Topic: Protein or no protein?

[Matt Z]

Okay, my current problem is that I want to run and be able to keep fit for parkour. I'm managing that just fine, but I also do strength training and use protein shakes to help heal faster, how do I know i'm not getting to many calories with my protein shake?
I also did this as a test, to get more toned and fit, I ran for a week and worked on my cardiovascular system without taking protein. I got good results out of this, and I would keep going down this path, but using protein would help so much to heal faster. Is there any way to insure my body is using the protein and not storing it?
(sorry for the long multi-question, I don't know exactly how to word it)

[FastGuppy]

 YOU NEED PROTEIN. Bet you five bucks you don’t get enough as it is. If you're skinny or moderate don't worry about gaining weight as long as you are getting stronger/faster.

If you want to do serious parkour stop jogging and start sprinting. You'll get enough endurance by sprints. long slow running is a great way to lose muscle-mass and a bad way to lose fat

[Matt Z]

Yeah, I'm somewhat skinny. I would be running right now but I just started not running on my heels, so my peroneus longus tendon isn't used to it. This is also another reason why I was asking if I should use protein.
Another question, does your body eat away at muscle if you don't get enough food, nutrients etc?

[FastGuppy]

Yes you're body will eat away at muscle if you don't get enough food. That's why LSD isn't promoted for parkour. LSD burns calories real quick without using much of the energy from fat. Instead of just jogging, you'll have to do some kind of tempo or preferably interval to maintain muscle and burn fat. Gymnasts don't run a lot and sprinters don't jog for 20 minutes. Parkour is no exception.


Unless there will be a moment in parkour where you'll be moving for 15 minutes then there is really no need. The time running and jogging should be slower anyways to save energy for hard movements.

Your diet should be balanced 40/30/30 (Protein, carbs and fat) Forgive me if I'm off or whatever. If you want to get bigger consume more fat. If you want to get smaller decrease both protein and fat.

A lot of people emphasize carbs as the regular form of energy. This isn't always true. Protein can also be used as energy in endurance such as cycling, running, swimming, etc. You only need a certain amount to maintain all the body functions and importantly to maintain muscle mass.

My suggestion to you would be to eat a lot of fat and carbs. Gallon of whole milk a day and starting strength by mark rippetoe. I don't just highly-recommend you to get this; I exhort you to. I would be willing to bet that your strength training program is wrong. You can skip some lifts like bench and overhead press and just replace bench with PPPUs and Overhead press with handstands.

Furthermore, you should look around the forums, check out the stickies and look at other posts. You will find a lot of stuff you didn’t know about.

[Rafe]

Protien, Fat and Carbohyrdate needs are not closely connected and their is no evidence to back up Sears contention that 40/30/30 provides some kind of optimal metabolic window.

If your training hard .7-1gram of protein per pound bodyweight should be consumed, If you want to gain mass 1 up to even 2gram per pound bodyweight may be necessary.

Essential levels of fat are important as well I have seen less on that issue but Lyle Mcdonald recommends .4-.5 gram per pound bodyweight, theres some debate as to where the rest of your energy sources should come from some favor higher fat approaches some higher carbs optimal performance seems to depend on training stimulus and body type.

I bias towards fat because i seem to maintain energy better on fat sources.

Try to get your nutrient requirements from whole foods, meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds are pretty safe, dairy is good if get high quality stuff and can tolerate it, grains and legumes have to be processed right and most sources aren't so its usually safest to avoid them unless your willing to soak your own beans, sprout your grains and otherwise study up on how to get rid of anti nutrients.

[Matt Z]

Thanx for the input.
Before when I was strength training I usually took 1g for every pound.
I guess i'll keep taking protein and see if I notice a difference. I 'll probably just decrease the amount I take daily.
Even though I'm still consuming quite a few grains, I have been cutting dairy, which isn't necessarily good, but eating todays dairy is like asking for cancer along with your cookies. 

[FastGuppy]

I never said 40/30/30 is optimal. It was just simply the first ratio that popped in my mind. I'm hoping he takes my advice with a salt shaker and seeing how things work for himself.



There some strong connections with protein and carbs for health purposes. In psychology and health/hygiene I’ve learned all about them.

