good article....opinions on it?

[kamaboko]

here's a link to an article on protein cycling. perhaps you've already read it? if not, give it a read. i'd like to hear some of your opinions.

http://t-mag.com/html/10maxim.html

k

 

[Kahn]

Damn, I tried to print it to read it later and the yellow print mess it up (I assume). Anyway, I'll read it later and get back to this.

 

[MS]

Although I am a fan of protein cycling (and everything else including vitamins and minerals, fats and carbs), I think that article is totally lacking in evidence that you need to go 4 weeks at that low of a protein intake. If you read the references at the bottom of the page, you'll see none of them even pertain to protein cycling in humans, and, most of them are pretty old research papers by nutritional standards. I certainly think that no one should eat high protein 24/7/365, and that protein intakes above 2 grams per KILO are unsupported in any scientific literature as necessary for optimal skeletal muscle hypertrophy. However there is a lot of merit in cycling all you macro and micronutrients (including calories) to prevent your body from becoming inefficient at using them, and protein is certainly no exception IMHO.

 

[kamaboko]

MS,

that being the case, can you suggest some good cycling programs?


k

 

[cockdezl]

I agree with MS (as I often do). Although this is a novel idea, there is very little research supporting this concept.

If one begins to look for studies on low protein diets, most are associated with dialysis patients. Some interesting facts about low protein diets are that they seem to dramatically increase thermogenesis and lower insulin function (without affecting insulin sensitivity). But the down-side is that it is at the cost of lean body mass and sleep (low protein diets are by nature low tryptophan diets, which is the pre-cursor to serotonin).

If some people would care to try a shorter version of this diet and post the results, it would be an interesting read.

 

[MS]

I have no 'science' behind this method, but here's a diet I used to get a 45 year old female contest ripped in spite of kidney function problems she was having. She basically ate 2 days of high protein (3g per kg) medium carb followed 3 days of low protein (0.5g per kg) high carb. After 16 weeks of this (with regular higher calorie refeeds) she was the leanest woman in her Master's class (also the most muscular and won her class as well as taking 3rd at National level). This is a sample of one, and is nothing more than anecdotal. But I think it clearly demonstrates that short periods of low protein intake are not gonna strip the muscle off of ya. I also rotate my protein intake quite dramatically when I'm not cutting, and take in anywhere from 40g per day up to 200g per day (as a female @ approx 160-170lbs in the off season). But the rotation is very rapid, sometimes alternate days, sometimes intermediate protein intake, sometimes several days of one level followed by several days at another level. I find muscle gain is very easy using this method, but again this is purely anecdotal and I would also like to see some other people on this board play around with ratios and tell us what happens........

 

[kamaboko]

MS,

good comments. have to ask...where is somewhere in the south pacific? we talkin' micronesia? if so, i lived in that area for a while.

curious, at 160-170lbs in off season, what kind of cals are you downing? do you have a particular bodyweight multiplier you're applying?

k