General Rules about nutrients for muscles
- Essential amino acids (that make up about 50 percent of whey protein) are the only things that improve muscle growth and recovery. The other 50 percent of aminos in protein (the non-essentials) do nothing but add calories.
- The rate of muscle recovery and growth is directly proportional to the level of essential amino acids in blood. You have to keep it high by eating protein every two hours or sipping essential amino acids throughout critical points of the recovery cycle.
- Any protein you take immediately after training gives you 3 times better recovery than waiting till you drive home to make a shake. But any protein (or aminos) you take just prior to training gives you twice the recovery of waiting till after training. Protein prior to training reduces the breakdown of tissue and improves muscle synthesis, growth and recovery rate. So take it before training.
For Maximum Fat loss with Minimum Muscle Loss
- Carbs: You must take in some carbs or your workouts will get weak and they'll start to hurt real bad as your diet progresses. But how do you get carbs in you without having them go to fat? Avoid carbs most of the day except during training. Consume carbs only after 20 minutes of intense training when insulin activity is high. This insures that they are driven into muscle where they will become glycogen (stored energy) to power tomorrows workout. Stop taking in carbs within a half hour after training (have your food with you when you go to the gym, don't drive home to get it). The carbs must be pretty quick carbs sugary cookies, bars, sugary drinks. Pasta is too slow. The cookies make me feel the best but the good ones are full of saturated fat (chocolate chips, butter yeah!). Yes, I know the fat slows down the carb but check any diabetics blood sugar after eating cookies its 500 right before they go blind! The sugary drinks make me feel kind of burned out afterwards, so anyway, I like cookies. I eat the ones that are low in fat though. A good rule of thumb is 60 to 100 grams of carb for every 100 pounds of body weight. Less than this and you will probably lose more muscle, have weak painful workouts and feel crappier than you want to. Of course, YMMV your mileage may vary. 200 pound man equals 120 to 200 gm carb per day and 480 to 800 carb calories per day.
- Protein: Use essential amino acids before and during training (hey, I just happen to have a good one, but there are several on the market now). Have a protein isolate immediately after training and then every two hours. You need about 12 grams of EAAs before training, plus 10 gms per hour of training). At least 50 grams of protein after and then at least 30 gms every 2 hours. These are very general amounts because muscle mass and training intensity varies widely. 200 pound man equals 400 grams protein per day and 1600 calories per day.
- Fats: Fat slows digestion so take it with other food when you are dieting. Stay away from vegetable derived Omegas like flax. They are 18 carbon chains; the body uses 20 carbon chains and the conversion rate is only about 4 percent. Those oils also may have an inflammatory action in the body and with all the training you don't need inflamed muscles and sore joints. Avoid avocado for the same reason. A little olive oil wont kill you although it has the same problem to a lesser degree. Nuts are like crack hard to control (and smoking either makes my throat really sore) keep away. A little handful of nuts equals a half hour on the bike. Get Omega-3 EPA fish oils, as much as your guts or palate can handle. I cant take more than about 5 gm of actual EPA a day or I have to wear an adult diaper (looks like hell under my spandex gym shorts). Avoid Omega-6 (inflammatory). Eat MCTs (medium chain triglycerides) the fatless fat. Along with EPA they seem to help me lose fat! Put a teaspoon in each protein drink. Take a couple teaspoons in your aminos before training legs. It really helps on those hard dieting days. I put some MCTs in my olive oil and use it with balsamic vinegar for my salads and vegetables. Get about 100 grams of fat per day total. 200 lb man equals 900 fat calories.
- So that all totals about 3000 calories of supplemental nutrition. Throw in another 1000 calories of regular foods and a bucket of salad and veggies every day and you've got about 4200 calories, which should be a good place for dieting if you train a couple hours a day YMMV.
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