Low Protein Training

I’ve been back to the gym two days in a row now, and will be in again this evening. Lifting about 70% of what I’m normally used to, feeling a bit lackluster after eating soup and bagels for a week and not sleeping particularly well.

no protein for me this past week

The interesting to note here is that I’m probably only consuming 20 grams of protein per day at the most…some days this past week I’ve consumed less than 10 grams of protein.

My measurements are still the same, I haven’t lost any size on my chest, back, shoulders arms or legs.

My waist is down a bit and I’ve lost a couple pounds and look leaner.

So really nothing much has happened besides feeling sick, losing some sleep and losing some fat.

The point is not to get too caught up on daily intake of protein/carbs/fat, vitamins minerals yadda yadda. Daily recommendations are meant as an average over time, not a hard and fast rule. Nothing bad is going to happen to you if you don’t get your daily requirement of nutrient X or vitamin Y today.

Odds are you’ll end up getting enough of it tomorrow or the next day to make up for a day or two of being below the recommended requirement.

John

Posted by johnbarban in Muscle Building, Nutrition
Tags: Muscle Building, protein |8 Comments

8 Responses to “Low Protein Training”

  1. Michael Says:
    March 21st, 2010 at 12:12 pm

    Hey John
    Its good that you really point it out to the people that nothing bad is going to happen when you eating very little protein.
    I was pretty much obsessed with al the nutrition hype created by the fitness/bodybuilding industry. I was so obsessed that i really believed that one day of bad eating each week could interfere with my muscle building progress.
    I really have to thank you for making me and everyone else here awere that the 2 things, muscle building and fat loss are influenced by 2 totally separate things.

    I do have a couple of questions.
    I do weight training 3 to 4 times a week. Each week i change my priority from low reps to higher reps so that i keep a good variaty in the strength and more endurance range( 5reps to 12 reps).
    I really keep a good focus when i’m training and i keep making small consistent progress.
    Do you think this is a good training strategy to keep getting stronger and possibly build a bit more muscle (i’m training now for about 3 years so i propably reached 95% of my potential)?

    I’m really focussing on my trainings nowadays.
    This is mostly to the fact that you really opened my eyes with the fact that progress is the only key to muscle building.
    Now in the other post you mentioned that the key to getting stronger on the bench press is to do allot of bench pressing. What is the kind of frequency you advise if you want to get stronger on certain lifts.
    Do you think that to gain more strength you have to bench press for example 3 times per week or 1 time per week efficient enough to keep progressing?

    Thanks for all the work you put in this site. Its really wonderful that you are swimming against the mainstream bodybuilding and fitness industry and spreading the real truth about diet, muscle building and lifestyle.

    Keep up the good work John!

    Greetz

  2. manny Says:
    March 21st, 2010 at 12:27 pm

    Hey john,
    i just want to bring something cooper said in the previous post about “skinny fat” people. It kind of directly relates to me because 5 years ago I was so tired of being fat that i just stopped eating all together, no joke i think i probably consumed 2000 cal a week probably anorexic…but I lost lot of “weight” my wrist, arm, legs are all very skinny..probably lost lot of muscles during those days but my stomach and chest have lot of fat around them so even though i look skinny… I have lot of fat. I’m guessing weight training and eating more often would’ve been the way to go instead. what u think?

  3. Michael H Says:
    March 21st, 2010 at 3:34 pm

    Congratulations on the fat loss! Good luck on gaining your strength back. Speaking of the “requirements” of daily vitamins and other stuff, what are those requirements or do you know of a site that has them? I sorta want to know, but don’t want to stay strict to those requirements.
    Thanks!

  4. johnbarban Says:
    March 21st, 2010 at 6:17 pm

    Michael H,

    Just google search RDA, there is a wikipedia entry with all the values.

    JB

  5. johnbarban Says:
    March 21st, 2010 at 6:19 pm

    Michael,

    Yep variety definitely helps. As long as you follow your program as it’s laid out you should be fine.

    JB

  6. Leonardo Says:
    March 21st, 2010 at 9:04 pm

    John,

    How was your strength in the gym during your 5-day fast? Were you able to lift the same amount of weight or did you find that you had to use a lighter load to knock out all your reps?

  7. johnbarban Says:
    March 21st, 2010 at 9:35 pm

    Leo,

    I was pretty close to full strength…there was one day that I felt a bit off…but for the most part I was functioning at about 90% strength.

    JB

  8. biggahboy Says:
    March 22nd, 2010 at 10:58 am

    Last thanksgiving I was sick due to the Strep Throat, I was out for almost 8days and lost about 4lbs. When I went back to the gym, I experienced some loss in strength and I think the reason was cause I was having a very hard time eating & I could only eat small portions cause whatever I swallowed hurt my throat.

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