Product Line:

Tips

Personal Tips from CNP Professional

The Rx Files - The Boirie Interview - Part 2

Whilst I would never be so negative as to claim that bodybuilding has had its day, no one can deny that the sport has peaked. Somewhere back in the eighties, when Platinum Everywear was literally everywhere and knocked off MET-Rx was a currency, the lustre started to fade. As the owner of a hardcore "spit and sawdust" gym for many years, I can vividly remember when every new Arnold flick brought a horde of young new recruits through my door, each with seemingly limitless enthusiasm. Most had the genetic potential of Mr. Bean, yet they happily served their apprenticeship loading the bars for the big boys and waiting in line to share their toys. All this, in the hope that they may garner vital trade secrets from one of the behemoths, perhaps eavesdrop on one of the clandestine conversations in the locker room without arousing suspicion. That was then. Today, I get guys calling to see if I have a juice bar or Pilates classes. What the hell happened? Was it something they put in the water? Could it be the environmental estrogens thing, or is it all simply part of a bigger plan to kill us off by planting anthrax in moisturizer?

The truth is that bodybuilding hasn't really needed any help in destroying itself. Some feel that the over-zealous exposure of the drug scene has played a part, saying that it has promoted scepticism about the importance of nutrition and the value of anything non-pharmaceutical. That's a fair argument, but even when there's a thin line between education and promotion, the public have the right to know the truth; -it's up to them how they deal with it. But it does need to be the whole truth, -not just about drugs, but about training and nutrition also. This brings us nicely to the real reasons for why bodybuilding suffers such a large drop-off rate.

Take a look at the direction that bodybuilders themselves have moved in, -what influence has this had? Today's Olympians look like the cartoon caricature you would have drawn of a bodybuilder back in the eighties, -before you realized that someday bodybuilders would actually be that big! Physiques that few can realistically relate to relegate anything less than freaky to the "also ran" section. Then there's those training routines; the labours of Hercules, -inconceivable volumes and tonnages that would fray your tendons and leave you with adrenal glands the size of cantaloupes. A diet based on the daily food intake of a third world country is mandatory, -mountains of protein delivered almost non-stop by conveyor belt and producing enough ammonia to turn you into a human stink bomb. In short, the unattainable achieved by doing the impossible and consuming the indigestible. What relevance do the highly exaggerated practices of the chemically assisted and genetically gifted have to the goals of the average rookie? Having to contend with such a Spartan lifestyle, only to find error at the end of each trial, the enthusiasm of even the most die-hard obsessive cannot fail to be drained.

Many of the breakthroughs in sports science have had more direct application to bodybuilding than perhaps any other sport, yet little of this technology has so far been applied. Several years ago now, IRONMAN took the initiative by adapting such principles as periodization and restoration to bodybuilding. Through the use of charts, percentages and the micro, meso and macrocycle, a new scientific approach offered you "muscle by numbers". The introduction of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) would serve to further eliminate guesswork, by showing us which exercises are the most efficient at getting the job done. Unfortunately, few have continued down this avenue, but at least the information is now out there if you choose to look hard enough.

With the Rx Files, it was my intention to review the application of science to sports nutrition, in particular, the area of protein metabolism. Although some constants have been established, for the most part, we're still pretty much in the realm of guesswork and theory, relying heavily on the qualifications of those doing the guessing. For example, despite opinion, we still can't categorically put a figure on the ideal daily protein intake for an athlete, -bodybuilding's oldest conundrum. However, as you'll read, the issue of how much protein may not be the single most important issue, but rather the timing of that intake. In part one of my interview with Yves Boirie, we discussed the two studies conducted by his team examining the principle of dietary "fast" and "slow" proteins. From those studies and that interview, we can establish that the following facts need to be taken into account when planning your nutritional strategy:

• The digestion rate of the protein from a particular source (e.g. whey, casein, chicken, etc) is an independent factor that influences the amount of protein synthesized, broken down and actually retained from its consumption.
• Whilst "fast" proteins can dramatically stimulate protein synthesis, if you don't change protein breakdown, you may still end up with a negative balance. Therefore, the most important factor for improving protein balance is a prolonged amino acid elevation, as this is the way to inhibit protein breakdown.
• Thus, in young adults, "slow" proteins fare better with respect to net gain.

