Very interesting analysis: During caloric restriction>lean athlete's=higher protein

[Dave Barry]

"A systematic review of dietary protein during caloric restriction in resistance-trained lean athlete's: A case for higher intakes." The review indicated that during caloric restriction (when an athlete attempts to lose body-fat), there is an increased need for protein to maintain fat-free mass. The group that consumed the highest protein intake (2.5-2.6g/kg), maintained the highest % of fat-free mass.

An interesting question is what method did they use to determine the amount of fat-free mass? This can be problematic since they reviewed 6 studies that very well could have used different methods, which would have skewed the results. Potentially, it is possible that large discrepancies existed between body-fat percentages in each group. Therefore, the calculation of fat-free mass (includes everything but muscle mass such as water, organs, bones etc.) could have had significant discrepancies, which in turn would have complicated the "true" amount of protein used per group. Regardless, it appears that when a lean athlete, who performs resistance training, needs a higher protein intakes such as 2.3-3.1g/kg of FFM scaled upwards.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24092765

 

[Nelson Vergel]

Dave

The study most probably used bioelectric impedance analysis (BIA). It is an easy test but very inaccurate to measure fat percent since it depends on the level of hydration of someone's body. We used BIA a lot in studies in the past and slowly moved away from it and started using DEXA and even midsection (L4-L5) MRI.