A quick update this time: Tom and I are going to record next Wednesday (March 29th), and will likely release the episode the following Monday. I’m new to this experience, so I’m trying to make sure we have enough time to do whatever editing needs to be done, etc. At any rate, we should have a completed episode for you early April!
Just a reminder, we’re still seeking questions to answer during our show, in particular questions about protein or related topics (e.g., amino acids, peptides, etc.). As long as we get your question before next Wednesday, there’s a good chance we can get to it during the show, especially if it’s protein-related. If I receive the question here, I’ll also answer it personally, though I’ll wait until after the show (so if you’ve submitted a question and haven’t gotten an answer, don’t fret—I just want you to listen in, first! I’ll answer them all via email afterwards as well, if the question came through email).
If you have a question, you can ask it in the comments here, on Facebook, or via the form on the “Ask a Question” page.
Mark your calendars: Monday, April 3rd is our (semi-) official release date for Episode 1!
Here’s some stuff I’ve been wondering about:
1. As far as we know, are all proteins we eat completely digested to amino acid monomers before they are utilized by our bodies? Is there any evidence that eating a specific type of protein is better than eating the equivalent amounts of its constituent amino acids? How does this relate to “release rate” and maintaining anabolism throughout the day?
2. It’s tempting to turn to a few convenient high-protein foods to meet my protein intake goals. What’s the risk of eating a less diverse, but simpler and more convenient diet – say for example, eating 3-4 eggs every day? Conversely, is there a benefit to getting your protein from a wide variety of sources, given that you’re already accounting for protein quality?
3. (This is kind of a selfish question, because it’s specific to my case) I’ve not really paid much attention to my diet at all, but I’m maintaining a healthy body weight just fine. That said, my energy is low and climbing just 3x per week leaves me constantly sore. I’ve just now begun trying to ensure that I’m getting your reccommended protein intake (~20g, 5x day), whereas beforehand I don’t think I was getting nearly that much. Is this a good first step to improving my diet? What other key diet advice should I be following? PS – I’m in my mid 20’s and I’m pretty much sedentary except for climbing.
4. Generally speaking, what notes or data should I be keeping to help me track whether my diet is working? Weight, total caloric intake, macronutrient ratios, protein sources, energy levels, training performance? Which metrics are most informative, and what can we learn from them?
I answered the first two questions in the Guide for Episode 1, but not the latter two, so I’ll answer them for you here:
3. Absolutely, improving protein intake is a great first step towards improving your diet. Without adequate protein, muscle repair is slowed, which might not necessarily translate into more soreness but does mean more time before full-strength is reached again. Along with adequate protein, though, adequate calories are also important. In fact, that’s probably slightly more important than getting adequate protein as the calories are necessary to fuel the muscle repair; getting enough protein but inadequate calories is like supplying the materials but not the labor—you won’t get much out of it! Of course, even without adequate calories, protein will help prevent muscle protein breakdown, so it’s still good, it’s just not ideal. So, in the end, I would say that one other easy “first step” towards an improved diet (and more energy and less soreness) is to get enough calories to maintain weight, essentially by increasing them to the point that you do start to gain weight and then backing them up a bit until weight is once again maintained.
4. The best things to track diet-wise are all objective. Weight is the easiest, but since weight fluctuates (and doesn’t tell much about whether it’s fat or muscle being gained or lost) it’s also not particularly accurate. If you want a bit better information, you can track your waist circumference, or if you have skinfold calipers (and know how to accurately use them) you can use those to track your rough body fat % (even if it’s not going to be exact compared to methods like DEXA scans, it’ll be consistent as far as skinfolds go and that tells you which direction you’re heading). Diet-wise, tracking calories will give you an idea of your overall energy intake per day, and then if you want to be more specific you can track your macros as well. You can also track energy, performance, and other subjective measures, but due to us humans’ easily biased nature it’s difficult to be certain any changes are diet-related and not actually related to something else (sleep, for example) or just a placebo effect.