Protein supplementation confers minimal but important advantage

Don’t take me wrong – protein is definitely needed to achieve the muscle gain. Muscles are made of proteins, and without the adequate protein supply they will not grow.

The question is whether the excessive protein supplementation helps to achieve bigger and stronger muscles? And do the commercial protein supplements help in this matter comparing to simple protein-rich foods?

Many shakes contain additional carbohydrates added to provide energy for improving your gym performance. Other supplements have higher content of specific amino acids such as branched amino acids that are required to build muscle. A number of protein supplements are designed to be more easily digestible and avoid the common digestive problems I have mentioned above.

All this improvements come with higher price tag. The question if they represent a value for money is unlikely to be answered by anyone. There are simply not enough scientific evidences at present time to support the manufacturer’s claims of their products’ unparalleled benefits.

There is no doubt that increased level of protein consumption does contribute to the muscle gain. The question about what this level should be is not so easy to answer. The muscle gain caused by excessive supplementary proteins consumption is often accompanied by less desirable gain in fat as well. This is something to keep in mind if you want to get ripped toned ads, not just bulk weight. Besides, our body tends to metabolize the excess of proteins and excrete it through kidney rather than use it for building more muscles.

What are the hard scientific evidences?

I certainly don’t want to say that buying and consuming commercial protein supplements is a bad idea. They do help in achieving your goals. They are mostly safe and provide your body with what it needs for growth. In addition, the feel-good factor should not be discarded – it works remarkable well for many people. They are not necessarily suitable to the broad population and average gym goer. And they should be taken with consideration of potential side effects.

But I have to reiterate though: if you are extremely serious about growing big, and probably even competing, then protein is what you need. For instance, having small additional protein supplementation between the meals has been proven to work. Proteins rich on certain types of amino acids tend to boost muscle gain too.

Review published in the Journal of Sports Sciences (one of the references to this article) describes all these advantages in details. The authors, however, don’t see any evidences in support of recommendations for particular protein intake per day. Most recommended daily intake numbers are not supported by solid evidences. There should be, without doubt, an optimal amount of protein that has to be taken to achieve the maximal muscle hypertrophy. But we still don’t know what this amount is.

It seems that the success of protein supplementation depends on many factors such as individual parameters of metabolism, type of exercise, timing of ingestion and relation to other nutrients. Finding the best balance remains the matter of trials and errors.