Thanx for the input.
Before when I was strength training I usually took 1g for every pound.
I guess i'll keep taking protein and see if I notice a difference. I 'll probably just decrease the amount I take daily.
Even though I'm still consuming quite a few grains, I have been cutting dairy, which isn't necessarily good, but eating todays dairy is like asking for cancer along with your cookies. 

PROTEIN, PROTEIN, PROTEIN, GOOD!

If you do have a day where you decrease only do it once a week. If you're an athlete it will a hard task getting protein in. Get protein from whey shakes. Shakes don't have too many calories in them and neither do unprocessed deli meats. RARELY ANYTHING BAD COMES FROM PROTEIN!

As far as dairy, if you're referring to the mass hysteria phase of steroids then you have nothing to worry about. The little steroids that were injected in the cows will have extremely small risqué. A lot of things can give you cancer, including star light . . .

[Matt Z]

Well, I did get a lot of protein from milk and dairy. But since I stopped drinking milk and cut down on other dairy, i've been eating more meat which has made a balance somewhat in my diet.
Oh, and the thing about dairy, most cows are pumped with hormones which when consumed, helps cancer grow (breast cancer prostrate cancer etc) if it already exists..
I don't want to get into dairy conspiracies though

Fastguppy:
What is this thing about star light? I have a feeling i've seen you post this in other threads...

[FastGuppy]

One night when I was dating a girl, I was watching family guy and Stewie came on and said "You know starlight can give you cancer? But what doesn't now days huh?

Drinking milk won't get you cancer. There have been many people, some of which are here at american parkour, who have drunk a gallon of whole milk a day for 6 months to a year. No side effects. Hormones are in cows, but they don't reduce your quality milk. Use the search function. This topic has come up a long time ago.

[Sala]

i eat 55-70 eggs a week

about 9-12 eggs a day.

but i dont think i could drink a gallon of milk a day

[Matt Z]

I'm not saying those are cold hard facts. There really is no way of telling what exactly is in your food. Or whether it is natural or not.
Personally I don't think i'll be able to drink a gallon of milk every day.

And that's a lot of damn eggs! haha.
I don't know if i'll ever give up on my 8 egg sandwich...

[Chris Salvato]

Anything that promotes growth can give you cancer - including GOMAD.  That also includes exercise, too.

[FastGuppy]

There are a lot of things that are hard to do, including parkour.

Exercise, stuffing yourself school work, brushing your teeth, etc, all take some sort of discomfort. You're just going to have to get use to that if you want to go somewhere in life.

[Matt Z]

There are a lot of things that are hard to do, including parkour.

Exercise, stuffing yourself school work, brushing your teeth, etc, all take some sort of discomfort. You're just going to have to get use to that if you want to go somewhere in life.

Are you referring to drinking a gallon of milk?

[FastGuppy]

Are you referring to drinking a gallon of milk?

Drinking milk follows that. Personally, you need to gain weight. The best way to do this is drinking a gallon of whole milk and probably the easiest way. Milk provides for a balanced amount of cars, proteins, fats. Milk also has a lot of growth hormones in it. Milk is made for growing. If you want to get bigger drink Milk or eat 6 meals a day.

I’m drinking a gallon of milk. I have for 4-6 months. I’m thinking about quitting soon because I will soon be at my goal weight of 200. (My body type could use a bit more weight than most. I’m 180 now.

At least drink SOME milk. MILK GOOD!

[Hayden Williams]

Well, I did get a lot of protein from milk and dairy. But since I stopped drinking milk and cut down on other dairy, Oh, and the thing about dairy, most cows are pumped with hormones which when consumed, helps cancer grow (breast cancer prostrate cancer etc) if it already exists..
I don't want to get into dairy conspiracies though

Completely agree with the cancer scare. There is such a thing as organic milk- no pesticides, hormones, anything.

[Chris Salvato]

This thread is filled with a lot of myths already.  I hope someone clears it all up because I don't have the drive to do it

[Jake Vigil]

Damn, this thread makes me facepalm.

Matt... If you want to gain muscle, start working out (lifting heavy) and eating. And by eating, I don't mean eating slightly larger portions at dinner time. I mean eat like its your goddamn career. Lift heavy and stuff your face with whatever the hell you can find. Drink a gallon of milk a day. Eat big macs and doublebacon cheeseburgers and tripple whoppers like they're chips. And lift heavy. Compound, heavy barbell lifts (Squat, Deadlift, Bench press, blah blah blah)
And Eat.


