Important Amino Acids for Bodybuilders

Protein is made up of structural units or chains called amino acids, which are involved in innumerable physiological processes in the body. Understanding the basics and providing a complete spectrum of them in the diet is basic for any bodybuilder. For supporting this task, this post reviews the primary amino acids for achieving success in bodybuilding.

There are 20 standard amino acids. Of those 20, 9 are considered essential, namely isoleucine, leucine, valine, histidine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, and tryptophan. Essential amino acids must be supplied entirely by diet, since body cannot manufacture them.

Isoleucine, leucine, and valine comprise the Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA). They are probably the most important amino acids in the growth, maintenance and repair of muscle tissue, exerting a strong synergistic effect among them. They contribute in preventing the breakdown of muscle tissue and in promoting muscle recovery. In addition, they also play a role in the regulation of blood-sugar levels and stimulate growth hormone release. Leucine is found in nearly all protein sources, especially whole grains and milk products, but also brown rice, beans, legumes, nuts, eggs, and meat. Major isoleucine sources are pork, chicken, cashews, fish, eggs, lentils, cottage cheese, milk, and cereal grains. Valine sources include dairy products, meat, poultry, fish, mushrooms, lentils, soy, and peanuts.

Lysine contributes to the maintenance and manufacture of muscle protein, playing additionally a role in revitalizing the body to combat fatigue and overtraining and maintaining a positive nitrogen balance. Lysine appears in fish, legumes, cheese, eggs, milk, meat, and potatoes. Methionine assists in the breakdown and use of fats. In addition, it is a precursor of creatine monohydrate within the body, an essential compound for energy production and muscle growth. Sources for this amino acid include meat, fish, beans, eggs, lentils, yogurt and seeds. Lysine, methionine and vitamin C together form L-carnitine, which is used for transport of long-chain fatty acids. For this reason, L-carnitine is commonly supplemented during fat loss periods.

Phenylalanine is a major precursor of tyrosine, which increases neurotransmitters levels (e.g dopamine). It's also one of the manufacturers of glutamine. Sources of this amino acid include dairy products, legumes, nuts, whole grains, poultry, fish, and seeds. Histidine is needed for the growth and repair of tissue of all kind, and it can be found in dairy products, bananas, grapes, meat, poultry, fish, rice and wheat. Threonine is used to form collagen and elastin and allows better absorption of other nutrients, so protein sources containing threonine are more bio-available than others. This amino acid can be found in poultry, fish, meat, lentils, dairy products, and eggs. Tryptophan is a major precursor of serotonin, which relieves insomnia and promotes restful sleep. Major sources are chocolate, oats, bananas, dairy products, red meat, eggs, fish, poultry, chickpeas, seeds, and peanuts.

Next to these essential amino acids, there are 11 non-essential amino acids (a.k.a. dispensable amino acids) which can be synthesized to a certain degree by the body. This category includes alanine, arginine, asparagine, aspartic acid (a.k.a. aspartate), cysteine, glutamic acid (a.k.a. glutamate), glutamine, glycine, proline, serine, and tyrosine.

Some of these non-essential amino acids have been demonstrated to be of great importance for the bodybuilder, especially glutamine and arginine. This has motivated these amino acids to be commonly supplemented. Glutamine is directly involved in the regulation of protein synthesis and breakdown and is a powerful anabolic stimulus. It regulates ammonium levels in the tissues, which can be toxic to the body's cells. In addition, glutamine can be used as an alternate energy source in glucose deprived conditions. This amino acid appears in large amounts in all high-protein foods. Arginine contributes to protein synthesis with its nitrogen retention ability. It also stimulates the GH release. In addition, it facilitates muscle mass gain while limiting fat storage. Arginine sources include whole-wheat, nuts, seeds, rice, chocolate, raisins and soy.

Further details can be found in the article “Amino Acids Guide!” by Big Cat and in the “Amino Acids” section of Gym Addiction site.

Importance of Micronutrients for Bodybuilders: Water, Vitamins & Minerals

A common mistake in bodybuilders’ nutrition is neglecting those elements that do not provide calories. However, these elements, known as micronutrients, are indispensable for many physiological functions. This post reviews the importance of basic micronutrients (water, vitamins, and minerals) for achieving success in bodybuilding.

