Protein is used
by our body to build, repair and maintain muscle tissue. As we'll see,
in this area bodybuilders have been way ahead of most nutritional
experts in recognizing that building muscle (in fact, hard training of
all sorts) requires a lot more protein intake than had been formerly
realized.
The body
cannot use the protein you ingest for muscle-building unless all of the
necessary amino acids are present. However, the body itself can produce
only some of these amino acids. The others, called the essential amino
acids, have to be obtained from the foods you eat.
Protein is
made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen (as they are other
macronutrients)
and one more element none of the other nutrients have - nitrogen. If you
ever hear somebody talking about being in positive nitrogen balance or
negative nitrogen balance what they are referring to is whether they are
in an anabolic state - able to build muscle - or in a catabolic one -
losing muscle.
Some foods
contain what is called complete protein - that is, they provide all the
amino acids necessary to produce usable protein. Examples of these foods
are milk, eggs, meat, fish and various vegetable products, such as
soybeans. But even these foods contain differing amounts of usable
protein per weight. That is, even though a food might contain, say, 10
grams of protein, your body is able to use only a certain percentage of
it - only 7 or 8.5 grams.
How much
protein your body is actually able to use for building muscle ?
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