Post
by MachineGhost » Wed Jun 08, 2016 4:57 pm
Followup. The optimal protein intake to maximize muscle anabolism is thusly:
Avg 22 years of age: .24 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per meal.
Avg 71 years of age: .40 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per meal.
So logically, the in-between point for an average age is 46.5 years, so you need .325 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per meal. Someone could probably come up with a linear extrapolation for all ages if they wanted to be really geeky. The gut has a limited capability of taking in protein at any one time; so if you eat above this level you're just oxidizing the protein and consuming what is increasingly expensive calories.
The important thing to take away from this is that you need to INCREASE your protein intake as you get older to offset sarcopenia.
Now, the other side of the coin is leucine, the muscle anabolism initator. People above 65 years of age have an inverse correlation with leucine, i.e. the less leucine they eat, the more muscle mass they will lose. And the magical amount for no muscle mass loss at all was 7.12 grams of leucine per day, which works out to be requiring 1.25 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day or .4167 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per meal.
So this is why I recommend the rule of thumb of assuming each ounce of cooked protein has 7 grams of protein and to always eat 4 oz per meal. Some meats like chicken have slightly more grams protein per ounce, whereas others like lean meat have slightly less protein grams per ounce. Not sure about soy and other "low quality" proteins that are typically leucine deficit. The most leucine-dense protein currently known is whey protein isolate.
You could certainly use a leucine or BCAA supplement in place of eating so much expensive protein to make sure you get the absolute bare minimum of at least 2.5 grams of leucine per meal, but you'd need to make up for the loss of calories elsewhere. Now that I got BCAA in capsules, I plan on experimenting with my regular protein intake to see what happens.
"All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called 'Facts'. They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain." -- Thomas Hobbes
Disclaimer: I am not a broker, dealer, investment advisor, physician, theologian or prophet. I should not be considered as legally permitted to render such advice!