Water is one of the most important nutrients, as it has many health and performance benefits. It keeps your organs functioning properly, clears toxins from the body and regulates the body cooling system. In addition, it is essential for proper digestion, nutrient absorption and chemical reactions, and it contributes to muscle growth by favoring the transport of nutrients to the cells. It even increases the body's ability to metabolize stored fat. On the other side, water is also very important for the athletic performance, since improper hydration can result in muscle cramping, decreased strength and reduced endurance.

In general, people wait to be thirsty in order to drink. This is not a good idea, because when you are thirsty, your body is already dehydrated. You should drink on average 3 or 4 liters of water per day, distributed at regular intervals regardless if you are thirsty or not. Use water itself as you main water source. Soft drinks, alcohol or coffee should be better avoided as a water source because they are diuretic (they take away more water than they provide to the body). In addition, soft drinks and alcohol supply a great number of calories which can turn into body fat.

Vitamins are organic substances essential to the normal functioning of the body, as they help to catalyze biochemical reactions controlling metabolism, growth and maintenance. A deficiency in a single vitamin can have great effects in the athletic performance and even in the health. Vitamins must be obtained from food (fish, fruit and veggies are great vitamin sources) since, with few exceptions, the body cannot synthesize them. Vitamins can be divided into two categories: fat-soluble and water-soluble. Fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) are stored in the body fatty tissue and for this reason they do not have to be replenished daily. Don’t overdose since this can lead to toxicity. The water-soluble vitamins (vitamin C and all the B complex vitamins, namely B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B5 (pantothenic acid), B6 (pyridoxine), B12 (cobalamin), folic acid, and biotin (a.k.a. vitamin H)) are not stored in the body and excessive amounts are excreted in the urine. This means that toxicity is generally not a problem, but these vitamins must be continually replenished through the diet.

Minerals have also a great importance. They act as catalysts for many biological reactions within the body, including muscle response, the transmission of messages through the nervous system, the production of hormones, and the assimilation of nutrients in foods. In addition, all tissues and internal fluids of our body (e.g. bones, teeth, muscle, blood, and nerve cells) contain varying quantities of minerals. Since the body cannot manufacture any single mineral, your entire mineral intake must provide from food. The most important minerals for a bodybuilder include magnesium, calcium, zinc, chromium, sodium, phosphorous, iron, selenium, cooper, and potassium. Be aware of overdosing on any mineral, since this can cause a functional imbalance of another mineral or even toxicity.

I’ll provide a detailed description for each vitamin and mineral (importance, deficiency symptoms and food sources) in a later post, but in the meanwhile, you can find more information about the importance of micronutrients in the article “Understanding The Importance Of Proper Hydration For Maximum Gains In And Out Of The Gym!” by Jeff Behar or the article “Anabolic Nutrition!” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.

Macronutrients Guide: Fat

This post concludes the macronutrients series with a commonly demonized macronutrient: fat. Although everybody knows the dangerous effects of eating excess fat, eliminating it from your diet can be also extremely harmful for your health, since fat is essential in many body functions.

Fat roles are manifold. It is an important building block for all cell membranes, it is needed for the absorption and transport of the fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K), it is used for hormone production, and it increases the digestion and use of protein. In addition, fat can be also used as a long-term energy source (fat yields 9 calories per gram).

Fat can be separated in two categories: good fat (monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats) and bad fat (trans fatty acids and saturated fats). Good fats are preferred in your diet because they have benefits for your health (e.g. increase the good (HDL) cholesterol and lower the bad (LDL) cholesterol). They are found in fish, nuts and vegetable oils (flaxseed oil, canola oil, safflower oil, sunflower seed oil and olive oil). Good fats include what is known as Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s). There are two types of EFA’s: Linoleic Acid (Omega-6) and Linolenic Acid (Omega-3). The body can synthesize many of the fatty acids it needs, but it cannot synthesize EFA’s, hence they must be ingested in the diet.

