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March 17, 2021

Does Protein Distribution Effect Muscle Mass?

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 12:28 am

When it comes to the accretion of new muscle mass, protein intake is one of the primary variables to consider. Common discussions range from how much protein, protein source and bioavailability, refractory periods, and protein distribution.

This article will give a brief distillation of the currently available evidence and offer clear and concise recommendations to optimize protein distribution throughout the day and maximize your results.

Protein’s Role in the Body’s Functions

Protein serves various functions in the body, including but not limited to growth and maintenance of tissue,1 catalyze biochemical reactions,2 recovery from injury,3 and normal immune function.4

But of particular interest is its role in the synthesis of skeletal muscle. Muscle protein synthesis (MPS)5 is the process by which our bodies synthesize new muscle tissue. It’s a primary variable that galvanizes tissue remodeling.

Muscle protein breakdown (MPB)6 is an oppositional effect whereby muscle proteins degrade. This effect occurs through autophagy, and calpain, and the ubiquitin-proteasome systems.6

The balance between these two processes determined whether an individual will gain, maintain, or lose muscle mass.

  • When the rate of MPS outpaces, MPB new muscle is accrued.
  • When MPB outpaces MPS, muscle loss is observed.

Optimize Muscle Mass Gains

A 2019 paper7 by Iraki et al. established recommendations for natural bodybuilders in the offseason.

The authors reiterate what the larger body of evidence suggests: total protein intake is a more significant determining factor in developing new muscle mass than protein distribution.

Currently, the research suggests a protein intake of 1.6-2.2 g/kg per day is sufficient to optimize muscular gains.7

However, when protein, calories, and any resistance exercise protocol are standardized, we still see a slight benefit when protein distribution is optimized throughout the day.

One of the more obvious reasons for this is the refractory period of MPS. The leucine threshold describes the amount of leucine required within a protein feeding to stimulate MPS8 maximally.

Does Protein Distribution Effect Muscle Mass? - Fitness, immune system, resistance training, protein, hypertrophy, Elite Programming, leucine, protein synthesis, bodybuilder, calorie burning, rebuilding, The Recovery Guide

A : changes in muscle protein synthesis (MPS) and muscle protein breakdown (MPB) in response to feeding (i.e., amino acids). B : changes in MPS and MPB in response to resistance exercise and feeding. Chronic application of these anabolic stimuli, as in B , results in muscle hypertrophy8.

Protein quality and bioavailability aren’t the subjects of this article, but generally, what’s observed is animal-based protein seems to be superior to plant-based proteins in most cases.

However, several non-animal-based protein sources are high quality. If you’re interested in diving into this topic, you can get started by reading this paper, and this one, and this one. But I digress.

Assuming a sufficient quantity of protein is consumed, we maximize the MPS response (roughly 20-40 g). This response comes with what’s known as the “muscle full effect,” as described by Schoenfeld et al. in his 2018 paper.9

Essentially, once MPS is maximally stimulated, there is a refractory period by which MPS can’t be maximally stimulated again.

A 2017 paper10 by Kirksick, et al. found “Ingesting a 20-40 g protein dose (0.25-0.40 g/kg body mass/dose) of a high-quality source every three to 4 h appears to most favorably affect MPS rates when compared to other dietary patterns and is associated with improved body composition and performance outcomes.”10

So does protein distribution affect the accretion of muscle mass? Yes, it does, but the effect is small. However, I would caution against assuming that small is synonymous with not meaningful. Its value is relative to the individual and their goals.

Hypothetically speaking, a 1% increase in hypertrophy for an elite bodybuilder may be the difference between 1st and 5th place.

For the average individual, the extra effort may not be worth the relatively small effect on results. It’s up to each individual to determine whether the investment is worth it. Good luck!

References

1. Bosse JD, Dixon BM. “Dietary protein to maximize resistance training: a review and examination of protein spread and change theories.” J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2012 Sep 8;9(1):42.

2. Cooper GM. “The Central Role of Enzymes as Biological Catalysts.” The Cell: A Molecular Approach. 2nd edition. Sunderland (MA): Sinauer Associates; 2000.

3. Yeung SE, Hilkewich L, Gillis C, Heine JA, Fenton TR. “Protein intakes are associated with reduced length of stay: a comparison between Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) and conventional care after elective colorectal surgery.” Am J Clin Nutr. 2017 Jul; 106(1): 44-51.

4. Li P, Yin YL, Li D, Kim SW, Wu G. “Amino acids and immune function.” Br J Nutr. 2007 Aug; 98(2): 237-52.

5. P. J. Atherton and K. Smith, “Muscle protein synthesis in response to nutrition and exercise.” The Journal of Physiology, Vol 59-.5 1049-57.

