Content provided in partnership with

Dosage direction - Letters

Men's Fitness, Dec, 2002 by Brian Farley

I've been training for about a year now and was wondering about the effects of glutamine. Is it a necessary supplement? I am training six days a week on a three-day split routine. I do at least 30 minutes of intense cardio every day. I am interested in continuing to lose excess body fat (I have lost 90 pounds in the past 12 months) while maintaining or increasing my lean body mass. Although my diet is relatively high in protein (30 to 40 percent), I eat very little red meat. How much glutamine should I be taking daily, and does it matter if it is in pill form?--BRIAN FARLEY, LEWISBURG, PA

Most Popular Articles in Health: Fuel your workout: exercisers who eat before they work out have more energy ...; Soothe a dry, itchy scalp: 5 easy expert solutions; Cocktails and calories: Beer, wine and liquor calories can really add up. ...; The sour truth about apple cider vinegar - evaluation of therapeutic use; The, six best supplements you've never heard of: these secret weapons can ...; More »

It's difficult to give you an exact answer without knowing how many grams of protein you're taking in per day. That said, it sounds like you've met with some success strictly through your workouts, so as long as it works, keep doing it. As a general rule, we recommend taking between five and 20 grams of glutamine a day, depending on your diet and your goals.

Glutamine is beneficial for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, it helps with the immune system, which is the key component of recovery and growth. Basically, glutamine makes up 5 percent to 7 percent of the amino acids in high-protein foods--dairy, chicken, fish and red meat all contain glutamine. So if you're consuming 200 grams of protein per day, that would equate to roughly 10 to 14 grams of glutamine. We advise supplementing with 10 more grams a day, broken up into two five-gram doses, especially if you're cutting calories as well as carbohydrates and/or fat. Pills typically are more expensive than powder, and since each individual capsule normally consists of no more than one gram of glutamine, that's a lot of pills to swallow--and a lot of money to dole out. You can mix the powder into a protein shake, or take it with water or juice on an empty stomach.

Dosage direction - Letters

Men's Fitness, Dec, 2002 by Brian Farley

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Home & Garden

Most Popular Articles in Health

Most Popular Publications in Health