Your bad fats intake should be limited because they raise bad (LDL) cholesterol and increase chances of coronary diseases. Bad fats are mainly found in processed foods and in animal sources (beef, pork, lamb, egg yolks, milk or cheese). However, these animal sources contain not only saturated fats, but also valuable nutrients for bodybuilders such as protein. For this reason, you should include them in your diet occasionally, but controlling your global fat levels.

You should keep fat intake in the range of 15-25% of your total calories. Don’t go below that to avoid health problems. Don’t go above that because excess fatty acids will be stored as adipose tissue and you are also exposed to health problems. Focus on good fats and distribute your fat intake through all your meals. Don’t combine fat with high GI carbohydrates in the same meal, because fat storage in the adipose tissue is greatly enhanced by the presence of insulin.

As usual, you can find more information on fat macronutrient in the article “The Big Picture: Are Fats Evil?” by Matt Danielsson, in the article “Fatten Up Your Total!” by Anthony Ricciuto, and in the article “Good And Bad Fats: How Do We Balance Their Intake For Optimal Health!” by David Robson.

Macronutrients Guide: Protein

This post presents the next chapter in the macronutrients series. It covers protein, which is an essential macronutrient for bodybuilding, since it is indispensable for building muscle.

Protein is made up of structural units or chains called amino acids (I’ll go deeper on different amino acids on a future post). The main role of protein is to contribute to the repair and growth of muscle tissues. In fact, proteins are needed for the body to manufacture and repair most body structures and to synthesize neurotransmitters, hormones, enzymes or antibodies. In addition, protein can also be used as an energy source for the body (via gluconeogenesis) when the supply of carbohydrates is not adequate. Protein yields 4 calories per gram.

It's extremely important to maintain always a positive nitrogen balance, because this is required for new tissue to be synthesized and in a negative nitrogen balance state, the protein needed by your body is supplied via muscle breakdown. In order to accomplish this, you have to spread your protein intake over the entire day, feeding yourself every three hours with some protein source (e.g. chicken, meat, fish, eggs, milk, etc.) combined with carbohydrates, since they facilitate the absorption of protein.

Weight training increases your daily protein requirement. As a general rule, you should have 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day. However, be careful of having too much protein, because it can be converted to fat and stored in adipose tissue. In addition, diversity on your sources of protein is important in order get a complete essential amino acid profile.

Proteins can be classified according to their Biological Value (BV), which measures how easily a protein source is assimilated and utilized by the body. The higher the number ranking, the quicker the protein is absorbed but also the faster it's rendered useless within the body. That means that taking in large doses of a high BV protein makes little or no sense. Proteins can also be classified depending on their Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acids Score (PDCAAS). The PDCAAS examines the essential amino acid content of the protein and compares it against the human requirement for essential amino acids. Proteins with great diversity of amino acids will have higher PDCAAS. Typically, animal products score better than vegetal on both the BV and PCDAAS scales.

Your breakfast should include a high BV protein source, since you have being without food for over 8 hours, so you are in a muscle wasting state. The same applies to the post-workout meal, because after training your body needs nutrients for rapid recovering. On the other side, before you go to bed you should consume protein that is digested slowly (low BV), to delay entering in a catabolic state.

You can find further details on protein in the article “The Protein Bible” by John Berardi and in the “Macronutrients” section of Muscle 101 site. The article “All About Protein” by Big Cat describes the properties of most popular protein sources.

Macronutrients Guide: Carbohydrates

As commented before, food provides you with three different macronutrients: carbohydrates, protein and fat. Your diet must have an adequate balance of these macronutrients. This post initiates a series describing the particularities and the importance of each macronutrient, starting with carbohydrates.

The main role of carbohydrates is to serve as the preferred source of energy for muscles, yielding 4 calories per gram. Other roles of carbohydrates include the control of blood sugar levels to prevent hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), be the primary fuel for the central nervous system, help in the recovery process and actuate as catalyst in burning fat process. In addition, carbohydrates protect protein from gluconeogenesis (i.e. from being converted to glucose to serve as an energy source) when glucose levels decrease.

