Great
follow-up question to the Protein
Myth article:
Hi
Cris,
I was reading your article about protein and you said that
even the most
genetically gifted person would be hard pressed to gain more
that 10-12 pounds of muscle mass in one year. What about the
Body-for-Life champions like Anthony Ellis, Ab Ansley, or
Doug DeRuyter who made gains like that in 12 weeks? Since
they have before and after pictures, and after analyzing DeRuyter's
nutrition plan and finding he was taking in close to 3000
calories a day and more than 250 grams of protein while training
each body part only once per week, how can we believe that
those kinds of gains are impossible? Thanks!
Jamie
(from BC), ninteen, skinny, tired of contradictions ect...
:P
Answer:
Dear
nineteen and skinny,
Don't
confuse limited anecdotal evidence as representing the experience
of an entire population, or any part of the population. These
quick muscle gain claim's are easily defeated:
It
doesn't matter that a person says they ate 250 grams
of protein per day and gained muscle. A person could say
they jumped over a building, but of course this could not
be true because it is not within the realm of physical possibility,
so such a claim is dismissed. It is not within the realm of
physical possibility for the average male to absorb 250 grams
of protein per day. A person would need to weigh 280 (lean)
pounds to absorb this much protein, and the Body For Life
people you mention do not weigh anywhere near 280 pounds.
Keep
in mind that a 1-pound per week increase in lean muscle mass
equals 52 pounds in one year. So where are all these people
who gain 52 pounds of muscle per year? If these people can
gain 10-12 pounds of muscle in 12 weeks, what happens after
that? Why do they stop? Does the formula only work for 12
weeks? This could not be biologically possible.
Again,
if these gains were possible, there would be hundreds of thousands
of people in MR. Universe form with only 6 months to 1 year
of training. Of course, this is not the case.
Don't
fall the stupid newspaper picture trick. This is not recognized
as a legitimate method of proving that a certain amount of
time has passed. I could buy today's newspaper, then take
a picture of me holding it. I then buy the next days newspaper
and put it on the shelf for 1 year while I train, then take
my picture holding that newspaper. Placing these two pictures
side by side, I then claim that I made one years worth of
gains in ONE DAY. Do you see how the newspaper trick works?
It is not a scientifically or legally valid method of confirming
that a period of time has passed because of the obvious ability
to take a picture with the newspaper at any date after
the newspaper was published. Also, it seems to me that some
of those fast muscle gain pictures look like bad cut-and-paste
jobs with transferring the image of a head to the image of
another body.
3000
calories is not a lot of food for a male who trains every
day. The endurance athletes I train, as well as myself, will
eat up to 4000 - 5000 calories per day on extensive training
days, and 2500 - 3500 calories on easy and moderate days.
Some ultra endurance athletes easily consume 10,000 calories
a day. Why do we eat so much? Are we super human? No. 2 to
3 hours of moderate to hard training on the bike can blow
through 2000 - 3000 calories. This isn't special or unusual
for an athlete. So the 3000-calorie per day consumption you
quoted for the Body For Life people does not strike me as
being worth mentioning as "special", but rather
just part of a normal diet for a regular exerciser.
If
a male weighed 280 to 290 pounds, was lean and was in a mass
training phase, they could consume up to 250 grams of protein
per day, and this would be healthy. It works out to about
1.8 to 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body mass per
day. If a male who weighed less than 250 pounds (lean) ate
250 grams of protein per day, it would take a matter of days
to develop high urea nitrogen levels, leach calcium, and begin
a process that can lead to kidney stones. This is a medical
fact. Humans cannot absorb more than about 1.8 - 2.0 grams
of protein per kilogram of body mass per day. We can eat it,
but can't absorb it. The unabsorbed protein may stress our
kidneys and is released in urine and feces.
Furthermore,
I hesitate to use the word "champions" when referring
to the people you mentioned from Body For Life. In a philosophical
sense, a person is their own champion if they achieve personal
goals, but if you are looking for actual athletic champions,
then show me the medals. If you want examples of true champions,
look at my results page. Take
a look at the images pages and
look at real pictures of real races, no staged photos here.
These are real athletes winning real medals.
It
may be possible to find limited exceptions where some individuals
who are untrained, who begin a training program, and gain
10 pounds of lean muscle between 5 and 7 months time. However,
this initial gain could not be continued. While this is within
the realm of possibility under these specific circumstances,
I haven't seen it myself and I've been coaching since 1987.
12
Weeks is enough time to make real changes in body composition,
and no special formula is required - just a commitment to
regular well planned training and a healthy diet. The primary
change would be fat loss - up to a maximum of 20-24 pounds
of fat loss is possible in 12 weeks. However, most people
will lose around 5 pounds of fat per month when on a healthy
fat loss plan. 12 Weeks is also enough time to make significant
increases in strength and aerobic fitness, but not enough
time to graduate from sedentary to athlete. 12 weeks of mass
training is enough to gain up to 2 - 3 pounds of lean muscle
mass.
It
should be clearly understood that if a person loses 10 pounds
of fat and gains 2 pounds of muscle in 12 weeks, which is
very realistic with healthy exercise and diet, that person
would look very different. So different that a claim of huge
muscle gain may, by appearance, look like a plausible claim.
In a side-by-side photo comparison a very lean and cut 14"
flexed biceps muscle will look larger than a flexed 16"
fat biceps muscle. Photos can be very deceiving.
When
critical thought is applied to these bogus muscle gain claims,
it becomes immediately apparent they could not possibly be
true.
- Cris LaBossiere
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