Attention sports people! In addition to supplementing protein, we should also pay attention to what amino acids we eat

For those of us who exercise regularly, whether it’s training in the gym regularly every week, running on the playground, or participating in various teams, we must be familiar with the concept of "protein supplementation"!

But do you know why you need to "supplement protein" whenever you exercise? Why do we specifically mention amino acids in addition to protein today? What impact do protein and amino acids have on our exercise performance?

Let the nutritionist explain the secrets of "protein and amino acids" to you who love sports!

Protein builds body shape, protects muscles, and reduces exercise fatigue and discomfort

Don’t underestimate the beans, fish, eggs and meat that we usually eat! Protein is one of the so-called three major nutrients, and its importance and efficacy to the human body cannot be replaced by other nutrients.

So what are the benefits of protein? In addition to affecting growth and development, producing important hormones and enzymes, regulating water balance to avoid edema and other functions in maintaining general body health, it is also the key to influencing "athletic performance"!

Taking in enough protein at the right time can help us synthesize muscles, increase strength, repair muscles damaged after exercise, and reduce fatigue and soreness caused by high-intensity exercise. This is why "protein supplementation" is so popular among the sports community.

Don’t ever think that you can grow muscle or lose fat just by working out hard and intensively! In fact, exercise stimulates both the synthesis and decomposition of muscle protein. If you only do exercise training and ignore adequate protein supplementation, you will end up losing muscle, which is not worth the effort.

In addition, long-term, extensive exercise training will increase stress factors, reduce immunity, cause physical discomfort, slow recovery, and may even increase the chance of catching a cold or getting sick.

Therefore, you must consume sufficient high-quality protein in the golden 30 minutes after exercise and at other meals during the day to effectively promote muscle synthesis and repair, reduce fatigue and discomfort, and allow you to make breakthroughs and improve your next training!

Small molecule amino acids have a faster effect without being broken down and digested by the human body

So, what are amino acids? Imagine that if protein is compared to a colorful brick wall, amino acids are small tiles of different sizes, shapes, and colors. Many small amino acids are linked together and stacked to form different forms of proteins.

Although amino acids are the raw materials that make up proteins, there is actually a difference between eating protein and directly supplementing amino acids!

After we eat protein, it cannot be directly used by the body due to its large size. It needs to be broken down and digested by many enzymes in the gastrointestinal tract before it can be absorbed and moved to various parts of the body to function. The entire absorption process may take 3-4 hours.

If you are supplementing with amino acids, they do not need to go through the complicated gastrointestinal decomposition steps like protein. They can be directly absorbed into the body in about 30 minutes. Therefore, the absorption rate of amino acids is much faster than that of protein, and the efficiency is better!

Want to improve muscle gain and fat loss? Pay more attention to essential amino acids!

From the perspective of athletes who value muscle gain or fat loss efficiency, they actually need to pay special attention to the types of amino acids! Amino acids can be classified into "essential amino acids" and "non-essential amino acids" according to whether the human body can produce them on its own.

Essential amino acids are amino acids that humans cannot synthesize on their own and can only be supplemented through diet. Currently, there are 9 known essential amino acids. Non-essential amino acids are amino acids that can be produced inside our bodies, so they do not necessarily need to be taken in from the diet.

Among them, the influence of essential amino acids on "muscle protein synthesis" is relatively greater! However, essential amino acids cannot be produced by the human body, so it is recommended to take extra of them to supplement the most needed amino acids, which are helpful for muscle and protein synthesis. Proteins with a high proportion of essential amino acids are more conducive to muscle growth. Whey protein, eggs, milk, etc. are all very high-quality proteins.

People who have poor digestion and absorption or want to improve muscle gain and fat loss efficiency can also consider supplementing with products high in essential amino acids.

Remark

9 essential amino acids: Phenylalanine, Valine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Isoleucine, Leucine, Methionine, Lysine, Histidine

This article comes from Good Food Class

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