Protein Supplement Myths, debunked! part 1
I've heard enough of these nay-sayers, especially in a place where I live at, people still have the wrong idea on proteins, especially on protein supplements and specifically, protein powders, which for some reason, is especially popular with misconceptions and myths. Just do a google search and you will find explanations to all these myths.
1.taking too much protein now to build muscles will make you muscles sag later on in your life when you are not working out as much .
This is one of the most common thing I hear from people when they first hear I'm taking protein supplements. First of all, what causes these muscles to 'sag' as they say is actually fat that is sagging. Muscle cannot turn into fat, they are two different types of cells within our body, just like how fat cells can't turn into muscle cells.
To turn fat into muscle, is impossible, what happens is you 'burn' the fat, i.e. your body is using these fat cells for energy, and build muscle cells. Also, muscles don't just appear, they grow bigger as you work them. everyone has skeletal muscles in them ( otherwise you wouldn't even be standing or walking or moving any parts of your body at all), and what body-builders do is break down their muscle fibres ( through working out), and then supply them with the proper nutrition it needs to rebuild, bigger and stronger. Therefore, people don't gain more muscle cells, is just the ones that they currently have are just getting bigger due to them working out, (the breaking down and rebuilding of these muscle fibres is called hypertrophy), and the muscles are developing within the cells to accommodate to these new stimuli that they are facing (weights).
Another thing is that muscles don't just magically turn into fat when you stop working out, they merely shrink as they don't have that much of a demand to handle stimuli.
Also, most body-builders naturally eat a lot more more food than the normal average Joe, as such, their calorie intake is significantly higher than the normal person's (body-builders sometimes eat 5-7 meals per day) , and when they get older, or lose the motivation to go to the gym , or have stopped altogether, they tend to still take a large amount of calories into their body, without the working out part of their life, the caloric intake is a little too high than should be, and thus, they gain more mass, which is fat, which is why most people tend to think that people who take protein supplements to grow muscles will have their muscles SAG later on in life. But if you were to control your food intake and eat sufficiently, you wouldn't have too much of an issue.
That and the shrinking of muscle makes many people think that the muscles built from before have sagged and turned into fat, which of course, isn't true
Therefore, the misconception that your muscles will sag, or that taking protein will make your muscles sag later in life is wrong. If you have the right knowledge, and control your food intake, you can still maintain a pretty lean figure. =) cheers.
other sites that you can go to read more about it are :
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2006/05/01/1613539.htm
http://www.sgfitness.com/site/1388195/page/699068
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/08/muscle-does-not-turn-to-fat-if-you-stop-exercising/
P.S. I would like to point out that taking protein supplements also don't naturally or magically make you more muscular. you still need a good clean diet and proper training. This will be addressed in the next part of this series!
-Leon-
go hard or go home
