources, and when it actually helps muscle growth.

Below, we unpack the ideas from an old Tom Venuto text more clearly: what proteins are, why amino acids matter, why complete protein is important in bodybuilding, and why the standard recommendation may not be enough for hard strength training.

Why do bodybuilders talk about protein so much?

You hear it in the gym all the time: eat more protein, or your muscles won’t grow. Sometimes the talk goes too far. Tubs of protein powder, hundreds of egg whites and kilos of meat are not smart nutrition in themselves.

The simple truth: a muscle needs building material to grow. That building material is called protein. If training breaks down muscle tissue and your food doesn’t supply enough amino acids, the body has nothing to build new, stronger tissue from.

The body is not a static thing. From the outside we look the same, but inside there is constant turnover. Old proteins break down and new ones are synthesized to replace them. The saying of the Greek thinker that you can’t step into the same river twice fits well here: the water keeps moving and the body keeps renewing itself.

Dr. Deepak Chopra has described this with the example of a house. Imagine a brick house where old bricks are continually taken out and new ones put in their place. From a distance the house looks the same, but in reality it is being replaced brick by brick.

The older text points out that 98% of the atoms in our body are renewed within a year. In three years, the human body renews practically the entire skeleton. All liver cells are renewed within six weeks. Blood cells and skin cells are also replaced constantly.

The same goes for muscles. Training gives the body the signal, but food gives it the material. If the material doesn’t arrive, the result you want won’t appear either. That is why bodybuilders are so watchful about protein.

Bodybuilders, protein and amino acids

Proteins are the body’s building material. Skin, hair, nails, bones, connective tissue and muscles all contain protein. Antibodies, enzymes and several hormones, such as insulin, are also protein-based. Hemoglobin plays an important transport role in the body.

After water, protein is one of the most abundant substances in the human body. The original text states that protein makes up 15-20% of total body weight, and 60-70% of the body’s protein is located in skeletal muscle. That is exactly what makes the topic important for bodybuilding.

Proteins consist of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. The last of these is important, because nitrogen can be used to judge whether the body is dominated by building up or breaking down. When more nitrogen comes in than goes out, it is called a positive nitrogen balance. When more goes out, the balance is negative.

Proteins themselves are made of amino acids. You can compare them to the letters of the alphabet. If you had only one letter, you could write very little. With 20 amino acids, the body can build an enormous number of different proteins from them. Growth hormone, for example, consists of 156 amino acids.

For normal growth and development, a person needs all 20 amino acids. The body can synthesize 11 of them itself. These are the nonessential, or dispensable, amino acids. Nine are essential, which means they must come from food.

Indispensable, or essential, amino acids

• Histidine
• Isoleucine
• L-Leucine
• Valine
• Lysine
• Methionine
• Phenylalanine
• Threonine
• L-Tryptophan

Dispensable, or nonessential, amino acids

• Alanine
• Arginine
• Asparagine
• Aspartic acid
• Cysteine
• Glutamic acid
• Glutamine
• Glycine
• Proline
• Serine
• L-Tyrosine

Why does this list matter at all? Because muscle protein synthesis needs all the essential amino acids at the same time. If one of them is missing, the building work doesn’t go the way it should. The body can make some amino acids itself, but the essential ones have to come from your plate.

How should bodybuilders spread their protein?

The original text asks it outright: why should a bodybuilder get complete protein every 2.5 – 4 hours? The answer is that the body doesn’t keep protein in reserve the way it stores carbohydrates as glycogen.

The body can store carbohydrates in the muscles and liver and draw on them when needed. Amino acids, on the other hand, are present in the blood in only a small amount at any given time. That is why it makes sense for a strength trainee to spread their protein intake across the day.

Older bodybuilding advice talks about eating roughly every 3 hours. The same passage notes that a bodybuilder’s 5 – 6 meals should contain complete protein, and that every 3 hours you could take in 30 – 50 g of protein, depending on body weight.

In today’s terms, I’d put it like this: don’t turn your protein into one giant dinner. If you train hard and want to build muscle mass, it’s more practical to eat protein several times a day. That makes it easier to manage your stomach, your digestion and your daily total.

Complete protein means the food contains all the essential amino acids. Among animal sources, this old text highlights eggs, milk, meat, fish, cottage cheese and quark. These are simple, straightforward choices in bodybuilding.

Plant foods contain protein too. Grains, vegetables and legumes can make a decent contribution. The original text gives the example that beans contain on average 15 g of protein per 100 g, but beans lack methionine. Grains, in turn, can fall short on lysine.

