Nutrition Don't Stop Until You Get EnoughSometimes new technologies bring brand new information, and sometimes they just prove things we’ve kind of known all along. New technology has come up with updated RDA - recommended daily allowance - for protein intake. It may be brand new information, but if you’re a body builder, weight trainer or other serious athlete, you’ve kind of known it all along.
For the last fifty years, the US Dept of Agriculture has recommended 0.8 grams of protein intake per kilogram of body weight per day. This protein recommendation came from a simple technique based on nitrogen measurements. Nitrogen is a component of protein, and a waste product when protein is broken down into amino acids and used for fueling energy. The USDA compared nitrogen dietary intake to nitrogen output, as measured in sweat and both liquid and solid body wastes. This minimal measurement of protein metabolism, based on this unsophisticated process, has been the basis of the USDA 0.8 protein recommendation for 50 years.
A new technology, the IAAO – indicator amino acid oxidation technique, now more precisely measures individual protein and amino acid needs for everyone from athletes to couch potatoes. New IAAO studies done in Canada showed that the old 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight was too low for anyone. It is now recommended, based on the IAAO technique, that sedentary people should have about 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of their body weight per day, and that active people should have between 1.4 to 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, with the highest protein intake reserved for the most advanced athletic bodies.
These IAAO recommendations, based on state-of-the-art technology, may be brand new information to our couch potatoes, but for body builders, strength trainers and other elite athletes, technology has finally caught up with what they’ve known all along.
For the last fifty years, the US Dept of Agriculture has recommended 0.8 grams of protein intake per kilogram of body weight per day. This protein recommendation came from a simple technique based on nitrogen measurements. Nitrogen is a component of protein, and a waste product when protein is broken down into amino acids and used for fueling energy. The USDA compared nitrogen dietary intake to nitrogen output, as measured in sweat and both liquid and solid body wastes. This minimal measurement of protein metabolism, based on this unsophisticated process, has been the basis of the USDA 0.8 protein recommendation for 50 years.
A new technology, the IAAO – indicator amino acid oxidation technique, now more precisely measures individual protein and amino acid needs for everyone from athletes to couch potatoes. New IAAO studies done in Canada showed that the old 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight was too low for anyone. It is now recommended, based on the IAAO technique, that sedentary people should have about 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of their body weight per day, and that active people should have between 1.4 to 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, with the highest protein intake reserved for the most advanced athletic bodies.
These IAAO recommendations, based on state-of-the-art technology, may be brand new information to our couch potatoes, but for body builders, strength trainers and other elite athletes, technology has finally caught up with what they’ve known all along.
