#74 - Maximizing Muscle: Mastering Protein Intake and Diet for Optimal Gains

Unlock the full potential of your muscle-building journey with Gus Holland's expert insights on whey protein supplementation. If you've ever wondered how to fine-tune your protein intake to match your body's absorption rate and maximize your gains, this is the episode you can't afford to miss. We're breaking down the science of protein digestion and how to adjust your diet to support both bulk-up aspirations and lean muscle maintenance. Plus, we're tackling the calorie conundrum head-on, demystifying how various workout routines, including cardio, influence your caloric demands.

But it doesn't stop there; prepare to get the lowdown on why a balanced diet trumps all fad trends when it comes to sustaining muscle growth without sabotaging your body's essential functions. We're also shining a spotlight on the often-overlooked importance of amino acids—specifically BCAAs and EAAs—and how a quality supplement can bridge the gap in today's less-than-perfect dietary landscape. Whether you're a seasoned athlete or a fitness rookie, tune in and equip yourself with the knowledge to craft a tailored nutrition strategy that complements your unique physique and training regimen.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Way of Life. I'm your host, gus Holland. Today I'm going to be talking more about whey protein supplementation and building muscle. So, in regards to whey protein, it is estimated that your body can absorb roughly 10 grams of protein per hour. That is more of a ballpark like. It's not like a locked in number, but we'll just go with 10 grams per hour. So if you eat a 40 gram a meal with 40 grams of protein in it, your I mean digestion like you should be able to absorb all of that by the time it is digested.

Speaker 1: 0:43

With that in mind, of the time it is digested, with that in mind, everyone's individual protein intake needs or goals are all going to be different based on your current weight and what your actual end goal is. If you're truly trying to just put on lean mass, then that's going to be a more delicate process of really balancing all of your macros for what works best with your build and your training style as well. Obviously, if you're doing a lot more cardio than someone that's just doing like a five or 10 minute warmup, you're most likely going to be burning more calories, like if you're doing additional cardio like you take somebody that's just doing strength strength training with the five, five or 10 minute warmup and somebody else that's doing the cardio with the same amount of strength training. Obviously it's just based on calories in calories out. So recently and by recently I mean over the past, I don't know 20 years it's been diets have been being pushed more and more. So they're like oh, don't do this, do that, don't eat this, eat this. You know it's kind of all I mean. Obviously, if you have a true like allergy or some some sort of sensitivity or you're lactose intolerant, obviously you need to structure eating around that. But overall, as far as in my opinion goes at least, what works best for me is just a well-balanced diet that goes hand in hand with my training at the time. So your diet should change based on, like, when your goals change, when your training changes, so all that stuff kind of goes hand in hand. If you're kind of going through bulking and cutting phases and all that, obviously your diet's going to change and your workout. So that's kind of why people overcomplicate it, because it changes for everyone and everyone's different. But with that in mind, I mean, if you're trying to gain muscle, you're going to need to consume more calories than what you're burning off or using, and you're going to need to consume more protein than what you're burning off and using. So keep that super simple and basic and play around with everything else, because you got to find what works for you.

Speaker 1: 3:37

In regards to diet. Limiting or restricting your, restricting your dietary protein sources or energy sources in general can actually will lead to some form of muscle catabolism. Basically, this is the disintegration or the depletion or the taking away from the muscle. Also, with these restrictions, you're going to be limiting the release of your amino acids for your energy production, gluconeogenesis and the synthesis of your peptide hormones, as well as other components that are created throughout the body. This includes, but isn't limited to, hgh, which is human growth hormone, adh, which is your anti-diuretic hormone, t3 and T4. So that's why it's important to get a good amount of protein in your body, especially when you are trying to either gain weight in general or build muscle.

