Hello. I'm YAYA â½, a muscle-building reporter for Yak-Al..

unnamed

‘Have you ever heard the saying 'eating is also exercise'??

While working out is fun, this saying comes from the difficulty of consuming enough food to meet your protein needs.,

So just how much protein should we consume in a day??

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and World Health Organization (WHO)

recommend a daily protein intake of 0.8g per kilogram of body weight..

For a 70kg adult male, this means consuming 56g of protein,,

which is the minimum intake needed to prevent protein deficiency.However, to build muscle mass through exercise, you need to consume

at least 1.2g per kilogram of body weight of protein..

For a 70kg adult male, this means consuming 84g of protein per day..

So for an exercising adult male to consume 84g of protein,

how much food would need to be eaten??

Large eggs (68g basis): approximately 10.3 eggs
Chicken breast (100g basis): approximately 3.6 servings
Canned tuna (100g basis): approximately 4.2 servings

As you can see, we need to consume a large amount of food to meet the daily recommended protein intake.,

However, we have protein supplements, which are an excellent source of protein,so

there's no need to consume such large amounts of food..

This might lead us to wonder:.

‘wouldn't it be more convenient to meet all of our daily recommended protein intake through protein supplements??’

Now, let's explore together whether protein supplements or whole foods

lead to greater muscle growth.!

Study Design

image (30)

Source: Protein-Pacing from Food or Supplementation Improves Physical Performance in Overweight Men and Women from NIH

In the study, 30 participants were randomly assigned to either a whole food group (n=15) or a whey protein group (n=15),

and the research was conducted over 16 weeks..

Both groups received approximately 5-6 meals per day, each containing 20-25g of protein,

and both groups consumed meals distributed evenly throughout the day.Additionally, protein was consumed within 1 hour of waking up and within 2 hours before bedtime.

.

Both groups performed resistance training,, interval sprints,, stretching/yoga/pilates,, and endurance exercise four times per week..

Study Results

Although 30 participants were initially enrolled, 3 were excluded for non-adherence to the whey protein protocol, 3 for unrelated cardiovascular metabolic events, and 3 for injury,

resulting in data from 21 participants (WP n=9, FP n=12)..

image (31)

Source: Protein-Pacing from Food or Supplementation Improves Physical Performance in Overweight Men and Women from NIH

A: Upper body maximum strength
B: Lower body maximum strength
C: Core muscular endurance
D: Upper body muscular endurance
E: Balance
F: Flexibility
G: Grip strength

All measures of physical performance improved significantly,,

and no differences were reported between groups..

Additionally, significant improvements were observed in all body composition measurements, with no differences between groups..

Conclusion

Consuming protein from food alone requires eating very large quantities..
We compared meeting daily protein intake using protein supplements versus whole food sources..
There was no difference between the two groups, so focus on maintaining consistent daily protein intake.!

References

“https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov”, 11 May 2016, Protein-Pacing from Food or Supplementation Improves Physical Performance in Overweight Men and Women
EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (2012). Scientific Opinion on Dietary Reference Values for protein. EFSA Journal, 10(2), 2557.
USDA. (2010). Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.