science fair project *help*

[jeremys]

me and a couple buddies are going to measure gains in LBM w/ a diet consisting of more than 1g/protein per lb of bodyweight compared to a diet consisting of a protein intake of less than 1g per lb of bodyweight.

he's in PL and i lift at home, so the basic variable there is that we'll both be doing a routine consisting of progressive resistance weight training. (good enough?)

we're gonna do a couple-week cycle of each diet. at the beginning and ending of each of those cycles, we'll be measuring gain(or loss) of weight, in pounds, and bodyfat%

are there any major variables i'm leaving out?

help

 

[Ms knight]

hubby(knight69) said to look up zone diet on internet>hubby screws around a lot w/ you all here but he does know how to get and stay BIG>The Zone diet is the latest nutrition strategy that promises to improve athletic performance, reduce body fat and increase muscle mass. It recommends consuming 40% of your daily caloric intake in the form of carbohydrate, 30% as protein, with fat making up the other 30%.

Despite its popularity, there is little evidence that the recommendations made in The Zone Diet can improve athletic performance. However, it is essentially a restricted calorie diet. For individuals wanting to lose body fat, there is no reason why the Zone diet would not prove effective.

This type of diet is nothing new. In fact, the Greek long-distance runner Stymphalos claimed that a meat based diet (rather than the vegetarian diet popular with most Greek Olympians) was responsible for his Olympic victories in the fifth century BC [2].

The Zone diet is based primarily on protein intake. Dr Barry Sears, the author of The Zone Diet, suggests consuming between 0.8 and 1.0g of protein per pound of lean body mass. For a hypothetical individual weighing 180lb, with a body fat percentage of 12%, daily protein intake would work out between 127g and 158g per day. Because protein should represent 30% of daily caloric intake, daily fat consumption would be 70g, with carbohydrate intake at 211g. The daily energy requirement of the Zone diet for a 180lb individual works out at approximately 2106 calories.

 

[jeremys]

sorry, but that has nothing to do with what i asked. thanks anyways i think

 

[Ms knight]

sorry misunderstood you.

 

[The Shadow]

yeah......on eis high protein - one is low...make sure that the calorie differential is accounted for somehow

 

[The Shadow]

oh yeah calories shouls also take into account dirrerence in body weight

 

[jeremys]

yeah..would one person doing one amt of protein and another doing another amount be better than having a couple ppl doing the same thing for a couple weeks then recording the results and basing findings on that?

we will try to keep a 2-3:1 carb to protein ratio

 

[Ms knight]

Just a little info i found in knight69 file.

Lower Carb, Higher Protein Twice As Effective
High Protein Diet Increases Fat Burning & Improves Metabolism

Champaign, Ill. - New research suggests a diet higher in protein and lower in carbohydrates than currently recommended may help people maintain desirable body weight and overall health.

For 30 years, fad diets and various nutritional recommendations have come and gone, said Donald Layman, a professor of nutritional science at the University of Illinois. The result: Americans take in more calories than ever, obesity is at an all-time high, and heart disease rates equal those of the 1970's.

In addition, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta recently announced a 10 percent rise in the rates of cardiac deaths among 15 to 34 year olds between 1989 and 1996, and that just 25 percent of Americans over the age of 18 met basic physical activity recommendations in the 1990's.

"The situation is one of the worst public health fiascos we've ever seen," said Layman, who also is a professor of internal medicine in the UI College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign. "We may have fewer people dying from heart disease, but that's only because our medical recovery is better. We also are looking at an approaching onslaught of Type 2 diabetes. I think we have a very good reason to re-evaluate where we are at nutritionally."

Layman's research focuses on the relationship between exercise and nutrition, particularly what balance of food helps maintain sufficient muscle mass so a person can efficiently expend energy to maintain a healthy body. Portions of the following recent study led by Dr. Layman were released in early April during the annual meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology in Orlando, Fla.

 

[The Shadow]

yeah..would one person doing one amt of protein and another doing another amount be better than having a couple ppl doing the same thing for a couple weeks then recording the results and basing findings on that?

we will try to keep a 2-3:1 carb to protein ratio

Not necessarliy.....both eat the same amount of protien per pound of lbm....say 1.5 grams



then both drop to half that amount....just replace those lost cals form protein so that the total amount of cals thruout is constant

 

[jeremys]

there's an idea

 

[The Shadow]

if you do not balance the calorie totals...you have no way of knowing if it was the protein that made the difference, the lowering of total cals or both.....

