What do you do for protein?

When we became vegetarian a decade ago we had a 4YO, a 2YO, and a breastfeeding infant. We didn't come from vegetarian stock; our families and most of our friends were convinced we were committing child abuse by inflicting a vegan diet on the young 'uns. "But what will you do for protein?" and "What do you eat?" are probably the most frequent questions we still get.

Now, ten years later, I can tell you I went through four pregnancies as a vegan or ovo-vegetarian, and I not only survived, I did just fine. I breastfed five babies who thrived and grew and were healthy. And all seven children have grown just fine and are, and always have been, mighty healthy. We get along nutritionally.

But somewhere at the back of my mind, I wondered if we were getting sufficient protein. I tracked calories over at sparkpeople.com and discovered that most of the time I'm only getting 15% of my daily calories from protein. I have a few days where I'm able to get a higher percentage, but 15% is about the usual, and some days I have to specially add in a protein snack (tofu cubes, yum!) to get up that far.

So most popular weight loss programs insist I have to load up on the proteins, which, without animal sources, is really a trick for me. I eat plenty of beans, but beans have more grams of carbohydrates than of protein. Ditto every other plant source.

And this is where an email from Brad Pilon set his program apart from others for vegetarian me:

In a really interesting study published back in 1996, 43 men who were experienced weight lifters took part in a study that involved exercise and weekly injections of testosterone enanthate for 10 weeks. Yep, these boys were on steroids for the benefit of science!

They were divided into 4 groups.

• The first group performed no exercise and didn't get any steroids.
  
• The second group performed exercise but didn't get steroids,
  
• The third group didn't exercise but received the weekly injections
  
• The fourth group exercised and received the injections.

After 10 weeks of lifting weights 3 times per week, the group that was receiving the steroid injections gained over 13 pounds of muscle. The group who were just working out (no steroids) didn't do too bad either, packing on almost 4.5 pounds of muscle in only ten weeks.

The guys who sat around doing nothing for 10 weeks but received the steroid injections still had an increase in lean mass (almost 6 pounds), while the group who received no steroids and didn't workout did not see any change in their lean mass.

So what does a study on steroids have to do with nutrition? Well, all four groups were on the same diet. They were all consuming about 0.7 grams of protein per pound of body weight and about 16 Calories per pound of body weight.

What this shows is that for a group taking steroids while exercising, 120 grams of protein per day was enough to supply the amount of protein needed to allow for a 13.5 pound gain in lean mass!

It was also the same amount of protein the the exercise only group ate to gain 4.5 pounds, and the other groups ate to see their gains,(or lack thereof).

So for the groups who saw less gains in lean mass then the steroid group, the amount of protein that they ate was not what determined how much muscle they gained. The workouts (and the steroids) did that.

Obviously, the steroids played a huge role in this muscle building effect. But the important point I want to get across to you is that the relatively normal protein intake of 120 grams per day did not hinder the steroids muscle building effects. 120 grams was enough protein to allow for relatively HUGE gains in muscle.

In the end, protein is important, but as this study shows, 0.7 grams of protein per pound of body weight is enough daily protein to allow for a 13.5 pound increase in lean mass in 10 weeks. It's also enough to allow for a 4.5 pound increase in people not taking steroids, which is still very impressive muscle growth for a ten week period!

For those of us who are not 'pharmaceutically enhanced' this study helps support the idea that your workout is the most important part of your muscle building journey.

.7 grams per pound of body weight for me would be 105 grams of protein. I think I get about half that on a good day. So I cannot, maybe, expect the same sorts of gains they get. Luckily I'm not looking at adding pounds of lean muscle tissue each week. But I did like his conclusions—the important part is working the muscle, not loading the proteins.