6. Kevin D. Tipton, D. Lee Hamilton, Iain J. Gallagher, “Assessing the Role of Muscle Protein Breakdown in Response to Nutrition and Exercise in Humans.” Sports Medicine (Aukland, N. Z.). Vol 48, 2018. Suppl 1, 53-64.

7. Juma Iraki, Peter Fitschen, Sergio Espinar, and Eric Helms, “Nutrition Recommendations for Bodybuilders in the Off-Season: A Narrative Review.” Sports (Basel, Switzerland.), Vol. 7.7 154, 26 Jun 2019.

8. Burd NA, Tang JE, Moore DR, Phillips SM. “Exercise training and protein metabolism: influences of contraction, protein intake, and sex-based differences.” J Appl Physiol (1985). 2009 May;106(5):1692-701.

9. Schoenfeld, B.J., Aragon, A.A. “How much protein can the body use in a single meal for muscle-building? Implications for daily protein distribution.” J Int Soc Sports Nutr 15, 10 (2018).

10. Kerksick CM, Arent S, Schoenfeld BJ, Stout JR, Campbell B, Wilborn CD, Taylor L, Kalman D, Smith-Ryan AE, Kreider RB, Willoughby D, Arciero PJ, VanDusseldorp TA, Ormsbee MJ, Wildman R, Greenwood M, Ziegenfuss TN, Aragon AA, Antonio J. “International society of sports nutrition position stand: nutrient timing.” J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2017 Aug 29;14:33.

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February 13, 2021

The Role of Micronutrients in Body Recomposition

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 10:10 pm

When it comes to talking about food and dieting in fitness circles, one of the terms you keep hearing over and over is macronutrients. Its lesser discussed counterpart, micronutrients, are the topic for today.

While often disregarded in the fitness industry, micronutrients are essential for optimal body function and reaching your fitness goals—namely, the purpose of body recomposition.

So if you’re looking to step up your game, expand your knowledge, and improve your health, micronutrients are where you need to start. 

The Difference Between Macro and Micronutrients

Starting with the basics, the difference between macro and micronutrients is in the name—large and small nutrients. This doesn’t refer to their physical size but rather the quantity required in a healthy diet to perform bodily functions.

Macronutrients include the three staples which make up the bulk of your calories:

  1. Protein
  2. Carbohydrates 
  3. Fat

Within the three macronutrients, you have micronutrients.

Micronutrients refer to the vitamins and minerals consumed in smaller amounts and are mostly found within the larger macronutrient group.

For example, avocados are also a fat within the macronutrient grouping and contain the following micronutrients:

However, some micronutrients aren’t found in macronutrients.

For example, vitamin D is created directly from sun exposure. When the UVB rays hit the cholesterol in the skin cells, vitamin D synthesis occurs.

But as a general statement, micronutrients are predominantly found within the three main macronutrients of food.

Essential Vitamins

Daily body functions require an array of different vitamins, and each has a unique role and function.

There are 13 essential vitamins, meaning that they are essential for your body to work optimally. You may experience adverse side effects without them, ranging from dry hair, acne, increased fat storage, and more unfavorable side effects.

Vitamins are in two main categories:

  1. Fat-soluble
  2. Water-soluble 

There are four fat-soluble vitamins: A, D, E, and K.

They are easily absorbed when consumed with fat because they are stored in adipose tissue.

Water-soluble vitamins are the remaining nine vitamins that are not stored in the body, consequently highlighting the need to maintain a healthy, vitamin-rich diet for maximum function and performance.

Some of the functions of vitamins include:

The Role of Minerals

Minerals also help your body to function.

Some examples of minerals are calcium, magnesium, and potassium. Minerals play an essential role in bone health, growth, regulating fluids in the body, heart health, transmitting nerve impulses, and are precursors to many hormones.

For example, as shown in a 2014 study, the mineral iodine is found in the thyroid hormone, which plays a role in metabolism.

Eat the Rainbow

As briefly touched on, we predominately find micronutrients within carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.

Each whole food that is not processed is likely to contain several different vitamins and minerals. Often, these micronutrients cause the food to have a specific color, known as phytonutrients.

Phytonutrients are found in plant foods and correlate with particular vitamins and minerals, which is why people often tell you to eat the rainbow, with each color providing a unique vitamin and mineral density.

Here are some example sources of micronutrients:

  • Calcium: Milk, yogurt, spinach, kale, sardines

  • Vitamin B12: Beef, chicken, fish, cheese, eggs

  • Potassium: Bananas, spinach, potatoes

  • Vitamin C: Oranges, lemons, strawberries, broccoli

  • Vitamin E: Vegetable oils like sunflower, nuts, seeds, spinach, broccoli

  • Vitamin K: Kale, spinach, brussels sprouts, broccoli, fish, beef

As you can see, whole foods and plant foods are rich in micronutrients. If you’re wondering whether you lack any micronutrients, the best advice is to adopt a plant-based, whole food diet that includes foods of different colors that have been processed the least.

