Muscle Talk

Increased protein intake leads to decreased fat mass

We hear so many points of view all the time about what the ideal amount of protein is. Is it relative to your goals? Is it relative to your body weight? Is it just a percentage of total calories consumed? 1.5/lb, 3/kg, 1/LBM—all these numbers and figures are confusing! According to a human study done by an American sport scientist, although you won’t necessarily get stronger or more muscular by increasing protein intake, you will lose fat mass. Subjects who consumed 3.4 grams per kilogram of body weight, although consuming almost 400 more calories than the 2.3 kilogram group, saw the biggest decrease in fat mass—2.4 kilograms lost over 8 weeks versus 0.6 kilograms. Both groups of subjects gained the same amount of lean body mass, which demonstrates that more isn’t always more for muscle gain, but it could be for fat loss.

A case against nocturnal noshing

Unless you work the graveyard shift, humans are typically awake and active during the day, and sleep at night. This is a contrast to mice, which are active at night. Scientists at Northwestern University wanted to see what would happen if they fed mice during the time that they should be sleeping, so they gave one group of mice food for 12 hours when it was light, and another group for 12 hours when it was dark. After six weeks, scientists found that mice who ate more calories when they weren’t “supposed to” ate more, gained more fat, and most importantly, moved less. The effect on their activity level is what’s important to us as humans; the more we eat at night—i.e., when we “shouldn’t”—the fewer overall calories we’ll burn over the course of the week. Night-eating makes us lazy! So try to get in the majority of your calories before the sun goes down.

The carb conundrum continues

The GI Diet has gone in and out of favour more times than the Kardashian family, but it’s reemerging again in the context of not just assisting with weight loss, but also being able to preserve muscle mass when losing weight. Twenty-nine men and women were told to eat 30 percent less calories than they burned for the study. One group ate 30/30/40 (P/F/C, with carbs coming from slow-burning sources), and the other group got 20/20/60, with the carbs coming from slow and fast sources. After a year, both groups lost 5 percent of their body weight, but the slow-carb group lost more fat and less muscle than the other group. This is something to keep in mind when dieting for a show and muscle preservation is paramount. Examples of slow-burning carbs include traditional bodybuilding foods such as broccoli, green beans, sweet potato, cauliflower, oatmeal, barley, and unprocessed whole grains.

For more information on the impact of carbs on fat loss, click here!