Advanced nutrition: absorbing stuff from team FLEX - Q&A

Flex, March, 2002

PRO PROTEIN

Q: FLEX always suggests high-protein diets for bodybuilders, but I read recently that they aren't healthy. I want to get the best possible bodybuilding results, but I don't want to do so at the expense of my health.

A: It's always been FLEX's contention that you can have your meat and eat it, too. We have recommended a high-protein moderate-carb diet that includes healthy fats, and we will continue to do so. We also hope that eventually the medical establishment and media will come around to our way of thinking.

To illustrate why we believe in the health benefits of a high-protein diet, it's worth examining dietary recommendations from the American Heart Association (AHA), which recently released a set of guidelines in Circulation. The AHA asserts that high-protein low-carbohydrate weight strategies have not proved to be effective long-term, and that they are associated with unhealthy levels of fat, saturated fat and cholesterol. "High-protein diets make little nutritional sense and can pose health risks, according to the American Heart Association," ABCNews.com reports. The report recommends keeping fat intake to no more than 30% of dietary calories.

What's interesting is that the fat intake FLEX recommends in bodybuilding diets is less than that amount. We suggest keeping fat intake to about 15-25% of calories, most of them from healthy sources--avocados, fatty fish, nuts and healthy oils, such as olive and canola.

Another big difference between the diets that FLEX recommends and the diets to which the AHA is referring is in the total amount of carbohydrates and protein suggested. The AHA claims that high-protein diets don't make nutritional sense, faulting their fat content. The message sent out by the AHA is "high protein is bad." But nowhere in their findings do they show that protein itself is harmful--that seems to be just a clever hook to grab headlines.

FLEX does believe that some high-protein diets overly restrict (or eliminate) carbohydrates--especially vegetables and fruits. Here's how a bodybuilding diet differs from most other high-protein diets.

* Include plenty of fruits and, particularly, vegetables.

* Include slow-burning carbohydrate sources, such as yams, oatmeal, brown rice and potatoes.

* Take in even more protein than other high-protein diets recommend--at least one gram per pound of bodyweight every day.

If your calorie distribution is close to 25% protein, 25% fat and 50% carbohydrates, you're on a high-protein diet. Yet, this still allows you to consume all the healthy fats, vegetables and high-energy carb foods you need to get the most from your bodybuilding diet. That's a sensible and balanced diet full of all the nutrients you need for optimal growth. And that's not hype.

Steve Stiefel

POSTWORKOUT NUTRITION MAY BEGIN BEFORE YOUR WORKOUT

Q: FLEX recommends a that you take in protein and carbs after training to help recovety. Doesn't it make sense that if you take them in just before you train that they'll be available sooner to aid with recovery?

A: Optimizing growth recovery from training has always been key to maximizing bodybuilding results. This is why FLEX so strenuously recommends taking in six small bodybuilding meals per day and drinking a shake of protein and carbs immediately after training. Taking in your postworkout meal sooner, as you suggest, may have even greater benefits, according to a recent study.

The body of research has shown rather conclusively that drinking a shake made of protein and carbohydrates immediately after training improves recovery, performance and growth. However, scientists recently compared the results of consuming such a drink before a workout as opposed to consuming it after training (K.D. Tipton et al., "Timing of amino acid-carbohydrate ingestion alters anabolic response of muscle to resistance exercise," American Journal of Physiology [Endocrinology and Metabolism], 281[2], E197-206, August 2001). Interestingly, taking the drink at the start of the workout significantly improved posttraining protein synthesis compared to having the same drink after the workout. This was apparently due to increased availability of amino acids by the time the workout was completed. Although protein breakdown wasn't measured, we would also expect that it would decrease because insulin levels would be higher in response to the drink.

Bodybuilders can easily put this new information into practice. Proteins accessible to the body are a mix of essential and nonessential amino acids. So it would be a good idea for bodybuilders seeking optimal results to take in about 15 g of protein along with 35 g of carbohydrates immediately before training. This small meal of about 200 calories is within the range of what most bodybuilders can handle without impairing their training.

To simplify your life, mix a shake containing 50 g of protein and 80 to 100 g of carbohydrates. Take one-third at the very beginning of a workout and the remaining two-thirds at the end of it. An hour or two after that, resume your normal eating with a solid-food meal of protein, clean carbohydrates and some healthy fats. This might be the ideal protocol for postworkout recovery and growth.