In part two of this interview, we're going to examine an area of research that may totally revolutionize bodybuilding nutrition. Yves Boirie has been involved in three studies conducted in this area, each has revealed that not only may there be a more practical and less unappealing approach to gaining muscle, but one that's actually more effective. It all kicked off with a study looking at how to improve protein utilization in the elderly (1). In elderly people, protein loss is a big problem that can have serious implications, particularly in relation to trauma and immune function. Improving protein retention would limit muscle loss and improve anabolism. Merely increasing protein intake had previously proven ineffective at improving retention. In this first study, fifteen healthy elderly women were divided into two groups, each following a different feeding protocol. The first group were given a diet in which the daily protein intake was spread fairly evenly over 4 meals fed over a 12-h period. The second group followed what was termed as a "pulse" feeding pattern, where around 80% of their daily protein intake was consumed at noon, the remaining protein being divided between the morning (7%) and evening (14%) meals. This study found that the nitrogen balance was much more positive with the pulse feeding pattern than the spread pattern. This came about via a greater increase in protein synthesis and decrease in protein degradation. Interestingly, even though both groups had an identical daily protein intake that had been increased for the study, the spread pattern group suffered a decrease in fat free mass. The conclusion was that the protein pulse feeding pattern was more efficient at improving protein retention in elderly people. This established, the team next decided to see if the pulse feeding pattern was more efficient at improving anabolism in young women. In a second study (2), they determined that the two feeding patterns did not have significantly different effects on protein retention in young women. However, the third study (3) found discrepancy with the previous conclusion and revealed a little extra! It not only established that the pulse pattern was able to induce chronic regulation of protein metabolism in both young and elderly women, but that this modification persisted for at least one day after the subjects returned to their normal diet. In other words, the pulse feeding protocol led to an improved protein synthesis response to a meal and a better protein-sparing effect in the post absorptive period. By combining meals that are both high and low in protein during the day, the pulse feeding pattern improves anabolism by allowing for the advantages of both diets, i.e. high and low protein.

Believing that all this information just has to have some application to bodybuilding, during my interview with Yves Boirie, I put several questions about the protein pulse feeding protocol to him. Here's what he had to add on the subject:

BB: In the May 2000 paper (3), you indicate that in both young and elderly women, a pulse feeding pattern may be superior in terms of leucine kinetics to a spread pattern. In actuality, the differences in protein retention were quite significant in the young women in this study. This is very interesting, because in sports nutrition we've been told for many years that it's better to consume multiple intakes of protein per day - something around 6-8 to improve protein retention. Yet this advice seems to be based on no scientific data at all. In fact, your research indicates that the pulse pattern may be far superior at improving anabolism. Would you agree on this?

YB: I think that one big point on this study is the fact that the subjects were prepared before the real study. For two weeks, they received a lower amount of protein, around 1.2 g/kg of fat free mass. This was so as to adjust everyone to a similar protein intake. This is a key point, this preparation, especially in elderly people. A second point is that we could see a greater difference in the elderly people than in the young people. This could be interpreted as young people can adapt to different protein feeding patterns better than older people.

BB: Ok, so what was the amount of protein increased to for the actual study?

YB: It was 1.7 gram protein per kilo fat-free mass, so this was close to around 1.4 gram per kilo of bodyweight.

BB: So it was quite a moderate protein intake, it wasn't low?

YB: Yes, it was quite moderate. But by just playing with the repartition in the day, we have a huge difference in the elderly, not in the younger subjects. However, these studies were not done with physical exercise, so we don't know at all the impact of physical exercise with this kind of protein feeding pattern. But this could be a big issue I think.

