*ONLY* protein help muscle growth?

[narkerbyt]

I mean, in terms of muscle growth, is it the same eating more or less carbs ? will it be useless to eat, for example, a cup of rice, cereals, or some food which has more carbs than proteins ?

I'm asking this because It's hard to me getting high-protein foods all day long... and I don't know if eating carbs will help muscle growth or it is completly useless.
For example, Eating 4 eggs and rice, is it the same than eating just 4 eggs in terms of muscle gaining?

thanks in advance

[ReSpAwN DeMoN]

This question makes very little if any sense but I'm gonna do my best to answer this one...


carbs are equally important in terms of packing on muscle mass.

Carbs are our primary source of energy. Energy needed for two main things here when it comes to packing on muscle.

-Power your workouts
-it takes energy for your body to MAKE muscle


you also cannot neglect your fats! THey are as well EQUALLY important.

What I think your asking..'

Q.) Can you grow on ONLY protein?
A.) No.

[lupinecat]

Plus, if you eat only protein, you train your body to use protein for fuel - your body can actually become a muscle burning machine if you dont eat the right balance of foods.

[gfundaro]

I'm not exactly sure what you're asking, but I *think* you're asking whether it's useless to eat a lot of carbs to build muscle because you find it difficult to eat high protein foods. I also think you're wondering if carbs help build muscle.

Well, muscle is made of protein, which in turn is made of amino acids. There's not carbohydrates in there. Glycogen is the stored form of glucose, and that can make your muscles look more full, but the absence of glycogen doesn't equate muscle loss; they will just look smaller.
What you DO need to build muscle is an insulin spike, which is easily elicited by carbohydrates--simple carbohydrates create the biggest. However, protein itsself elicits an insulogenic response. The only reason you need an insulin spike is to shuttle nutrients out of the blood stream and into their respective places to go.
As far as 'training' your body...well, you can't train your body to burn skeletal muscle any more than you can train it to burn body fat. It'll utilize dietary nutrients preferentially and will enter different states of metabolic function (i.e. ketosis, and within ketosis different amounts of glucose and ketone formation) in order to maintain life. Eating ONLY protein will supply you with a host of amino acids, so your body won't have to break down skeletal muscle for them, but you'd run into a lot of other problems instead. Fat is essential, and carbohydrates are essential post WO; they're also helpful at other times (like, weekly or every few days or every day if you want) because they are another source of calories.

I hope that helps Try to eat 1g of protein for every lb of bodyweight.

[lupinecat]

Hmmm I have heard otherwise about your body's ability to become trained into using protien as a primary fuel source when carbs and fats are minimal... A couple of sports dietitians for the AIS.

[gfundaro]

Originally Posted by lupinecat

Hmmm I have heard otherwise about your body's ability to become trained into using protien as a primary fuel source when carbs and fats are minimal... A couple of sports dietitians for the AIS.

Yea, I know. And I still hear PT's say not to eat after 8pm.

In all fairness, if your intake of protein is greater than your intake of fat, and you're not consuming carbohydrates, gluconeogenesis will be converting more amino acids to glucose and ketones than fatty acids. However, assuming you're eating enough calories, you won't catabolize skeletal muscle. Utilizing proteins for fuel doesn't mean breaking down skeletal muscle; it means utilizing proteins. You will only catabolize skeletal muscle if sufficient amino acids aren't present. Obviously, if you're eating large amounts of protein, they will be.
If we could train our bodies in such a fashion, everyone would be training them to utilize body fat! Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way, because we preferentially use dietary nutrients over what's stored. The PSMF (protein-sparing modified fast) relies on that very fact; it's a high caloric deficit (much higher than you'd maintain for very long), very high protein, and low carb/fat. It kicks you out of a plateau without sacrificing muscle despite the caloric deficit. And if you need credibility beyond what I'm saying, which I understand, Lyle MacDonald has used that.

[lupinecat]

Hmmm sounds interesting I might look it up... Regardless of the science I still believed in an all round balanced diet anyway - fat, prot AND carbs. We are privilege in the western world to have access to such a wide variety of fine food sources, we should thank our lucky stars and enjoy it.

[gfundaro]

Originally Posted by lupinecat

Hmmm sounds interesting I might look it up... Regardless of the science I still believed in an all round balanced diet anyway - fat, prot AND carbs. We are privilege in the western world to have access to such a wide variety of fine food sources, we should thank our lucky stars and enjoy it.

Yup, they all have their place Well, except the trans fats hehe

[narkerbyt]

well basically what I wanted to know is if eating carbs will help to muscle growth too. thank you all specially gfundaro who took her time to answer.

[gfundaro]

Originally Posted by narkerbyt

well basically what I wanted to know is if eating carbs will help to muscle growth too. thank you all specially gfundaro who took her time to answer.

Oh, okay. Well then...carbs in the presence of protein, yes. Just carbs on their own, no.

[lupinecat]

Originally Posted by gfundaro

Yup, they all have their place Well, except the trans fats hehe

HEY! Transfats have their place... just ask me at 3am in the morning after 6 tequilas... Try and get between me and the sloppy hamburger place down the road that deep fries snickers bars and you'll be toast! lol! Me and transfats go waaaay back.

[gfundaro]

Originally Posted by lupinecat

HEY! Transfats have their place... just ask me at 3am in the morning after 6 tequilas... Try and get between me and the sloppy hamburger place down the road that deep fries snickers bars and you'll be toast! lol! Me and transfats go waaaay back.

Wow, I've never seen a deepfried Snickers in person!! Which is probably a good thing hehe I would like to try one though. Also, a fried PBJ sandwich and fried Oreo's. Twinkies I'm not a huge fan of, but they'd probably be good fried as well. X-D I'm hungry now!

[lupinecat]

If you think you're hungry now then don't look at what has just been posted in the cheat thread!!!!!

[gfundaro]

Originally Posted by lupinecat

If you think you're hungry now then don't look at what has just been posted in the cheat thread!!!!!

I try to avoid those if it's not a cheat weekend haha...I'm easily 'turned on' by the 'food porn' haha Yesterday I found myself looking at the Dominoe's and Hardees coupons longingly. It's hard enough eating in a dining hall with a HUGE dessert selection two meals a day!

[exothermic]

if your meso you will grow eating anyway , but yeh take advice from the posters above