MyNetDiary Blog

Trying to Build Muscle? Don’t forget about calories!

Building muscle requires some additional protein but not as much as you would think. There are three keys to building muscle:
1.       Additional calories to support an increase in muscle mass.
2.       Additional protein to support an increase in muscle mass.
3.       Adequate resistance training to stimulate an increase in muscle mass.

I will leave the strategies for effective resistance training to our guest athletic trainers and exercise physiologists - this post will address calories and protein intake.

Protein & Calories

Excess protein beyond the maximum that a body can utilize will not get stored as muscle. Rats! One’s body appears to max out in terms of how much protein it can use “anabolically” – that is, how much protein can be incorporated into other protein tissues over the course of a day.

The RDA for protein for adults is only 0.8 grams of protein/kg body weight (or 0.36 grams/lb body weight). Maximal anabolic use ranges between 1.2 – 1.7 grams/kg body weight (0.55 – 0.77 grams/lb) depending upon sport, with power/strength training in the upper end of the range. For instance, a 68 kg (150 lb) person’s estimated maximal use of protein is going to be somewhere between 82 – 116 grams per day. If that person consumes 200 grams of protein, then up to 84 grams might get used for purposes other than protein synthesis. Nitrogen gets stripped off the protein building blocks (amino acids), and then those carbon backbones get oxidized for energy or they get shunted into other pathways such as carbohydrate production and fat storage. If you are in a calories deficit to lose weight, then those molecules are likely to be used for energy. If you are in a calories surplus, then they are likely to be stored as fat.

If you eat a lot of protein, then you better have good kidneys! The stripped off nitrogen gets converted to ammonia and then to urea, which is then excreted in the urine.

Spread It Out!

The information in this post come mostly from “Advanced Sports Nutrition, Second Edition” by Dan Benardot, PhD, RD, LD, FACSM. Benardot recommends avoiding “peaks and valleys” of intake throughout the day if maintenance or growth of muscle mass is desired. Consuming calories and protein throughout the day in meals and snacks readies the body for muscle growth when an appropriate stimulus presents itself. Consuming carbs and some protein after training appears to be particularly helpful in maximizing muscle growth. As well, good quality protein is important. Whey seems to be particularly helpful – a natural source is milk.

Vegans need to be especially careful to get enough calories and protein for muscle growth. Please see the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics position paper on Vegetarian Diets. If you click on the PDF link, you will see the entire report, which was written by vegetarian dietitians.

What If I Want to Lose Weight?

A calories deficit will allow you to lose weight but weight loss will always include both body fat and some amount of lean body mass (e.g. muscle). You can minimize loss of muscle during weight loss by continuing to exercise, including regular resistance training, and not going too low in your calories intake. When you don’t meet your calories required for basal metabolism, your body accelerates loss of both lean body mass and fat so that your total energy expenditure can drop quickly. You can view your BMR calories in MyNetDiary Details tab on the web, or in My Plan in apps.

Are You Choosing the Right Goal?
If you are a competitive athlete, then consider visiting a sports medicine facility so that your body composition (i.e. percentage of body fat and lean body mass) can be tested accurately. You would benefit from having a weight goal based upon a range of body fat percentage in line with your sport. Contrary to what many athletes assume, sometimes a better goal for performance is not weight loss or gain per se, but a change in body composition. And that may or may not involve a net change in weight.

Have questions or comments about this post? Please feel free to comment on MyNetDiary’s Forum or Facebook page. I would love to hear from you!

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD
Consulting Dietitian for MyNetDiary

More Resources
Benardot, D. Advanced Sports Nutrition, Second Edition. Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL, 411 p.

Clark, N. Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook, Fourth Edition. Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL, 461 p.

Position of the American Dietetic Association, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Nutrition. Nutrition & Athletic Performance. J. Am. Diet. Assoc. 2009;109:509-527. Access online here. Be sure to click on the PDF link below the abstract for the full report.

Disclaimer: Please note that we cannot provide personalized advice and that the information provided does not constitute medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, please visit a medical professional.

Why Did I Stop Losing Weight?

This is huge concern for many of you trying to lose weight. It seems like you are doing everything right yet the scale won’t budge. Or worse, you find that your weight has inexplicably gone up despite eating fewer calories than you burn. What gives?

Body Weight Components

Body weight includes the weight of muscle, adipose tissue (body fat), bone, organs and body fluids. Losing or gaining weight is not simply just losing or gaining body fat; it includes other tissues as well. Losing weight safely means losing primarily body fat with minimal loss of muscle and other tissues.

Variation

Body weight can fluctuate up to about 5 lbs (2.3 kg) throughout the day. Anything that can cause a fluctuation in body water or hydration status can also affect body weight. For instance, certain blood pressure medications, the menstrual cycle, illness, profuse sweating, drinking liquids and eating food will all affect body weight. When your weight stalls or increases unexpectedly, is it associated with a change in any of the above factors? A high-salt diet can play havoc with your blood pressure as well as your body weight. Also, try to weigh yourself under the same “conditions” – e.g. after you wake up and use the bathroom – to minimize variation.

