Protein's role in recovery

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jacksonpt
jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
in Food and Nutrition
  1. What role does protein play in muscle recovery?
  2. Does that answer change if a person is cutting vs maintaining vs bulking?
  3. Can lower than ideal protein intake impact/slow recovery? If "ideal" is generally accepted as 1g/lb LBM, let's use .5g/lb for this conversation.

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  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,922 Member
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    Possibly, depends on the person. Cutting is probably where the most negative impact will happen.
  • MMarvelous
    MMarvelous Posts: 1,067 Member
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    Good questions!
  • RLehotsky
    RLehotsky Posts: 27 Member
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    doctor has me on a 1000 cal diet. I consume most of those calories from protein and I have lost 15 pounds in five weeks. The protein helps regulate my sugar and is a great filler. I had tried everything. finally found something that works. I think that it depends on the individual.
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,951 Member
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    RLehotsky wrote: »
    doctor has me on a 1000 cal diet. I consume most of those calories from protein and I have lost 15 pounds in five weeks. The protein helps regulate my sugar and is a great filler. I had tried everything. finally found something that works. I think that it depends on the individual.
    That's not what's being asked here.

    Jackson

    1. Role of protein in recovery?
    Dietary protein is required to promote growth, repair damaged cells and tissue, synthesize hormones, and for a variety of metabolic activities. There are multiple sources of proteins available; however, animal sources of protein contain all essential amino acids and are considered complete sources of protein, whereas plant proteins lack some of the essential amino acids and are therefore classified as incomplete. There is a significant body of evidence to indicate that individuals who are engaged in intense training require more dietary protein than sedentary counterparts (ie, 1.4-2 g/kg/day). For most individuals, this level of protein intake can be obtained from a regular and varied diet.
    Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20048505

    Personal observation: If I'm not getting enough protein while training, I'll fall apart. I'll accrue soft tissue injuries that won't heal, and I'll just hurt all the time.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    1.) From my uneducated understanding protein matters more for cutting/weight loss in order to make sure we aren't losing substantial muscle mass (this is why high protein and lifting are the aims and are so heavily encouraged for weight loss) So less about "recovery" in that sense of how I would read "recovery"

    2.) yes. protein for cutting matters the most.
    protein for cutting is irrelevant for bulking if you can't 'meet calories.
    Maintenance- I'm of the mind that anything over 100 plus or minus a few is gravy.

    3.) If I'm super low on protein I don't function well. Protein seems to extend my carb life and really get my food to carry me further.... hence why snickers are so full of win. proteins carbs and fat. Takes me the distance. ;)
  • cajuntank
    cajuntank Posts: 924 Member
    edited February 2015
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    Eric gets into answering your question #2 a little with this video
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mic4IELz61w&list=PLEIa3RQDplgzlo_o29F9W5DU4rd1icL0P&index=2

    My opinion on your #3 is, I think there are minimum levels for someone at a specific age range that are sedentary (usually what we see as the RDA minimum) and optimal ranges that increase this amount as we subject our bodies to additional abuse (weight training, catabolic affects of dieting, and increasing in age). From all the information we have at this point (Eric provides those ranges in the link above), one could conclude, that if one is incurring such "abuses" to one's body, anything less than optimal would then be sub-optimal (by definition), thus fairing worse as intake is decreased. So whatever other deleterious affects it might provide, I have got to believe recovery is one of them.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    Hmmm... kinda thinking out loud, now...

    So the concept of recovery is centered on the repair of damaged (fatigued?) muscle tissue. If that happens effectively, then there is less impact on performance and little loss of muscle when cutting. If that doesn't happen, then all sorts of negative things happen. In that regard, recovery is primarily a function of sleep and protein.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    dbmata wrote: »
    Personal observation: If I'm not getting enough protein while training, I'll fall apart. I'll accrue soft tissue injuries that won't heal, and I'll just hurt all the time.

    Similar experiences here.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    JoRocka wrote: »
    3.) If I'm super low on protein I don't function well. Protein seems to extend my carb life and really get my food to carry me further.... hence why snickers are so full of win. proteins carbs and fat. Takes me the distance. ;)

    I've experienced similar, but never heard/read anything to support it.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    Interesting article. Any of you smart/well read folks have any thoughts on this? Seems to generally line up well with most of what I've read.

    http://www.active.com/nutrition/articles/the-role-of-protein-in-exercise-recovery
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,391 MFP Moderator
    edited February 2015
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    Here is another good Article on recovery from Alan Aragon and Brad Schoenfeld
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    Guess I've got some reading/listening to do. Thanks all.

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