This is of the utmost importance if your goal is body recomposition.

Lose Body Fat and Gain Muscle Mass

Body recomposition is a term used in the fitness industry to describe the process of losing body fat and gaining muscle mass.

The way you do this is by:

  • Increasing your energy expenditure
  • Hitting effective and efficient workouts
  • Implementing progressive overload to strategically increase your strength, build muscle, and ultimately boost your metabolic rate.
  • Simultaneously, calories will need to be closely monitored. Eating around maintenance is most often recommended to lose excess body fat.

So how does this link to micronutrients? It comes down to the magic word: optimization.

Optimize Body Recomposition

If you want your body to work as efficiently as possible, you need to be providing it with the tools to do so. As much as trainers would like to believe it’s as simple as calories in versus calories out, there is so much more to it than that.

For example, 100 calories of ice cream are not the same as 100 calories of kale. 

Within a calorie, you have different macro and micronutrient offerings. If you are deficient in any vitamins, you’re not going to optimize your fat loss or muscle gain efforts. You could be preventing yourself from achieving any progress.

For example, vitamin D deficiency is associated with fat storage.

A study that examined low vitamin D levels in a group of women found that those with the lowest levels gained more weight throughout the study, despite not changing their diets. 

Another example of this is B vitamins, which are essential for metabolic function.

If you’re deficient or insufficient in any of the B vitamins, your body is going to be in fat storage mode.

This is because B vitamins’ primary function is to metabolize macronutrients. If you don’t have enough circulating in your blood, you will be storing the calories instead of burning them. A study found that vitamin B supplementation was able to reduce body weight by increasing metabolism.

When it comes to building muscle, if you’re deficient in any nutrients, you will also face similar problems.

Vitamin E is an antioxidant that fights free radical damage and helps to flush out metabolic waste.

During exercise, you create oxidative stress. If you don’t have enough circulating vitamin E, you’re going to experience intensified Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), poor recovery, and stunted muscle protein synthesis. Not ideal. A study published in The International Journal of Preventive Medicine found that vitamin E supplementation improved recovery by reducing muscle damage markers.

If you’re busy counting your macros without much thought for your micros, you need to reprioritize.

Without micronutrients, your body will not perform optimally, you’ll experience adverse side effects, and your fitness goals will move further out of reach.

Adopting a diet rich in whole plant foods with various colors will provide you with most of your micronutrient needs.

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November 12, 2020

Vitamin D Deficiency in Athletes

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 1:03 pm

Vitamin D is often referenced as the sunshine vitamin since the vitamin’s primary source is attained through sun exposure. Yet, many people are vitamin D deficient.

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble hormone that plays a critical role in bone health, muscle function, adaptive immunity, and many human diseases like cancer, diabetes, and musculoskeletal health.2

Vitamin D Deficiency

In fact, vitamin D deficiency is a global public health issue.

About 1 billion people worldwide have vitamin D deficiency, while over 77% of the general population is insufficient.1 So, what does that mean if you are an athlete who plays an indoor sport, trains indoors year-round, and rarely gets outside during the day?

What if you also live in the northern hemisphere? Odds are you are not getting enough vitamin D. Insufficient sun exposure can dramatically increase your risk of vitamin D deficiency. It can lead to a variety of negative health implications and hinder athletic performance.

Research has illustrated that vitamin D significantly affects muscle weakness, pain, balance, and fractures in the aging population.1

Vitamin D plays a key role in:1

Vitamin D deficiency occurs as blood levels drop to less than 20 ng/mL (< nmol/L), while vitamin D insufficiency for athletes is defined as blood levels reaching between 20-32 ng/mL (50-80 nmol/L).

Research has indicated that 40-50 ng/mL (100-125 nmol/L) seems ideal for optimizing athletic performance.1

Who’s at High Risk?

The people at high risk for vitamin D deficiency:1,5

  • Decreased dietary intake: Certain malabsorption syndromes like celiac disease, short bowel syndrome, gastric bypass, inflammatory bowel diseases
  • Decreased sun exposure. Roughly 50% to 90% of vitamin D is absorbed through the skin. Twenty minutes of sunshine daily, with 40% of skin exposed, is required to prevent deficiency.
  • Aging adults: The ability to synthesize vitamin D decreases by as much as 75% as we age.
  • Overweight and obese individuals: Those who carry excess body fat can increase their risk of up to 55% due to vitamin D being trapped in adipose tissue and being unavailable in the bloodstream.

See the previous blog on factors that influence vitamin D levels.

Athletes Who Play Indoor Sports

Athletes who play indoor sports are at a greater risk of vitamin D deficiency.

