At Iron Fit in San Antonio, Texas, we work on getting you fit, losing weight and building muscles. People often think immediately of taking protein supplements when they want to build muscle tissue, but is that always the right thing to do? If you go to the grocery, you’ll find stacks of protein supplements on the shelves near the vitamins. The same is true at drug stores. I don’t even have to not how many protein supplements in stores that strictly sell supplements and health food. There are aisles designated to them. Should you take them? Are they good for you? Do you need them? One group may. That group is senior citizens that don’t process protein as efficiently. How about the rest and how much do they need?
The amount of protein you need is based partly on how active you are.
Active people require more protein than sedentary people do. That’s because they need it to repair, replace and build more muscle mass. If you’re sedentary you only need 1.2 grams per 1 kilogram of body weight. Since one kilogram equals 2.2 pounds just divide your weight by 2.2 to find kilograms. Extremely active people need approximately 1.6 gram per kilogram of body weight.
While protein shortage may take place in underdeveloped countries, it’s not prominent in the US.
Kwashiorkor—a lack of adequate protein—isn’t often found in the US and other developed nations, but when it is, certain symptoms occur. Loss and wasting of muscle mass, thinning hair, dry flaky skin, nail ridges, stunted growth in children and edema, are a few. There’s also a problem if you consume too much. For instance, eating more than 2.2 grams per kilogram of weight over an extended period can create issues like exhaustion, diarrhea, dehydration, irritability, headache and nausea. It can even lead to blood vessel disorder, kidney or liver disease, seizures and cardiovascular disease.
Eat healthy and ditch the supplements.
It’s actually hard to get too little protein if you’re eating healthy, but if you’re adding a lot of supplements, it’s easy to get too much. Focus on healthy meals with plenty of fruits and vegetables. If you want to take a protein supplement, add it to a smoothie that you’re using for a quick lunch, rather than supplementing every meal with it. To be your healthiest, you need to eat your healthiest and learning how to do that without supplements should be top priority.
- Protein is important since every cell in your body requires it. It’s an important building block for skin, muscles, bones, blood and cartilage.
- Taking a protein supplement may fulfill your protein requirements, but you won’t get all the other nutrients and phytonutrients real food provides. Many times these nutrients work together in synergy, so getting them in food is even more important.
- Don’t avoid protein, worried that you’ll get too much. It fills you up, so you’ll feel full longer, helping you to lose weight, but also aiding in controlling how much you really need.
- If you eat healthy food and make sure your plate is a rainbow of colors from fruits and vegetables and healthy sources of protein, not only can you get adequate nutrition, you’ll lose weight.
For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio