Like most words used by the food and diet industries, “protein” foods have been misunderstood, misinterpreted and overhyped.That’s how food manufacturers and supplements companies make their estimated $2.7 billion in sales every single year in the sports nutrition field. It’s true that eating enough protein is essential to build muscle, recover from exercise, and burn fat. Protein increases the hormone glucagon that helps control body fat and require 30% of the energy intake they provide to be digested and absorbed – we call that having a high thermic effect.But it’s not a reason to fall for the all-you-can-eat protein mess that’s around.
1.You need hundreds of gram of protein to build muscle
1.You need hundreds of gram of protein to build muscle
Unless you’re a 250-pound heavy weight bodybuilder puffing for air, chances are that you DON’T need to chug down 15 eggs, 5 pounds of chicken and 1 gallon of milk every day.Studies show that you only need 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg (around 0.64-0.9 g/lb) of protein per day to trigger your protein synthesis .Eating more protein than that will help you curb your appetite, but you definitely don’t need 500 g a day.Higher quality sources like grass-fed beef and wild-caught fish will be digested and absorbed more easily than cheap protein sources like hot-dogs and Frankenstein-like spam. Focus on quality over quantity.
2.You absolutely need protein supplements
2.You absolutely need protein supplements
Shakes, bars and powders... these may be handy, but the truth is that most of these supplements are not in a very absorbable form and end up being way less effective than actual food.On top of that, several cheap protein powder brands are contaminated with dangerous heavy metals.Not something that will help you reach your fat loss or health goals.
3-Too much protein harms the kidneys
3-Too much protein harms the kidneys
People with healthy kidneys should not experience any problem from fairly high protein consumption (more than 1.2 g/lb).That being said, poor quality protein (hot-dogs, fake meats, spam, etc.) will often cause other detrimental effects – quality does matter.