Speaker 1: 4:56

As far as amino acids go, there are a lot of amino acids. When people are saying that they take an amino acid supplement, they're normally talking about branched chain amino acids or essential amino acids, eaas. Those are a great supplement because a lot of people discount them, and you can. But in modern society or culture, a lot of our food is poor quality or, especially if you're like a working adult, you're you might not be eating the perfect high quality diet with the perfect amount of macros and blah blah blah. So taking a BCAA supplement, or really any type of amino acid supplement that is of high quality, is going to help you with your protein intake. So it doesn't actually count specifically toward like how many grams per day you've eaten of protein, but what it does is it provides the building blocks to kind of fill in the gaps of any incomplete proteins or poorer quality proteins that you might be consuming. So, on top of that, they're normally pretty cheap as far as supplementation goes, and also you can find a lot of really great tasting BCAA powders that can be added to water, which is also going to hopefully help you increase your water intake.

Speaker 1: 6:40

So, according to the 2020 to 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, most healthy adults over the age of 19 years old should be getting between 10 and 35 percent of their daily calories from protein. So one gram of protein provides four calories and that is a massive gap. I mean obviously because they're including men and women, people of different heights, in people of different heights, um, it's, it's such a big gap of 10 to 35 percent of your daily calories, so I definitely wouldn't go off of that, but that is what is suggested. Um, so I'm just kind of providing that information, the so to, to further explain that gap and how it's kind of ridiculous to even for them to put it out there as like truly helpful advice. So that means if, for a 2000 calorie per day diet, you'd need to consume somewhere between 50 and 175 grams of protein, that's a massive, massive difference. 175 grams of protein, that's a massive, massive difference.

Speaker 1: 8:02

So, um, I kind of, if you're, if you're trying to build muscle, I normally say to do like one to one and a half grams of protein per pound of body weight. Uh, that means if you're 200 pounds and you're trying to really bulk up, put some muscle on, excuse me, gain some strength, um, then you would be trying, trying to consume 200 to 300 grams per day. So now, if you hit, if you hit 200 grams per day and you're seeing excellent results and everything like that, then maybe you found your sweet spot. You need to figure out what is best for you whole thing, where they estimate you can do 10 grams per hour of digestible protein getting absorbed into your body. That means over a 24 hour period you would be able to consume about 240 grams of protein and your body still be able to use it. Now, keep in mind, that is an estimate and the more you can space out your protein consumption the better, because it's easier on your gut and it's obviously going to help your body absorb that protein more efficiently.

Speaker 1: 9:28

And, to be completely honest, 1.5 grams per pound per day is pretty excessive and would only be used in certain specific situations. Most of these studies are going by grams gram consumption per kilogram of body weight. So I get that because you're doing grant grams to kilograms. Uh, in, in America we're using the pounds. You know pounds.

Speaker 1: 9:59

So, uh, just to read exactly, um, what what the studies are saying. So they're, they're current recommended daily allowance, rda is 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. That is primarily for muscle maintenance to maintain how much muscle you have and have a healthy diet. Maintain how much muscle you have and have like a healthy diet, um, so they're suggesting that that is what's required to maintain a perfect nitrogen balance and to prevent muscle loss within your body. So, uh, recent studies have come out where they they did, uh, uh, they changed the protein intakes ranging from 0.5 to 3.5 grams per kilogram of body weight in order to test what was best to increase lean body mass. They were saying that most of the participants plateaued at 1.5 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. Like over recent studies, 80% of studies have reported that participants that are consuming a minimum of 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day uh, which is still much higher, you know, 50% higher than the recommended current recommended daily allowance, saw a significant increase in their lean body mass, lean muscle body mass, and this was especially true to those that were performing resistance training during the studies. So, obviously, just to sum it up, higher protein, higher weights, higher gains.

Speaker 1: 12:32

Natural food source as opposed to supplementation, but supplementation is great to fill in wherever you need to, I mean, and also to provide a variety, so you're not just constantly slamming chicken breasts and stuff. I'm going to wrap this episode up today, but I think I'm going to wrap this episode up today, but I think I'm going to cover it more from a dietary standpoint, like food suggestions and everything on the next episode next week. But if you like this episode, feel free to share it with a friend. That's the number one way to help the podcast. You can also check out wayoflifepodcastcom. That's going to have everything there and you should definitely check that out. Yeah, but thank you all again for hanging out and listening and y'all have a great week. All right, bye.