What happens if I don't get protein?

[Kyle Courville]

Due to certain conditions I find it hard to get enough protein two weeks out of the month. It would be hard to explain without giving away personal information, but basically I stay at one place for two weeks then another for two weeks. At one of those places I get plenty of protein and I can make my own food choices 80% of the time, and at the other my options are severly limited. This problem will only be present for another two months. I was wondering what happens if you train hard but don't get adequate protein? Do you just stay a stick figure, or do you tear down your body?

[Cole Dano]

If its only for two months more, and you are getting good nutrition 50% of the time, i really wouldn't worry about it.

[Philip Chubb]

Perhaps find a good whey protein to take with you to the limited place?

[Felipe]

This is something I tryed to find answers about in the last days, because a friend of mine asked candidly:

"what happens if instead of 0,8 g/kg of protein you get 0,7 g on that day?"

I've found only studies on lack of protein for long periods, like weeks. Nothing like a microeconomical approach

So, what if you dont get enough protein on a certain day? Do you automatically lose muscle mass? why?

[Neal Winkler]

If you got .7g/kg for one day, nothing will happen. You could maintain muscle mass on that but it wouldn't be optimal gains. It would also help if you were eating higher carb since carbs spare protein. The .8g/kg figure already has a little buffer built into between adequate intake and deficiency.

[Felipe]

Ok. What happens with 0,6g ?

(I'm not looking for a lower limit, but what processes start - in the daily period - when you dont get enough protein)

[Neal Winkler]

Ok. What happens with 0,6g ?

(I'm not looking for a lower limit, but what processes start - in the daily period - when you dont get enough protein)

When you don't get enough protein, whatever that amount may be, then you're body will start to break it down from less important areas of the body to be recycled for more important parts. Muscle is one of the protein stores that will broken down to accomplish this. Also, some amino acids (the building blocks of protein) are "essential," which means you can only get them from your diet and they cannot be synthesized by the body. Inadequate amounts of these will lead to bad things.

[Kyle Courville]

When you don't get enough protein, whatever that amount may be, then you're body will start to break it down from less important areas of the body to be recycled for more important parts. Muscle is one of the protein stores that will broken down to accomplish this. Also, some amino acids (the building blocks of protein) are "essential," which means you can only get them from your diet and they cannot be synthesized by the body. Inadequate amounts of these will lead to bad things.

Thanks that explains things quite well. I knew protein are the "building blocks," but I wasn't sure what would happen if you didn't get enough of them.

[Blairbob]

See if you can get some portable protein to take with you on your "off" 2 weeks. Nuts, jerky, buy some milk or protein powder.

[Mikko Saks]

body will start to break it down from less important areas of the body to be recycled for more important parts. M

soooo.. basically this means that if im kinda heavy legged (played hockey for 15years), by decreasing my protein intake and training basically only upperbody i can "move" some of the muscle mass from my legs into my upper body, right?

[William Bateson]

It's important to delineate between optimal and good in instances like this. You can see good results, and feel good, and perform good, and be GOOD when you aren't eating/training/sleeping the way you should. But you will not be optimal. Those athletes who we all watch with open eyes and open jaws? They are riding the optimal train. So .8 vs .7 vs .6 etc.. is all a matter of degree, a graph of protein intake against performance would probably show a loss below a certain point, a gain within a certain range, an optimal peak or plateau within a further range, and a diminishing return turning into a loss for the remaining range.