Captain Ahab’s BodyBlog

 The majority of people understand that eating too much “unhealthy” food can lead to a weight gain, but the part that people seem to overlook is that eating too much good healthy food can also cause an extra gain in the weight department.
I say this because in most bodybuilding books, magazines and websites it states (almost preaches) that the minimum amount of protein an active weightlifter should consume is 1 gram per pound of bodyweight. Using that formula then a 200 lb bodybuilder needs to eat at the minimum 200 grams of protein, but does that still hold true for the140 lb or more woman who lifts weights and does not want to build more muscles rather she is wanting to lose weight or lean out? Should she have at least 140 or more grams of protein per day?  Maybe and then again maybe not.
I believe that she along with us all needs to assess her daily output of energy outside of the gym along with the time spent pumping iron and be very careful with over consuming calories especially by way of protein shakes where you are giving the body a straight shot of 20, 30 40 or more grams per shake.
We need to look at the protein in whole foods we eat like chicken where 6 ounces of breast gives us about 40 grams and the steaks, ground beef etc. where we get at least 36 grams per 6 ounces along with fresh or canned tuna which brings around 40 or more grams per 6 ounce serving.  Taking a look at eggs and milk, which are both great sources of protein and pack enough to tilt the daily intake scale.
We need to be very careful with protein shakes consumed between our whole food meals and look at the entire total per day and that is just protein and there are carbohydrates to think of along with our ration of healthy oils and fats.
A lot of people wonder even though they are following the prescribed way of doing things why they are not able to either lose weight or lean out. They are lifting and doing cardio and eating 5 or 6 meals a day of good healthy foods combined with 1, 2 or sometimes even 3 protein shakes and maybe a protein bar thrown in because they were hungry between scheduled feedings. They are consuming all of the well advertised supplements (which by the way many are calorie high) and instead of losing they are actually gaining and not in the places where they want to see added weight.
What I am stating is that you still have to be careful because whether they are muscle-building supplements, protein filled shakes, slow digesting negative net carb bars or advertised as low fat, a calorie is still a calorie.
 
 
 
 

This entry was posted on Monday, July 2nd, 2007 at 12:09 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.