OPTIMISING MUSCLE PROTEIN SYNTHESIS
How to effectively grow muscle with food?
Why am I discussing Muscle Protein Synthesis?
Muscle protein synthesis (MPS) is the primary driver for muscle gain (hypertrophy) in otherwise healthy individuals.
How does MPS happen?
MPS is the synthesis of amino acids (building blocks of protein) from the blood into bowel muscle proteins.
We have two types of muscle proteins:
1. Myofibrillar (e.g. actin and myosin - your contractile muscles).
2. Mitochondrial (more energy producing proteins).
A part of the muscle protein synthesis cycle is the process of muscle protein breakdown (MPB) where these proteins are broken down back into the blood into the amino acids for other potential uses for the body.
The MPS and MPB processes regulate any changes in muscle mass. If you want to grow muscle, you need to stimulate MPS more and reduce MPB.
Optimising protein nutrition for muscle mass gain is more complex than simply recommending a daily total protein intake.
When considering protein intake we need to consider the following:
Dose: An individual amount for a person or a per serving basis.
Source: The type of protein.
Timing: In relation to exercise but also in relation to other macronutrients.
Pattern: How is that protein ingested throughout the day?
Nutrient co-ingestion: What other nutrients are co-ingested with the protein or influence the optimal amount of protein for maximising training adaptation?
Context: What is the context? Is this a weight loss scenario, muscle building scenario, ultra marathon scenario or something else?
What influence does individual muscle mass have on the dose response of muscle protein synthesis to ingested protein?
This is dependent on the type of exercise session and how much muscle is being activated. If you were doing a single limb session only ie. lower (leg session) or “arm day” only then a meal with 20g of protein will give you the same MPS response as 40g of protein.
However, if you were doing a multi-limb session, where maybe upper limbs were being worked with your legs as well, then 40g of protein will be more beneficial as there’s a larger proportion of muscle mass for ingested protein to respond to.
I explain this process to my clients in an analogy of a tank filled with water. The water is your blood.
The water is concentrated with pink dye. The pink dye is amino acids (proteins).
Attached to the water tank is a hose pipe (veins and arteries) which transport the water (blood) which are concentrated with the pink dye (amino acids i.e. protein).
The hose pipe splits in two different directions – upper and lower body. If you just use lower body, the concentration of the pink dye will be dark but when working other limbs (upper body ie arms and/ or chest and/ or back and so on) the water flow (blood flow) increases therefore the pink dye (amino acids) dilute.
The reason why the pink dye (amino acids/ protein) is diluted is because of the increase in water flow (blood flow) with the same amount of pink dye (protein/ amino acids) which is, in this case, 20g. To increase the concentration of pink dye we need to add more pink dye (add more amino acids/ protein). We add an additional 20g of protein, resulting in 40g of protein to maximise MPS.
However, concentrations larger than 40g of protein have shown to have minimal or no extra benefit (basically, you don’t need more than 40g of protein in a meal).
Just to be clear, there is nothing wrong with having a larger quantity of protein in a meal. The excess protein / amino acids will be utilised for different energy systems or excreted from the body. Having larger quantities of protein can increase satiety, which can be useful when in a calorie deficit/ weight loss phase. As a repercussion to an increased protein intake, especially in a calorie deficit, with the sole purpose of cutting weight please make sure to consume calories from a mixture of fruit and vegetables daily to avoid nutrient deficiencies.
Instead of giving absolute “blanket” numbers for adults, what do I recommend as aim individualised protein dosage?
A relative dose of 0.3g/kg body mass is sufficient to maximally stimulate MPS in trained young adults.
However, these concentrations were done with whey, a processed supplement for the specific intention of activating MPS. Basically, if you are consuming a protein supplement, 0.3g x your body weight (kg) is all you need in a single shake. If you are consuming whole food sources of protein, the bioavailability of the protein may be influenced due to multiple factors such as fibre, other nutrient influences and so on. In this case, for whole foods, consume 0.4g x body weight (kg) in protein to maximise MPS.
Ref: Moore,Churchward-Venne, Witard et al • 2015 • J Gerontology
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There’s a lot more I want to go into regarding this topic on the other points I’ve mentioned in “Optimising protein nutrition for muscle mass gain is more complex than simply recommending a daily total protein intake” section. Keep your eyes peeled and if you thought this was useful, please tell me... my email is richardstewart@rscoaching.uk or DM me on Instagram @rich_performance_nutritionist
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Rich
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