And while you're doing that, spend some time browsing forums and reading and learning how to eat cleanly. Then when you're satisfied with your size, start eating cleanly.


As for all the rest of this nonsense...

Okay, my current problem is that I want to run and be able to keep fit for parkour. I'm managing that just fine, but I also do strength training and use protein shakes to help heal faster, how do I know i'm not getting to many calories with my protein shake?
What? I don't understand what your goal is here. Are you looking to get stronger without getting bigger? Or are you thinking that the excess calories are going to turn into fat?

I also did this as a test, to get more toned and fit, I ran for a week and worked on my cardiovascular system without taking protein. Supplementing protein after cardio doesn't really do a whole lot for you, because cardiovascular exercise doesn't really stimulate muscle growth, and doesn't really wreck your muscles too badly, so you don't really need extra protein
 I got good results out of this, and I would keep going down this path, but using protein would help so much to heal faster. Is there any way to insure my body is using the protein and not storing it? Your body will use what it needs. Protein doesn't really convert to energy very well, so it doesn't really get stored (per se) as anything other than muscle...
(sorry for the long multi-question, I don't know exactly how to word it)

YOU NEED PROTEIN. Bet you five bucks you don’t get enough as it is.Probably not true, unless he eats nothing but bread and cereal and the like, If you're skinny or moderate don't worry about gaining weight as long as you are getting stronger/faster.

If you want to do serious parkour stop jogging and start sprinting. You'll get enough endurance by sprints. long slow running is a great way to lose muscle-mass and a bad way to lose fat Ehhh....

And... Dinner time. Might possibly edit later with more of my BS.

[FastGuppy]

TomB on milk

Milk has always contained natural bovine growth hormones (BST) in very small amounts. Some dairy producers administer the synthetic version of this hormone (rBST) to increase milk production. However, FDA has concluded that milk produced by treated and untreated cows is exactly the same. Ninety percent of these hormones are destroyed with pasteurization. The remaining trace amounts are broken down into inactive fragments in the gut. Both hormones are “cow specific” and have no effect on the human body.(1)

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FFS! lol. What the hell is it!? Every time someone tells me getting bigger (and by that I mean by adding more muscle) will help for underweight/normal people six weeks later it seems to be accepted that being skinny is better. I'm taking a stance now. If getting bigger helps you get stronger and you're "skinny" there's no reason not to add BW. It's hard to get too heavy. Rafe already explained why, for all you lazy bastards use the search function.

[Dan Elric]

Damn you Chris

If you want to do serious parkour stop jogging and start sprinting. You'll get enough endurance by sprints. long slow running is a great way to lose muscle-mass and a bad way to lose fat

On the contrary LSD is pretty effective at fat burning, it just isn't as effective as HIIT.  Do you have evidence that LSD causes muscle mass to be stripped away?

Yes you're body will eat away at muscle if you don't get enough food. That's why LSD isn't promoted for parkour. LSD burns calories real quick without using much of the energy from fat. Instead of just jogging, you'll have to do some kind of tempo or preferably interval to maintain muscle and burn fat. Gymnasts don't run a lot and sprinters don't jog for 20 minutes. Parkour is no exception.

Show me the proof that LSD strips away muscle mass.  LSD in fact is very effective at fat burning.  Again, simply not as effective as burning calories as HIIT.

I find your comparisons lacking.  Gymnasts don't run a lot because they don't need to run a lot.  Sprinters don't jog for 20 minutes because they have no purpose at becoming better at jogging.  Marathoners run long distances because they want to be better at running long distances.  This is obvious.  If you want to get better at doing something, you do that one thing (with a little leeway), not something completely different.

You insinuate that parkour doesn't have a use for long distance running, that's not true.  It really depends on what your goals are.  I am an endurance athlete and traceur - and as such I've found a training method that works best to suit my needs.  You want to be 220 lbs. of pure muscle?  That's your decision and you can do parkour that way.  I want to be 150 lbs. of super low bf% and I'll be able to do parkour through my own style tailored to my wants.


You are right on when you say to eat more.  Eating more will lead to greater gains (much greater).  I'm all for Mark Rippetoe and he probably knows more than me, but I'm not entirely behind eating bad foods to get greater gains.  There are ways to get calories without all the negative effects of bad foods (inflammation, etc.).  Eggs, milk, and olive oil for example (and steak!).