Protein Cycling
- Thread starter Tatsuo
- Start date
I don't know if this will add anything to what you've already read.
The problem with protein cycling is that it is hard ot get ahead of your body when it comes to managing protein. The body adapts fairly quickly to changes in protien intake. If you eat more during the day, your body will get rid of more during the night. That changes according to intake on a daily basis.
Longer term, your body will adjust to a drop in protein intake over the course of 12-14 days. In other words, you will go into a negative nitrogen balance on day one, and it takes about 12-14 days for your body to be able to reeduce protein breakdown to the point of reaching balance again.
Some may argue about the different turnover rates of muscle protein and splanchnic proteins. This should have led to real success from protein cycling, yet it hasn't.
If you do decide to cycle your protein, I would not drop your intake below 15% (or ~1g/kg bodyweight) while maintaining total calories. Then keep protein intake at this lowered level for at least 2 weeks.
The problem with protein cycling is that it is hard ot get ahead of your body when it comes to managing protein. The body adapts fairly quickly to changes in protien intake. If you eat more during the day, your body will get rid of more during the night. That changes according to intake on a daily basis.
Longer term, your body will adjust to a drop in protein intake over the course of 12-14 days. In other words, you will go into a negative nitrogen balance on day one, and it takes about 12-14 days for your body to be able to reeduce protein breakdown to the point of reaching balance again.
Some may argue about the different turnover rates of muscle protein and splanchnic proteins. This should have led to real success from protein cycling, yet it hasn't.
If you do decide to cycle your protein, I would not drop your intake below 15% (or ~1g/kg bodyweight) while maintaining total calories. Then keep protein intake at this lowered level for at least 2 weeks.
Maybe I just didn't stick with it long enough, but I tried lowering my protein intake to about 100g for a week and it sucked! I felt like ####, had terrible GI distress (comparable to when I first went the other way around from 100g to 200g to 300g and so on), and I actually got fat! My calories dropped about 10%, and being that I got significantly fatter, I can only conclude that I lost precious muscle mass. Sure enough I feel much better now, after re-instating my protein for a few days.
Any one else have any real-life experiences with this?
Any one else have any real-life experiences with this?