Horleys - Guide to Getting the Right Balance: Protein & Carbohydrates.

Protein and carbs are essential to keep your body functioning well and to assist in physical maintenance, and muscle and weight management.

So how do you make sure you're getting just the right amount of your macronutrients?

Too much or too little of either can impede your progress from training and working out - not to mention affect your ability to lose or to gain weight when you want to.

If you are looking to build, or even maintain, muscle tissue - or to enable muscle recovery from weight training, then you must get enough good quality protein in your diet. Because protein is vital in muscle tissue synthesis but also every other important bodily function, this means that if protein is in short supply, your body will put building new muscle tissue, or repairing it, at the bottom of the priority list.

Implications of Low or High Protein Intake

Protein intake low	Protein intake high
Negative nitrogen balance	Positive nitrogen balance
Muscle growth difficult, body can breakdown muscle tissue proteins to supply other body functions	Protein available for muscle tissue repair and growth

Carbohydrate plays an important role too, providing the source of energy needed to break down and utilise proteins within the body.

Implications of Low or High Carbohydrate Intake

Carbohydrate intake low	Carbohydrate intake high
Negative energy balance	Positive energy balance
Body struggles to use the protein consumed to build muscle tissue	Body can actively repair damaged muscles and grow new muscle tissue
Body will break down muscle tissue to provide proteins for energy	Fully replenished carbohydrate stores ensure your next training session is effective.

The balance of how much protein vs carb to consume at each meal is important too. As a general rule of thumb:

A.M.	P.M.
Consume two portions of carbohydrate to one portion of protein	Consume one portion of carbohydrate with one portion of protein

However if you have a specific goal in mind this varies - for example, the balance if you want to add lean muscle versus lose fat/weight, is mainly around how much carb you consume in relation to your protein and fat intake:

To add 5 kilos of muscle in 6 months*:

Calories	Increase by 20%
Carbs	7g per kg body weight per day**
Protein	2g per kg body weight per day
Fat	1g per kg body weight per day
* In conjunction with a consistent training programme to ensure that any weight gain is muscle, not fat. ** Depending on your energy requirements, you may need to increase, or decrease (especially if you are undertaking a leaning-up phase. Look at a minimum of 5g per kilo of body weight per day to fuel muscle development.

For a 1-Day Eating Guide for Lean Muscle Gain - read on here.

To lose 5 kilos of body fat in 12 weeks*:

Calories	Decrease by 20%
Carbs	3g per kg body weight per day
Protein	2g per kg body weight per day
Fat	1g per kg body weight per day
* In conjunction with a consistent training programme including weight training and cardio.

For more in-depth weight loss nutritional tips - keep reading here.

For a 1-Day Eating Guide for weight loss - read on here.

Join our Community

Monthly Supplement Advice and Special Offers to Your Inbox…

Related Products

Related Goals

Lean Muscle Gain

Surefire support for building lean muscle: products & tactics to achieve your goals faster.

Weight / Fat Loss

Tips on nutrition, activity and motivation to help you reach your weight loss goal.

Muscle Mass Gain

All the resources you need to support your training for maximum gains.

Join the Community

Monthly Supplement Advice and Special Offers to Your Inbox.

Copyright © 2024, Horleys™, Naturalac Nutrition Limited - All Rights Reserved.

Performance website by unfld