Mindconnection Brainpower Informational eNewsletter 2023-07-02

Recently, I was asked if I use protein shakes and if so what do I put in them. I answered that I don't make protein shakes, but I do mix a vegan protein powder into a coffee cup.

Let me list a few problems with protein shakes and then explain how to approach protein supplementation:

It tends to be a LOT of protein. Notice how relatively small my portions are, by using a coffee cup?
What you put in them. Mostly, it's a lot of extra calories on top of the extra calories from the protein powder.
The cheap ones are made with whey. I previously discussed whey and why supplementing with whey powers is not a good idea.
It's expensive, even if you're using a cheap whey product

Many people are convinced they need protein shakes because they aren't making any gains. Lack of sufficient protein is way down the list of possible causes when a person isn't making gains. The most common reason is poor training. This involves many factors, such as poor form, poor program design, lack of intensity, lack of volume, and lack of consistency. Often, it's all of these at once.

Determining your protein need

How much protein do you need? There's no right answer that applies to all individuals and there's no right answer that applies to any individual every day. As a general rule, you should start with a baseline of 1 gram per pound of bodyweight and experiment with more protein from there. Most Americans get far more than this just from their meat-heavy diet. Vegan athletes who eat a well-rounded diet (including eggs) will get almost all their protein needs met without supplementation. Contrary to popular misconceptions (in the bodybuilding world and elsewhere), meat and dairy are not the only sources of protein. Gorillas in zoos eat mostly kale (along with some fruit). Kale is an excellent source of protein, but humans really don't want to eat enough kale to meet their protein needs (if you do, I think there's something wrong with you, just sayin'). Beans and rice together make an excellent "complete" protein.

There are charts showing the biological value of various protein sources. If you compare a gram of a vegan blend protein (e.g., beans and rice) to a gram of beef protein, you will see the vegan protein is not quite as good. You need more grams for the same result, because of what it takes to extract the amino acids from that source. To me, it seems this would be the other way around but it's not.

You can still assume that each gram of protein is equal, for the purposes of determining what you need. If you're below 1 gram per pound of body weight, you should try supplementing for a couple of weeks with an additional 20 or 30 grams twice a day. How do you look and feel after that trial? If you are getting fatter, back off a bit. If you feel stronger or recover more quickly, try increasing for a couple of weeks.

Now, I found a shortcut to this process. I aimed for 1.5 grams and supplement with a high-quality vegan powder (yes, it costs more but you don't get all the fillers) to get to about there or a little past. After each workout, I consume an amino complex called FundAminos. I get it from www.purecleanperformance.com. You can click that link and buy 100 units, they won't pay me a dime for sending you there. So this is not an advertisement. I'm sharing what I have learned. There are probably other products just as good, but I also know there are wildly erratic formulations that don't make any sense to me. I also know this company caters to Iron Man athletes and Olympic athletes and they do a LOT of testing. I don't mean taste-testing, I mean laboratory testing and testing via wearable monitors. So the amino profile is dialed in. FundAminos has five times the "protein" of a dairy-based protein powder, but without the calories, without the lactose, without the antibiotics, without the guar gum, and without the sugar. It doesn't use up any of your nitrogen, either.

Because I consume this after each workout, I don't need to make the complex assessment of my protein intake. A couple of small protein powder drinks in a coffee cup along with my no-junk whole food diet and I'm good to go.

A progression story

Meal number four is an omelet stuff with spinach and kale, seasoned with hot sauce. It's usually three eggs, pan-fried with either organic butter (I currently buy butter imported from Ireland) or organic coconut oil. I eat a banana and I eat an apple with cinnamon, as part of this meal.

A problem arises on climbing days, because climbing gyms don't want people frying eggs even if they bring their own portable stoves. They haven't explicitly said this, but they don't have to. So for a few years, I supplemented with a "normal" protein bar. I put two in my climbing bag and ate those at meal time. A climbing buddy pointed out those bars are not so good, and steered me to the Performance Nutrition bars. As with any bar that is fit for bodybuilders, they are sticky and hard to eat. And as with any protein bars, the protein is not all that great. Think about it. Why do these not stink when you open the wrapper, after storing them at room temperature? Try storing milk or meat at room temperature, and you'll get what I am driving at. They have to make that protein stable, so they hydrolyze it. And this is what you're eating, the bioavailability is very low. And there still have to be fillers to make the bar have some shape.

Protein bars are the worst way to get protein, especially if they are whey bars. They are something you use for emergencies or when traveling such that you just can't get access to another protein source. But I was using the best bars available. In my car, I kept an apple and cloth hand rag in a sealable plastic container, plus a banana. So on the drive home I'd eat the banana, put the peel in the tub, and then eat the apple.

But eating protein bars bothered me. I was cheating myself of good nutrition. My solution was no flash of insight, it was merely copying an existing technique. I got out a small carry bag, and put a shaker in it. I also filled a small plastic sealable tub with a mix of protein powder, L-glutamine, creatine, and beta alinine. Voila! Meal number four (I still eat the banana and apple on the drive home). I can do this at the gyms, because they all have fountains made for filling reusable water bottles. Rinsing out the shaker is easy enough.

