Does the body need more energy?
Diesel Livingston explains how athletes develop speed and strength.
To increase strength, power and muscle volume, athletes train. The result and the speed of its achievement depend on many factors: training program, experience, gender, genetic predisposition and nutrition. Energy is needed to form muscle tissue. The question is where to get it from when to consume it, and what quantity.
Today we want to talk to you about metabolism from the point of view of scientific research. Here you will not see bright headlines and provocative insights because we will only provide you with useful important information. As a rule, such information is provided by unknowledgeable people in medicine. We can often come across articles from bloggers who regularly buy Instagram followers and seem famous.
Muscle growth requires building material. Skeletal muscle is 75% water 20% protein, and the rest is fat, glycogen, inorganic salts and minerals. Therefore, athletes are trying to provide enough protein. If an athlete is fed less than 1.6 g/kg daily, dietary protein supplementation increases muscle mass and strength gains during resistance training. A total daily protein intake (from food and supplements) exceeding 1.6 g/kg does not increase muscle mass gains.
Healthy, overweight people build muscle while exercising on a low-calorie, high-protein diet. The energy cost of muscle gain is unknown. It is also unknown where this energy comes from internal fat reserves or food.
Professional athletes who miss a season or are injured return to training to lose fat and gain muscle mass. People with greater lean mass and better cardio fitness, when overfed and sedentary, gain less fat relative to lean mass.
So a lot depends on the person's characteristics: the history of training and the original physique. It is unknown what kind of diet and caloric intake is required to maintain skeletal muscle and build new ones.
Excess nutrition by itself is not enough to build good muscle mass. It usually turns into fat, especially if you do not exercise. One hundred days of excess energy intake (only 353 mJ (84 kcal)) in young and lean men led to a significant change in body composition. For every kilogram of muscle mass, there was approximately 2 kg of fat. (During the fattening period, the subjects' physical activity was a daily half-hour walk).
Of course, we cannot tell you all the details about proper nutrition and metabolism, as for complete information you should do your research. Also, try not to pay too much attention to bloggers who pretend to be medical experts. As a rule, these people buy real Instagram followers and pretend that they are popular and competent.
Energy balance
The daily amount of energy required for protein metabolism is about one-fifth of the energy needed by the body at rest. Skeletal muscle hypertrophy requires more energy.
Only a few studies directly address the effect of energy balance on skeletal muscle hypertrophy during resistance training. These studies focus primarily on protein intake during general energy deficit.
One training session restores muscle protein synthesis o the level observed when maintaining energy balance. Postworkout protein intake increases muscle protein synthesis by 30% compared to resting when maintaining energy balance.
These studies confirm that energy deficiency can affect the molecular mechanism of muscle protein synthesis, but it also depends on other factors such as protein intake and training.
Additional energy — how much do you need?
The energy cost of skeletal muscle hypertrophy consists of several components:
- energy cost of weight training and increased metabolism after training
- the energy cost of protein degradation and synthesis, which increase after exercise;
- increase in tissue metabolic activity;
- increased non-training energy expenditure by reducing rest time;
- Only by considering all these factors it will be possible to calculate how much energy is needed to increase muscle mass, but not fat.
Training and excess energy affect the internal organs with high metabolic activity, but little is known about this effect. There is evidence that three weeks of restricted energy intake significantly reduced the mass of the kidneys and liver and, accordingly, the energy expenditure. Thus, a change in the energy balance can affect the tissue mass with high metabolic activity and energy expenditure.
The currently recommended energy surplus to minimize fat gain is 1500–2000 kJ/day. So, the energy required to increase 1 kg of muscle mass has yet to be determined. It is influenced by many factors: age, genetic characteristics, training experience, gender, body composition and adaptation to excess energy.
Extra energy — when to recharge?
When and how many times to eat is an important question. Supplementation before, during, and after a workout affects performance. Evidence shows that carbohydrate intake is beneficial before or during strength training, but other studies do not support these results. It is believed that the optimal amount of carbohydrates taken before and during a training session varies from 4 to 7 g/kg per day, and exactly when to take them is not yet completely clear.
Protein supplements that are taken less than three hours before or after resistance training promotes muscle building. Perhaps another regimen will also be helpful when proteins are not absorbed in a narrow time interval, but their consumption is divided over the entire period of wakefulness.
Although skeletal muscle is unlikely to grow due to frequent meals, 5-6 small meals a day are considered beneficial, perhaps because the gastrointestinal tract absorbs regular and small meals better than several large ones. The usual diet of athletes consists of three main meals and several snacks, which account for about a quarter of the total daily energy. Like a large part of the population, athletes get most of their energy in the afternoon. It is not yet clear how such an imbalance affects the health of athletes.
Eating more evenly throughout the day has improved weight training results. Taking creatine monohydrate containing carbohydrate-protein supplements immediately before and after training provides a better adaptation than when the supplement is taken outside of training. However, this effect cannot yet be attributed solely to the time of admission.
Page Reference
If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is:
- LIVINGSTON, D. (2022) Does the body need more energy? [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/article687.htm [Accessed
About the Author
Diesel Livingston is a certified fitness trainer who regularly undergoes advanced training in human physiology. The developer of his training and nutrition program for people who want to gain muscle mass. Received higher medical education to provide qualified assistance to athletes.