Muscle Diet
Mark Gilbert
BSc (Nutrition)
Mark is an expert in sports nutrition and dietary supplements. He has over 20 years of experience working with the biggest names in the bodybuilding industry.
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Why Should I Be Taking Glutamine?
Q. Why should I be taking glutamine? Is it a good fat burner?
A. Dr. Dan Reardon and I have never been huge fans of the amino acid glutamine because it’s never actually been shown to outperform other amino acids or other supplements for increasing muscle, recovery, protein synthesis, GH, etc. However, it has been shown to improve hydration and has always been a big favourite of bodybuilders and some sportsmen because it’s been implicated in cell volumization, boosting growth hormone, immunity and other processes that are useful to active people. One thing it has never been recommended for is burning fat. However, this may be about to change.
A study conducted by researchers at Iowa State University gave a group of subjects a normal meal containing added glutamine or one with the addition of three nonessential amino acids. They then measured how much each meal increased the amount of fat and carbohydrate burned over the next six hours.
What they found was that for three hours after the meal, the glutamine group burned more carbohydrates and then for the next three hours after that, they burned significantly more fat. In fact, they burned about 50 percent more energy than the group who got the nonessential amino acids. In the three- to six-hour phase after the meal, the glutamine group burned 42 more calories than the nonessential amino acid group. That’s a pretty good increase in calorie burning, and it could make a difference to your waistline over time!
The researchers speculate that glutamine had this effect by making the hormone insulin work better in the body, meaning that this is also probably a healthy way to battle the bulge! The only problem with the study is that they used a very large dose of glutamine (the equivalent of 20 grams in an 80-kilogram person), so using glutamine in this way could get expensive!
References
Iwashita S, Mikus C, Baier S, Flakoll PJ. Glutamine supplementation increases postprandial energy expenditure and fat oxidation in humans. JPEN J Parenter Enteral Nutr. 2006 Mar-Apr;30(2):76-80.
To read more by Mark Gilbert, check out his website FitnessInventor.com.
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