Precision matters here. Plant foods can be combined so that the amino acid profile improves, and for an ordinary person that may be entirely enough. With a very large amount of muscle mass and heavy bodybuilding training, however, getting enough complete protein is harder and takes better planning.

Practical protein sources and choices

A good protein source isn’t just one that contains a lot of protein. It also matters how much fat comes with it, how well the food digests and whether it is easy to eat in real life. A bodybuilder who is keeping in shape often has to watch fat intake as well.

The original text recommends limiting the fattier choices: more egg whites instead of yolks, fillet instead of chicken and turkey thighs, and dairy products with a fat content under 1%. This is old-school bodybuilding language, but the idea is clear: pick a protein source that suits your goal and your daily energy expenditure.

Some examples of quality protein sources on a bodybuilder’s menu:

• Chicken fillet
• Turkey fillet
• Fish
• Egg whites
• Beef fillet
• Fat-free and low-fat dairy products
• Protein powders, e.g. whey and casein

On vegetarianism, the original text is rather harsh, especially when it comes to vegan diets. It distinguishes between lacto-vegetarians and ovo-lacto-vegetarians, who eat dairy products, or eggs and dairy products. As an example it cites Bill Pearl, who didn’t care for meat but relied on eggs and dairy products to get complete protein, and who won both the Mr. America and Mr. Universe titles.

Robert Kennedy, publisher of Muscle Mag International and author of the book Rock Hard, Supernutrition for Bodybuilders, was also very critical of veganism. The original text also preserves his claim that 3.7% of Americans consider themselves vegetarians, and 1% of them are vegans, who eat no meat, fish, eggs or dairy products.

Today this is best read as a historical bodybuilding view rather than a final verdict. Fully plant-based strength training is possible, but it takes very deliberate planning. If the goal is maximum muscle mass, it isn’t enough for the menu to contain simply “something protein-rich”. You need an adequate amount and good amino acid coverage.

Bodybuilders and actual protein needs

Protein has been debated for a long time. On one side are the official recommendations; on the other are bodybuilders and strength trainees who say that more is needed to build muscle mass. The original text calls them by the English term protein pushers.

The standard recommendation is 0.8 g of protein per 1 kg of body weight. For example, a 77 kg man would get about 62 g of protein a day by that measure. This amount is intended mainly to prevent deficiency, not to build muscle mass in a heavily training athlete.

At the other extreme are recommendations that speak of as much as 400 – 500 g of protein a day. To be honest, that is neither practical nor necessary for most trainees. Sometimes such numbers come from a commercial interest in selling supplements, or from athletes with a very unusual background.

The sensible answer lies between the two extremes. Dr. Peter Lemon is one of the best-known researchers to have studied athletes’ protein needs. The journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise (19:5, S179-S190,1986) reported that training can raise protein needs, and that for people who train intensively the requirement may be as much as 100% higher than for ordinary people.

Dr. Lemon later wrote in Nutrition Reviews (54:S169-175, 1996) that athletes who do strength training need at least 1.8 g of protein per 1 kg of body weight to maintain a positive nitrogen balance. For a 77 kg man, that comes to about 140 g a day. That is much closer to what many bodybuilders have used in practice.

The original text also mentions a recommendation of at least 2.2 g of protein per 1 kg of body weight per day. It also cites a study of Polish powerlifters (Nutr. Metabolism 12:259-274), in which 5 out of ten lifters were in negative nitrogen balance even when their protein intake was 250% more than the usual recommended amount.

So what is actually going on? When training is hard, recovery is demanding and the goal is muscle mass, the amount recommended for the average person may not be enough. That said, it doesn’t mean every trainee should eat unlimited protein. What matters is your body weight, training volume, energy balance and whether the amount is realistically something you can eat over the course of a day.

FAQ

Do bodybuilders need more protein than the average person?

Yes, especially if you train regularly and your goal is muscle building. The recommendation for the average person may prevent a deficiency, but it may not cover the needs of intensive strength training.

Can all of your daily protein come from a single meal?

In practice, that’s not a good idea. For muscle recovery and digestion, it makes sense to spread your protein across several meals, for example 5 – 6 meals, if that rhythm suits you.

Can you build muscle on a plant-based diet?

You can, but it takes deliberate planning. Getting a complete amino acid profile is easier with eggs, dairy, fish or meat, but plant proteins can be combined wisely.

References

• Dr. Peter Lemon, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 19:5, S179-S190,1986.
• Dr. Peter Lemon, Nutrition Reviews, 54:S169-175, 1996.
• Nutr. Metabolism 12:259-274.

Author: Janar Rückenberg

Source: https://turg.fitness.ee/et

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