Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below ok sorry for such the broad question but i searched on here, wanna be big forums, yahoo, and lycos and couldnt get an understanding...haha. but anyways what is nitrogen retention and nitrogen balance in terms of muscle growth, obviously how much nitrogen the body retains i can see that, but what benefits does higher levels of nitrogen levels give, and why? i relaly have no info on this subject, anybody know any links or info they could provide me with will be much appreciated.
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nitrogen rentention and balance??
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plornive
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Protein is the only macronutrient with nitrogen. If it is known how many grams of protein are ingested, it can be figured out how much nitrogen was ingested. The body excretes nitrogen in many ways --- piss, shit, possibly sweat, maybe more. If I am not mistaken, your nitrogen balance is the difference between nitrogen input and output. Nitrogen retention is just basically body amino acid retention.
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You can think of it as muscle retention, but I suppose not just your muscles are composed of amino acids. Nearly all body tissue cells probably hold some amino acids. Fat cells contain amino acids, internal organs contain amino acids, etc. Furthermore, if an amino acid is used for the production of a hormone or neurotransmitter, nitrogen is excreted because of this.
If your liver uses amino acids for gluconeogenesis, you will eventually excrete that nitrogen and it will affect your nitrogen balance. That is one way you lose lean mass on a diet, and it lowers your nitrogen retention.
You should read some of Lyle McDonald's writings on protein cycling. It discusses how ingesting consistently high amounts of protein causes your body to upregulate the breakdown and excretion of nitrogen. One way to solve this is to increase your protein in bursts. Your body is not able to break all of it down so it somehow assimilates the protein into lean tissue. That is the theory anyway. You have to wonder how it gets assimilated if hormone levels are not also changed.
You ask a very broad question! Ask something more specific, and maybe I know or I can give you a link or something.
Protein is the only macronutrient with nitrogen. If it is known how many grams of protein are ingested, it can be figured out how much nitrogen was ingested. The body excretes nitrogen in many ways --- piss, shit, possibly sweat, maybe more. If I am not mistaken, your nitrogen balance is the difference between nitrogen input and output. Nitrogen retention is just basically body amino acid retention.
READ THIS PART:::
You can think of it as muscle retention, but I suppose not just your muscles are composed of amino acids. Nearly all body tissue cells probably hold some amino acids. Fat cells contain amino acids, internal organs contain amino acids, etc. Furthermore, if an amino acid is used for the production of a hormone or neurotransmitter, nitrogen is excreted because of this.
If your liver uses amino acids for gluconeogenesis, you will eventually excrete that nitrogen and it will affect your nitrogen balance. That is one way you lose lean mass on a diet, and it lowers your nitrogen retention.
You should read some of Lyle McDonald's writings on protein cycling. It discusses how ingesting consistently high amounts of protein causes your body to upregulate the breakdown and excretion of nitrogen. One way to solve this is to increase your protein in bursts. Your body is not able to break all of it down so it somehow assimilates the protein into lean tissue. That is the theory anyway. You have to wonder how it gets assimilated if hormone levels are not also changed.
You ask a very broad question! Ask something more specific, and maybe I know or I can give you a link or something.
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