Hockey players specifically spend a great deal of their time training, conditioning, and competing indoors, making it difficult to attain vitamin D through sun exposure. To add to the statistics, another study found that as much as 88% of the population receives less than the optimal amount of vitamin D.3

Several studies link vitamin D status to bone health and the overall prevention of bone injuries in the athletic population.

Research and Vitamin D Deficiency

Studies have illustrated that inadequate vitamin D levels are linked to a greater risk of stress fractures in young men and women published in the Journal of Foot & Ankle Surgery.4

A study published in the journal, Nutrients assessed vitamin D status among college men and women basketball players in the season. The players were either allocated a high-dose, low dose, or no vitamin D depending on their circulation 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels at the beginning of the study to identify the optimal dosage of vitamin D3 supplementation optimal status.

The findings demonstrated that 13 of the 20 participants were vitamin D insufficient at baseline. Another finding was that of the athletes sampled, and the darker skin pigmentation increased the risk of vitamin D insufficiency at baseline.

Researchers found that most athletes who were vitamin D insufficient benefited from supplementation of 10,000 IU to improve their status.5

Another study concluded black professional football players have a higher vitamin D deficiency than white players.6

The study also suggests that professional football players deficient in vitamin D may also have a greater risk of bone fractures.7

Increasing power output is every athlete’s desire as it can translate into improved performance on the field. Your muscle tissues have several key receptor sites for vitamin D, and they will help support power production.1

A study in soccer players found that increasing baseline vitamin D status over an 8-week period leads to increased vertical jump and 10-meter sprint times.9

Of course, we need further research in this area to identify the relationship between vitamin D levels and power output.

Still, the current literature is promising and that, at minimum, baseline vitamin D levels should be desired.

Sources of Vitamin D

The best vitamin D sources include egg yolks, mushrooms, fortified milk, yogurt, cheese, salmon, mackerel.8

Vitamin D rich food sources:

  • 6 oz. fortified yogurt = 80 IU
  • 3 oz. of salmon = 794 IU
  • 1 cup of fortified cereal = 40 IU
  • 1 cup of fortified milk = 120 IU
  • 1 egg yolk = 41 IU
  • 1 cup of fortified orange juice = 137 IU

Practical applications

Athletes who train indoors, consume little vitamin D rich sources and live > 35 degrees north or south may benefit from a vitamin supplement of 1,500 – 2,000 IU per day to keep vitamin D concentrations within a sufficient range.

Athletes who may have a history of stress fractures, frequent illness, pain or weakness, or overtraining signs should have their vitamin D status evaluated.

Vitamin D is best absorbed when taken with a meal that contains fat.

It is important to follow up with a physician to assess vitamin D levels further and meet with a registered dietitian to discuss nutrition intervention further.

References

1. Ogan, D., & Pritchett, K. “Vitamin D and the athlete: risks, recommendations, and benefits.” Nutrients, 5(6), 1856–1868. 2013.

2. Umar, M., Sastry, K. S., & Chouchane, A. I., “Role of Vitamin D Beyond the Skeletal Function: A Review of the Molecular and Clinical Studies.” International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2018,19(6),1618.

3. Bendik, I., Friedel, A., Roos, F. F., Weber, P., & Eggersdorfer, M. “Vitamin D: a critical and essential micronutrient for human health.” Frontiers in Physiology, 5, 248, 2014.

4. Elsevier Health Sciences. (2015, December 14). “Low levels of vitamin D may increase risk of stress fractures in active individuals: Experts recommend active individuals who participate in higher impact activities may need to maintain higher vitamin D levels.” ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 19, 2020.

5. Sizar O, Khare S, Goyal A, et al. “Vitamin D Deficiency.” [Updated 2020 Jul 21]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2020 Jan-.

6. Sekel, N.M.; Gallo, S.; Fields, J.; Jagim, A.R.; Wagner, T.; Jones, M.T. “The Effects of Cholecalciferol Supplementation on Vitamin D Status Among a Diverse Population of Collegiate Basketball Athletes: A Quasi-Experimental Trial.” Nutrients, 2020, 12, 370.

7. National Institutes of Health – Office of Dietary Supplements – “Vitamin D – Fact Sheet for Health Professionals.” [accessed October 19, 2020].

8. Maroon JC, Mathyssek CM, Bost JW, Amos A, Winkelman R, Yates AP, Duca MA, Norwig JA. “Vitamin D profile in National Football League players.” Am J Sports Med. 2015 May;43(5):1241-5. Epub 2015 Feb 3. PMID: 25649084.

9. Close, G. L., Russell, J., Cobley, J. N., Owens, D. J., Wilson, G., Gregson, W., Fraser, W. D., & Morton, J. P., “Assessment of vitamin D concentration in non-supplemented professional athletes and healthy adults during the winter months in the UK: implications for skeletal muscle function.” Journal of Sports Sciences, 31(4), 344–353. 2013.

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