Protein provides building blocks for the construction of new muscle proteins, but its job doesn’t stop there. All of the tissues within your body are built from proteins, such as your hair, skin, nails and organs. Proteins also have the very important job of creating molecules that are vital for overall health such as hormones.
Dietary proteins are tightly bundled into complex structures. When you consume foods rich in protein the first task of the digestive system is to try and uncover the amino acids within them by breaking down these bundles.
Acid in our stomach is responsible for breaking down the complex structures before they reach our small intestine. Once It does reach the small intestine, digestive enzymes break these smaller proteins down into amino acids which you can use for energy or muscle building.
Once these amino acids are freed, they are then absorbed into the liver, which decides their role within the body. Depending upon what the liver needs at that moment it can either use these amino acids to make new proteins within the liver (for immune cells or bones), create sugar out of them for energy and or release the rest into your bloodstream to be taken up by tissues other than your stomach or liver (Poortmans et al, 2012).
Did you know that roughly 80% of your daily protein turnover happens within the gut and liver, however, your cells also make proteins in tissues all over the body (Norton, 2020). Why is this important? Your body uses protein mostly to complete important chemical processes not to only build muscle like the bro’s in the magazines would have you think.
This is referred to as protein synthesis, which simply means the making of new proteins. Within sports; coaches and athletes are mostly interested in one kind of protein synthesis, and that is referred to as muscle protein synthesis (MPS). MPS refers to the making of new muscle proteins, which is a process that is always occurring.
At the same time there is always muscle protein breakdown (MPB) occurring. So, you’re always building and losing muscle. The same way our cells use and turnover proteins, so do your muscles. When your body creates new muscle proteins, you are also breaking down old and damaged ones. This is a good thing. This is how you come back stronger after every training session. You can’t just turn on MPS and turn off MPB – they are constantly happening. All you can do is create an environment within the body where MPS exceeds MPB. Fortunately, this isn’t that hard to do.
Picture MPS and MPB as you and your best mate sitting down on a couch. No matter what you are both going to be sitting on the couch, however, each of you will take up a different amount of space on the couch.
If you decide to take a nap and lie down flat across the couch, then you will use more of the couch than your mate. This is a similar concept to how MPS and MPB work. No matter what they are going to be sitting on the same couch together, the only difference is that your diet and lifestyle dictate whether or not MPS takes up more space on the couch or not.
If you are eating enough protein at each meal, you will be able to easily stimulate the making of new proteins within your muscle and send MPB to the far end of the couch while you take a snooze.
How much do you need to make new muscle proteins?
Research indicates that 20-30 grams of protein seems to be where most athletes can maximally simulate the making of new muscle proteins, unless you are a heavier with an intense training schedule. This might warrant consuming 30-50 grams at every meal may( Mcnaughton et al, 2016 ; Moore et al, 2009)
Stimulating MPS at 3–5-hour intervals can help to repair muscle damage after training and matches. In football, a lot of muscle damage occurs not only from the physical knocks you endure but also from the intense movements you make, therefore, getting your protein right is a vital part of the recovery process.
Aim to consume anywhere from 0.4 – 0.6 grams of protein per kg of bodyweight at each meal in order to stimulate MPS.
For example, if you weigh 68kg, simply multiply that number by 0.4-0.6 which would give you a figure of 27-40 grams.
If this seems too complex for you simply aim to consume 20-50 grams of protein at each meal.
Do you need to eat a lot of protein to stimulate MPS?
Stimulating MPS can occur by consuming as little 20 grams of protein in a single sitting which provides an anabolic effect for roughly 3-5 hours. There seems to be a cut off where consuming more protein than this is not necessarily more effective for building muscle and that cut off appears to be 50 grams depending on a few factors.
This is why it is important to consume protein every 3-4 hours, in order to stimulate MPS multiple times per day. For example, if you eat one big meal a day with 150 grams of protein, your body will absorb it all and use it all, but you will only stimulate MPS once. Therefore, you only get an anabolic response from one meal out of your entire day.
If you divide that 150 grams into 4 meals consisting of 35 grams of protein, then you will have stimulated MPS four times in that day. Take home message: meal frequency and protein feeding throughout the day is important for athletes.
Take a look at this infographic to help make more sense of this:
Yasuda et al, 2020
Consuming a protein rich meal frequently throughout the day is also important because contrary to popular belief, your body does not use a lot of protein you consume from food for building new muscle.
One study looked at how protein is used within the body to build muscle. They gave participants 20 grams of protein and found that 45% of the protein was used by the stomach and intensities, 55% made its way into circulation and only 11% of the 20 grams (only 2.2 grams) made it into the muscle to build new muscle proteins (Groen et al, 2015).
This means that you need to consume a larger portion of dietary protein in order for it to have a noticeable impact on muscle growth. This study illustrates that the body uses protein for many different processes within the body – not just muscle building. What does this mean for you?
