Hey, what’s up, Dr. Prasoon here. If you are thinking about bodybuilding and muscle gains, you might have considered the option of protein powder. So, is protein powder good for you? Is it healthy? Does taking protein powder lead to kidney diseases? In this video I am going to clear some myths and facts about protein powder. This is dofody. India’s simplest online portal to talk to doctors, So let’s get started. If you haven’t subscribed to our channel yet please do it right now, and when you do that please ring on the bell icon so that you get notified when we release a new video.
Before we go into the depths of protein powder, you should first know about how muscle mass is gained. Our muscle contains muscle cells and the only way to increase their size and increase the muscle mass is by hypertrophy. The word meaning of hypertrophy is increasing the size of an individual cell thereby making it a big one. There is no option to increase the number of muscle cells and thus increase the size of your muscles. The only two mechanisms by which muscle hypertrophy can happen in the human body is by weight training and along with that, there should be an adequate supply of proteins in your body. you will be able to increase your muscle mass only if these two factors are present.
Every time you work out in a gym or you lift heavy weights you are causing injury to your muscle fibers and muscle cells and this type of injury is actually good. Now when this injury occurs your body tries to repair those muscle cells and for that repair and maintenance process to happen there should be an adequate supply of proteins. Another fact about protein is that it is very difficult to store proteins in our body. There should be a minimal amount of protein in your body all throughout the day and that you should be able to supply and meet the protein demand from the diet you are taking.
An average sedentary person should have at least 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram body weight, that means if your body weight is 60 kilograms you should be getting at least 56 grams of protein every single day, and if you are a lady you should be getting at least 46 grams of protein every single day. But if you are trying to gain your muscle mass then that amount should be increased. it can be increased up to 1.6 grams per kilogram body weight.
So now let’s come to the next question, “what is a protein powder”? Protein powder is a concentration of protein which is manufactured from milk. whey protein powder which is the most popular and the most effective type of protein that you can get in the market right now is processed and manufactured from milk. It is safe and it is even given to infants. Protein powder should be taken as a supplement only, one scoop of whey protein powder that is 30 grams will give you 25 grams of protein, which actually is very convenient. Now just think about getting 25 grams of protein from your diet alone, you might have to consume lot of dietary proteins. Now whey protein powder is easily soluble in water and its digestibility factor is also very high, It gets absorbed into your blood very easily.
suppose you need 100 grams of protein per day and suppose that you are planning to work out and build your muscle mass. Now out of these 100 grams of protein 75 grams should be obtained from your diet alone and the rest 25 grams you can supplement it using protein powder.
Protein powder is safe even if you are not working out, it can be used as a supplement provided that you’re making rough calculations of the dietary proteins that you are getting. If you are not suffering from any kidney diseases or liver diseases, you should be just fine if you are taking protein powder.
Another important question which I often get from bodybuilders and those persons who visit the gym regularly or those persons who are planning to take protein powder is that They worried about the steroid content in protein powder.
Now, “does protein powder actually contains steroids”?. The answer is “No”. It should not contain steroids. Steroids are a type of medicine which are used for the treatment of various medical conditions, they are cheap and they are often referred to as wonder drugs. Using anabolic steroids is also not recommended at all. It can lead to several hormonal changes in your body and might bring about several other diseases that you are not suffering from right now. If you are getting good quality whey protein powder you can find in its label that it will contain just whey protein isolate and some calories.
But there is a catch, all manufacturers are trying to make maximum profit and adding steroids to protein powder will increase their effectiveness and you will find much better results if there are steroids in your protein powder. Adulteration is going on and when it comes to the protein powder industry which is a multi-billion dollar industry right now. In order to stay ahead of the competition some manufacturers are adding steroids to their protein powder, and it completely depends on your luck whether you are getting a protein powder which contains steroid or not. Ideally you should not be taking protein powder along with steroids. So I will recommend you to go for protein powders from trusted manufacturers and please do not go for the cheap ones.
Another question which I often get is, “Does protein powder lead to kidney damage?” The answer is, If you are a healthy person you should not be worried, protein powder will not cause any type of kidney damage in you. The normal recommended daily protein intake is between 0.8 grams per kilogram body weight up to 1.6 grams per kilogram body weight, and many studies have shown that there is actually no gain in muscle mass even if you increase your protein intake beyond 1.6 grams per kilogram body weight.
Whey protein powder manufacturers will actually encourage you to take more and more protein every single day. But you don’t have to! If your body weight is around 60 kilograms, you should be getting around 60 grams of protein every single day from your diet, and if you are planning to get some proteins from the whey protein powder supplements then also it’s okay. If you are planning to increase your muscle mass do some weight training then ideally you should be getting more proteins. Your protein requirement in your body increases and in that case you can increase your protein uptake up to 1.6 grams per kilogram. That means you can increase your protein intake to around 96 to 100 grams every single day, and off these 100 grams, 75 percentage should be obtained from your diet alone and the rest you can supplement using protein powders.
If you are taking more protein which is more than what is required by a body, your body will find it very hard to break it down. The rate of protein metabolism in your body will increase and nitrogen is a waste product which we get after protein metabolism. When protein intake increases, more blood has to flow through your kidneys more blood needs to be filtered in your kidneys and it will definitely put your kidney to work a little bit more harder. But, if you are a healthy person and if you are not suffering from any kidney diseases taking protein then the recommended daily range will not be a problem for you. You should also be drinking plenty of water, close to 2 to 3 liters every single day.
So, if you don’t want to take protein powder what are the natural sources of protein. You will be able to get 20 to 30 grams of protein from every 100 grams of meat or fish, One whole egg gives you 7 grams of protein. Milk and other dairy products are also rich contents of protein.
Whey protein powder is actually made from milk, dairy products such as curd, yogurt, and cheese are also rich in protein. If you are a vegetarian consider taking more lentils, beans, legumes, and preferably sprouted legumes, sprouted beans, sprouted mung beans. Take plenty of peanuts 100 grams of peanuts gives you a close to 38 grams of protein. Other nuts such as cashew nut, almonds are also rich in protein.
Do not depend on soya chunks and soya beans as your primary source of protein every day, taking soya beans or soya chunks is not recommended because of the slightly increased Estrogen content. It will eventually lead to decreasing the testosterone level in your body and other diseases might develop if you are primarily depending only on soya protein. Taking rice, rotis and chapatis alone is also not recommended. 100 grams of rice will give you only 2.7 grams of protein whereas 1 Whole chapathi will give you only 3 grams of protein. So always make any type of food that you are eating rich in protein, and if you are planning to increase your muscle mass build up some muscles then you should be roughly calculating the amount of proteins that you need every single day and out of that total amount of protein 75 percentage should be achieved from your diet alone and the rest you may or may not supplement using protein powder.
Back in 2018, my weight was around 85 kilogram and now I am standing at 67 kilograms. I am a pretty lean person as you can see and I am also planning to build some muscles. if you want to learn more about my experiences of weight training? Please comment below, I’ll be happy to make a video on my experiences.
So I hope this video was able to clear all your doubts regarding protein powder and muscle mass building. If you have any doubts you can always find me on Dofody app or you can even comment below and I will be happy to help. Please give us a thumbs up if you like this video, share this video with your friends and family. I will see you in the next one it is me doctor Prasoon. Signing off, take care, stay healthy and thank you so much for watching.