 

[jeremys]

true. now how do i know how many cals for each person to take? it'd be impractical for my friends to eat as much as me. they range in weight from about 145 to 170. i weigh ~255

 

[aalox]

he's in PL and i lift at home, so the basic variable there is that we'll both be doing a routine consisting of progressive resistance weight training. (good enough?)

For this experiment (and experiments in general) you want to keep everything exactly the same except for the variable (protein intake). Even if you use exactly the same equipment doing exactly the same workouts, and you carefully decide and document the differences in diet (how much carbs and how much fat will replace the protein in the lower-protein diet), you will have to deal with the physical differences between you and your friend. These differences introduce too many variables to make this a practical experiment. Studies like this are done either on identical twins or on very large groups of people, where the physical differences are known beforehand and statistically "filtered out" of the results.
You should try something simpler, like some basic measurement of exercise equipment or food supplements - a measurement that does not include any person!

 

[jeremys]

For this experiment (and experiments in general) you want to keep everything exactly the same except for the variable (protein intake). Even if you use exactly the same equipment doing exactly the same workouts, and you carefully decide and document the differences in diet (how much carbs and how much fat will replace the protein in the lower-protein diet), you will have to deal with the physical differences between you and your friend. These differences introduce too many variables to make this a practical experiment. Studies like this are done either on identical twins or on very large groups of people, where the physical differences are known beforehand and statistically "filtered out" of the results.

that's true. my teacher did try to tell me almost exactly that....well what else could i do?

 

[aalox]

that's true. my teacher did try to tell me almost exactly that....well what else could i do?

I'm thinking, "strength curves." Do you have access to various brands of weight machines (e.g. Hammer, Nautilus and MedX)?

 

[jeremys]

no ...just a bench and barbell w/ lighter dumbbells. i'll have a squat rack in the near future

 

[aalox]

You could try to assess the fast twitch/slow twitch fiber composition of you and your friends' muscle groups. Check this out.
http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Field/4992/gainchrt.html
For your experiment, you could determine your 1RM for various exercises and then use percentages of the 1RM as values for the x-axis. Do a good strict set for each percentage you choose to use and record the number of reps you can do before muscular failure (however you define it - be consistent throughout.) The rep counts would go on the y-axis. You want to eliminate the cumulative effect of soreness from the data collection so I suggest you determine your max at the beginning of the collection period, and do just one set of one weight percentage per day. Do several exercises per day if necessary to collect all of the data in time.
Your presentation would be one graph per exercise per person. You would be showing how some curves are steep while others are flatter. Try to locate an explanation of muscle fiber composition in some physiology textbook or journal; I doubt that the article in the link would be accepted as a source for this assignment.

 

[jeremys]

spatts..good point.

aalox..thats a great idea. that would be a hell of a lot cheaper and easier. probably easier to find info too

 

[jeremys]

my hyptothesis statement has to be in 'if-then' form. how would this last example by aaolox be put into a hyptothetical statement?

 

[aalox]

I've got it!

You can begin with a model of your musculo-skeletal system as a simple energy resevoir. Suppose that on the bench press, you can lift 300 pounds for ten reps, and the vertical distance you lift the weight for each rep is 18 inches (1.5 ft.) You would be expending (300 lb * 10 * 1.5ft =) 4500 foot pounds of energy. Now say that you try to do a max set of three. If you could expend 4500 ft-lb of energy on this set, you could lift (4500 ft-lb / 3 / 1.5ft =) 1000 pounds! Of course you can't do that, because there is much more to muscle than energy - there is tensile strength, friction, etc.
Your hypothesis should be:
"IF my muscles are simple energy resevoirs, THEN I should be able to expend the same amount of energy on each set, regardless of the number of reps I use (or any other factor.)"
With these measurements, you would simply show that this hypothesis is false - way false!

 

[The Shadow]

true. now how do i know how many cals for each person to take? it'd be impractical for my friends to eat as much as me. they range in weight from about 145 to 170. i weigh ~255

Go with 15-20 time lbm for each person

 

[jeremys]

bump for any more possible ideas