Only small amounts of dietary protein from one meal make it into the muscle to promote growth. Therefore, frequent protein feedings throughout the day may help maximise the amount of protein that gets into the muscle.
Take home message: Consume 20-50 grams of protein at every meal. Check in and see how your body feels eating this much protein daily, and make sure to add in non-animal sources as they contain many other health benefits.
Do we need more protein after exercise?
In order to answer this question, we need to look at data that exists on how the protein we eat impacts MPS in adults who are resting or exercising and compare the two. One eloquent study did that. The authors gave 10, 20 and 40 grams of protein to participants while in a rested state and did the same to another group who was exercising and then they measured MPS rates in both groups.
They found that in the group not exercising 20 grams was enough to maximally stimulate MPS, even more so than 40 grams. But in the exercise group; 40 grams had significant benefit over 20 grams (Witard et al, 2013). Take a look at the data below:
What this study suggest is that exercise increases how much protein you can use for MPS possibly because of the muscle damage effect that intense exercise has on the body.
How much should you eat?
Daily protein intake:
Research shows that consuming anywhere from 1.8-2.2 grams of protein per kg of bodyweight per day is enough to maximize recovery and performance in athletes. (Schoenfeld & Aragon, 2018)
For example, if you weigh 68 kg, you would simply multiply this by 1.8 -2.2 and you would get a range of 120-150 grams per day.
Per meal recommendation:
If for some reason you did not have time to calculate the recommendation above to figure out your total daily protein requirements, use this “per meal” calculation in order to get a range of how much protein you need to consume at each meal.
Recommendation: 0.4-0.6 grams per kg of bodyweight per meal
Example: 68 x 0.4-0.6 = 27-40 grams per meal to stimulate MPS
Hierarchy of Protein
Here is all you will ever need to know about the hierarchy of protein so you can quit obsessing and put to bed the many myths surrounding how much and at what times protein should be consumed!
Most important:
Total daily protein intake:
This includes protein coming from animals and plants. Whatever protein you ingest, from any food source, add it up.
The quality of the protein you consume matters, however, overall intake is most important to hit your recovery and performance goals, so aim to hit your target numbers and enjoy the ride.
Second:
Protein distribution:
This refers to how many times you consume protein throughout the day.
Consuming protein every 3-5 hours is important to maximise the anabolic effect of your diet and necessary to stimulate MPS at every meal. If you are following the recommendations laid out within this guide for total daily protein requirements, this will naturally work itself out.
Remember, the stress that comes with obsessing over your diet is worse for your performance than eating poor quality foods.
Third:
Timing:
If you are consuming enough total protein every day, and consuming it at every meal then naturally you will have to space your meals out at least 2-3 hours apart due to satiation and fullness following a meal.
This is why total daily protein is ranked as number one within the hierarchy and why protein distribution takes second place. If you space your protein feeding out every 3-5 hours, then you naturally will be able to set up feeding around important times such as pre and post-match/training.
Make sure to eat some protein at least 3-4 hours prior to training/matches and as soon as possible following training/matches. The rest of the protein you need to consume to hit your daily goals can be consumed whenever you like.
For more football specific nutrition advice, check out the Improve The Game Nutrition Handbook – the only resource you’re going to need to improve your nutrition off the pitch so you can perform better on the pitch.
References
Groen, B. B., Horstman, A. M., Hamer, H. M., de Haan, M., van Kranenburg, J., Bierau, J., … van Loon, L. J. (2015). Post-Prandial Protein Handling: You Are What You Just Ate. PLOS ONE, 10(11). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0141582
Macnaughton, L. S. et al. (2016).The response of muscle protein synthesis following whole-body resistance exercise is greater following 40 g than 20 g of ingested whey protein. 4, 1–13.
Moore, D. R. et al. (2009). Ingested protein dose response of muscle and albumin protein synthesis after resistance exercise in young men. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 89, 161–168.
Poortmans, J. R., Carpentier, A., Pereira-Lancha, L. O., & Lancha Jr., A. (2012). Protein turnover, amino acid requirements and recommendations for athletes and active populations. Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research, 45(10), 875–890. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0100-879x2012007500096
Schoenfeld, B. J., & Aragon, A. A. (2018). How much protein can the body use in a single meal for muscle-building? Implications for daily protein distribution. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-018-0215-1
Witard, O. C., Jackman, S. R., Breen, L., Smith, K., Selby, A., & Tipton, K. D. (2013). Myofibrillar muscle protein synthesis rates subsequent to a meal in response to increasing doses of whey protein at rest and after resistance exercise. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 99(1), 86–95. https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.112.055517
Yasuda, J., Tomita, T., Arimitsu, T., & Fujita, S. (2020). Evenly Distributed Protein Intake over 3 Meals Augments Resistance Exercise–Induced Muscle Hypertrophy in Healthy Young Men. The Journal of Nutrition, 150(7), 1845–1851. https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxaa101