Protein spectrum

So what you want to do is get protein from whole foods, as your primary source. Protein bars are a last resort, maybe a desperate one. In between, you have protein powders. If your training is moderate (and for maybe 90% of people who work out that's where they are), you can probably get by with no protein supplementation if you have a little meat in your diet. If no meat, then a little protein powder. If your training is the old school, hard core, leaves you drained (due to metabolic stress and muscular damage) kind and you train five or six days a week, then you'll need a little protein powder two or three times a day. If you're a competitive body builder, you will probably need more. You might even need to scarf down a big protein shake.

Cutting calories

If you're not a competitive body builder, then for you a protein shake is a calorie-rich treat. Go ahead and make one, and enjoy it. Just don't have them on a regular basis, because if you do you'll be getting too many calories and that's not good.

I've been told that if you cut carbs, then you can accommodate the protein shakes. This is not true. If you're not eating processed junk, then your carbs are coming from essential foods like fruit and you may be getting some from raw oats (they same thing fed to race horses). That's one reason you can't "cut carbs". Another reason is you need enough carbohydrates to fuel your training. When I reduce calories coming into a photoshoot, I barely touch the carbs factor. I cut back on oats and make sure to limit myself to one banana per day instead of scarfing two or three a day. And I will eat smaller sweet potatoes (I still have one every day). That's it. I keep protein tight (about where it is), and reduce fats. Not that fats are bad, you need them. I just reduce the quantity. Fewer walnut pieces, less coconut oil, less avocado, less butter, and no cottage cheese. Having a protein shake during this phase would be idiotic, since I am cutting back on foods that supply the building blocks of testosterone. Notice though, it's reduction not elimination.

If you're not going to be posing for a show or for photos, then your parameters are a little different. A healthy body fat level for a man is between 4% and 8%. Many "experts" say 10% to 12%, but they are pulling those numbers out of their rear end. My numbers come from the visual. When you can see detail in the body core, your body fat level is where it needs to be. And that comes in at somewhere below 6% for an average guy. If you can't see the detail, it means your body is storing organ fat along with all the subcutaneous fat. When the detail is obliterated, you're too fat. Cut back on how much you eat, but keep your protein needs in mind. Did you notice here that you don't need to get a $300 body fat analysis done to give you a number? All you need is a mirror. It works for women, too. The aesthetic is different, a woman looks softer by design. She still needs to be able to see some muscle definition; if there isn't any she needs to eat less.

A tip for photo or contest prep

Several studies have shown that a modest increase in protein intake will cause fat loss. The studies I have looked at do not describe their methodology or explain how they control for other factors. My guess is participants are simply switching from some empty carbs to protein drinks and maybe not snacking as much. But this recurring theme gave me an idea.

You've heard of intermittent fasting, I am sure. The idea is you skip meals but only for a short while, too short to trigger the starvation mode response. So you not only cut total calories, but go through brief periods of ketosis. Whatever the theory, this is a dumb idea. I do not skip meals, and that is due to a basic understanding of subjects like metabolism. But what if you used the obverse of this idea, by picking three workout days per week (out of six) when you will consume an extra 40 to 60 grams of protein? This is what I am doing now. I started it a couple of months ago while leaning down for the photo shoot that is slated for this September. I see more detail than ever, I'm much more vascular, and my muscles look more full. You can actually see the progression in my climbing videos.

It would have been nice to prepare this year's photos to the ones from last year, but due to photographer errors last year's photos were all overlit and all snapped before or after I settled into the pose (really bad timing--see the "back" photo above, I was only starting that pose). Coming up to the session, I was hungry all the time and just wanted to eat a huge sweet potato and generally pig out for a few days. Once I got the shots and saw they were all useless (except for what you see in this newsletter), I tried to get another shoot lined up right away but the photographer just offered a refund instead. So I wrote that off, even though I had skipped 2021 and even though I had never been as ripped as I was in 2022. Thus, this different approach. If we get the right photographer, you will see some impressive physique photos.

Yes, there are a lot of guys who are more shredded and more muscular than I am. But very, very few of them are over 60. And it's that age factor that I hope motivates readers to stick to a rigorous training program. I would love it if none of the guys reading this develop pancake butt in their 50s, use a walker by early 70s, and die at age 75. That sequence is normal in America today. For you gals, a similar wish but with the age numbers adjusted for the female demographic. And I would say, if being shredded isn't your thing then don't worry about it. The most important thing is to prevent atrophy. If eating an ice cream or a big protein shake is how you reward yourself after a hard training session and this means carrying a little extra fat then so be it.

Anyhow, don't suck down protein supplements as if doing so is going to work any magic. Use them where/when they will help, but focus on eating nutrient-dense real food.

Mindconnection eNL, 2023-07-02

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