Basic Troubleshooting

Most of the time, folks who are not losing weight are simply not creating enough of a calories deficit over time. Recall that you have to create a deficit of 3500 calories to lose 1 lb of weight. To continue to lose weight, you have to continue to create enough of a calories deficit. And that can be a real challenge.

Most of us either underestimate calories intake and/or overestimate calories burned. This results in a lower calories deficit than expected and therefore, a slower rate of weight loss. Try to be as accurate a record keeper as possible and try to track daily.

Training

Aerobic and resistance training can increase muscle mass as well as muscle glycogen deposition. This small increase in water-rich tissue could mask a small decrease in body fat weight. If your waist or clothing size decreases even without a significant decrease in weight, then it could be that your body composition is changing in a beneficial direction. A shrinking waist is something to celebrate – it is associated with better health. However, weight should eventually drop with continued training in the presence of a calories deficit (eating fewer calories than total calories expended).

Crash Diets

When folks go on crash diets, much of the initial decrease in body weight is actually water, not body fat. With a continued low calories intake (well below one’s BMR), the rate of weight loss slows but there will be a continued increased loss of muscle along with body fat. This is a problem for many reasons (safety and health), but in terms of weight loss, it makes it a little harder to lose weight. A larger drop in muscle means a larger drop in BMR. You will still lose weight, but your maintenance calories, as well as calories for weight loss, will decrease more than expected. You can view your BMR calories in MyNetDiary apps under “My Plan” or under the “Details” tab on the web.

Patience, Grasshopper!

Try to avoid getting too frustrated with a stubborn scale value. If your weight hasn’t changed for a few weeks, then it is time to troubleshoot. If you weigh yourself daily then be prepared to practice patience since normal weight fluctuations could easily mask true weight loss for a short period of time. And finally, if you feel that your body is really fighting the weight loss, then stop and reexamine your target weight, rate of weight loss and target calories. Don’t starve yourself – your body will fight back. In my experience, folks have the most success with a moderate reduction in calories intake combined with a moderate level of exercise. That is, when lifestyle changes are moderate yet sustainable so that over the long haul, the weight comes off and stays off for good.

Have questions or comments about this post? Please feel free to comment on MyNetDiary’s Forum or Facebook page. I would love to hear from you!

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD
Consulting Dietitian for MyNetDiary

More Resources

Katherine Isacks, MPS, RD. MyNetDiary. The Dreaded Weight Plateau.

Katherine Isacks, MPS, RD. MyNetDiary Blog. Setting a Healthy Target Weight.

Elaine Magee, MPH, RD. Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

Disclaimer: Please note that we cannot provide personalized advice and that the information provided does not constitute medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, please visit a medical professional.

5K Runs for Fun and Fitness

You may not see yourself as a runner, but with the proper training and a commitment to giving it your best shot, nearly anyone can participate in a 5K run (3.1 miles for the non-metrically minded). 5Ks are a perfect length for anyone who wants a challenge but may not have the time or skills to devote to an every-day training program that marathons and half-marathons require. 5K races are frequently organized by a local charity and considered “fun runs,” and they certainly are that. With a little bit of summer left, it’s likely you can still find a “fun run” scheduled near you. If you want to check, visit Active.com or look through your local Events Calendar.

If you’ve never run a 5K before (or just have never run, period), expect to devote eight weeks to a training program so you don’t risk injury in your first race. If you are an experienced 5K-er, maybe you want to strive for your best time. Whatever the case, train smart and run for fun.

There are lots of programs online (both free and paid) that will get you up off the couch and running in 4-8 weeks. To ease into it, you may want to work up to being able to run a mile in the first week, or complete a Run/Walk training program. And as with any good training program, your rest days are as important as your workout days. Here’s a sample guideline for what you can expect when training for a 5K.

You’ll want to run on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays (which is the most common race day). On Wednesdays you should do some type of cross-training exercise (bike, swim, elliptical) for 30-40 minutes at a moderate pace. Oddly, you shouldn’t train for a running race just by running. Sundays are considered an active recovery day, so you can do a light run or another cross-training exercise - but above all take it easy on this day.

Mondays and Fridays are your full rest days. You need them, so don’t skip them. They not only prevent injury, but they also keep you from getting burned out. If you do need some flexibility, you can swap a rest day with a run day.

Most 5K training programs use a mix of running and walking. For example, in the first week you run for 15 seconds and walk for 45 seconds, and keep doing this for 30 minutes or until you reach your planned distance. Gradually you begin running more and walking less.

As you progress in your training, you’ll want to increase your distance by about a ¼ mile each week after the first week until you can run a full 5K without walking.

For more information on running, you can check out any number of books on the subject, but one forthcoming one is written by former Olympian, Jeff Galloway, and called Galloway’s 5K and 10K Running.

Are you a runner? What races have you done and what advice can you pass on to those who want to get started? Share with us on Facebook or in our Community Forum.