Down The Drain
By: Jacob Reynolds
Many people believe that protein supplementation after a workout will increase their muscle size. Yet, considering the average American diet, most people should have enough protein to promote synthesis of muscle tissue. Many companies want you to believe that a protein shake after a workout is beneficial in retaining the results, but the protein that is not used in resynthesis is simply excreted from the body. For instance, intenseworkout.com states, “Some of the diet basics are eating at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight EVERY DAY whether you worked out that day or not. Protein is the building block of muscle. If you can’t get at least 1 gram of protein per pound every day from real food, then use a whey protein supplement like powder and bars.” Of course their aim it to ultimately sell you these supplements, but they can not show you any proof that this extra protein is actually effective. Another way to put this, according to musclehack.com, is if you weighed 160 pounds you should be shooting for about 160 grams of protein every day while weightlifting. Tarnopolsky stated that 1 g/kg of protein is sufficient to retain muscle mass in men even as while weightlifting 75 minutes a day, for 5 days a week. According to United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for protein is .8 grams per kilogram, which results in around 60 grams of protein per day; the numbers that these popular muscle-building websites give you are about twice the RDA value. According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommendations, powerlifters should consume around 1.6 g/kg, while endurance athletes should consume around 1.2 g/kg. This is a much smaller number compared to the 2.75 g/kg suggestion that the websites previously mentioned websites advise bodybuilders to consume. Robert M. Russell M.D. of talktoadoctor.com, says that consuming more than 2 g/kg a day of protein can be a stressful stimulus for the kidneys, and becomes a greater concern as the aging process takes place and organs become less efficient and effective. Going back to the example of the 160 pound person, if they consumed an average American diet of 2,000 calories, they would consume around 75 grams of protein per day, assuming that about 15 percent of the diet was composed of protein. According to the musclehack.com and intenseworkout.com, an additional 80 grams of protein a day, in the form of protein supplementation, would be required to retain muscle mass. If you were to drink “Monster Milk” which contains 40 grams of protein and costs about 4 dollars per bottle, this would get you to the amount of protein that many people would recommend. However protein can not be stored in large quantities in the body, so anything over the recommended daily income will eventually be excreted as waste. In other words, excessive and expensive protein supplementation oftentimes results in an almost literal flushing of money down the drain.