Traditional carbohydrates classification distinguishes simple and complex carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates provide you with quick energy. Complex carbohydrates are used for timed-released and sustained energy. Simple carbohydrates include monosaccharides (glucose, galactose, fructose) and disaccharides (sucrose, lactose, maltose) while complex carbohydrates include polysaccharides (glycogen, starch and fiber). Glycogen is the form used to store glucose in the liver and in the muscles cells. It is broken down for energy when training. Starch can be found in foods such as bread, grains, pasta, rice, cereal, potatoes and legumes. Fiber is found in fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains and nuts and helps to prevent several diseases and to lower bad LDL cholesterol. The two main types of fiber are insoluble and soluble.

More recently, carbohydrates have been classified depending on their Glycemic Index (GI), which measures the effect that carbohydrates have on blood sugar levels. The GI refers to how quickly carbohydrates turn to blood sugar. The higher the number ranking, the quicker the carbohydrate will turn to blood sugar and the more effect it has on the release of insulin. You can consult the GI of different foods here.

Your carbohydrates intake should be distributed throughout all your meals, but concentrated especially in your breakfast and your post-workout meal. Low GI carbohydrates should represent the majority of the carbohydrates in your diet. The exception to this rule is the post-workout meal. At this time, training has depleted your muscle glycogen stores, thus your muscles are very receptive to carbohydrates. High GI carbohydrates will spike your insulin levels, helping to rapidly refill the glycogen stores and promoting your recovery.

You can look for more information on these and other carbohydrates issues in the article “The Carbohydrate Manifesto” by Anthony Ricciuto. Further details on the different carbohydrates can be found in the “Carbohydrates” section of Gym Addiction site.

Nutritional Guidelines for Building Muscle

As I have already stated in previous posts, intense training must be combined with proper nutrition and adequate rest for achieving good results in bodybuilding. Nutrition is especially important (some people say it constitutes the 80% of bodybuilding success), since it supplies the foundations for building muscle and helps to maximize your recovery. This post provides the basic nutritional guidelines that must be respected for gaining lean body mass (i.e. building muscle).

For building mass you must eat more calories than you burn. Try adding 500 calories to your maintenance daily caloric intake. This value depends on your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), which is the amount of calories you burn in a day just to survive, and the amount of calories you burn due to your activity level. Check these calculators (ISSA, ExRx.net) for determining your BMR and your maintenance daily caloric intake.

You must distribute your total ingestion of calories through several small meals throughout the day (every 2.5-3 hours). Eating in this way allows maintaining a positive nitrogen balance, which is the physiological state in which muscular growth is possible. Use protein supplements in the form of a meal replacement or protein shake if you need help for eating so frequently.

All your meals must have an adequate nutrients balance. A rule of thumb for this can be: 55% calories from carbohydrates, 30% from protein and 15% from fat. You must consume enough protein (1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day), since it is the macronutrient used to build muscle. Look for sources of lean protein (i.e. low fat sources), such as skinless chicken, turkey, fish, skim milk, egg whites or lean meat. Consume also plenty of quality carbohydrates. Focus on starches (e.g. cereals, pasta, potatoes, rice) but also on fibrous carbohydrates (e.g. salads and vegetables), since fiber is very important in the digestion process and eliminating toxins from the body. Don’t eliminate fat from your diet. Avoid saturated fats that raise bad (LDL) cholesterol and focus on polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats (Essential Fatty Acids) found in fish and in certain oils (flaxseed, olive).

Next to that you also need your daily requirements of vitamins, minerals and water. Water is very important in many physiological processes. You should drink on average 3 or 4 liters of water per day. In addition, you should avoid alcohol, or at least control your alcohol intake. Alcohol supplies you empty calories with absolutely no nutritional value and hurts muscle growth by lowering protein synthesis by 20%. A final advice is not to substitute a balanced diet with supplements. Supplements are only effective as a complement to proper training and nutrition.

To conclude, you can go deeper in the basics of bodybuilding nutrition in the article “The Top 25 Ways to Pack on Serious Mass” by Anthony Ricciuto, in the article “Gaining Weight for the Bodybuilder” by Matt Danielsson and in the article “Anabolic Nutrition” included in the I.C.E. Training Program developed by Big Cat.