BB: Yes, it seems very significant in that it was contrary to everything that we are told in traditional sports nutrition. In fact, we're told that such few feedings would actually be detrimental.

YB: I am not aware of any scientific data on these feeding patterns in relation to exercise.

BB: Yes, that's right - that's what makes this so fascinating!

YB: Another important consideration is the impact of the non-protein meals on the success of the pulse feeding pattern. There is a huge protein meal, and then there is a non-protein meal. There is some reason to think that the effect of the pulse feeding pattern is maybe also due to the non-protein meals.

BB: Right, so what you're saying is that maybe the purely carbohydrate and fat fraction of the meals may have contributed more significantly towards those results?

YB: Yes, especially after a big protein meal. It could mean that the combination of either carbohydrate or lipids with protein may be very important, not in the same meal, but in different meals. They may behave differently when taken apart.

BB: That's very interesting.

YB: We were very surprised to see that after 14 days of this regimen, we still have the changes one day after the protein feeding pattern was reduced, but we don't know how long it would last for. There is some evidence that the difference in elderly people is disappearing after 30 days, but at the moment, we don't know for sure.

BB: We briefly discussed earlier the excessive protein intakes of some athletes, around 400-500 grams a day. If any athlete was consuming a large daily protein intake without the help of any external influence, e.g. anabolic steroids, growth hormone, etc, then anything that induced a chronic regulation of protein metabolism would surely be beneficial?

YB: This is what we are trying to determine, -maybe we've succeeded to show that there are other ways to improve protein balance

BB: What impact do you feel that the types of protein consumed had on the results?

YB: In the studies, we used foods from a normal French diet, -meats, cheeses, etc. We don't know at the moment what the behaviour is of all these different proteins, this is a huge area for more studies. What I can tell you, for example, is that peptides are differently absorbed, as are free form amino acids, So, we're talking about not only the foods, but the molecular form of the protein given.

BB: So, if we look back at your earlier studies ("fast" and "slow" proteins), it may have been possible that if the focus had been on using slow proteins, then the pulse feeding would have yielded even better results because there would have been less protein breakdown.

YB: Yes, exactly. Also, we have done other studies that focussed on the splanchnic area, and we were surprised to see that in some conditions you can have a very high splanchnic extraction of the dietary amino acids coming from the diet. As you can imagine, having a slow or a fast protein or having a pulse or spread pattern may also affect the splanchnic utilisation of amino acids and could therefore finally affect the amino acid availability to the peripheral tissue in the muscle. This is what we have demonstrated previously, -there are many considerations.

BB: Thank you very much for your time and for allowing us to gain such insight into your work.

YB: Thank you for showing such interest in my work.

That concluded my interview with Yves Boirie, but I would seek his opinion many times over the next few weeks.

Next month, we'll take a look at those other considerations and see what all this has to offer us. By reviewing the known facts and several other studies, we'll attempt to put all this information into practice. Stay tuned!

References

(1). Arnal MA, Mosoni L, Boirie Y, Houlier ML, Morin L, Verdier E, Ritz P, Antoine JM, Prugnaud J, Beaufrere B, Mirand PP. Protein pulse feeding improves protein retention in elderley women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1999 Jun;69(6): 1202-8.

(2). Arnal MA, Mosini L, Boirie Y, Houlier ML, Morin L, Verdier E, Ritz P, Antoine JM, Prugnaud J, Beaufrere B, Mirand PP. Protein feeding pattern does not affec protein retention in young women. Journal of Nutrition. 2000 Jul;130(7):1700-4.

(3). Arnal MA, Mosoni L, Boirie Y, Gachon P, Genest M, Bayle G, Grizard J, Arnal M, Antoine JM, Beaufrere B, Mirand PP, Protein turnover modifications induced by the protein feeding pattern still persist after the end of the diets. American Journal of Physiology Endocrinology and Metabolism. 2000 May; 278(5):E902-9.

Back to Tips